Image courtesy of UMass Athletics
Who were those guys?
UMass fans had to be asking themselves that question for the duration of a wild fourth quarter during the Week 0 opener in New Mexico on Saturday night.
The Minuteman offense put up 41 points – including 28 in the final 15 minutes – to turn a 13-10 lead heading into that final frame into a wild, historic 41-30 victory. The win was the first in a season opener against an FBS opponent for the program since 1984 and the first on the road since 1973. The Minutemen have already matched their win total from a year ago and looked like a completely different program for most of the night.
New starter Taisun Phommachanh threw for 192 yards(10/17) and added 92 yards on 16 carries and two rushing TD’s. Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams had 75 yards on 14 carries (2 TD’s) and Anthony Simpson hauled in three passes for 65 yards while also adding a rushing TD. The Minutemen defense was flying around and dominated the first half before the Aggies were able to hit some big plays for TD’s in the final quarter. New Mexico State was just 2-9 on third down, but did rush for 220 yards as a team and had 468 total offensive yards, something Brown will undoubtedly want to clean up.
UMass had nine penalties for 79 yards to New Mexico State’s 2-30, but the Minutemen didn’t turn the ball over while picking off two passes and recovering a fumble.
This win doesn’t mean UMass is in for a magical season, but it does put them five wins away from being bowl eligible and most importantly, this type of performance shows everyone what change really looks like.
“Can’t say enough about Steve Casula and the offensive staff, Alex Miller. And, the defensive staff as well with Keith and T-Brower and Mike McCray and Mike Livingston,” Brown said postgame. “A lot of guys that just worked hard and that’s really all we did. This month of August was a new experience for all of us. You say ‘what the hell are you talking about coach? You’ve been coaching 46 years, you’ve never been to a camp?’ Not in July. That was kind of an issue. Tough one there chopping into the beach days, but obviously, our guys worked to take care of our business,
“Hopefully, this is a great start to the new year. Hats off to Jerry Kill. His kids played so hard and he’s such a good friend. We just feel good tonight. It’s nice winning. The alternative, I can tell ya,’ sucks. So, just to let you know that.”
Leading 13-10 after three in what was a tough field position battle leading up to that point, Phommachanh hit Christian Wells on a crosser and he raced 68 yards to set up a goal-to-go situation. The transfer QB quickly punched it in to give the Minutemen a 20-10 lead. Less than a minute later, Diego Pavia hit Trent Hudson for a 42-yard TD to bring the Aggies back within three.
That’s when we truly saw how different things are.
UMass embarked on a 10-play, 75-yard drive that included a 31 yard run for Phommachanh on 4th-&-7 down to the NMS five-yard line. Casula was dialed in with the play calling, getting the ball into the hands of the skill guys and his new toy at QB. After a false start, Lynch-Adams went around the right side for a 10-yard TD run with less than eight minutes left, making it 27-17. Then, the dagger came in the form of a 55-yard pick six for Isaiah Rutherford.
After a rough year last year, Brown was happy to see Casula have the night he did.
“Absolutely,” Brown said when asked if he felt Casula had a fantastic night. “And here’s the thing…he may have taken some crap from some people last year, get out of Twitter and don’t let that bother ya.’ The second thing is, he didn’t take any crap from me. I know how good of a football coach he is. That’s all I can say. I’ve got great confidence in him and his ability. The limitations we had to fight through last year…let’s just hope we can stay healthy and continue to improve.”
NMS did have another quick strike with a 40-yard hookup between Pavia and Jordin Parker to cut it back to 10 at 34-24 with 4:35 left. A strip sack by Zukudo Igwenagu and recovery by Wooden all but iced it, but just to be safe, Lynch-Adams walked in from 21-yards out for the 41 spot two plays after that. On the final play of the game, the Aggies got a one-yard Trent Hudson TD catch, but Brown walked to midfield with his fist in the air and clearly mouthed a ‘Yeah Buddy.’
“It was kind of like what I thought the second half might be like,” said Brown. “Which, obviously, was a good thing. On the other side of that coin, they’re pretty damn good offensively. Diego’s a good quarterback. They’ve got three, four good receivers and the tight end’s good. When they got into trouble, they just said ‘the heck with it. Let’s go back and chuck it,’ and we kind of had a bit of a cushion. We tried to keep everything in front of us, well, it almost bugged us a little bit.”
The first big play of the year came in the first when ‘Dr. Blitz’ dialed one up and forced Pavia to throw a pass sooner than he wanted to. Mike Oppong batted a pass in the air and picked it off at the NMS 30. Three plays later, the Minutemen had their first lead of the year on a 10-yard TD run for Sampson with Cam Carson adding the PAT.
The biggest play of the game was an 80-yard TD run for the Aggies’ Monte Watkins with 8:34 left in the second. Carson had a 33-yard field goal with 3:55 left in the half, but a few penalties ended up helping New Mexico State get in field goal range to make it 10-10 at the half. Billy Wooden had a big sack to ultimately force the field goal.
A 29-yarder from Carson with 6:27 left in the third put the Minutemen back up 13-10. In the final minute of the quarter, former BB&N standout Tyler Martin made a huge stuff on 3rd-&-3 to force a field goal attempt that ended up being wide, sending UMass to the fourth with the slim lead still in tact.
While this was a special night for everyone involved or rooting for UMass, reality will hit them quickly when prep for a road game against Auburn starts. Still, this one was much-needed for the Minutemen and Coach Brown, who is clearly still one of the best coaches in the country when it comes to motivating players.
“I think we’ve got a lot of ground to cover and there’s a lot of room to grow still,” Brown added. “But, you’ve got to play a game to kind of figure out what you can do, what you can’t do and what you’ve got to get better at. That’s what we’re working on…a lot of the guys were like ‘coach, this is unbelievable,’ so that was good.
“I’ve been through the thick and thin of this game. I love the challenge. I’m not afraid of the challenge, but it’s nice to see the guys bear fruit from their labor…this is it. I’m here until Ryan (Bamford) throws me out the door or I gotta’ go. If I was going to hurt the players because of my inability to do whatever, I’m out the gate doing ’98. So, right now I still think I have a lot to offer this game and I enjoy coaching my players. I enjoy coaching with this staff.”