UMass Spring game on ESPN+ at noon. Lots of personnel changes there since last September. Shane Montgomery is their new OC.
37 transfers on their roster - from everywhere. 5 from Clemson. 15 players from Florida and Georgia and 6 from California. 22 transfers-out since last season ended so they won’t look much like they did last season when we saw them in Amherst.
Returning star QB Phommachan did not play today. The lightly used Akron transfer Jankowski and RS Freshman Haston from Palm Beach alternated. Haston was by far the most impressive of the two.
Five of their first six games are against MAC teams. The sixth is one of their two FCS games.
They are absolutely thrilled to be joining the MAC in all sports.
Announcers insinuated UConn will also need to join a conference because they are now the lone Independent other than Notre Dame.
They have launched their NIL Collective - one of just 32 currently up and running in the G5 according to their spokesman. It’s called the Midnight Ride. Their coordinator says they are head and shoulders ahead of other MAC programs. He mentioned Buffalo and Toledo as having the only significant Collectives currently operating in the MAC. He also said UMass Collective will give the Minutemen an immediate advantage when joining the conference and force the other MAC schools to get much more active in that area.