The Massachusetts football team took care of business on Saturday, dominating Wagner from the opening whistle and winning 35-7. The Minutemen (2-6), after losing their previous contest to Missouri by 42 points, came out of the gates with a renewed fire against the Seahawks (4-5, 2-1 Northeastern Conference). They made impact plays on both sides of the ball in the first quarter, setting the tone early.
With the pocket collapsing around Wagner quarterback Jake Cady, he lofted one deep downfield but underthrew it just slightly, with the ball bouncing off the back of Arsheen Jiles’ helmet and falling into the hands of Te’Rai Powell. Powell caught it outside of the hash marks, and crossed the field avoiding defenders, before being brought down at Wagner’s 44-yard line for a 17-yard return.
This great starting field position benefited UMass exponentially, and it scored three minutes and 33 seconds later, on a Taisun Phommachanh keeper up the middle This put the Minutemen up two scores, a lead that didn’t fall below that mark again. The graduate student finished with quite an impressive day, accumulating three total touchdowns while throwing for 129 yards, rushing for 30 and throwing one interception.
“We were on our heels a little bit, and then [kind of] got it back together,” head coach Don Brown said.
Midway through the fourth quarter, with Wagner facing a fourth and long, it punted it away to the waiting arms of T.Y. Harding. The redshirt sophomore ran around defenders, hesitated and eventually found his way to the outside of the field, scoring a touchdown on a 58-yard punt return. This return for a touchdown was the first time the Minutemen scored on a punt return since Isaiah Rodgers on Sept. 4, 2019, at Charlotte. This all but sealed the victory for UMass, putting it up 21 points with just under eight minutes of play remaining.
Harding had already scored a touchdown earlier in the game, opening the scoring for both squads on the Minutemen’s second drive of the game. He showed his explosiveness on this earlier touchdown as well, as the wide receiver juked away from his man and beat two defenders to the endzone, putting six points on the board for UMass.
“[Harding], he almost broke another [punt for a touchdown],” Brown said. “I thought it would take him some time … to figure out what were [going to] be his biggest assets.”
“The first week I was on scout team,” Harding said. “Shoot, I just got the ball and [my teammates] just blocked for me. I’m fast, everyone knows I’m fast … I’m just a runner. They control everything, they’re blocking … I just catch the ball and run.”
It wasn’t just defense that galvanized the Minutemen in the first quarter. Big chunk runs from Jalen John in the early minutes of the game set UMass up for success as well. John finished with 52 yards which came on his only two carries of the day in the first quarter. In total, over 50 percent of UMass’ rushing yards came in the first 15 minutes of game time.
This discrepancy can be placed on the play style that Wagner’s offense ran for most of the game. After the interception thrown by Cady, the Seahawks turned to true freshman Jack Stevens, who led them in a much different style of offense. Only throwing the ball six times himself, and with only nine passes total for the team, 84.7 percent of offensive snaps for Wagner were rushes. This led to the Seahawks dominating the time of possession, a statistic that the Minutemen themselves are near the top in at the FBS level.
This was exemplified by Wagner’s opening drive coming out of the half, where it marched down the field for 85 yards, with every snap resulting in a rush. The result of this was a 10 minute, eight second drive that ended with the Seahawks putting their first points of the night on the board. Ultimately, UMass answered with two more touchdowns of its own, running away with the game late in the fourth quarter.
“[The opening] drive in the third quarter, we ended up going with an eight-man front and blitzing the strong edge versus the wing set,” Brown said. “Once we adjusted [to the run heavy offense], it was like you know we turned off the faucet. We played pretty well.”
UMass is next in action on Nov. 2, taking on its second of three Southeastern Conference opponents, with it traveling to Starkville, Miss. to take on Mississippi State. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. and the game can be viewed on SEC Network.
“Discipline, stay disciplined … just keep fighting and we’ll worry about the scoreboard at the end of the day,” Brown said. “I really don’t care who the opponent is, I’m just glad those guys in that locker room are sitting down there with a smile on their face.”
Johnny Depin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @Jdepin101.
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