AMERST, Mass. — The 139th season of Massachusetts football kicks off on Saturday as the Minutemen head to Tulane for the first-ever road game and the second meeting between the two programs at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.
WELCOME BACK COACH
head coach Don Brown returns to Massachusetts for his second stint on the football program. Brown was named head coach by the Director of Athletics on November 22, 2021 Ryan Bamfordafter spending a season with Arizona as the defensive coordinator.
During his first stint as head coach with the Minutemen, he led UMass to its winningest five-year spell in 2004-2008 program history, with a record 43-19 and two post-season appearances. He spent the previous 13 years leading defenses in Maryland, Connecticut, Boston College, Michigan, and Arizona.
The Spencer, Massachusetts native has 45 years of coaching experience to his credit, beginning at Hartford High School in 1977. As the head coach, Brown combined for an overall record of 95-45 between Plymouth State, Northeastern and Massachusetts. He also made four postseason appearances.
BORN AND BUILT IN THE COMMUNITY
This season’s rosters feature 21 Commonwealth of Massachusetts student athletes:
2022 – 27
2021 – 31
2020 – 29
2019 – 30
2018 – 25
2017 – 27
2016 – 31
HIGH CALIBER TRANSFERS
Massachusetts has 19 transfers on the roster for 2022, including 14 from Power 5 institutions:
Kay’Ron Adams – Rutgers
Devin Baldwin – Rutgers
Tim Baldwin Jr. – Indiana
Noah Boykin – Notre Dame
Marcus Bradley – Vanderbilt
Marcus Cushnie – State of Florida
Greg Desrosier Jr. -Louisville
Sammy Faustin – Michigan
Darius Gooden – Rutgers
Zukudo Igwenagu – Rutgers
George Johnson III – Michigan
Tyler Rudolph – Penn State
Cameron Sullivan-Brown – Penn State
Tyson Watson – Michigan state
THE QB ROOM: A MIX OF YOUNG AND OLD
The Minutemen’s quarterback room features two sophomores (Brady Olson and Zamar Wise), a red shirt sophomore (Garrett Dzuro) and a junior red shirt (Gino Campitotti).
Olson (6’4”, 200lbs from Bellingham, Massachusetts) appeared in nine career games in the 2021 season as a true freshman.
Campiotti (6’3”, 215-pound from Manteca, California), meanwhile, arrived at UMass after spending the 2021 season at Modesto Junior College, appearing in 11 games and playing in Northern Arizona for the 2019-2020 seasons to have participated.
ELLIS MERRI’GO ROUND
Red shirt senior Ellis Merriweather carried the load in the backfield for the Minutemen in 2021, rushing 218 times for 1,138 yards (55% of the team’s total rushing yards) in his sophomore season with UMass.
Merriweather was helped by Rutgers transfer earlier last season Kay’Ron Adams. Adams played two seasons with the Scarlet Knights in 2019 and 2020, racking up 320 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 83 carries in 18 career games, in addition to six catches for 120 yards and a touchdown.
With Adams seeing limited action before being eliminated for the remainder of the 2021 season with an ankle injury, Merriweather was once again the go-to back, running for a then-career-high 144 yards on 23 carries against East Michigan on September 18. It was the most yards on the ground since Bilal Ally against UConn on October 26, 2019 (159 yards).
Merriweather honed that feat with a monster showing in the win over UConn, carrying the ball 39 times for 171 yards and two touchdowns, his first two rushing TDs of his career and first multi-touchdown game.
In the state of Florida, Merriweather was limited on the ground but was UMass’ top receiver with 65 yards on four catches.
The Alpharetta, Georgia native ran for 149 yards on 24 carries at Liberty with two plays for 20+ yards. Of UMass’ eight rushing plays that racked up 20 or more yards last season, Merriweather had six.
Against Rhode Island, Merriweather ran 118 yards on 30 carries and scored his third ground touchdown of the 2021 year.
Merriweather’s new singles record in his career (39 tries, 171 yards) is more than double last season’s record (16 attempts at Georgia Southern on 10/17/20 and 48 yards at FAU on 11/20). He has nearly doubled his average yards per carry to 1,138 yards on 218 carries, compared to 155 yards on 42 attempts in four games in 2020.
Merriweather is the only player on the UMass roster to have a 100-yard rushing game to his name, finishing with seven games a year, setting a new school record for one season. It marks the most for a Minuteman since Marquis Young had four in both his second (2016) and junior (2017) campaigns.
OC, TRIPLE OC
After seeing his run of 17 straight games with a catch coming to an end on September 11 against Boston College, wide receiver Jermaine “OC” Johnson Jr. got back on track with a grab against eastern Michigan and two more at number 17 Coastal Carolina. He has at least one catch in 20 of his 26 career games.
MERRIWEATHER NAMED FOR MAXWELL AWARD WATCHLIST
Ellis Merriweather was named to the 86th Maxwell Award Watch List, announced July 18 by the Maxwell Football Club. The award is presented to the College Player of the Year.
Merriweather completed the 2021 year as Massachusetts’s first 1,000-yard rusher in the program’s FBS era, racking up 1,138 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns. He recorded 218 consecutive carries without any fumbles and scored his career best 39 carries for 171 yards and two touchdowns, leading UMass to its first win of 2021. Merriweather received the 2021 Phil Steele All-Independent Second Team honor.
FIVE MINUTES WITH TABBED PHIL STEELE PRESEASON ALL-INDEPENDENT
Massachusetts placed five members of the team in the 2022 Phil Steele Preseason All-Independent Team, including running back Ellis Merriweathertight ending Josiah Johnsonoffensive tackle Max Longmandefensive tackle Billy Houten and corner back Josh Wallace. Merriweather earned accolades in the first team, while Johnson, Longman, Wooden and Wallace were each named the second team.
COACHING AT ALMA MATER
UMass will have four alumni in a full-time coaching role in 2022 assistant head coach/special teams coordinator/defense lines coach, Ben Albert, defense line coach, Valdamar Brower, associate head coach / offensive line coach, Alex Miller and tight ends coach/recruitment coordinator, Jeff Moore. Albert graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1995 and was an All-Conference defensive lineman. During the 2002 and 2003 seasons, he was the inside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator, helping the Minutemen win the 2003 Atlantic 10 Conference championship.
A 2004 graduate of UMass, Brower was a leading defensive lineman for Massachusetts from 1999 to 2003, playing for then-defensive coordinator Don Brown during the 1999 season.
Miller developed into one of the most celebrated offensive linemen during his playing days in Massachusetts. His four-year start on the line culminated with multiple first-team all-America awards after the team’s appearance in the 2006 National Championship Game. Miller confirmed his legacy as a lasting and reliable centerpiece for the Minutemen with starts in all 50 games played during the 2003-06 seasons
Moore graduated from UMass in 2012 and played receiver for the Minutemen from 2008-12 as a walk-on.
Two additional coaching staffs graduated from UMass in Analyst Randall Jette ’15 and Jesse Monteiro ’17.
COEN INDUCES UMASS ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
Liam Coen of UMass Football (2004-08) is one of four inductees of the UMass Athletics George “Trigger” Burke Hall of Fame. The Class of 2022 will be inaugurated on Friday, September 16.
Coen was the starting quarterback for the 2005-08 seasons for head coach Don Brown and was a team captain during his Red Shirt senior year in 2008. The Minutemen were 37-14 overall and 25-7 in conference play (2005 – Atlantic 10; ’06-08 – CAA) during his four seasons as starting quarterback. Coen was selected to Atlantic 10 All-Conference Third Team (2006) and CAA All-Conference Second Team (2007, ’08). At the time of graduation, he was one of 21 quarterbacks in FCS history with 10,000 or more passing yards in a career. He was 18th all-time in FCS/I-AA history for passing yards (11,031) and 20th for touchdowns thrown (90).
Coen currently holds the career record for passing yards (11,031), pass attempts (1,303), pass completions (830), touchdown passes (90), percentage completion (0.639), passer efficiency (152.92), yards per pass attempt (8.47). He holds the UMass single-season record holder for completion percentage (0.650; 2006) and passing efficiency (160.52; 2006).
He helped Massachusetts lead to the 2006 NCAA FCS National Championship Game by going 69-of-109 for 837 yards with six touchdowns on the playoff run. Coen also led the Minutemen to an NCAA postseason appearance in 2007 and also won conference championships in 2006 and 2007. He tied the program record for most passing touchdowns in a single game (5 in Towson, 2006; vs. Bryant, 2008), and is one of only two quarterbacks to throw five touchdowns in a single game.
Coen was an assistant coach at UMass for two seasons under the then head coach Mark Whipple in 2014 and 2015. After leaving UMass to serve as offensive coordinator and QBs coach at the University of Maine (2016-17), Coen went on to coach in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams in 2018 and 2019, making it the team helped the Super Bowl during its first season as an assistant wide receiver coach. In March 2022, Coen was named offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams.
0 Comments