I can’t believe what’s happening. Or maybe I can and I just don’t want to. I think that’s going to be the theme for this week.
Let’s begin with the expected. Franklin and Marshall, not showing the dominance at home in the first half for a team just outside the DIII Top 25, stepped it up in the second half, scoring 21 unanswered points and repeatedly thwarting Lebanon Valley in the season opener for both schools. The final score was F&M 31 LVC 7. As one might have expected.
Everybody in the Centennial Conference won their openers but Carnegie-Mellon, which lost to #8 John Carroll. The surprise was Dickinson, which downed #23 Randolph-Macon in Carlisle.
In significant matchups, #2 Oregon survived a scare from Boise State and #11 LSU routed Clemson. Mostly during Week 1, the big boys beat up on the lesser opponents. And those inferior teams went to get their heads bashed for the money.
Except that isn’t how it played out in Piscataway on Thursday night. UMass came to New Jersey for about $1.55 million to enrich its coffers to start to build a better program. And walked away with a huge win.
Why? The Minutemen were on a 16 game losing streak which included an 0-12 season in 2025. The cash infusion would help make the school more competitive in football as a member of the Mid-American Conference. To competitively play the likes of Ball State; the other Miami; Ohio U, not Ohio State; the trio of Michigan schools; Buffalo; Akron, Bowling Green and Kent State; and let’s not forget Sacramento State, which fits just so neatly geographically into the conference.
Those schools travel for the money and a loss. Akron went to Wake Forest and lost. They go to Minnesota in two weeks. Counting the cash. Kent State has trips to South Carolina and #1 Ohio State on their dance card.
Additionally, MAC schools bring easier opponents to campus, too. Sacred Heart and Stonehill are ahead for UMass, which will look to go 3-0 before facing Sacramento State in league play. Dare we think they could be 4-0 after a trip to the West Coast?
For example, Buffalo was victorious over the University of Albany and will host Robert Morris. Colgate of the Patriot League and Monmouth will face Central Michigan.
Those games are tilted towards the MAC schools. Except that nobody told supposedly easy opponent Tartleton State, which won at Bowling Green on Saturday. That’s not as earth-shaking as UMass downing Rutgers, but it isn’t good for the image of the conference.
The Power 4 schools budget money payments to schools from the MAC and other not-so-glamorous leagues to feast on them, thus embellishing their records before harder conference play begins in earnest. Being 10-2 or 11-1 with the losses only in conference games strengthens a school’s chance to make the expanded College Football Playoffs or at least reach a bowl game.
This happens at a number of different levels. Patriot League member Lafayette traveled to East Hartford, Connecticut so that UConn, a non-power in football, could carve up the Leopards. In the future, Lafayette will fly to Colorado and play the Air Force Academy. You know that the Lafayette football powers aren’t doing this to promote patriotism.
Then there is Fordham, another Patriot League school, visiting North Dakota State. The Bison are playing in their first season of major college football, having joined the Mountain West Conference where the aforementioned Air Force Academy, Wyoming, UNLV plus New Mexico await, along with a November 14 escape to tropical Hawaii from the likely cold and snow in Fargo (I know the Bison play in a dome, but the November weather there can routinely be in the 30’s with lows in the teens and 20’s).
It is clear that the ND State hierarchy knows when to bring in a patsy. They are more than ready for the Mountain West and perhaps beyond—some pundits believe that the Bison might reach the CFP in their first year of FBS play.
Some early matchups have a taste of in-state rivalries. Even if the level of play between schools isn’t really close.
It looks nice when the University of Michigan plays a Michigan school, albeit in Ann Arbor. Or Florida Atlantic plays Florida. How about Texas State meeting #6 Texas in Austin; FIU tackling South Florida; Austin Peay at Vanderbilt; Northern Arizona going south to Tucson to meet Arizona; Navy inviting Towson to Annapolis; an early season renewal of the Apple Cup with Washington State at Washington; and former Pac-12 rivals UCLA and California reviving their rivalry just like VMI and Virginia Tech?
As the nation learned on Thursday night when the Big Ten Network featured the game, things don’t always turn out as anticipated. Rutgers was nearly a 30 point favorite over UMass. Playing at home. What could possibly have gone wrong, given the past fortunes of the Minutemen, and despite the struggles of the Scarlet Knights inside the tough Big Ten Conference—perhaps the nation’s strongest conference?
Try everything. UMass is coached by Joe Harasymiak. Harasymiak may not have been a household name in college football. At least until Thursday night.
However, he was very familiar to Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano, as Harasymiak was brilliant as the RU defensive coordinator from 2022-24. There is no doubt that Harasymiak knew how Schiano thought, for it showed in the preparation of his team.
The UMass mindset wasn’t merely to have a nice trip to Piscataway and then back to Amherst. As Harasymiak let everyone know, he prepared his team to win.
That 0-12 record from last season didn’t count. Both teams were 0-0 before they met.
To show how confident the administration was that RU would pluck win number 100 for Schiano, a post-game fireworks display was scheduled. A grand celebration would occur.
The fireworks were set off. To the embarrassment of RU fans, who departed early when their school was getting whupped by the Minutemen. There was nothing to celebrate.
UMass won the game by a 37-21 score. In the fourth quarter, the visitors led 27-7.
It was supposed to be lopsided. Which it was. Just in the wrong direction.
UMass quarterback William Watson III, a Virginia Tech transfer, went 19 for 22 for 197 yards and 3 touchdowns. He added 40 yards on the ground. The Minutemen had 397 total yards on offense.
Meanwhile, Rutgers managed 319 yards passing between two quarterbacks. They may have tossed 3 TD passes, but they were sacked five times and threw 3 interceptions. Plus the ground game was even more woeful—30 yards on 25 carries.
Schiano was out coached and he acknowledged it. That was of no solace for the RU faithful. They are tired of being the doormat in the Big Ten. With an infusion of NIL money, RU was going to take strides this season and return to a bowl game.
Unless there is a miracle, that isn’t going to happen. One NJ writer called Schiano’s tenure as “toast.”
With an athletic director who came from football-crazy LSU, Keli Zinn’s level of tolerance for this kind of embarrassment can not be very good. While she and Schiano were supposedly “on the same page” before this debacle, it will be hard to see her retaining this staff if she wants to retain her own job.
Part of what happened, as one pundit correctly stated was that the defense had players in the secondary who last played at Drake, South Dakota and The Citadel. Those schools aren’t even on the level of MAC schools, so it is actually no surprise that a team like UMass could capitalize when the level of player was substandard.
Moreover, Dylan Lonegran, the starting RU quarterback, came from Boston College whee he was the leader of a 2-10 team which went 1-7 in the ACC, their lone conference win over basement-dwelling Syracuse. This was the best RU could attract to fill the shoes of Athan Kaliakmanis, himself a transfer from Big Ten school Minnesota and who now, as a seventh round selection, finds himself on the roster of the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
Kaliakmanis had pedigree. Lonegran has experience. Regrettably, that’s in losing.
Next up is a trip to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts where Rutgers will face, drum roll please, Boston College. Lonegran returns to the scene of the crime. BC spent Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati, where the Bearcats were inhospitable hosts.
The Eagles are going to want to even their record. They want to show their home fans that Lonegran didn’t belong there and isn’t very good. Certainly that’s plenty of motivation.
On the Rutgers side, it is pride which must be the motivator. Along with a lot better coaching and preparation.
Otherwise this season will effectively be over. #14 USC makes its first trip to Middlesex County on September 19th. There is a so-called breather with Howard coming in before defending National Champion Indiana arrives for Homecoming, of all times.
Michigan, Nebraska and Michigan State complete the home schedule. Road games are at Maryland, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Penn State. Daunting is spelled B-R-U-T-A-L.
Rutgers has seen its share of bad coaches in the wake of Schiano’s ill-fated trip to the NFL, where he failed miserably as the head man at Tampa Bay. With a stop at Ohio State, where he excelled as the defensive coordinator, it appeared that he had the necessary skills and familiarity to return to the Banks of the ‘Ol Raritan and make things magical again.
That previous era was not in the Big Ten. Nor did it involve N-I-L money defining what rich programs can continue to succeed while others simply don’t have the resources, fiscally and facility-wise to measure up to their monied counterparts.
I have met Greg Schiano. I found him to be a charming, sincere and likable man. He can only do so much with limited resources.
Up to a point, I feel for him with the pasting his team received on Thursday night. But the adjustments that his defense coordinator, the former successful coach at FCS South Dakota made, weren’t enough to counter the offensive assault of UMass. I rather doubt that they will be any better prepared or able to stop high-powered offenses when the Big Ten foes get their crack at RU’s defense.
I have been long-suffering as a New York Jets fan. I have one more week to rest before I agonize over the 2026 season.
With Rutgers, I am already in agony. It’s a train wreck happening before my eyes. Again. Even if UMass reaches 4-0, the sting from this ignominious defeat will last for a long time.
Michigan supporters had visions of another unfathomable defeat to start the season. MAC favorite Western Michigan outplayed the Wolverines. Yet the team’s moxie plus a very fortunate replay giving Michigan one more second allowed for a Hail Mary throw and a game-winning touchdown. Otherwise, the Big Ten would have had more egg on its face.
A comment about LSU. Head Coach Lane Kiffin pushed the SEC by trying to add three players who were in NFL camps this summer but didn’t make the squad. That has been a solid non-starter for ages.
Involving the state courts could only result in a favorable ruling for LSU. The trio were ruled eligible to play.
LSU and Kiffin decided to keep them off the roster for the opener versus Clemson. On ESPN “College GameDay,” Kiffin said it “wasn’t easy” to not include them for this game. Kiffin added that the decision was reached looking to the “big picture of LSU and the LSU football program“ noting the “uncertainties of what could come by adding them to the roster.”
This fight isn’t over. The SEC and the Presidents of member schools want to win to retain control as much as LSU wants to break down barriers. Another year of eligibility for an experienced player can mean a lot to a team’s fortunes. Plus the player can reap the N-I-L benefits playing for that extra year while showing the NFL how much they have improved.
“See you in court” will be the mantra. Federal court is a greater likelihood going forward. This truce has as much effectiveness as the cease fire the US brokered with Iran regarding the Strait of Hormuz. Note how well that played out. And like that document it has only as much meaning as the parties intend to give to it.
At last, Aaron Judge is projected to return to the New York Yankees lineup when the next homestead begins on Tuesday. The not-so potent NYY bats will get a boost by his presence. While Yankees fans hold their breath and pray that he does not re-injure his ribs or hurt any other body part.
At lunch yesterday in Manhattan, the husband of my wife’s cousin opined that writing a blog once a week seems to be too much hard work. I was taken aback by that comment. Creating this content can be mildly therapeutic for this sports junkie and evokes some real pertinent responses—one way or another.
Unfortunately for Rutgers fans who double as Yankees supporters, can they expect anything to go right these days? Even if they already are in therapy?
