It hasn’t been like this since the week prior to the opening game with

William and Mary.

Blaring glee and friendly banter, the Massachusetts football team’s locker

room Saturday afternoon just seemed really odd.

Grins were of the plenty, and the players consciously rushed to get out of

their sweat sanctuary and out to greet fans, friends and family.

For the first time this year, the gridiron laundry baskets were chock-full

of maroon and white when the participating members of media exited the

adjacent press conference room.

Finally, football seemed to border on the fun-side.

“I’m really happy for the kids,” said Head Coach Mark Whipple, just after

his team topped James Madison 43-20 for its first win of the 2001 season.

“It’s been a group that’s worked hard and I couldn’t give them any answers

for why it wasn’t happening.”

It’s been a rough last seven weeks.

Five losses and two weeks amid them to think about those failures (amongst

other tragedies of larger significance) had really battered the minds of

this UMass football team.

As the Maroon and White surely recognize, it’s not so amusing to float on

that other side of victory. For over a month, Whipple and the Minutemen had

been petitioning for something reminiscent of success. And Saturday, they

finally got it.

Sure, there are five dates left on the schedule, but no more are the

nerve-wracking thoughts of a possible winless fall term. Today marks the

inaugural week of winning No. 2. And that’s an entirely new emotion.

What is worse: losing five straight and then finding a win, or winning one

and then losing six in a row?

According to James Madison’s skipper Mickey Matthews, the latter holds true.

“This is the low point of my career at James Madison,” said Matthews, whose

Dukes fell to 1-6 (0-5 Atlantic 10) Saturday, dropping their sixth straight

decision. “I wanted to throw up watching us play. It’s the worst effort

we’ve given defensively in three years.”

When the Dukes’ Dennard Melton picked off UMass’ Matt Guice just 2:29 into

the game and ran it back 37 yards for the touchdown, it looked like the

Minutemen were on their way to their sixth loss. But on the next series,

Guice engineered a 91-yard drive that ended in a Neal Brown touchdown

reception.

“That happens, that’s football,” said Guice, whose 332-yard, 5-touchdown

performance earned him A-10 Rookie of the Week honors. “Something like

that’s going to happen and you just have to bounce back. And I think we did

a really good job, especially coming back on the next series and getting a

touchdown. Nobody hung their heads and everyone was upbeat. I can’t say

enough about this team.”

Last week, New Hampshire succeeded in a last second Hail Mary that totally

reversed the game’s momentum and killed UMass in the end. But this weekend,

the Minutemen refused to let one play dictate the game’s motions.

“I just didn’t get the sense on the sideline that our guys were as worried

or lost steam when things like that had happened in the games prior,” said

Whipple, straight off his 101st career win, about the Melton interception

return. “It showed that they had gained some confidence and knew that they

were going to play for 60 minutes.”