After three consecutive road games and a bye week, the Massachusetts football team heads back to McGuirk Alumni Stadium for Homecoming against a wounded Richmond squad on Saturday.
The No. 20 Spiders (2-3, 0-2 Colonial Athletic Association) will be without starting quarterback Aaron Corp, who suffered a knee injury in a 17-0 loss at New Hampshire last Saturday. Richmond announced on Monday that the junior will have season-ending surgery.
Corp finishes the year with an average of 129 passing yards per game, three touchdowns and four interceptions after transferring from Southern California last spring.
“It’s very unfortunate to see such a quality player in any program go down and Richmond certainly taking the brunt of that with the [Corp] going down,” UMass coach Kevin Morris said in a teleconference earlier in the week. “We all feel sorry for his situation.”
The Spiders, however, won’t be able to turn to backup John Laub, who suffered a wrist injury against Delaware in Week 4 and is also unavailable. That means third-string quarterback Nick Hicks, who usually starts as the punter, will make his first collegiate start after coming in for relief last week.
In the first series against the Wildcats (3-3, 1-2 CAA), Corp’s left leg was rolled into on a pass attempt which was picked off by safety John Greer and returned 40 yards for a touchdown. Corp remained down and had to be carted off the field.
With Hicks at the helm, Richmond struggled to generate offense. The sophomore completed only 9-of-27 passes for 64 yards, while throwing five interceptions and being sacked twice. The only way the Spiders were able to move the ball was on the ground with tailback Tyler Kirchoff gaining 110 yards on 17 carries.
The Richmond defense, however, held strong and allowed just 232 total yards to a UNH attack which ranks first in the CAA in pass offense at 238.3 yards per game.
“They’ve always been a strong defensive team and a real good offensive team,” Morris said. “Now with the quarterback out, they’re going to make some adjustments and we have to be ready for whatever adjustments they may make come game time and we’ll try to address some of those things during the week.”
The No. 8-ranked Minutemen (4-1, 2-0 CAA), meanwhile, will look to continue their success after picking up road victories against Stony Brook and Towson.
Against the Spiders, UMass will likely lean on its balanced ground game with tailbacks John Griffin and Jonathan Hernandez. The Minutemen are averaging 208.4 rushing yards per game (21st nationally) along with an efficient passing attack, which totals to the eighth-best nationally ranked offense at 445.8 yards per game.
“The goal is really going to be we have to play UMass football,” Morris said. “We can’t be so much concerned with what they’re doing and what their issues are. We have our own issues and we have to continue to get better.”
Saturday will mark the 25th meeting between the Minutemen and the Spiders, with the teams playing every season except for two since 1984 (2006, 2007). UMass leads the overall series, 13-11.
A large homecoming crowd is expected on Saturday as McGuirk Stadium and could have its 10th sell–out of 17,000-plus. The last home game that sold out was on Dec. 2, 2006, in a 24-17 victory over UNH in the NCAA Quarterfinals.
“We haven’t had a home game in over a month so our guys are going to be excited playing in front of the home fans and were just excited about playing some football,” Morris said. “We’ve had the bye week, and now were ready to go against Richmond. It’s going to be a battle, there’s no question about that.”
Jay Asser can be reached at [email protected].
