When Massachusetts football coach Charley Molnar talks about the future of his football program, he likes to derive lessons from history to make his point.
For Molnar, he looks around the New England area, which is full of history, and sees similarities between it and his football team.
Hundreds of years ago, several houses were built that are still standing today.
Through weather and age, these houses have stood the test of time. And the reason this has happened is because they were built with strong foundations that have helped them stay standing for so long.
For the 2012 Minutemen, that’s the goal that Molnar wants to accomplish.
“The most important thing that I want to do is lay down a foundation for our football program,” Molnar said. “We’re putting our foundation down first. At the end of the year, if the foundation is solid, I’m going to feel really, really good, and so will our staff.”
In his first year as head coach, Molnar certainly doesn’t have an easy road in front of him. UMass is playing its first season as part of the Football Bowl Subdivision and Mid-American Conference as well as facing the challenge of attracting fans to attend its home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro two hours away from its home dormitories in Amherst.
What’s more for Molnar is that he inherits an inexperienced roster that has already showed its youth in the season-opener on Aug. 30, a 37-0 blowout loss at Connecticut.
Molnar has admitted a talent gap for his program with other FBS schools, a byproduct of most of the current players being recruited for the Football Championship Subdivision level, but he’s not using that as an excuse this season.
“We’re going to be out-talented in some football games, that’s reality,” Molnar said. “(These players) have cut their teeth playing I-AA football and now they’re going to move up and play a higher notch.
“It is I-A football. There are 85 scholarship guys on each team. And it is definitely much greater talent across the board in the MAC, so our guys are really going to have to bring their A games so to speak each and every time they step on the field.”
The Minutemen haven’t made things very easy for them this season. Their out-of-conference schedule, which started at UConn, continues on with two Big Ten schools in Indiana and then a Michigan team that will likely be ranked, before they get into the MAC schedule. Later in the season, UMass will also take on Vanderbilt, an Southeastern Conference school that also poses a big challenge.
While the Minutemen will likely be heavy underdogs heading into most of their matchups this season, Molnar is happy that his team will go up against top flight competition so early in this rebuilding process.
“There’s going to be a talent gap and our guys are going to have to get used to it in a hurry,” Molnar said. “That’s why I like our schedule. I think playing the teams that we do are certainly going to raise the level of competition in a way that our players never have had before. By the time we get into the conference schedule, I think our guys are going to be used to the speed and the hitting of I-A football and we’ll be ready for it.”
Several players on both offense and defense have graduated and left, which has left Molnar with slim pickings when it’s come to decipher his depth chart this season.
On offense, quarterback Kellen Pagel, who started most of the Minutemen’s games last season, suffered post-concussion symptoms during summer camp and is currently out indefinitely. Freshman Mike Wegzyn is taking on the duties now with true freshman A.J. Doyle not too far behind.
Running backs Chris Burns and Michigan transfer Michael Cox will be carrying the load out of the backfield for the Minutemen. They’ll team up with wide receivers Marken Michel, Tajae Sharpe, Notre Dame transfer Deion Walker as well as tight end Rob Blanchflower to try to fill up the production left by graduates Jonathan Hernandez, Julian Talley and Emil Igwenagu in Molnar’s no-huddle, spread attack offensive style.
Defensively, UMass covets a talented line, but linebacker Perry McIntyre and free safety Darren Thellen, both seniors, will be counted on heavily to lead a unit that has a challenging year ahead against high-powered MAC offenses.
It’s no secret that the Minutemen face a very challenging year. Being ineligible for the postseason as they make the final transition into the FBS, the team is not expected to generate big results this season.
With a new division, new conference, new players, new coach and even new jerseys, 2012 is all about setting down the foundation for a whatever future that lies ahead.
Stephen Hewitt can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @steve_hewitt.
