The Massachusetts football team makes its long-awaited return to McGuirk Stadium on Saturday when it takes on Bowling Green for Homecoming.
This will be the Minutemen’s first game in Amherst since the last game of the 2011 season, which UMass lost to James Madison 34-17 in its Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) finale. For the last two years, the team has played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
With the move up to Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) play, the Minutemen were forced to renovate their stadium in
order to meet NCAA standards. Improvements included a new press box, training facility and locker rooms.
The return to McGuirk Stadium has many fans buzzing.
In particular, senior Anthony Pontrelli can’t wait for the return.
“I went to a few games my freshman year,” Pontrelli said. “They were a lot of fun. The team wasn’t as competitive as it is now, but now that they are back and competitive it’s going to be a much greater atmosphere.”
Jack McClintock, a first-year graduate student at UMass who is still adjusting to campus, is excited about the prospects, too.
“It’s a lot easier for people around the school and who care about the school to be involved,” McClintock said. “Gillette is really far away so I’m guessing there weren’t a ton of students who could make the trip.”
A common concern among Minutemen fans was the proximity between campus and Gillette Stadium.
“Since they went over to Gillette, I stopped going because you need to take a bus to get there,” senior Philip Donlon said. “It’s mostly travel and the time it takes and you can’t really leave early if you want to.”
The experience of games at Gillette was dampened by two-hour bus rides each way and reliance on having to travel by bus or by car to get there.
“We had to play somewhere and them helping us out was a great thing and I still think we should have a few games there, but it’s a whole-day thing,” Pontrelli said. “Going to Gillette is like a seven to eight-hour event as opposed to a three-hour event on campus. You really have to block off a Saturday, and for a college student, that is pretty hard.”
Playing in an upscale venue such as Gillette was looked at as a commodity by fans, but it is clear that fans would love to see UMass come back home. With the smaller, more intimate feel that the 17,000-seat McGuirk Stadium provides, fans are excited about its prospects.
“I expect it to be a lot more rowdy because you will have a lot more college students over there,” Donlon said. “When it’s at Gillette, you don’t really have those people, and in a college setting, it’s way different.”
While McGuirk Stadium is undersized in comparison to other Division I programs, Pontrelli believes the smaller setting will only improve the vibe of the stadium.
“There’s going to be a large student section,” Pontrelli said. “The entire crowd is going to be hyped up because there hasn’t been football at UMass in three years, so the surrounding area is really going to love it.”
With the team faring competitively in a strong non-conference schedule to open the season – the Minutemen nearly upset both Colorado and Vanderbilt – football returns at the perfect time.
“They are actually competitive and fun to watch,” Pontrelli said. “Even if they only win two or three games this year, it’s going to be improvement and it’ll lead to better results on the field. It will only increase the fan following.”
The homecoming game starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday at McGuirk Stadium.
Adam Aucoin can be reached at [email protected].
