While students were eager to pour into McGuirk Alumni Stadium Saturday afternoon to support the Massachusetts football team days before the 2024 Fall term, their spirits were left crushed and humbled.
UMass (0-1) began the 2024 season in the losing category, dropping its home opener to a future conference foe in the Eastern Michigan Eagles, 28-14. With the Minutemen set to join the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in 2025, they are scheduled to face five MAC opponents to start the season. With this being the first of the five tests, it’s safe to say UMass will need to improve in multiple areas of the game to compete at a high level.
The Minutemen started Saturday’s game strong, with their first drive churning into Eagle (1-0) territory. However, the first indications of factors leading to Saturday’s loss proved to be penalties and the offensive line as a whole. A holding penalty followed by a sack stalled the initial drive, and this trend followed like a Dr. Seuss story.
“We had two [pass interference penalties] that resulted in touchdown drives, not necessarily the play, but it occurred during two drives, and that really hurt us. I mean, that’s 14 points,” head coach Don Brown said.
On the other side, Eastern Michigan struck first, off a one-yard rushing touchdown by starting quarterback Cole Snyder. Minutes later, Snyder threw for a touchdown in the waning minute of the half to wide-out Oran Singleton. Singleton made a sensational over-the-shoulder grab to give the Eagles a commanding 14-0 lead over UMass.
In the second half, while UMass opened the half by scoring a touchdown, the issue remained the same. Holding, pass interference and offside penalties halted and drained momentum, many of which were followed by sacks. Whenever the Eastern Michigan defense sniffed opportunities to halt a comeback, they capitalized on them without fail.
The offensive line for the Minutemen was poor as ever on Saturday. Quarterback Taisun Phommachanh was running for his life throughout the game. In total, Phommachanh was sacked six times, five coming in the first half alone. While they were much better in the second half, allowing for the 14 points UMass scored, the issue was a non-negotiable factor leading to the final outcome.
“Six sacks is not a fun day, and usually we respond in that area with our own havoc,” Brown said. “There were a couple opportunities we hit the quarterback just as they released the ball on three different plays. But there’s a difference between hitting them after the ball’s released and sacking them or knocking the ball loose or creating havoc, and we just didn’t do that.”
Phommachanh finished the game completing 20 of 30 pass attempts for 177 yards, rushing an additional 57 yards. He also had a highlight moment in the third quarter, running like the second coming of Lamar Jackson for 33 yards.
Snyder on the other hand completed 17 of 29 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 28 yards and a touchdown as well. For the new transfer from University at Buffalo, Snyder proved his poise in a big way, coming up in big moments whenever called upon.
In the end, the Eagles scored eleven points in the fourth quarter, with UMass pitching seven. However, this game was over at the end of the third. Each time the Minutemen got a necessary stop to give their offense an opportunity, it wasn’t capitalized on. Every time the offense scored, their defense fell short. It was an infinite tug of war on both sides, but a lot of the issues are solvable with time.
“It’s a hard game. Openers always are, because [our players] are new faces. A lot of new portal faces and guys that have moved around,” Brown said.
UMass came into this season with 31 new transfers. It is very possible that next week this time can get better, and the simple first to second half difference was clear. Five sacks given up in the first half, and only one given up in the second is important to acknowledge.
With that week-by-week mindset, the Minutemen will hit the road to take on Toledo on Saturday, Sep. 7th at 3:30 P.M. This game can be streamed on ESPN+.
Mehrob Fatemi can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MehrobFatemi
