The Massachusetts football team hits the road to take on the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks on Saturday, coming off its first victory of the season. UMass (1-3) starts a two-game road trip against MAC teams, with no wins against Conference teams through its first three opportunities.
In Week 4, the Minutemen defeated Central Connecticut State in a close 35-31 battle that came down to the wire. The win was the first of the 2024 campaign for UMass after losing its first three contests.
The RedHawks (0-3) have struggled through their first three games as well, losing their most recent matchup 28-3 to Notre Dame. With only three points scored, Miami (OH) continued its offensive struggles. Coming into the game against the Minutemen, the RedHawks sit with just 8.3 points per game, good for the bottom spot across the FBS.
“[Miami (OH) is] perennially one of the better teams in the MAC, so we know all about their ability,” head coach Don Brown said. “We were 31-28 with them a year ago at home. We were competing with them at a high level. But this is a new year, we’ve got to get ready to play.”
UMass showed that it can score in Week 4, coming away with a season-high in both passing and rushing yards. Quarterback Taisun Phommachanh finished with a career-high 287 yards through the air, adding 50 of his own on the ground.
Another player who had a career day was redshirt sophomore running back Jackson Paradis, who got 14 carries after only having two before Saturday’s game. He ran for 54 yards and got in for a touchdown, filling the shoes left open by an injury to CJ Hester.
“I felt [Paradis] as we were kind of ending summer workouts,” Brown said. “He’s kind of had a run of good luck, which usually happens when you’re a running back, you’ll have good and bad luck. Obviously, he made a nice contribution along with Jalen John. I felt really good about his effort and production.”
Miami (OH) features a crowded backfield, with seven different players getting carries in the running game. None of the seven have eclipsed the 70-yard mark through three games, nor have any found the end zone.
Brett Gabbert has started all three games under center for the RedHawks, completing 55.14 percent of his passes for 685 yards through the air. The sixth-year quarterback has thrown two touchdowns and five interceptions in 2024, making some big plays and mistakes along the way.
Errors affected the Minutemen in their victory, finishing Saturday’s game with 15 penalties. Offense, defense and special teams cost the team substantial yards throughout the game, something that has plagued UMass for the season’s duration to the tune of being 15th highest in the FBS with 8.3 penalties a game.
“We’ve got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” Phommachanh said. “Sometimes we put ourselves in bad positions that we could clean up and we can control … We’ve just got to get better in those areas, and when we do that, I think it’ll be much better.”
In 2025 and beyond, these two teams will be conference foes. But for now, they’re a pair of teams without the starts they were hoping for, looking to get on track for the back half of the season.
The Week 5 matchup takes place at Yager Stadium in Oxford, Ohio on Saturday, Sept. 28. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.
“Whoever it is we’re playing, it’s like we’re playing ourselves every week,” Phommachanh said. “We’ve got to focus on ourselves and try to get better every week for what we do.
Mike Maynard can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @mikecmaynard.
