The Massachusetts football team fell to Miami (Ohio) 23-20 in overtime on Saturday, Sept. 28. After letting a win graze past them, the Minutemen (1-4) have their eyes set on another future Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponent, Northern Illinois University, to finish out the first half of the season.
“[The Huskies (2-2)] played for the MAC title a year ago,” head coach Don Brown said. “They [are] a formidable opponent, we’ve just got to finish.”
Northern Illinois are coming off a two-game losing streak after Buffalo squeezed out an overtime win followed by a regulation loss to North Carolina State. With both teams itching for a win, defense will be the deciding factor against the Huskies.
UMass found a better defensive groove against Miami (OH), only allowing one third down conversion out of seven and created 13 havoc plays to throw the RedHawks off.
“It’s just a confidence builder,” linebacker Jalen Stewart said of the strides the defense made in Week 5. “Earlier in the year, we didn’t create the havoc that we thought we could’ve that we were capable of so it’s good to see a lot of that hard work we do every single day start to pay off.”
However, stopping Keyon Mozee’s run game, which led to 114 total rushing yards and a touchdown, proved to be a difficult task for the Minutemen. Against Northern Illinois, the ground game will continue to challenge UMass.
Running back Antario Brown put up a 114-yard performance in the Huskies’ last contest against North Carolina State, his highest of the season so far. He leads the team in rushing yards with 355 net yards. Against Notre Dame, Brown had a 126-yard receiving performance, pushing him up the ladder to sit as the team’s third leading receiver with 204 yards.
As the Minutemen struggled to close holes within their coverage, allowing Mozee to slip by untouched on two explosive plays, continuing to work on defensive pressure and improving on their progress will continue to be a point of emphasis for Saturday.
“If we don’t stop the run, that’ll be the biggest piece,” Brown said. “We need to do a great job against the run game and do a good job of taking advantage of what we’ve been able to accomplish on third down.”
While the run game has slowly improved for UMass with Jalen John, CJ Hester and quarterback Taisun Phommachanh stepping up in times of need to start the drive on the right foot, Jakobie Keeney-James has been Phommachanh’s main receiving target.
In last Saturday’s battle, the wide receiver tallied a career-high 150 yards receiving on four catches, including a career-long 64-yard reception. Keeney-James currently leads the Minutemen’s offense averaging 20.3 yards per reception with a total of 406 yards and three touchdowns.
UMass and the Huskies last met in November 2013 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA where Northern Illinois defeated UMass 63-19. The Huskies also took the Minutemen in their first meetup in 2012.
UMass’ third matchup against the Huskies is set for 12 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5 at Huskie Stadium. The game can be watched on CBS Sports Network.
“[A win], that’s all we’re searching for,” Brown said. “It’s a week-to-week battle, and we’re trying to stay very focused on one week at a time and just focus on getting prepared and putting our best effort forward. I’m not discouraged at all.”
Sydney Ciano can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @SydneyCiano.
