Most supporters of the Massachusetts football team seemed to know what they were getting on Saturday.
After UMass’ head coach got ousted on Monday and the program faced criticism for proposing Senior Day changes on Thursday, a matchup against No. 10 Georgia did not seem particularly enticing. The Minutemen (2-9) closed on some sportsbooks as 42.5-point underdogs, bringing zero FBS wins on the season into a matchup against one of college football’s elites.
What developed over sixty minutes in Athens was not an upset, but a reminder that UMass is an FBS team with FBS talent. Despite a 59-21 loss to the Bulldogs (9-2, 6-2 SEC), the Minutemen out-ran their opponents and averaged over six yards per play, keeping the game competitive until a flurry of second-half touchdowns by Georgia.
“I’m proud of the team,” interim head coach Shane Montgomery said. “We gave ourselves a chance in the first half to stay in the game, which was huge… At some point, [Georgia starts] to wear you down a little bit on both sides of the line.”
Much like Andy Isabella in 2018, it was another UMass wideout–Jakobie Keeney-James–who made the play of the day for his team against the Bulldogs. On a second down early in the third quarter, freshman quarterback AJ Hairston made a risky throw down the right sideline for the senior wideout. With two members of Georgia’s secondary draped on him, Keeney-James caught the pass, toed the sideline and outran his defenders for a 75-yard score that quieted most of the 93,033 fans in attendance.
“It was a heck of a play,” Montgomery said. “I saw the ball thrown and I saw about three bodies go up for it, one of ours and two of theirs, and next thing I know [Keeney-James is] coming down with it. Great job of staying inbounds too…that was a huge play.”
The long passing play was an outlier in an otherwise one-dimensional gameplan from Montgomery. In an effort to shrink the game, 40 of the Minutemen’s 57 offensive plays were runs, that often succeeded, leading the team to rack up 226 yards rushing to the Bulldogs’ 208. Those consistent gains led to three first-half drives of over five minutes, eating up time and making the home team’s fans restless.
The run-heavy offense introduced itself on UMass’ opening drive. With Ahmad Haston taking a majority of snaps, the team used a series of options and RPOs to march down the field on Georgia. The 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive was set up with a 38-yard scamper by Haston and concluded with CJ Hester powering the ball up the gut for a one-yard score.
“We’ve ran the ball well the last three weeks,” Montgomery said. “I didn’t think we were going to move the line of scrimmage today but [I] just [wanted to] cover [Georgia] up, and just as long as we didn’t have a lot of [tackles for loss, to] just give those running backs a crease, and it looks like we did that a number of times today.”
Jalen John stood out from the Minutemen’s committee of backs with his second straight 100-yard game. Most of those yards came off one play late in the third quarter, when the junior took a handoff up the middle and broke to the left for a huge 68-yard gain. Even when the openings weren’t as wide, John and other UMass runners did well with running through first contact.
“I think we just stuck to the plan that the coaches had for us,” John said. “Georgia’s defensive line is definitely no joke, but I just think our offensive line did what they could and we just reacted off of it.”
With the Minutemen’s offense delivering, it was the Bulldogs’ offense that needed to perform well, and perform they did. Long-winded touchdown drives from UMass were countered with quick, efficient drives by Georgia that typically ended in six points. Senior quarterback Carson Beck found open receivers or threw them open many times against a secondary that was simply outmatched.
When Beck made the occasional mistake, Bulldogs offensive coordinator Mike Bobo could rely on running back Nate Frazier. With starter Trevor Etienne hurt, the true freshman took advantage of a larger role and used his burst and shiftiness to run all over the Minutemen. Frazier finished with 21 carries for 136 yards rushing and three touchdowns, all career-highs.
Thanks to Frazier and Beck maintaining their level of play throughout the second half, Georgia imposed its will on the UMass defense late with 28 unanswered points. Consistent 10-15 yard plays kept arriving for the Bulldogs offense and led to three of their four second-half touchdowns. The fourth was a scoop-and-score on Hairston that was picked up and returned 28 yards by linebacker Chris Cole.
The next game for the Minutemen is their season finale against UConn on Nov. 30. That game kicks off at noon on ESPN+.
Dean Wendel can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @DeanWende1.
