The Massachusetts football team had its flame snuffed out on Saturday, falling 45-20 to Mississippi St.. The Minutemen (2-7) struck early with 10 points and looked to be well on their way to the program’s first win against a Southeastern Conference opponent. However, the Bulldogs (2-7, 0-5 SEC) remained relentless in their offensive attack and defensive pressure and walked away with the win.
The turning point of the game came midway through the second quarter. After a UMass march down the field ended with a Taisun Phommachanh overthrow which led to an interception, Mississippi St. started a drive from its own end zone. A 35 yard rush gave the Bulldogs much more room to work with, but Michael Van Buren’s pass was tipped into the air by RJ Edwards before a diving Jalen Stewart caught the ball for an interception, the second pick in three plays.
However, a questionable roughing the passer call on Aaron Beckwith brought the play back and gave Mississippi St. 15 yards and an automatic first down. Five plays later, Van Buren ran a keeper to the end zone and the Bulldogs took their first lead of the game and never looked back. Van Buren finished 14-of-25 for 222 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 14 yards and two more scores.
“I don’t want to lose my mind, but I did lose my mind. I thought that was clearly a clean, solid play that should’ve resulted in us with the ball and it was taken away,” head coach Don Brown said. “Disappointing to say the least.”
Penalties were a problem for the Minutemen all game on Saturday. With nine penalties for 99 yards, UMass shot itself in the foot in a game that was competitive through the first half. Multiple penalties of 15 yards or more gave Mississippi St. pristine field position on plays that looked like defensive stands for Massachusetts.
As a result of these penalties, UMass finished with a much higher time of possession compared to its SEC foe. With the Bulldogs able to pick up huge chunks of yards without taking time off the clock, the Minutemen comparatively struggled to move the ball down the field. Finishing 0-of-5 on deep passes (qualified as passes that travel more than 15 yards in the air), UMass couldn’t match the yardage that Mississippi St. produced. This is reflective in the total yards that both teams accumulated, as the Minutemen finished with 335 yards to the Bulldogs’ 463.
“Defensively, we tackled really poorly in the second half,” Brown said. “I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have a couple injuries during the course of that game … I’ll have more information … in the coming days.”
The first quarter put the game on possible upset watch, as UMass rattled off 10 unanswered points in the first 15 minutes. The Minutemen’s first drive of the game was a methodical one, incorporating nine rushes and five passes for a 76-yard scoring drive in around six and a half minutes which ended with Brandon Campbell finding the end zone. The next drive started in Mississippi St. territory and was much of the same for UMass, ending in a field goal that pushed its lead to two scores as the first quarter came to a close.
“I thought we got off obviously on the right foot in the first quarter, ” Brown said. “[We] made some plays defensively, did a pretty good job of starting to sink our teeth into them … one of the things that we’ve been trying to fight is that we [kind of] get drives going and they stall.”
Three quarterbacks saw the field for the Minutemen on Saturday. After Phommachanh was ruled out of the game with an injury in the second half, Ahmad Haston and AJ Hairston split time as the signal caller in the latter 30 minutes. Hairston threw the first touchdown of his collegiate career in the waning seconds of the game, finding Jakobie Keeney-James in the back of the end zone with 17 seconds left on the clock.
“It’s good for [Hairston],” Brown said. “Any time you can get your young guys playing time in those type of atmospheres, that’s a good thing.”
The trio of quarterbacks finished 17-of-29 for 136 yards, a touchdown and an interception, which came from Hairston and Phommachanh respectively. Campbell (64) and CJ Hester (62) both rushed for over 60 yards on Saturday, and Phommachanh added 35 yards on the ground as well.
UMass now sits at 2-7 with a bye week before its next game against the Liberty Flames on Saturday, Nov. 16. Kickoff for that game is scheduled for 12 p.m. at McGuirk Alumni Stadium, and the game can be viewed on ESPN+.
Johnny Depin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @Jdepin101.
