UMass tailback Greg Desrosiers discovered the lacking piece of his soccer “self” when he rediscovered the top zone.
The 5-11, 186-pound red-shirt freshman from Lawrence loved a breakout second within the Minutemen’s 42-24 loss to Liberty in a battle of FBS independents on Oct. 8 at McGuirk Stadium.
Desrosiers had seven carries for 110 yards, together with landing runs of 56 and 5 yards. Desrosiers hadn’t loved a day of soccer like that since his prep days at Belmont Hill in 2019.
“It was basically in my eyes like my first breakout game in college so it felt great to be out there and I felt like myself,” mentioned Desrosiers. “After scoring that first landing I felt like Greg is again.
“I got my confidence back because before I felt like I was hiding in the shadows. So, it felt good to be out there most definitely.”
Desrosiers can anticipate to get a tough re-evaluation from UMass’ head coach Don Brown when the Minutemen (1-5) host former MAC rival Buffalo (3-3, 3-0) on Saturday afternoon (3:30) at McGuirk.
UMass is a run-centered offense led by twin menace quarterback Gino Campiotti, who leads the group with 374 yards on 92 carries. Tailback Ellis Merriweather is a bruising between the tackles ballcarrier with 219 yards on 56 carries.
Desrosiers appeared minimally in seven video games throughout two fruitless seasons at Louisville earlier than transferring to UMass. He started the season listed fourth on the depth chart however has bumped as much as second with 161 speeding yards on 29 makes an attempt. He additionally leads all UMass backs in receiving with 4 catches.
Although that may be a small sampling, Brown believes Desrosiers may be that every one function again that provides offensive coordinator Steve Casula extra choices, particularly on third down.
“He is really good in space and if he gets into space as you saw the other day, you are going to have a heck of a time getting him on the ground,” mentioned Brown. “The move receiving factor we’re engaged on so that may be a work in progress.
“He’s returning kicks and getting on the perimeter like he did in those two (touchdown) runs. I think it shows for sure this is an all-purpose guy and he hasn’t played a lot of football. We are excited that he stepped up and gave us a forecast of what to expect from him down the road.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com