The UMass Minutemen (1-3) will get a house opener do-over once they host the Lobos of New Mexico (1-3) on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) at McGuirk Stadium.
The Minutemen performed their first sport McGuirk on Sept. 9 towards Miami (Ohio), nevertheless it felt nothing like a house opener and was devoid of any dwelling area benefit.
The Minutemen’s 42-28 loss to the Red Hawks was interrupted by a close to six-hour climate delay. When the sport resumed, the empty stands turned the stadium right into a impartial website.
“It is great to be home and obviously the players got robbed on the first one, there was nobody there,” stated UMass second-year head coach Don Brown. “We have New Mexico coming in this weekend and they are playing better football so it is a challenge for us for sure. But we are excited about the game.”
The match towards Los Lobos (Translation: The Wolves) is the primary of three consecutive dwelling video games. UMass will host Arkansas State on Sept. 30 and Toledo on Oct. 7.
“We just have to stay together and I think we are close to making a lot of plays happen,” stated Josh Atwood, a 6-1, 320-pound junior middle from Natick.
“We just need to get that extra strain and effort to finish our plays. I think we are really close but we just need to finish.”
Brown is hopeful injured quarterback Taisun Phommachanh can be below middle for New Mexico. The redshirt junior switch from Clemson was the offensive drive behind the Minutemen’s 41-30 victory within the season opener at New Mexico State. Phommachanh was injured within the fourth quarter of the Minutemen’s 59-14 loss at Auburn and sat out the crew’s consecutive losses to Miami and at Eastern Michigan (19-17) final Saturday.
Carlos Davis, a switch from Western Kentucky, has been an in a position second choice. He loved a profession day towards Eastern Michigan by finishing 23-of-41 passes for 340 yards and a landing.
Those positive factors had been offset by three interceptions and three sacks. UMass’ first three drives of the sport resulted in turnovers, so making sensible choices with the ball and securing it when in play had been Brown’s factors of emphasis. On a facet notice, New Mexico was crushed 27-17 at dwelling by New Mexico State final Saturday.
Source: www.bostonherald.com