The Minutemen face injury and suspension issues headed into a game with a Bowling Green team that's on a three-game winning streak.
UMass gave Ohio all it could handle on Sept. 29 at Gillette Stadium, and will hope for similar success against Bowling Green on Saturday.
photo by J. Anthony Roberts
AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts football team is saying all the right things. It’s have put the 0-6 record in the past, used the bye to heal its wounded and moved on to what players and coaches have come to call the “second season.”
Whether or not it can back up the talk is another thing entirely, especially against a visiting Bowling Green team that seems to be hitting full stride as it flies into Gillette Stadium for UMass’ homecoming game Saturday.
The Minutemen say they’ve healed the bumps and bruises on guys that were playing, but of the players that were legitimately injured and held out of games, they’ve only returned one — reserve defensive back Iric Harris. Tight End Rob Blanchflower will sit with a leg injury. Defensive tackle Galen Clemons and offensive lineman Jamie Casselberry are sidelined with concussions. Linebacker Greg Hilliard will miss his fourth straight game because of a shoulder injury.
But it’s the losses of suspended wide receiver Alan Williams and guard Nick Speller that will really curb the Minutemen’s enthusiasm headed into Saturday. The loss of Speller is especially painful because of Bowling Green defensive tackle Chris Jones, who has racked up nine sacks in seven games — an absurd total for an interior lineman.
Instead of Speller, or his replacement Casselberry, UMass will have true freshman Matt Sparks at right guard.
That loss is massive even without the Chris Jones factor. It is not a coincidence that UMass’ best three offensive games — by far — have been with Anthony Dima at right tackle and Speller at right guard.
“That hurts. It doesn’t help obviously, those are great players that we had,” quarterback Mike Wegzyn said. “We have other guys that are going to be able to step up.”
Maybe they do, and maybe they don’t. Against a Bowling Green defense that’s tops in the MAC in both scoring (19.1 points per game) and yardage (330.6 yards per game) defense, coach Charley Molnar’s young offensive line is going to face a massive uphill battle.
“When you’re young, you usually have two things going against you. Number one, you’re not as physically developed as you need to be, number two, you don’t have the experience,” Molnar said. “I hate to use the term patchwork, but at times, it feels that way.”
In case UMass needs a reminder about how physical this Falcons team can be — on both sides of the ball — it can look at the BCS standings. No. 2 Florida, currently sitting pretty at 6-0, was shockingly pushed around by Bowling Green at times in a 28-14 week-one victory that was far closer than score would indicate.
“I know how good they are,” Wegzyn said. “I’ve seen it on film. Against Florida, they played really well.”
The Falcons present a 4-2-5 look on defense, a style popularized and perfected by defensive guru and TCU head coach Gary Patterson that features four defensive linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs.
Wegzyn said the different look will affect the game plan, but not his preparation.
“Obviously inside the schemes it does, but at the end of the day, it’s 11 vs. 11, there’s only so much you can do,” Wegzyn said. “It’s us vs. them, and we just have to go out and outplay them.”
Offensively, the Falcons have found newfound confidence in a running game led by sophomore Anthon Samuel, a first-team All-Rookie selection in the MAC last year who is averaging over six yards per carry in 2012 and has topped 100 yards in each of Bowling Green’s three consecutive wins over the past three weeks.
Molnar compared the Falcons run attack to another team UMass faced earlier.
“I would say UConn had a powerful run attack, but this group is pretty proficient,” Molnar said. “It would be similar to UConn’s.”
Bowling Green faced similar struggles as the Minutemen did early in the season because of its schedule — the Falcons found themselves staring at an 1-3 record after losses to Florida, Virginia Tech and Toledo and an ugly win over lowly Idaho. But they’ve recovered, something UMass has been unable to do thus far.
Molnar believes that’s going to change Saturday.
“I think our guys have had good energy, good sense of purpose, and they want to win a football game,” he said. “They aren’t out here just practicing to get better, they’re out here to win a football game, and I think our guys are locked in, so I’m excited to see how we pull it all together on Saturday.”
Kickoff is at Noon, and video coverage can be found at www.mac-sports.com.