UMass didn't do much of anything right in its worst loss since 1956.
DEKALB, Ill. — There have been plenty of lows over the course of the journey for the University of Massachusetts football team.
Nine losses in nine tries offers up plenty of opportunities to dive into the troughs. The anemic offense of the opener against UConn, the complete inability to do anything to slow down Denard Robinson at Michigan, the comedy of errors that was the Western Michigan game and the nightmarish third quarter at Vanderbilt are all nominees for UMass football’s nadir.
But Saturday’s 63-0 thrashing at the hands of Northern Illinois ran away with the “Worst Performance of 2012” Award.
Technically, the 63-point margin was the worst for UMass since Oct. 13, 1956, when UConn beat the pants off the Minutemen 71-6 in Amherst.
The scene that sealed Saturday’s deal was a fourth-quarter pass from backup quarterback A.J. Doyle that hit wide receiver Marken Michel in the hands before falling to the turf. From the section of Northern Illinois fans – or what was left of it – behind the UMass bench floated audible, derisive laughter.
And why shouldn’t they laugh? It was one of at least five drops in the game for the Minutemen. Huskies pass rushers made UMass offensive lineman appear to be moving underwater. The few times starting quarterback Mike Wegzyn had an opportunity to make big plays, he badly overthrew open receivers.
The Huskies might as well have been the Chicago Bears, and quarterback Jordan Lynch Superman, passing for 191 yards, rushing for 157 and accounting for three touchdowns in less than three quarters of action.
In each of the first eight losses there was something to point to. A way, perhaps, for an observer to believe something positive happened for UMass.
Coach Charley Molnar and the Minutemen had nothing to hang their hats on Saturday. Molnar tried to make a case for Michael Cox and the running game, but Cox averaged a pedestrian 3.2 yards per carry.
Worse, Molnar accused a select few of his players of quitting toward the end of Saturday’s game. Though he wouldn’t name names, less than a minute into his post-game press conference he said:
“Our guys usually finish the game each and every week that we’ve played, and today I was a little bit disappointed. I didn’t think that every guy played until the end of the game. I think some of the guys started to think about the trip home and getting out of DeKalb and not finishing the afternoon the way I’d like to see it get done.”
It’s difficult to blame them. By the midpoint of the third quarter on Saturday, everyone involved in Saturday’s contest would probably have been happy with a running clock.
Now the Minutemen find themselves at one final crossroads in 2012. They can continue on this highway to futility, or hop off of at one of the three remaining exits that remain on the schedule.
Five weeks ago, after the then-undefeated kings of the Mid-American Conference, Ohio University, barely escaped Gillette Stadium with their record intact, most fans would have probably said they liked the Minutemen’s chances to find a lifeboat in games at Akron, and at home against Buffalo and Central Michigan.
But after four losses by a combined score of 188-21, it’s only fair to question this team’s ability to row itself to safety.
The first, and maybe best, chance comes at Akron on Nov. 10. The Zips last won an FBS game on Nov. 26, 2010.
But even Molnar was trying to temper expectations after Saturday’s debacle.
“Nobody has been dealt the cards we’ve been dealt,” he said. “That’s obvious. Just the transition from I-AA to I-A is quite a mouthful, and it certainly has been for our guys.”
Regardless, an 0-12 season obviously won’t curry Molnar any favor with a fan base that’s already strained about the move to the FBS. He will get more time to build – one would think at least two more years – but such a regression within the course of this season won’t be viewed kindly.
Five weeks ago, we were ready to take this team seriously.
With how far its performance has fallen, that’s extremely hard to do today.