The 2025 UMass football experience had been an unkind and futile one. The year brought immense hope to a fanbase in desperate need of it, considering UMass hadn’t seen a season better than 4-8 since making the FBS jump in 2012. What made 2025 particularly exciting was the slew of offseason changes. UMass hired a new head coach in Joe Harasymiak and finally gained stability by joining the MAC as a full-time member, following a brief football-only stint from 2012-15.
But that preseason glimmer of hope
long faded as a banged-up 0-6 UMass stumbled into Week 8 as one of three winless FBS programs. Most excruciatingly, the Minutemen dropped a buy game to FCS school Bryant on a last-second field goal, and to make matters worse, Bryant is currently 2-5 and finished 2-10 in the prior year. Every other UMass game was a shellacking as it dropped each of its first five FBS matchups by 18 points or greater, never tallying more than 10 and falling by an average score of 39-6.
Fresh off a 42-6 thrashing at Kent State — which defeated its first FBS opponent since 2022 in the process — UMass suddenly saw its first stroke of fortune in a calamitous 2025 season. However, it was succeeded by unmitigated disaster, as a fervent celebration at McGuirk Stadium in Amherst, MA unexpectedly twisted into a viewing of a horror film for the 15,239 in attendance. All signs pointed to a UMass victory, but Buffalo snatched the winless Minutemen’s moment of triumph in gut-wrenching fashion. Here’s how it happened:
The anatomy of a collapse
The Minutemen led a Buffalo team sporting an unblemished MAC record, 21-20, as the Bulls lined up for 4th and 10 from their own 36 immediately prior to the 2-minute timeout. Buffalo quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson connected with Nik McMillan for a critical 16-yard pickup, breathing new life into the visiting Bulls. UMass got its lick back, subsequently hindering the possession by producing an 11-yard sack. Buffalo spent its next play recapturing those 11 yards until it faced a 3rd and 10 from the UMass 48.
On this fateful third down, Roberson skied a deep ball down toward the UMass 19-yard line, however, not a single white jersey stood in the vicinity. Instead, one man decked in maroon lurked in the area. Free safety Jeremiah McGill was the sole player in the television broadcast angle when he made a diving interception with 59 seconds remaining in the ballgame. McGill then waved goodbye to the Bulls, outside linebacker Derrieon Craig fell backward onto the field and started making snow angels, UMass players on the sideline formed a towel-waving mosh pit, and the home fans joyously threw their hands to the sky and exchanged high-fives to usher in what was primed to be that elusive long-awaited victory.
Those in the black and white stripes then disrupted the party, flagging Craig for unsportsmanlike conduct to set UMass back to its own 10-yard line.
“I’m not gonna lie, that was one of the most stupid things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Harasymiak said of the penalty. “I’ve gotta go coach it. It’s my problem. My fault. The young man didn’t mean to intentionally do anything by it, but there’s still three timeouts and there’s 40-something, 50-something seconds left.”
With 59 ticks left in the clock’s lifespan, Buffalo still had all three timeouts at its disposal, meaning mathematics would not support the idea of UMass entering victory formation. A first down was required to officially seal the deal, but the Minutemen couldn’t stop moving in the opposite direction of that marker. They lost one yard on a first down run and four on a second down run, suddenly staring down 3rd and 14 from their own 5. Instead of exhausting Buffalo’s final timeout with a third-straight run, UMass dropped back to pass, but the gamble amounted to nothing. Quarterback AJ Hairston misfired to bring up fourth down.
“That was my decision,” Harasymiak said on calling a third down pass. “I wanted to go and win the game. Against Bryant, we had a third down. They had a timeout left and we didn’t go to win the game. Plus, with the field position it’s 3rd and 14, we run the ball, it takes four seconds off, and we’re not really punting from probably a different location. So I thought we’d give AJ a shot, maybe we’d draw a DPI. That was the thought process there.”
UMass punted 45 yards to the exact midway point of the field, supplying with Buffalo 44 seconds and timeout in a 1-point game. The Bulls only needed a field goal, yet they went for the punisher. Roberson completed 14 and 20-yard strikes to Jasaiah Gathings on consecutive snaps to position his team in field goal range. Then Buffalo went for jugular. Victor Snow ran a crisp corner route and cleanly corralled Roberson’s air mail while residing in the maroon painted end zone — good for a 16-yard go-ahead touchdown. Buffalo then tacked on more with a two-point conversion, rapidly turning a likely defeat into a 28-21 lead with 19 seconds remaining.
UMass never invaded Buffalo territory on its last-ditch effort, as Kobe Stewart sacked Hairston on the final play to bar the Minutemen from producing their first victory of 2025.
“That game was eerie,” Harasymiak said. “We picked off the ball against Bryant in almost the same location. But we had chance and we have to take ownership. We had a chance to run the clock out, get a first down, and win the game. Then again, defense goes out, we have a chance to win the game and we didn’t do that. So we’ve been in that situation twice, and until you keep being in it, putting yourself in it, and knocking on the door, you’re probably gonna lose some.”
Despite the frustration of the collapse, positives were certainly on display Saturday as UMass finally competed with a conference opponent — one that’s currently 4-3 overall and 3-0 in MAC play — for all 60 minutes of action, which had not been observed in the six games prior. But watching a triumphant victory spin into a disastrous defeat in less than a minute’s work is not easy to stomach. Amidst the adversity, Harasymiak is confident his group will learn and grow to ultimately produce that coveted first victory of 2025.
“We have a group that listens, trying to change the culture and go compete in the MAC,” Harasymiak said. “It just shows me that responding from the way the game went last week, to the way they worked this week, to the way they came out and listen to the message — they took it all the way down to essentially 47 seconds left in the fourth. That shows me there’s been growth. The result is what we’ll ultimately get judged on, and I get that. But I’m proud of them for putting in that effort… No moral victories, we’re here to win, but at some point you have to seek the positives out of bad experiences.”
