Hear ye, hear ye, patriots of the Pioneer Valley. Abner Kettleworth here, tricorn hat on, musket-shaped umbrella at the ready, and a pot of strong tea on the hearth. If you're new to my dispatches, I report on the Minutemen the way the old broadsides reported on the Revolution: with great passion, a few puns and an unshakable belief in the cause.
The news from Buffalo was not what we wanted. But a Minuteman doesn't retreat. He reloads.
Part 1: The Skirmish at Broadview
Buffalo beat UMass 25-18 in overtime on Saturday at Broadview Stadium in Amherst, New York. Yes, the other Amherst. We're 4-3, 1-3 in the MAC.
It was a battle of special teams in the first half, and AP gives a full account. Buffalo got a 71-yard kickoff return, a safety and a muffed-punt recovery, and turned them into eight points. But the Minutemen struck first, when Logan Inagawa ran 20 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. Then TJ Magee recovered a Buffalo muffed punt, and Elijah Faulkner punched it in from 2 yards out. Inagawa hit Jabari Lewis for the two-point conversion, and UMass led 15-8 at halftime. A fine first engagement.
Buffalo tied it in the third quarter. Then, with less than two minutes left, Derek Morris drilled a 53-yard field goal to give UMass an 18-15 lead. Fifty-three yards, friends, after he had missed two earlier. That's what the Founders called perseverance.
Alas, Buffalo drove quickly and kicked a 29-yard field goal with 2 seconds left to force overtime. Buffalo scored a touchdown on its first possession, and on fourth down, Inagawa's throw to the end zone fell incomplete. 25-18.
Inagawa threw for 168 yards and ran 19 times for 66 more. Faulkner ran for 84 yards and a touchdown. Kezion Dia-Johnson caught five passes for 79 yards. Timmy Hinspeter made eight tackles and has 59 this season, and Kendall Bournes made eight too. And our defense held Buffalo's passing game to 134 yards on 16-of-35 throwing.
This campaign has had glorious moments. On Sept. 3, UMass went to Rutgers, a Big Ten school, and won 37-21. We won 35-6 at Sacramento State. We beat Sacred Heart and Stonehill. And our last two losses came by one point to Miami (Ohio) and in overtime to Buffalo. This army is close. It just needs one more volley. And remember how this team is built: Faulkner leads us with 361 rushing yards, Hinspeter and Bournes lead a defense that ranks among the best in FBS, and Morris just proved he can hit from 53 under pressure. Muskets are loaded.
Part 2: The March to East Hartford
Friday, 7 p.m. Eastern, CBS Sports Network, UMass visits UConn at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field. A Friday night skirmish across the border. The redcoats would never.
First, a salute to the Huskies, because a gentleman honors his opponent. UConn is 3-3. AP ranks its offense 24th in FBS in yards and 29th in scoring, at 35.7 points a game. Kalieb Osborne has thrown for 1,421 yards and 10 touchdowns. Cyncir Bowers has six rushing touchdowns. UConn also rested last week, after beating Temple 34-20 on Oct. 10.
Now, the intelligence report, all from AP's preview.
UConn's pass defense ranks 135th in FBS. It allows 290.5 passing yards a game. Its defense overall ranks 115th. It ranks 113th on third-down defense, letting opponents convert 43.3% of the time. And UConn is 130th in FBS in penalty yards, at 79.0 a game. That is a defense that fires before it sees the whites of anybody's eyes.
Meanwhile, the Minutemen's defense ranks 30th in FBS in yards allowed and 30th against the pass. It allows 19.1 points a game, 33rd. And UMass has a turnover margin of plus-7, which ranks 8th in all of FBS. We take the ball like a militia takes a bridge.
William Watson III has completed 74.0% of his passes this season, with seven touchdowns. T.Y. Harding has 28 catches. Against the 135th-ranked pass defense in the country, I'd like to see the Minutemen open up the passing game and see what happens.
And here's a dispatch about UConn's own record. The Huskies lost to Miami (Ohio), 24-21, a team UMass lost to by a single point. They lost 42-41 to Syracuse. They lost 38-14 to Maryland at home. UConn is the more decorated army on paper, but it can be beaten.
The history, per CollegeFootballData.com: UConn leads the series 6-4. But in 2018, UMass went to this very stadium in East Hartford and won 22-17. And in 2021, UMass beat UConn 27-13. We've crossed this river before.
Tales From Two Towns
Amherst. Amherst is in the Connecticut River valley, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, a town of 39,263 at the 2020 census and the most populous in Hampshire County, per Wikipedia. It's home to three of the Five Colleges: UMass, Amherst College and Hampshire College. The Emily Dickinson Museum is here, at the house where the poet was born and lived her whole life. "Hope is the thing with feathers," she wrote. She wasn't writing about football, but she could have been. And the Minutemen themselves, per Wikipedia, won the 1998 Division I-AA national championship. We've hoisted the big one. Wikipedia says the program began play in 1879, moved up to the FBS starting in 2011 and rejoined the MAC as a full member on July 1, 2025, after years as an independent. A long march, and a proud one. McGuirk hosted its first game on Sept. 25, 1965, and UMass beat American International College 41-0. A fine way to christen a fort.
East Hartford. East Hartford is a town of 51,045 on the east bank of the Connecticut River, right across from Hartford, and it's the home of the jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney. But here's the thing. Wikipedia says UConn's main campus is in Storrs, and it played its home games on campus there from 1953 to 2002. Then it moved off campus. UConn's stadium sits on the site of Pratt & Whitney's old company airfield. So the Huskies play home games on a former airport, in a different town from their campus. Now, in the spirit of honesty that built this republic, I'll confess: Wikipedia says our own McGuirk Stadium, home of the Minutemen since 1965, sits just across the town border in Hadley. But it's on our campus, and it holds 17,000 of the loudest patriots in the valley. Our stadium sits just over a town border, still on campus. Theirs left campus entirely. If you've got to fly to your own home game, it's not really a home game.
And let's talk about the mascots, gently. A husky is a fine sled dog. But a sled dog's whole job is to pull somebody else where they want to go. A Minuteman answers the call himself, on a minute's notice. That's the difference between Storrs and Amherst.
Dispatches for the Troops
1. Throw the ball. The 135th-ranked pass defense awaits. 2. Keep taking the ball away. Plus-7 is a winning flag. 3. Finish. Two close losses were enough. Ring the bell this time.
Onward, Minutemen. The British are coming, and so are the Huskies, and we are ready for both.
My call: UConn Huskies 33, Massachusetts Minutemen 20.