A feature and flaw of human psychology is that some of us find it fun to test our own mortality. Some do this by rocking climbing, or by riding a motorcycle sans helmet.
Others risk real American currency on UMass football hitting the 'over' on their win total. Those people felt a rush of adrenaline when a deposit hit their account on Saturday.
Over the summer, BetMGM put UMass's total at 2.5. After securing a 36-14 win over Stonehill College on Saturday, the Minutemen are 3-0.
Joe Harasmyiak's team beat Rutgers in their own house to open the season, then followed with a 37-10 win over Sacred Heart and the 22-point win on Saturday. That might not sound like much (because, frankly, it isn't), but let's remember who we're talking about here. The Rutgers win snapped a 16-game overall losing streak, plus a 23-game skid to FBS competition. The Minutemen have scored 37, 37, and 36, after scoring 13 or fewer in 10 of 12 contests last season and averaging an FBS-worst 11.1 points per game. The Minutemen's leading rusher ended the year with 368 yards and two touchdowns, and its leading passer threw for 957 yards and four touchdowns. UMass had not scored 30 points in a game since Nov. 30, 2024, and is now in the midst of its longest 30-point streak since popping of for 40-plus over three straight games in 2018. (UMass lost two of those games.) The offense has been aided by a defense that's already forced eight turnovers through three games; last year's defense forced nine all season.
At 3-0 for the first time since 2007, UMass has already equaled its most wins in a season since 2019, and is in search of: its first 4-win season since 2018, its first 5-win season since 2011, its first winning season since 2010, and its first conference championship and postseason appearance in since '07. (The program moved from FCS to FBS in 2012.)
The Minutemen open conference play this Saturday at Sacramento State -- nothing says Mid-American Conference like a 2,900-mile trip from Massachusetts to California -- as 4.5-point road favorites. One might call Sac State the UMass of the 2020s: despite middling success at the FCS level, the Hornets moved to FBS anyway, and are still figuring things out. As of this writing, UMass's entire schedule has a total of three FBS wins.
It's a tad early to start booking flights to Detroit for Minutemen fans. On Monday, Harasmyiak was most pressingly concerned with the logistics of getting his team to Sacramento and back. Informed that his squad is in the Also Receiving Votes category of Sunday's coaches poll, Harasmyiak said, "Couldn't care less." He made note of Sacramento State's plus-11 scoring margin in the second half this season, glossing right by the fact the Hornets have been outscored 81-13 in the first half vs. their three FBS opponents.
Sounds like a coach with a great shot at reaching the mystical land of 4-0.