Massachusetts Minutemen 2026 Season Preview

Nowhere to Go But Up

A winless 0-12 campaign, including 0-8 in conference play, and a No. 137 power ranking leave Massachusetts with almost no cushion heading into Joe Harasymiak's second season. There is no marquee name to point to here, just a program searching for its first win of the Harasymiak era after a season that produced zero. Year two strips away any newcomer excuse, and the results now have to speak for themselves.

Bottom of the Ledger

A winless 2025 with an offense that scored 11.1 points a game and converted just 33.7% of plays into success was never going to survive intact, and it didn't: the answer at quarterback is Virginia Tech transfer William Watson III, who arrives having thrown for only 77 yards in limited action. That thin résumé matters less than the collapse he's replacing, an attack that managed 3.87 yards per play and 2.17 points per scoring chance, both among the worst marks in the country. The defense isn't bailing anyone out either, having allowed 38.6 points a game with an 8.5% havoc rate, so Watson inherits a program where any improvement in moving the ball at all would be a real step forward.

Massachusetts is scrapping its entire quarterback room rather than fixing it, and that alone tells the story. Grant Jordan, Brandon Rose and AJ Hairston combined for a passing offense that ranked 120th in yards per game and 136th in yards per play, and none of them are back. William Watson III arrives from Virginia Tech as the new starter, inheriting a unit that finished 132nd in third-down rate and 136th in points per scoring opportunity, and simply avoiding turnovers behind a line that allowed 33 sacks would already be progress.

A rushing attack that managed 82 yards per game a season ago just went out and bought volume, four backs deep. Jordan Washington arrives from Murray State off a 340-yard, 3-touchdown season, and Justin Williams-Thomas joins from Marshall after a 197-yard year, both stepping into a backfield that also returns Rocko Griffin's 245 yards and 2 scores. None of that fixes a line that allowed 33 sacks, but Harasymiak has stopped asking Griffin to do it alone and started stacking bodies at the position, which is the honest fix for an offense that finished 134th in success rate.

None of the returning wideouts topped 73 yards last season, so the position needed a total overhaul, not a tweak, and that is exactly what arrived. Randall King (59 catches, 689 yards, 5 TD at Campbell) and Devin Matthews (36 catches, 649 yards, 7 TD at East Texas A&M) bring more combined production than the entire returning room managed, stepping in for Jacquon Gibson's departed 63 catches and 616 yards. With a passing game that ranked 120th in yards per game and an offense that scored on only 2.17 points per scoring opportunity, King and Matthews are being asked to fix a real problem, not just add depth.

Every tight end who touched the ball in 2025 is back, and that is both the good and bad news for Massachusetts. Max Dowling's 20 catches for 199 yards and 3 touchdowns paced the group, with Reece Adkins good for 133 yards on just 9 grabs, but that production came inside an offense that scored 11.1 points per game and posted the 136th-ranked points-per-scoring-opportunity mark nationally. Three-star arrival Matthew Tybor adds a new body to the room, but the real question is whether Dowling and Adkins can turn short catches into the explosive plays this offense desperately lacked.

A line that allowed 33 sacks and produced just 3.87 yards per play last season lost eight bodies up front, including tackle Ryan Mosesso, forcing Joe Harasymiak to piece together a new group almost entirely on the fly. Four transfers arrive to stabilize it, headlined by Aitor Urionabarrenechea and Greg Klingensmith on the interior and edge respectively, joined by Greg Knox and Will McNamara, none with a track record yet at this level. With ten bodies back including senior Zachary Franks and junior Jaxon King but no way to know who actually started, this reads as a rebuild up front, and the transfer imports need to hold up immediately if the run game is going to move off 82 yards per game.

Derrieon Craig's 78 tackles walk out the door along with the rest of a line that couldn't stop the run (222 yards allowed per game, 134th nationally) or get after anyone (13 sacks, 40 tackles for loss), and Massachusetts is replacing that production with volume rather than a proven name. Tim Passmore Jr. (13 tackles) is the closest thing to a returning veteran up front, but the real bet is on the newcomers: four-star edge Andrew DePaepe arrives from Indiana, and Zachary Betts brings 9 tackles worth of production from Saint Francis (PA) to a group that otherwise leans on unproven names like Aubrey Melvin and Samuel Mulbah. Given how far this front fell behind the line of scrimmage a year ago, the more realistic path in year two under Joe Harasymiak is incremental, not a sudden reversal.

Tyler Martin's 97 tackles and Timmy Hinspeter's 69 stops with 2 sacks give Massachusetts a real returning core, but the defense that allowed 435 yards and 38.6 points per game (129th and 137th nationally) needed more juice up front, and 40 tackles for loss over a full season shows why. Khari Bendolph and Kendric Council arrive from Jacksonville State and Saint Francis (PA) to add bodies who've already made plays in college ball, with Council's 2.5 TFL in limited work the kind of disruption this group was missing at 136th in havoc rate. Losing Rashad Henry's 51 tackles hurts, but Martin and Hinspeter forming the returning spine alongside the transfer additions gives Massachusetts a chance to at least stop bleeding rushing yards at the second level.

Zeraun Daniel's 75 tackles anchored a secondary that still bled 213 yards per game through the air, and the offseason overhaul suggests the coaching staff wanted more juice on the perimeter than what Malcolm Greene, Kamren Watkins-Hunter and Brennen Bailey provided. Five of the six corner and safety additions arrive from the transfer portal or high school with no meaningful college tape, but Jahmad Harmon brings real production from Ball State (24 tackles, 2 TFL) and projects as an immediate starter alongside Daniel and Keith Sarkodieh. Terron Johnson, Corey Warner and Isaiah Reed will compete for corner reps behind TJ Magee and Raheim Sexil, and with the pass defense already a relative strength at 55th nationally, the bigger question is whether this retooled back end can help fix a run defense that ranked 134th against the rush.

Derek Morris made just 9 of 15 field goals last season, but with Marcus Lye and Bennett Abbe both gone, he is the lone proven leg left on a winless team looking for points anywhere it can find them. The bigger hole is at punter, where Keegan Andrews and his 46.5-yard average are gone, leaving Edward Phillipson to take over with no prior statistics to lean on. Massachusetts also brings in Ohio State transfer Grant Mills at long snapper and 3-star recruit Seamus McIntyre as a kicking option, a sign this staff is rebuilding special teams from the ground up rather than trusting the returning pieces alone.

Watson Takes Over a Gutted Offense

A winless 2025 forced Joe Harasymiak to rip out nearly every offensive piece, and William Watson III now runs a unit that no longer includes Jacquon Gibson, AJ Hairston or Brandon Hood. The receiver room got a transplant instead of a patch job, with Randall King (59 catches, 689 yards, 5 TD at Campbell) and Devin Matthews (36 catches, 649 yards, 7 TD at East Texas A&M) brought in to replace departed production, while Jordan Washington and Justin Williams-Thomas take over the backfield touches Hood leaves behind. With a 116th-ranked class layered on top of 22 incoming transfers, this offense will be built almost entirely on newcomers finding chemistry with Watson in real time.

William Watson III

A winless 2025 gets rebuilt around William Watson III, the Virginia Tech transfer who arrives with all of 77 passing yards to his name as the only man positioned to run this offense. Everything Massachusetts wants to do behind Rocko Griffin and Jordan Washington on the ground depends on Watson doing enough through the air to keep defenses honest, since Jacquon Gibson's 63 catches walk out the door with no proven receiver to replace that volume. If Watson can grow into the job by midseason, Griffin and Washington give the Minutemen a real backfield to lean on, but an unsettled passing game will strand that ground production against Mid-American defenses stacking the box.

Backers Got Burned Too

Massachusetts did not just lose every game in 2025, it lost the number too, covering just 25% of spreads overall under Joe Harasymiak. Home was the worst of it, a 1-5 mark against the number to go with an 0-6 straight-up record there, and the week after a loss brought no relief at 3-8 against the spread. The lone bright spot came as a road underdog, covering 2 of 6 tries, a sliver of stubbornness that oddsmakers will need to account for before trusting this program to keep pace in 2026.