Weeks on the job, the new University of Massachusetts Amherst football coach is adding staff and players.
It was mid-December when UMass Amherst Athletic Director Ryan Bamford formally introduced the program’s 32nd coach, Joe Harasymiak.
Harasymiak had finished his third season at Rutgers, serving as a defensive coordinator, when he got the UMass job. On Friday, he had one of his first press conferences at McGuirk Stadium, giving the lay of the land as he settles in.
“It's been wild - we got here and just getting to meet the players and doing all the meetings - I was able to personally meet with everybody which was great before I left,” he told reporters. “And then, obviously, the staffing was a big piece of it, getting through that and then the road started, and that's been the craziest part, which has also the best part, but just getting out, meeting people in the state and locally, and doing that … it's been great.”
A graduate of Springfield College, Harasymiak previously had stints at the University of Minnesota and University of Maine.
He was named the National FCS Coach of the Year in 2018 while leading the Maine Black Bears to a 10-4 record, winning the Colonial Athletic Association championship.
Now, he’s charged with building up a team that finished 2-10 last year as it moves to the Mid-American Conference for 2025.
A steady stream of commitments and signings have been coming in since the new coach took charge. The team added Ball State defensive back DD Snyder, Utah quarterback Brandon Rose and Yale quarterback Grant Jordan and linebacker Dean Shaffer earlier this month, on top of a few dozen other players.
He says plenty of tape is being reviewed, but the developing lineup’s strengths and weaknesses won’t be totally clear until the first spring practice.
“I think throughout the 27, 26 additions that we have, I think we've [built depth], and now it's about just fine-tuning exactly what we need,” the coach said. “We'll know coming out of spring exactly what we need and that's the that's the best part and I think, certainly, with the new rule of rosters having to go to 105 [players], this spring portal window is going to be pretty wild - I think it's going to be different. But… we'll have to see that when it comes about but I think we've done a good job identifying off of the tape what we probably needed.”
Among the new staff is offensive coordinator Mike BaJakian. An interim offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Utah last year, he's spent time in similar roles at Boston College, Cincinnati and Tennessee. He was also quarterbacks coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers between 2015 and 2018.
The team also added a former colleague of Harasymiak's as defensive coordinator - Jared Keyte. In addition two seasons at Rutgers, Keyte also worked at Maine as a defensive coordinator and linebackers coach and was part of the 2018 run Harasymiak oversaw.
The head coach says the team hopes to release its spring schedule soon, with a forecast start date of around spring break with plans to run through mid-April.
