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University of Massachusets Athletics
Massachusetts Football Camp Countdown - Running Backs
August 25, 2022 | Football
Jay Burnham discusses the Minutemen's running backs with running back coach Damian Mincey.
Rolling into our fourth installment of our Camp Countdown conversations, Jay Burnham sat down with running backs coach Damian Mincey to talk about the focal piece of UMass' run first offense. Mincey is in his first season and second stint at UMass after previously coming to Amherst under head coach Don Brown in 2006. "For me this is where it all started," said Mincey. "This was my first college job back in 2006 and this is like my second home."
Mincey acknowledges that all eyes will be on his group. "You have to come out ready to perform. We have to be leaders on this team," he said.
The biggest change for the Minutemen this season at this position is depth as the squad will no longer need Merriweather to shoulder the entire load. "My running back room is stacked right now," said Mincey. "We have four guys that can come in, play and give us valuable time and minutes, four guys that know the play book really well, four guys that can do everything that we ask of them. It's a great problem to have. It's not every day you get a group of running backs like this. I could put any one of them in and there's no drop off."
Ellis Merriweather – Alpharetta, Ga. – Alpharetta – 6-2 – 225
Merriweather shouldered much of the load for the UMass offense in 2021 and had a breakout season, becoming the first 1,000 yard rusher of the program's FBS era. The two-year captain was voted a Phil Steele All-Independent Second Team honoree last season and is a Phil Steele Preseason All-Independent First Team running back this fall. He finished the 2021 campaign with 1,138 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns and had 218 consecutive caries without a fumble. Merriweather set a UMass single-season record in 2021, posting seven games with 100 or more rushing yards, recording 749 in the last five contests alone.
Damian Mincey on Merriweather – "Being a football player at any position is always fluid. You can always grow. The big thing for him is growing, keeping the physical nature, bettering our feet, using what we call weapons, our shoulder pads and our stiff arm, bettering those, working on catching the ball, working on pass protection, becoming really good technicians in the pass game. I think he's taken all of those things and really bought into it since the spring when I got here and has grown tremendously in pass blocking, grown tremendously with his patience in running the football and he develops every day and keeps piling on those new skills."
Kay'Ron Adams – Warren, Ohio – Warren G. Harding – 5-10 – 210
Adams came to UMass with a lot of fanfare after transferring from Rutgers after rushing for 320 yards over 18 career games at Rutgers with two touchdowns on the ground and another in the air, while also catching six balls for 120 yards. Last fall with the Minutemen he ran for 114 yards on 39 carries before being sidelined with an injury on Oct. 10 vs. Toledo and also made seven catches for 43 yards.
Damian Mincey on Adams – "I think he's done a great job staying positive and fighting through everything. He's back. He's explosive, he's physical, he's everything that was advertised before I got here. He's the real deal too. I'm really excited having him back in the room."
Tim Baldwin Jr. – Ashburn, Va. – Patriot – 6-0 – 220
Baldwin joins the Minutemen after two years at Indiana where he appeared in nine games and rushed for 141 yards on 22 attempts over four contests as a freshman in 2020.
Damian Mincey on Baldwin – "Tim is really really good—great feet, explosive dude."
Greg Desrosiers Jr. – Lawrence, Mass. – Belmont Hill – 5-11 – 186
Deroisiers, a Massachusetts native, comes to UMass following two seasons at Louisville where he saw action in a total of seven games.
Damian Mincey on Deroisiers – "Greg is a very explosive athlete. I think when he got here he was a little bit underweight. We do a lot of inside zone, we're running the ball, and he wasn't ready for that yet. Coach McLafferty did a great job with him in the offseason. He's put on the pounds, put on the weight and now he's running inside zone just like some of the bigger backs. He's running all of the schemes that we have and doing things really well and he has a different gear. He can get out and go and he's done a really good job of that in the spring and the summertime."
Donta Whack – Sanford, Fla. – Sanford Seminole – 6-0 – 205
One of the top running backs out of the state of Florida in his class year, Whack led his Sanford Seminole team to a Section 8A Championship in 2020.
Damian Mincey on Whack – "He shows a lot of promise. For being a young guy he runs really hard. He's about 205-208 pounds right now so he's going to be a big guy once he continues eating and in the weight room. He's explosive and he figures it out. He's an excellent contact balance guy, he runs through tackles and is able to keep his balance, catches the ball well, he's not afraid to pass block so that's a great thing."
Mincey acknowledges that all eyes will be on his group. "You have to come out ready to perform. We have to be leaders on this team," he said.
The biggest change for the Minutemen this season at this position is depth as the squad will no longer need Merriweather to shoulder the entire load. "My running back room is stacked right now," said Mincey. "We have four guys that can come in, play and give us valuable time and minutes, four guys that know the play book really well, four guys that can do everything that we ask of them. It's a great problem to have. It's not every day you get a group of running backs like this. I could put any one of them in and there's no drop off."
Ellis Merriweather – Alpharetta, Ga. – Alpharetta – 6-2 – 225
Merriweather shouldered much of the load for the UMass offense in 2021 and had a breakout season, becoming the first 1,000 yard rusher of the program's FBS era. The two-year captain was voted a Phil Steele All-Independent Second Team honoree last season and is a Phil Steele Preseason All-Independent First Team running back this fall. He finished the 2021 campaign with 1,138 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns and had 218 consecutive caries without a fumble. Merriweather set a UMass single-season record in 2021, posting seven games with 100 or more rushing yards, recording 749 in the last five contests alone.
Damian Mincey on Merriweather – "Being a football player at any position is always fluid. You can always grow. The big thing for him is growing, keeping the physical nature, bettering our feet, using what we call weapons, our shoulder pads and our stiff arm, bettering those, working on catching the ball, working on pass protection, becoming really good technicians in the pass game. I think he's taken all of those things and really bought into it since the spring when I got here and has grown tremendously in pass blocking, grown tremendously with his patience in running the football and he develops every day and keeps piling on those new skills."
Kay'Ron Adams – Warren, Ohio – Warren G. Harding – 5-10 – 210
Adams came to UMass with a lot of fanfare after transferring from Rutgers after rushing for 320 yards over 18 career games at Rutgers with two touchdowns on the ground and another in the air, while also catching six balls for 120 yards. Last fall with the Minutemen he ran for 114 yards on 39 carries before being sidelined with an injury on Oct. 10 vs. Toledo and also made seven catches for 43 yards.
Damian Mincey on Adams – "I think he's done a great job staying positive and fighting through everything. He's back. He's explosive, he's physical, he's everything that was advertised before I got here. He's the real deal too. I'm really excited having him back in the room."
Tim Baldwin Jr. – Ashburn, Va. – Patriot – 6-0 – 220
Baldwin joins the Minutemen after two years at Indiana where he appeared in nine games and rushed for 141 yards on 22 attempts over four contests as a freshman in 2020.
Damian Mincey on Baldwin – "Tim is really really good—great feet, explosive dude."
Greg Desrosiers Jr. – Lawrence, Mass. – Belmont Hill – 5-11 – 186
Deroisiers, a Massachusetts native, comes to UMass following two seasons at Louisville where he saw action in a total of seven games.
Damian Mincey on Deroisiers – "Greg is a very explosive athlete. I think when he got here he was a little bit underweight. We do a lot of inside zone, we're running the ball, and he wasn't ready for that yet. Coach McLafferty did a great job with him in the offseason. He's put on the pounds, put on the weight and now he's running inside zone just like some of the bigger backs. He's running all of the schemes that we have and doing things really well and he has a different gear. He can get out and go and he's done a really good job of that in the spring and the summertime."
Donta Whack – Sanford, Fla. – Sanford Seminole – 6-0 – 205
One of the top running backs out of the state of Florida in his class year, Whack led his Sanford Seminole team to a Section 8A Championship in 2020.
Damian Mincey on Whack – "He shows a lot of promise. For being a young guy he runs really hard. He's about 205-208 pounds right now so he's going to be a big guy once he continues eating and in the weight room. He's explosive and he figures it out. He's an excellent contact balance guy, he runs through tackles and is able to keep his balance, catches the ball well, he's not afraid to pass block so that's a great thing."
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