Massachusetts Football Begins 2022 Season At Tulane On Saturday Night

University of Massachusetts Football Game Notes & Information
Game 1	Massachusetts (0-0) at Tulane (0-0)
Date \| Time	Saturday, September 3 \| 7 p.m.
Location	New Orleans, La. \| Yulman Stadium \| Clear Bag Policy
Tickets	Purchase Tickets Here
Series History	Tulane leads, 1-0 Last Meeting \| McGuirk Alumni Stadium, Amherst, Mass. \| Tulane 31, Massachusetts 24
Game Notes & Team Information	Massachusetts: Game Notes \| Game Program \| Record Book Tulane: Game Notes \| Media Guide
Watch	ESPN+
Listen	WHMP 101.5 FM, 1240AM & 1400AM \| WCRN 830 AM App: Download The Varsity Sports Network on your mobile device
Live Statistics	SIDEARM
Twitter	@UMassFootball \| @FBCoachDBrown
Instagram	UMass Football
Facebook	UMass Football

AMHERST, Mass. -- The 139th season of Massachusetts football commences on Saturday as the Minutemen head to Tulane for the first-ever road contest, and only second meeting between the two programs at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.

WELCOME BACK COACH

Head coach Don Brown returns to Massachusetts for his second stint with the football program. Brown was named head coach on Nov. 22, 2021, by Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford, after spending a season with Arizona as the defensive coordinator.

During his first stint as head coach with the Minutemen, he led UMass to the winningest five-year stretch in program history from 2004-2008, accumulating a 43-19 record and making two postseason appearances. He spent the previous 13 years guiding defenses at Maryland, Connecticut, Boston College, Michigan and Arizona.

The Spencer, Massachusetts, native has 45 years of coaching experience to his credit, beginning at Hartford High School in 1977. As a head coach, Brown combined for a 95-45 overall record between Plymouth State, Northeastern and Massachusetts. He also totaled four postseason appearances.

BORN AND BRED IN THE COMMONWEALTH

This season's rosters features 21 student-athletes from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:

2022 - 27
2021 - 31
2020 - 29
2019 - 30
2018 - 25
2017 - 27
2016 - 31

HIGH CALIBER TRANSFERS

Massachusetts has 19 transfers on the 2022 roster, including 14 from Power 5 institutions:

Kay'Ron Adams - Rutgers
Devin Baldwin - Rutgers
Tim Baldwin Jr. - Indiana
Noah Boykin - Notre Dame
Marcus Bradley - Vanderbilt
Marcus Cushnie - Florida State
Greg Desrosiers Jr. - Louisville
Sammy Faustin - Michigan
Darius Gooden - Rutgers
Zukudo Igwenagu - Rutgers
George Johnson III - Michigan
Tyler Rudolph - Penn State
Cameron Sullivan-Brown - Penn State
Tyson Watson - Michigan State

THE QB ROOM: A MIX OF YOUNG AND OLD

The Minutemen's quarterback room features two sophomores (Brady Olson and Zamar Wise), one redshirt sophomore (Garrett Dzuro) and one redshirt junior (Gino Campiotti).

Olson (6'4'', 200-pounds from Bellingham, Mass.) appeared in nine career games during the 2021 season as a true freshman.

Campiotti (6'3'', 215-pounds from Manteca, Calif.), meanwhile, arrived at UMass after spending the 2021 season at Modesto Junior College, playing in 11 games, and competed at Nothern Arizona in the 2019-2020 seasons.

ELLIS MERRI' GO ROUND

Redshirt senior Ellis Merriweather carried the load in the backfield for the Minutemen in 2021, rushing 218 times for 1,138 yards (55% of the team's total rushing yards) in his second season at UMass.

Merriweather was aided earlier last season by Rutgers transfer Kay'Ron Adams. Adams played two seasons with the Scarlet Knights in 2019 and 2020, compiling 320 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 83 carries in 18 career games, in addition to six catches for 120 yards and a touchdown.

With Adams seeing limited action before being declared out for the remainder of the 2021 season with an ankle injury, Merriweather was the go-to back yet again, and ran for a then-career-high 144 yards on 23 carries against Eastern Michigan on Sept. 18. It was the most yards on the ground since Bilal Ally against UConn on Oct. 26, 2019 (159 yards).

Merriweather improved upon that performance with a monster showing in the win over UConn, carrying the ball 39 times for 171 yards and two touchdowns, his first two rushing TDs of his career and first multi-touchdown game.

At Florida State, Merriweather was limited on the ground, but was UMass' top receiver with 65 yards on four catches.

The Alpharetta, Georgia native ran for 149 yards on 24 carries at Liberty with two plays for 20+ yards. Out of UMass' eight rushing plays going for 20 or more yards last season, Merriweather held six of them.

Against Rhode Island, Merriweather ran for 118 yards on 30 carries and scored his third touchdown on the ground of the 2021 year.

Merriweather's new career single game bests (39 attempts, 171 yards) are more than double his single game highs from last season (16 attempts at Georgia Southern on 10/17/20 and 48 yards at FAU on 11/20/21). He's nearly doubled his average yards per carry and tallied 1,138 yards on 218 carries compared to 155 yards on 42 attempts in four games in 2020.

Merriweather is the only player on the UMass roster with a 100-yard rushing game to his name and finished with seven games on the year, which established a new school single-season record. It marks the most for a Minuteman since Marquis Young had four in both his sophomore (2016) and junior (2017) campaigns.

O-C, TRIPLE O-C

After seeing his streak of 17 straight games with a catch come to an end against Boston College on Sept. 11, wide receiver Jermaine "OC" Johnson, Jr. got back on track with a grab against Eastern Michigan and two more at No. 17 Coastal Carolina. He has at least one catch in 20 of his 26 career games.

MERRIWEATHER NAMED TO MAXWELL AWARD WATCH LIST

Ellis Merriweather was named to the 86th Maxwell Award Watch List, announced July 18 by the Maxwell Football Club. The award is presented to theCollege Player of the Year.

Merriweather completed the 2021 year as Massachusetts' first 1,000-yard rusher in the program's FBS era, while accumulating 1,138 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns. He recorded 218 consecutive carries without any fumbles and totaled a career best 39 carries for 171 yards and two touchdowns, leading UMass to its first victory of 2021. Merriweather received 2021 Phil Steele All-Independent Second Team honors.

FIVE MINUTEMEN TABBED PHIL STEELE PRESEASON ALL-INDEPENDENT

Massachusetts placed five members of the team on the 2022 Phil Steele Preseason All-Independent Team, including running back Ellis Merriweather, tight end Josiah Johnson, offensive tackle Max Longman, defensive tackle Billy Wooden and cornerback Josh Wallace. Merriweather earned First Team accolades, while Johnson, Longman, Wooden and Wallace each were named Second Team.

COACHING AT THE ALMA MATER

UMass employs four alumni in a full-time coaching role in 2022 in assistant head coach/special teams coordinator/defensive lines coach, Ben Albert, defensive line coach, Valdamar Brower, associate head coach/offensive line coach, Alex Miller and tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator, Jeff Moore. Albert is a 1995 graduate of the University of Massachusetts and was an All-Conference defensive lineman. During the 2002 and 2003 seasons, he served as the inside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator, where he aided the Minutemen to the 2003 Atlantic 10 Conference championship.

Brower, a 2004 graduate of UMass, was a star defensive lineman for Massachusetts from 1999-2003, playing for then-defensive coordinator Don Brown during the 1999 season.

Miller developed into one of the most celebrated offensive lineman during his playing days at Massachusetts. His four years starting on the line culminated with multiple first team all-America awards following the team's appearance in the 2006 National Championship Game. Miller cemented his legacy as a durable and reliable centerpiece for the Minutemen with starts in all 50 games played during the 2003-06 seasons

A 2012 graduate of UMass, Moore played receiver for the Minutemen from 2008-12 as awalk-on.

Two additional coaching staff members earned a degree from UMass in analyst Randall Jette '15 and Jesse Monteiro '17.

COEN TO BE INDUCTED IN UMASS ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME

UMass football's Liam Coen (2004-08) is one of four inductees to the UMass Athletics George "Trigger" Burke Hall of Fame. The Class of 2022 will be inducted on Friday, September 16.

Coen was the starting quarterback for the 2005-08 seasons for head coach Don Brown and was a team captain during his redshirt senior year in 2008. The Minutemen were 37-14 overall and 25-7 in conference play (2005 – Atlantic 10; '06-08 – CAA) during his four seasons as the starting quarterback. Coen was selected Atlantic 10 All-Conference Third Team (2006) and CAA All-Conference Second Team (2007, '08). At the time of graduation, he was one of 21 quarterbacks in FCS history with 10,000 or more passing yards in a career. He was 18th all-time in FCS/I-AA history for career passing yards (11,031) and 20th for touchdowns thrown (90).

Coen is currently the career record-holder for passing yards (11,031), pass attempts (1,303), pass completions (830), touchdown passes (90), completion percentage (.639), passer efficiency (152.92), yards per pass attempt (8.47). He holds the UMass single-season record-holder for completion percentage (.650; 2006) and passing efficiency (160.52; 2006).

He helped lead Massachusetts to the 2006 NCAA FCS National Championship Game by going 69-of-109 for 837 yards with six touchdowns during the playoff run. Coen also led the Minutemen to an NCAA postseason appearance in 2007 and won conference championships in 2006 and 2007, as well. He tied the program record for most passing touchdowns in one game (5 at Towson, 2006; vs. Bryant, 2008), and is one of only two quarterbacks to throw five touchdowns in a single game.

Coen spent two seasons as an assistant coach at UMass under then-head coach Mark Whipple in 2014 and 2015. After leaving UMass to serve as the offensive coordinator and QBs coach at the University of Maine (2016-17), Coen then coached in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams in 2018 and 2019, helping the team reach the Super Bowl during his first season as an assistant wide receiver's coach. In March of 2022, Coen was named the offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams.

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