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After losing to Richmond 11-10 and getting routed by New Hampshire 39-13, Morris said the Minutemen are focused on recapturing what launched them to a 4-1 start to open the season.
"This week is all about coming out with an attitude and enjoying playing football. The kids have been good. I think they're over it. They came out ready to move on. The Richmond thing didn't go our way at the end and against UNH we didn't play well at all. Let's shake that off and start anew and let's go," Morris said. "Guys are tired of being frustrated. Let's go out and play. This week is all about us and playing our brand of football. It's been very positive."
Read the full story in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
UMass football tries to recapture early season 'attitude'
AMHERST - As the calendar nears November, the chatter about who will and won't get into the Championship Subdivision playoffs is getting louder.
While his team is still in the mix despite two tough losses in its last two games, University of Massachusetts coach Kevin Morris is trying not to focus on the postseason as his team gets set to head south for Saturday's 3:30 p.m. game at James Madison.
After losing to Richmond 11-10 and getting routed by New Hampshire 39-13, Morris said the Minutemen are focused on recapturing what launched them to a 4-1 start to open the season.
"This week is all about coming out with an attitude and enjoying playing football. The kids have been good. I think they're over it. They came out ready to move on. The Richmond thing didn't go our way at the end and against UNH we didn't play well at all. Let's shake that off and start anew and let's go," Morris said. "Guys are tired of being frustrated. Let's go out and play. This week is all about us and playing our brand of football. It's been very positive."
Morris said if the Minutemen don't start winning, all of the conjecture won't matter.
"It's more, let's go out and play our brand of football," he said. "This week is a lot more about that than what needs to happen. If we win we'll be in and if we don't, we won't. If you win in the CAA, you're in. If you don't, we're not."
Junior tight end Emil Igwenagu said the Minutemen's margin for error is shrinking.
"Any week is a big week, but with the regular season coming to an end, we need to get as many wins as possible to get to these playoffs. We can't lose many out of these last few games," he said. "We have to come out and win out the rest of the season to guarantee we're in the playoffs and extend our season. Last game we made mistakes and they didn't. We have to come out and be flawless."
Like the Minutemen, James Madison has struggled in recent weeks dropping back-to-back games to New Hampshire and Villanova. They Dukes are 4-3 overall and 1-3 in Colonial Athletic Association play.
Junior captain Tyler Holmes said the Minutemen need to play well out of the gate. "We came out flat the previous two weeks and ended up with losses. We have to be ready to go from the start. We're down, but not out. We're trying to get back to where we were in the beginning in the season and get our swagger back," said Holmes, who thought a big play early could help gather momentum. "Anything like that your teammates can feed off of and eat definitely helps. Some of the leaders on this team, myself, Kyle and Emil have to provide that spark for us this week."
NOTES - According to the UMass athletic web site, the Colonial Clash set a CAA record for TV attendance, drawing a 0.88 TV rating on Comcast Sports Net which means more than one million TV sets tuned in.
From the UMass site: "A full rating point represents 1,159,000 households, so with a mark of 0.88, approximately 1,019,000 homes were tuned at to the Colonial Clash."
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