For the first time since 2018, the UMass Minutemen have four wins in a college football season. They will attempt to pass that total Friday night when they travel to take on the UConn Huskies. UMass is currently on a three-game losing streak. It lost an overtime heartbreaker last weekend against Buffalo 25-18. The Minutemen led by three points late, but they allowed Buffalo to drive down the field in 14 plays to tie this game with a field goal and send it to overtime. In extra time, Buffalo got in the end zone in three plays and UMass went backwards four yards before they were given the loss. UConn got their record to .500 last weekend with a 34-20 win over Temple. The Huskies won the game as 3.5-point underdogs at Lincoln Financial Field behind 248 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns on the ground. Quarterback Kalieb Osborne threw for 257 yards in the win, his fourth straight game with 200 or more yards passing.
There is a lot of uncertainty heading into this game for the Minutemen at the quarterback position. UMass has had three different players start at quarterback in the past month due to injuries. Pop Watson is on the top of the depth chart for UMass. He got UMass off to a 4-1 start by completing 74% of his passes before the injury. Behind him is Aedan McCarthy. McCarthy is a freshman quarterback who threw for 171 yards against Miami (Ohio) before injuring his ankle. He will be doubtful for this game. Finally, their third string quarterback is Logan Inagawa. Inagawa has started the last two games for UMass and had the Minutemen in a position to win against Buffalo. Watson is their preferred starter, but head coach Joe Harasymiak has him as a game-time decision.
Amidst the quarterback question marks, I’m looking for UConn’s offense to take center stage this weekend. The Huskies have shown they can beat opponents with both the run and the pass this season. They are averaging 35.7 points and 451.8 yards per game. Osborne has thrown for 1,421 yards passing, while the Huskies average 195.3 rushing yards per game as a team. UConn showed how explosive their offense can be against Temple, and I believe we will see an encore performance against UMass.
UMass vs UConn prediction: UConn -14.5 (-108) available at time of publishing. Playable to -16.5.
