When a team predicted to finish near the bottom of the Big 10 loses to the worst team in college football at home, you don’t need to be ranked to call it an upset.
Rutgers paid Massachusetts $1.5 million to come to Piscataway back on Thursday night, and were levied as nearly 30-point favorites by the sportsbooks (-28.5 points). The only reason this was not a 40-point spread is Rutgers was picked by coaches to finish in the bottom five of the Big 10 for 2026.
UMass had not won a game since the 2024 season. The Minutemen were riding the nation’s longest losing streak at 16 games, with their last victory coming against I-AA Wagner on October 26, 2024, by a 35-7 score. Since joining I-A (I refuse now 20-years later to refer to it as this FBS and FCS crap) in 2013, the most wins UMass has amassed in a season are four (2017 and 2018). The program last beat a I-A team in their I-A debut season, downing Miami (Ohio) 17-10.
Oh how the fates have turned that the Redhawks and Minutemen now play in the same conference. Joining the Mid-American Conference in 2012, UMass was still at the I-AA level for their inaugural season, then transitioned to I-A the following year. The Minutemen left the conference after the 2015 season, remaining independent until last year.
The 37-21 win over the Scarlet Knights not only snapped their losing streak at 677 days, but it was the first win against a school from a Power Five conference since 1978, when UMass hammered Boston College 27-0. UMass would lose in the I-AA National Championship game that season to Florida A&M (35-28), while Boston College went winless (0-11).
As if Rutgers’ head coach Greg Schiano needed another embarrassing footnote on his resume. Schiano was the head coach at Rutgers between 2001-2011, finishing with six bowl appearances in his final seven years, including a school record 11 wins in 2006, where Rutgers finished the season ranked 12th in the Associate Press poll, and reached as high as seventh during the regular season. Schiano left in 2011 to take the head coaching job with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, going 11-21 in two seasons before being fired. He spent three years as the defensive coordinator at Ohio State, before it was widely announced he would jump back to the NFL, this time as the defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots in February 2019. He resigned on March 28, then returned to Rutgers that fall.
The 42,454 in attendance at Rutgers’ SHI Stadium were not only expecting a blowout win in their home (and season) opener, but a lengthy fireworks display following the game. Instead they saw UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak pick up his first head coaching win since 2018, when he was at Maine, and lost in the I-AA National Semifinals.
Just how bad is UMass football? Their record since joining I-A is 28-142 (.165). The Minutemen’s highest offensive output in 2025 was 26 points, which was a walk-off loss to I-AA Bryant University in Week 2. Their primary rival, Connecticut, are 48-100 since UMass joined I-A, but the Huskies are coming off three bowl appearances in the last four years. In fact, UConn’s 28 wins over the past four years (and the start of this season) are just one fewer than UMass as a program at the top NCAA level.
Rutgers led off the game with a touchdown midway through the first quarter, but UMass then scored 30 unanswered points, and the Scarlet Knights did not find the endzone again until there were eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. After a UMass punt, Rutgers threw an interception deep in their own territory on the ensuing drive, and the Minutemen needed two plays to put the game out of reach with a Curtis Kimmons IV 17-yard touchdown run.
The fireworks still went off, with most of the fans having left the stadium midway through the fourth quarter. Once the casings and mortars are in the tubes, they are getting blown off unless there’s a weather issue. Companies do not set up these large elaborate firework displays at stadiums only for them to be cancelled if the home team loses.
Imagine losing your home opener to a team you should have beaten by 30 points, only to have to sit there and watch a celebration no one wanted to be at, after you become the butt of every joke for a week.
-JC24
Imagine losing your home opener to a team you should have beaten by 30 points, only to have to sit there and watch a celebration no one wanted to be at, after you become the butt of every joke for a week.
-JC24