To say the UMass football team had a rough season would be an understatement. The program had arguably one of the worst seasons at the FBS level in recent history, failing to win a game at 0-12.
Going winless on the season was one thing, but the the squad’s inability to compete with nearly every conference opponent it faced was even more concerning.
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) was ranked as the second-worst in the group of six by CBS Sports heading into the year, only above the Pac-12’s two-team conference.
In conference play, the Minutemen lost by an average of 27.6 points, with their brutal loss to Buffalo serving as the only one within one score.
Most fans didn’t expect UMass to be competing for a MAC Championship in year one, especially with a new head coach, to boot, but as the blowout wins snowballed, fan interest continued to decline.
A loss to FCS Bryant in September, who only managed three total victories, was the lowlight in a season where seemingly everything went wrong for the Minutemen.
“I think I would be crazy not to say this roster has to be completely turned over to the best of our ability,” Harasymiak said following UMass’ season-ending defeat to Bowling Green on Tuesday.
Injuries ravaged the Minutemen too as Harasymiak revealed during a previous media availability that the roster lost about 20 players to season-ending injuries, with several expected key contributors like T.Y. Harding and Josh Nobles, included in that group.
With the transfer portal opening, a large number of UMass players will most likely choose to play elsewhere next year.
That knowledge allows the team to focus on resetting, changing how they did things last offseason to hopefully see different results.
Harasymiak made it clear to his players, if they don’t want to be a part of the rebuild, they should move on.
“Those are the exact people we do not need,” Harasymiak said. “We’ve got to get people in this building that want to do it, because it ain’t gonna be easy.”
With a year of recruiting at the FBS level under his belt, Harasymiak wants to do things differently this time around.
Last offseason, the Minutemen brought Harasymiak in on National Signing Day, not giving him a chance to make any progress on the roster before then.
There were 44 roster spots for the team to fill after the hiring, as well as other coaching positions, making it even harder for the new head coach to fully immerse himself in the world of recruiting.
Harasymiak intends to stress immediate playing time as a selling point to potential recruits during this juncture.
“The opportunity to play right away is certainly something I talked to all of them about,” Harasymiak said. “And this is theirs. I will make sure that this is theirs when they get here, along with the people that we retain and we move forward with, like it’s going to be their crew.”
With a potential for a large amount of turnover, the 2026 season looks to be a blank slate for the Minutemen.
Harasymiak can picture the type of players he wants on the roster next year, but finding out who exactly fits that mold in the portal and convincing them to join him, is the next step.
Part of the plan to find his style of players will be making sure the remaining members who stay after this season also match his mindset.
“We have to get people that are obsessed with football,” Harasymiak said. “From a positional standpoint, we have to sit down before our postseason meetings with our players and say, ‘Do you want to coach him or do you not?’ It’s pretty simple. ‘Is he about the right things or is he not?’, and ‘Is he talented enough?’”
National Signing Day (Dec. 3) is fast approaching, giving the Minutemen a short window to move past a brutal season and begin the aforementioned complete roster turnover.
UMass reportedly has $3 million in NIL money to spend on the 2026 squad, up from $2 million in 2025, according to ESPN Senior College Sports Insider Pete Thamel’s initial report last year when Harasymiak was hired. The number will put them near the top of the MAC in available spending money once again.
Harasymiak doesn’t have an easy task ahead of him, having to learn from the mistakes made this season.
“Next Wednesday, I’m extremely excited about,” Harasymiak said. “[We’ll] hopefully change the foundation of our program through that day.
“We’ll have a few surprises out there, I think, with new guys coming in,” Harasymiak said.