UMass football notebook: Joe Harasymiak reflects on first weeks as head coach

Joe Harasymiak speaks as the new UMass head football coach last month during a press conference at the Martin Jacobson Football Performance Center in Amherst.

Joe Harasymiak speaks as the new UMass head football coach last month during a press conference at the Martin Jacobson Football Performance Center in Amherst. PHOTO BY DAN LITTLE

By GARRETT COTE

Staff Writer

Published: 01-24-2025 5:16 PM

AMHERST — For the first time since his introductory press conference back on Dec. 6, UMass football head coach Joe Harasymiak spoke with the media on Friday afternoon at the Martin Jacobson Football Performance Center.

As soon as Harasymiak took over, he’s been nonstop on the recruiting trail – looking for the top players and coaches to lure to Amherst to round out his roster and staff. Being an FBS head coach is uncharted territory for Harasymiak, and he hasn’t had much time to think about his football journey and what has led him to UMass.

His playing days and early coaching gigs at Springfield College, eight years on staff as Maine (including three years as a head coach) and defensive coordinator jobs at Minnesota and Rutgers has prepared him for his first FBS head job. But because the past month-plus has been go, go, go, it still hasn’t set in just yet that this is now his life.

“It’s been wild,” Harasymiak said of his first two months in Amherst. “I was able to personally meet with everybody, which is great… Then the road started, and that’s been the craziest part – which has also been the best part. Just getting out and meeting people, it’s been great. Sometimes I’ll sit in my office and kind of reflect, and look out my window at the stadium and just be like, ‘Wow, this is it. We’re here.’ But it’s been a lot of work. But it’s been awesome.”

Coach’s thoughts on his roster, recruiting strategies

The general consensus among the Minutemen fanbase following the 2024 season was that UMass had its quarterback of the future, as rising sophomore AJ Hairston showed immense flashes that he could lead a team as a true freshman. But Harasymiak brought in two quarterbacks from the transfer portal, snatching former Yale QB Grant Jordan and former Utah QB Brandon Rose.

And that’s been something Harasymiak has done in every position group, brought in an influx of players to create as much competition as possible across the board. Iron indeed sharpens iron, especially in football – so his strategy of working from abundance isn’t a bad one whatsoever.

“I think the number one thing is, we just created a whole lot of competition,” Harasymiak said. “So that brings out the best in everybody. In your professional life, in trying to be a quarterback, trying to be a lineman. But I just think [the QBs] fit for what we want to do. And now it’s going to be about each one of them and their paths on how we’re going to develop and how we’re going to run the system. That’s what I’m most excited about, how they’re going to compete with each other. We wanted to make every room as competitive as we could.”

Something of importance to Harasymiak when bringing in transfers was their physical appearance. Film breakdown and fundamentals are essential, but it’s the measurements that get a player noticed immediately. Everything else can be taught with the right coaches (more on that in the next section). Harasymiak mentioned that at his previous stops, a player couldn’t “get in the door unless you’re a certain height and weight, because the people you go against are a certain height and weight.”

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“That’s something that we really strive for in terms of the physical aspect of it,” Harasymiak said.

He’ll know more for sure what else may need to be added in the spring once he sees everyone playing in practice in a few months. For what he has right now, Harasymiak feels great about the 27 guys he’s added, and believes the roster is in a great spot for the end of January.

And with the new NCAA rule expanding the spring roster limit from 85 to 105, it gives the opportunity for programs to add plenty more in the spring portal, which opens on April 16. The competition is only going to increase when that time comes.

“With the new rule of rosters having to go to 105 this spring, the portal window is going to be pretty wild,” Harasymiak said. “But I think we’ve done a good job identifying off of the tape what we probably needed. And I think one of the biggest things was just depth at some positions. So I think we’ve done that, and being able to practice and being able to get out there and have competitive practices will allow us to kind of evaluate that moving forward.”

How the coaching staff came together

If a coach is in the running for a Division 1 FBS position, it’s probably because they are very good at what they do or have a track record that can vouch for them. That’s something Harasymiak agrees with, so drawing up schemes and knowing techniques weren’t the main things he looked for when conducting interviews with potential candidates.

What Harasymiak really values are coaches who are natural leaders and are great at developing young men, on top of their intellectual excellence in the game of football.

He feels like he has everything he needs on his staff – which consists of several coaches with NFL experience, including Mike Bajakian (offensive coordinator), Kurt Anderson (offensive line) and Jordan Hogan (wide receivers).

“The first thing is, you should never be a better football coach than you are a person,” Harasymiak said when asked what qualities he looks for in a coach. “Great people is where it starts for me… What type of man are you?… If you’re coming across my desk at this level, you know Xs-and-Os. The next part is how you teach… Who you are and how you teach are the two most important things that we look for.”

Harasymiak said his connections and relationships with a lot of the members of his staff are why they ultimately ended up in Amherst.

What to expect this spring

Since Harasymiak is still ironing out the kinks of what it’s like to be a head coach again, he has asked his returning players and some of his returning staff how spring practice was run last year. While he may use similar tactics, Harasymiak has made it clear that he will be implementing his own ways.

Trying to navigate his players’ spring class schedule with practice times is something he has to get used to, but he says the program is going to have “a pretty well-structured operation” when it comes to lifting, practicing and maximizing what the team is allowed to do with the hours and time it’s given.

“Certainly taking input, but at the end of the day, just being in the spots that I’ve been in and having success at the spots that I’ve been, we’re going to do it a certain way,” Harasymiak said. “Because I believe that’s what’s best for the program.”

“To be honest with you, I just want to get to a workout,” Harasymiak added. “I just want coach ball. I get, I can’t really be an X-and-O guy too much anymore. I’m the head coach. But we got a bunch of guys that love ball, and at the end of the day, we play football, and that’s what we got to do. So I’m looking forward to that.”