SI:AM | I’m in Love With Massachusetts

Good morning, I’m Patrick Andres, stepping in for Dan Gartland this Friday morning and marveling (as Bears quarterback Caleb Williams did) at Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s latest home run.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏉 Daniels’s Return

🏉 NFL’s Summer Winners and Losers

⚾ MLB’s Power Rankings

An instant Cinderella story

The Western Massachusetts corridor is home to legions of smart people, but since its biggest university—Massachusetts—moved up to FBS in 2012, none of these scholars have been able to crack the opaque science of big-time college football.

Until Thursday.

Before kickoff, the Minutemen’s visit to Rutgers was mostly noted for its 6 p.m. ET kickoff time (which made it, formally, the first FBS game of Week 1). When the Scarlet Knights took a 7–0 lead midway through the first quarter, eyes probably flicked toward remote controls in Big Ten country and beyond.

And then Massachusetts scored. And then it scored again. The Minutemen held Rutgers without any further points until midway through the fourth quarter, building a 30–7 lead in the process. Late window dressing couldn’t prevent a 37–21 loss for the Scarlet Knights that sent shock waves across the sport.

Last year, Massachusetts went 0-12, with just two games (against Bryant and Buffalo) decided by single digits. That campaign, one of the worst in major-college history, is not to be confused with the Minutemen’s seven other 10-loss seasons since their much-criticized `12 ascent. Massachusetts’s record for wins in a season at the major-college level is eight according to College Football Reference, which would be a lot more impressive had it not been set in 1901.

That’s not to say the Minutemen are void of football history. They own a national title at the FCS level (1998), and played for a second as recently as 2006 (losing to Appalachian State). What is important here is that Massachusetts football has evolved into a sort of symbol, a cautionary tale: jump up to FBS without a cogent plan, and you’ll kill both your football program and the program that put your athletic department on the map. Not even a men’s hockey national title will save your public image.

Now, it’s morning in Amherst, and the fact that a native son delivered it makes it even sweeter. William “Pop” Watson III played his high school football at Springfield Central, a short 35-minute jaunt down I-91 from Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium. After three years of limited duty at Virginia Tech, Watson came home and debuted with 197 yards and three touchdowns on 19-for-22 passing—numbers not seen from a Minuteman since future Jaguars coach Liam Coen was slinging the rock. Watson declared “ZooMass” back postgame Thursday, and who are we to argue?

As for the Scarlet Knights—my God. The back-to-back bowl games they made under coach Greg Schiano from 2023 to `24 look like an aberration, and they now have to navigate a trip to Boston College (the Eagles’ annual Red Bandanna Game) and a home date with USC. Their Big Ten track record merits uncomfortable comparison to the Minutemen, as the highest win total of Rutgers’ time in the conference (eight) came in its league debut in 2014.

If the Scarlet Knights opt to replace coach and program icon Greg Schiano at some point, they have a familiar face right in its backyard. Massachusetts boss Joe Harasymiak is a Waldwick, N.J., native who served as Rutgers’s defensive coordinator from 2022 to `24.

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The top five…

…moments of college football’s busy Thursday, non-Minutemen edition.

5. All Utah, all the time in coach Morgan Scalley’s regular-season debut.

4. Illinois kind of needed this Hail Mary as it fought off a pesky UAB team.

3. Given coach P.J. Fleck’s whole deal and the state of Minnesota being about 14% Norwegian, you had to guess this was coming.

2. Buffalo wide receiver Chance Morrow caught all three of his team’s touchdowns as the Bulls downed Albany in a little intra-Upstate New York warfare.

1. Colorado defensive back Boo Carter played hero against Georgia Tech, turning away a 45-yard game-winning field-goal attempt at the buzzer to secure the Buffaloes’ 14–13 win.

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