Show Me My Opponent: UMass

They lost the game on a 63-yard touchdown.

At this point, your mind is probably made up on Butch Jones. My colleague (and client) Jon Reed said on the radio after the game that around a third of the fan base will probably still give him until Georgia to fix things, but they’re not getting fixed. For all intents and purposes, it is over. Whatever’s gonna be will be.

The University of Massachusetts comes to town. For some reason, that matters, I guess. You and I probably know them best as the school that got John Calipari his big break – Marcus Camby is a little bit before my time, but for some readers, they’ll remember him very well. They also have this weird logo that resembles a minor league hockey team:

Also, they have 72,000+ dang students! And that’s with a 58% acceptance rate! UMass is so weird, man. Wait a minute…

Sorry, wrong college. UMass is apparently like the UT system or the SUNY system. Anyway, UMass Amherst (extremely pretentious voice) is still a school with 30,000+ students. Not bad. Did you know that they moved up from FCS to FBS in 2013 full-time? And that they’re 10-54 since first attempting to transition in 2012? Actually, let’s do a full Did You Know about UMass!

Did you know…

UMass is an FCS champion? That’s right! 1998 FCS champions! (They beat Georgia Southern 55-43 in Chattanooga, which seems like a fun watch. Not on YouTube, though.)

One of the two UMass rivals is UConn…and UMass leads the series! (36-34-2.)

UMass was in the MAC for three years (2013-2015) and got kicked out because they declined to be full MAC members.

Current Michigan DC Don Brown was their head coach from 2004-2008.

The team’s mascot is the Minutemen, which were a great rock band in the 1980s. RIP D. Boon

UMass helped spur the Tennessee Sweet 16 run in 2014 by allowing the Vols to blow them out in the Round of 64!

Current Titan Tajae Sharpe played at UMass.

Aaaaaand that’s all we got just finish this game already. Take the kids, but if you don’t have kids, stay home.

OFFENSE

Who cares

Marquis Young is fine. He has four touchdowns. Andrew Ford (the QB) has a 6-1 TD-INT ratio and a tight end that’s a four-star former Penn Stater (and future seventh-round NFL Draft pick) in Adam Breneman. Did you know that UMass has surrendered 23 (!!!!) SACKS THIS YEAR? This has to be the worst pass protecting OL in America. I look forward to them scoring more points than Florida because of Bob Shoop.

Defense

I don’t care

They were very good against Old Dominion in a 17-7 loss and had a very weak defense last year. If Tennessee can’t score 42 against this defense they should pack it up for 2017.

SPECIAL TEAMS

No I really do not care

Their field goal kicker is 0-4, their punter sucks, none of the returners are good. Why am I writing this? Is this what you people want? Forget it. We’re ranking the best Massachusetts bands of all time. I do not care.

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Breeders, Mission of Burma, Sebadoh, Boston, the first Passion Pit EP.

Conclusion

Our FOX Sports Knoxville colleague Cody McClure said it pretty nicely over at SDS: Tennessee can’t win this game by enough to make detractors or fans of Butch Jones happy on either side. There’s only two ways this game can matter: either Tennessee loses or Tennessee scores a program record for points (104 in 1905 against American). Alternately, if Guarantano looks like a far better option against bad defenses, that could matter. Otherwise, there’s not much to draw from this. I’m sorry. Tennessee 45, UMass 17.