Harasymiak: It Has To Be Privilege To Play For UMass

First-year UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak refuses to budge on his principles when it comes to building a roster.

You won’t sense a hint of panic when talking with Joe Harasymiak these days.

A sense of urgency? Absolutely.

But desperation? Not at all.

Of course words are one thing. It’s the actions - or non-actions - of the first-year UMass head coach that should be most reassuring to Minutemen fans.

Harasymiak has been tasked with completing a total rebuild. The fastest way to rebuild a program is to rebuild its roster, which is exactly what Harasymiak and his staff have done in the seven weeks or so they’ve been in Amherst.

UMass has added 27 new players to its roster via the Transfer Portal and more could be coming before fall camp rolls around.

“We wanted to make every room as competitive as we could,” Harasymiak said.

Himself and each position coach reviewed last year’s film to see what they had at each group and what spots needed improvement.

“That's how we kind of targeted where we went over the last month and a half,” Harasymiak added. “Certainly, that'll continue to go throughout the spring.”

Roster limits will increase to 105 this spring, which will make the spring portal window “pretty wild,” according to Harasymiak.

“Now it's about just fine-tuning exactly what we need,” he said. “We will know coming out of spring exactly what we need and that's the best part.

“I think we've done a good job identifying off of the tape what we probably needed. I think one of the biggest things was just depth at some positions. 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 evaluate that moving forward.”

The former Rutgers and Minnesota defensive coordinator was aiming to upgrade the roster from a physical standpoint.

“Something that we need to improve here is our measurements and how we look,” the coach said last week. “I think that's something that we've improved on. Me coming from where I came from, that's what it's all about. I mean, you can't get your foot in the door unless you're a certain height and weight because the people you go against are a certain height and weight. So that's something that we really strive for in terms of the physical aspect of it.”

That may be what it’s all about in terms of getting your foot in the door, but those who will be invited to stay need to check boxes that have nothing to do with height, weight, speed or strength.

Coaches across the country - even some at the highest levels of the sport - are often tempted to cut corners or make an exception for a certain player, especially one with that height, weight and talent. If anybody could be excused for taking such shortcuts, it would be a coach in Harasymiak’s position.

But he refuses to budge.

“I want to be around the families,” Harasymiak said. “That's something that I think we've done a really good job with over this past month and a half.

“Just because you visit doesn't mean you're coming to UMass. This is a mutual agreement. You have to want to be here, we have to want you here, and it's got to be a genuine decision.”

Harasymiak says the Minutemen “hit at a very, very high clip” in terms of how many portal prospects visited and how many are now enrolled at UMass. But clearly every visitor didn’t pick UMass and it sounds like UMass wasn’t an option for all of them either.

“Again, I don't believe everybody that visits your school should go here,” Harasymiak added. “I think that's part of the process, to evaluate everything, evaluate who you're around, evaluate how they interact with the coaches. Again, it's got to be a privilege to play for UMass. We just don't throw these things out everywhere.”

A first-time head coach may be less certain of his methods, but the youthful 38-year-old isn’t a first-time head coach and he saw his approach work when he led Maine to great success, including a CAA title in 2018.

“I made mistakes as a 29-year-old being a head coach for the first time and you learn and you fix it,” he said. “And that's why 2018 happened. We had a group of people that didn't care about what their job was. We sacrificed for each other. There was no job too small. We put everybody else first.

“That team just played harder than everybody. They were talented, there were talented kids, but we weren't going to back down to anybody. And that's what we grew in recruiting in the type of person we recruited.

“And that's what we're going to do here.”