Harasymiak Pleased With First Day Of UMass Spring Practice
The Minutemen held their first spring practice under new head coach Joe Harasymiak on Monday.
AMHERST, Mass. - Joe Harasymiak was ready to go for his first official practice as UMass head coach on Monday morning.
Harasymiak began his cruise to campus blasting some Zach Bryan and was so locked in that by the time he realized the local Dunkin had yet to open, he didn’t remember what he was listening to next.
“It was awesome,” he told media members after the first practice of the spring. “I had a ton of fun today. It's just great to be back in that role. Grateful for it, thankful for Ryan (Bamford) and Chancellor (Javier) Reyes and Mr. (David) Brunelle, the trustee that ultimately trusted me with this. It was great.
“I'm grateful for the opportunity. I'm honored to be the head coach, and I think I've got to pinch myself sometimes that I'm back. It was just great being out here and running around.”
Harasymiak was juiced to be a head coach again for the first time since he left Maine in 2019 to become the safeties coach at Minnesota. After stints as defensive coordinator at Minnesota and Rutgers, Harasymiak’s practice duties are now more global than they’ve been in several years.
“I was focusing on the flow of practice,” he said. “I think that's what I need to pay attention to, so the tempo was good. There was a lot of anxiousness, a lot of nerves in the beginning. They were kind of running around like fish out of water, jumping around. But they were good. The tempo was good. I was very pleased.
“We stayed on our feet, which I think that's the sign of a team that takes care of each other and practices the right way. That's something that we were focusing on. I thought, good and bad, as long as we know how to get better from it, we're going to be all right.”
Without the benefit of going over the film from the first practice, Harasymiak was pleased with the organization and tempo of the morning.
“We got over 40 team reps and we got 24 7-on-7s on Day One, so we're going to play football,” he said. “I thought they did a good job with the transitions in between periods. Like I said, during the periods, we stayed on our feet, which is important, learning how to practice like a pro, doing the right thing.
“That's what I evaluated just from being out here right now. We'll get on the tape and we'll be all right.”
The Minutemen were in shells and shorts for the first practice of the spring and will be in the same for the next session on Wednesday before getting into full pads for Friday. After taking next week off for Spring Break, they’ll be back again with another acclimation day before going full pads pretty much the rest of the way leading up to the spring game.
“Then we're free game.”
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