AMHERST - With the end of his first season as the University of Massachusetts football coach behind him, Kevin Morris was proud of his team's effort, but not its execution.

The Minutemen's 52-38 loss at Hofstra Saturday left them 5-6.

"We had good kids, good character, kids that played hard for 60 minutes. I'm proud of that and I think they did the UMass alumni proud with that," Morris said.

"We certainly need to work on our lapses in execution in all phases of the game," he added. "You certainly don't want to end up 5-6. We're all disappointed. Our goals are a lot loftier than that."

Morris said he plans to review each aspect of the program to see what could be improved.

"We have to evaluate everything we do in the program - from our practices to our off-season and our road travel. We didn't win on the road, so obviously that needs to be evaluated so we can find success there," he said. "Every aspect of the program will be evaluated, myself, my staff and the players."

Morris will have several significant holes to fill for the 2010 season. On offense, the Minutemen lose three of their top four receivers, their No. 1 tailback and fullback and two starting offensive linemen.

On defense, the entire defensive line, a linebacker and two defensive backs all graduate.

Record-setting placekicker Armando Cuko is also gone.

Morris said he hopes the 19 freshmen who redshirted would help fill the void.

"I'm not going to name names, but we had 19 guys that did not compete this year," he said. "I think it's going to be a really quality group of players down the road."

Among the biggest questions moving forward will be at quarterback. Junior college transfer Kyle Havens started 10 of the Minutemen's 11 games this season and has a year of eligibility remaining. He is one of just two scholarship quarterbacks on the UMass roster, along with sophomore reserve Octavious Hawkins who does not appear to be a starting candidate.

Even if Havens had lived up to his own goal of becoming one of the top quarterbacks in the nation, UMass would certainly be recruiting at least one quarterback to develop for the future.

But Havens struggled in his first season in the program with 15 interceptions.

"It's not an easy process," Morris said. "It takes a lot of learning and repetition.

"Kyle had a lot of great ups this year, but he had some downs," Morris added. "That's part of being a quarterback and part of the learning curve. Unfortunately he had to go through the ups and the downs this year."

Morris did not say the Minutemen are looking to replace Havens, he also did not rule out bringing in a veteran to compete for the starting job.

"It's about finding the right kid at every position, quarterback included," Morris said. "If it's an older kid, great. If it's a younger kid great. We have to find the right kid that fits the UMass program that wants to come in and compete right away.

"If we find an older kid or a transfer that fits our needs and is the type of kid we're looking for, we'd certainly evaluate that," he added. "We're going to explore both avenues (high school or transfer) and see what fits our needs."

Morris said if the scholarship numbers work out, UMass might bring in two quarterback.

"If we can take two that would be great," he said. "I don't know if we would take two."

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.