AMHERST — Every week recently has brought on a different challenge for first-year coach Walt Bell to address.
First it was Shannon Junior II deciding to leave UMass after the first two games. The next week Charley Timite left the program. A week later Joseph Norwood deciding to step away from the Minutemen. All three were starters on opening day four weeks ago at Rutgers and now are no longer on the UMass roster.
Those departures don’t even include the rash of injuries that have crippled an already undermanned defense. Linebacker Tyris Lebeau is out for Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. kickoff against Akron (0-4) with an undisclosed injury, and freshman defensive tackles Wilson Frederic and Billy Wooden are questionable after not practicing Tuesday or Wednesday. Now, the Minutemen (0-4) will potentially start freshman walk-on Grant Laws at defensive tackle, and his backup will be Xavier Graham, who converted to the defensive line from the offensive line this week.
“We knew we were inexperienced regardless if everyone was still here and the defense was the full capacity it was out of camp,” defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim said. “We still had tons of inexperience, so with it being a new system and a new way of doing things, you want to simplify it regardless. A lot of the scheme hasn’t changed too much because we had a simple package purposefully so kids could be successful and play fast from the beginning.”
The injection of youth by necessity into the UMass defense has brought several of the Minutemen’s more reserved leaders out of their shells. Sophomore defensive lineman Dennis Osagiede has gone from a young player looking to the veterans for advice and support to being the one who is dishing out that same feedback and becoming a vocal leader on the field to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Meanwhile, junior defensive end Jake Byczko has had to deal with the brunt of the responsibility in the trenches. Teams have already started to devote more attention to the veteran in pass protection and are simply running away from the Auburn native, even as Bell has moved him around within the defense. He said he’s had to find his voice in the last month and provide that stable leadership in a tumultuous time where players who might not have expected to see the field are tasked with playing a lot of snaps.
“(I’ve had to change) especially now that we’re getting a little thin (and) there are some younger guys who are stepping up who might be a little nervous,” Byczko said. “I’m just trying to step in and support them and try to show them the right path and do the right things the right way. Typically, my whole life I’ve been kind of a quiet football player, just go out there, do my job. But now I feel there’s a little more responsibility and I have to be aware of stuff and definitely taking on more of a vocal role.”
Bell said earlier in the week that the lack of depth on the defense has hurt the Minutemen this season because it has sped up the roster development process for some younger players who have been thrust into action. UMass’ practice philosophy under Bell has always been to give a lot of players reps, but that experience has not translated onto the field yet.
Abdul-Rahim said the Minutemen’s biggest issue right now has been consistency in the fundamental areas, which the team continues to work on in practice. The problem is there is no protocol for losing so many players to injuries and departures that the coaches are left with few options other than trying their best to prepare the inexperienced defenders and continuing to coach them between series so they don’t make the same mistake twice during a game.
“It’s not a set process where you can just deal with it or have a plan for it,” Abdul-Rahim said. “Injuries are apart of football, so there always has to be a next man up because the game is still going to happen on Saturday. What we’ve always done is give a lot of people reps in practice, but obviously practice reps don’t ensure game success. … But at the end of the day, you try to put the kids in the best position to be successful and give them as much clues, tips and coaching on the details of their position and support the heck out of them.”
There has been some improvement in the freshmen who have had to step into bigger roles, but it hasn’t been as quick as UMass has required to win a game. If the Minutemen can build some consistency in their lineup, however, the players are optimistic that the performances will improve over the next month.
“Every week, we’re slowly getting better and better at the individual drills, one-on-ones, team (period), developmental period and just taking the scheme and executing it,” Osagiede said. “That’s the main thing, we’re getting better at executing, we just need to do it consistently.”
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.