AMHERST — UMass has a special opportunity Saturday at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
The Minutemen host the first game of the college football season when it welcomes Duquesne at 5:30 p.m. (NESNplus, 560 AM). Last season, UMass hosted a Week 0 contest — a 38-35 loss to Hawaii — but it was the last of five games on the schedule.
UMass kicks off the year this time with three night games featuring Mountain West squads following. The fact UMass is the first and only college football game on for 90 minutes is an appetizing opportunity for the Minutemen.
“All eyes are on you,” linebacker Bryton Barr said. “That’s a cool thing that everybody in the country is watching you pretty much.”
UMass has gotten the chance to start a week earlier than everybody else in the country the past two seasons thanks to Hawaii. Teams scheduled to play at Hawaii have the option to play a 13th game and start a week earlier to allow the schools to have a bye week during the 13-week regular season.
Last year, Hawaii only played 12 games, but elected to start the season earlier to accommodate its travel to the East Coast. This year, Duquesne will make the trip to Honolulu, opening up the chance for the Dukes to play this weekend against UMass.
The earlier start comes with its positives and negatives, but defensive end Jake Byczko is fully in favor of playing the first game of the season.
“The benefit is we got to start a week early on camp,” Byczko said. “It’s great because we get to play before everyone else needs to play, and we’re getting more in shape and we’re getting the speed of the game more. It’s perfect.”
The consecutive Week 0 contests are much better than the situation UMass found itself in three years ago.
In 2015, the Minutemen had an opening-week bye then went on to finish 3-9. Whipple said the earlier start is an advantage because it gives the school flexibility in its scheduling to fit in byes at more opportune times.
“The second year we were here, we didn’t start until the second week, and it was terrible,” Whipple said. “We had 12 straight games, and that was difficult because everybody wants to get going. Guys came into camp late and everybody was ready to go and then we had to wait and then go 12 straight.
“Yeah, this is much better. We’d rather start early, give them a break after seven games with a bye week and then finish up.”
Quarterback Andrew Ford said players can get antsy on a team starting the traditional opening week when they have to watch other teams begin their seasons earlier.
“I like it, personally, just being able to get in and play the first game of the year,” Ford said. “I’ve been at other schools where there were teams playing the week before us, and you’re champing at the bit and still in camp while they’re in game week. For us, the opportunity to play somebody different other than ourselves a week earlier is huge.”
The first game week also brings a boost to the morale of players tired from the doldrums of training camp. UMass had very few of the typical preseason altercations this year, Whipple said, but Barr said the players themselves are tired of hitting each other after the most physical summer of Whipple’s second tenure.
All of that effort in practice is worthwhile though for those special 12 Saturdays each year, Ford said.
“It’s a big challenge, but you come here to play the games,” Ford said. “You come here and compete every day in practice, you do it to come here and play the games. So being able to do it a week earlier than anybody else is an awesome opportunity.”
In addition to kicking off the college football season, UMass has an opportunity to accomplish a feat it hasn’t done since 2011 — win a home opener and win the season opener. The Minutemen have lost all six season and home openers since making the full-time transition to FBS, although four of those six came on the road against Power Five teams, and one was a home game against Boston College at Gillette Stadium.
If UMass is going to reach a bowl game for the first time since 1972, a win in the opener against an FCS foe would be a great start.
“Our main goal of this season is basically the bowl game, but we know it starts here,” junior cornerback Isaiah Rodgers said. “We know starting off 1-0 will be a pretty big boost and will help bring in our fan base to bring in other Ws.”
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.