Iowa football expecting Big Ten tendencies in game against UMass

IOWA CITY — The UMass Minutemen are brand-new to Big Ten football, but not the coaching staff.

When head coach Joe Harasymiak took over the program in December, he’d already seen Kinnick Stadium. He spent a total six years coaching in the Big Ten, making a stop at Minnesota then Rutgers before landing in Lowell, Mass.

Harasymiak experienced the wave, what it’s like to have 70,000 fans pouring on top of him on the visitors bench. He loved it.

“For six seasons I played in all the stadiums and to me, by far the best, is Kinnick,” Harasymiak said. “I think there's just so much passion for Iowa football, like I said ... it's gonna be to be awesome.”

His most recent appearance in Iowa City was 2023, when he was the defensive coordinator for Rutgers. Then, the Hawkeyes were ranked No. 22, and defeated the Scarlet Knights, 22-0.

Harasymiak took the job at UMass and he brought alongside his defensive line coach Jared Keyte, as well as hiring Utah’s Mike Bajakian — who happened to coach at Northwestern for three seasons.

So yes, UMass has struggled in the FBS level for many years, but this is leadership staff that’s no stranger to the chaos of Big Ten football.

“It all comes with a respect,” Iowa cornerback TJ Hall said, “respecting the opportunity what it takes to win. Knowing we’ve got to come out ready, knowing it's going to be a tough game. No easy game is an easy win.”

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has preached to his team for 27 years not to take a team lightly. UMass may be a significantly smaller program, with players that look completely different to the Hawkeyes, but it doesn’t lower his expectations for the team.

“Long story short, they have a lot of guys from a lot of different places on their team, so we're just trying to piece all that together,” Ferentz said. “A lot of new faces, and taking a look at the film and working from there.

“As we push forward, basically this week is like any week; our goal is to win the game and then secondly to improve and grow and see what we can do to move forward as a football team.“

The benefit of knowing Marasymiak is a former Big Ten coach is having a larger array of film to study. Though the players on tape won’t be the ones on the field, Iowa can study the schematics and compare it to UMass’ first two games.

“It kind of gives us a good opportunity to see a bunch more film from even last year Rutgers team instead of trying to look at past what UMass has done,” quarterback Mark Gronowski said. “Which is going to give us a lot of good shots downfield. They run a lot of man coverage and just try to attack us in that way.”

The Hawkeyes have noticed some similarities already. Minnesota and Rutgers’ defensive structures were closely related. UMass shows similar traits, but with some adjustments given personnel availability and time to implement those changes.

“There's a lot of carryover, for sure,” wide receiver Kaden Wetjen said. “We've had plays in the past against them that have worked. And the defense is pretty much the same that he had at Rutgers. So just seeing stuff tape from last year that worked against them, or even the first two games from this year, that's kind of what we're aiming for.”

It’s an advantage that’s appeared by pure circumstance. This is the second time the Hawkeyes are facing a program that went through a massive overhaul with the roster. In addition, the Minutemen have lost nine starters to injuries since the start of the season.

The schematics, however, still are there on film. Iowa couldn’t have predicted Harasymiak’s arrival at UMass ahead of this week, but it’ll take advantage of breaking down a few more games than just what the Minutemen can provide in Week 3.

Now executing whatever the Hawkeyes have in mind, that’s a different story. Because even if the UMass players are a little intimidated by the sheer noise, volume and intensity of Kinnick Stadium on Saturday night, Harasymiak won’t be.

“He's been here before, so he's not afraid of this moment at all,” Wetjen said. “And I'm sure their whole team would be fired up.”

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