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Fun Facts: UMass-Iowa. Definition of “mismatch” suggests this is one
The Minutemen haven’t had a winning football season in how long?
Sep. 10, 2025 10:25 pm, Updated: Sep. 10, 2025 10:54 pm
- This week, The Athletic ranks the UMass Minutemen 136th out of the 136 FBS teams and ESPN.com’s Ryan McGee has them on “top” of his Bottom 10.
- Both Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak were the head coach at Maine for three seasons. Ferentz was there from 1990 to 1992, Harasymiak from 2016 to 2018. He was the FCS National Coach of the Year in 2018.
- Harasymiak spent six years in the Big Ten, as co-defensive coordinator at Minnesota and defensive coordinator at Rutgers.
- Ferentz was an assistant football coach, English literature teacher, academic adviser and girls’ basketball coach when he was on the staff of Worcester Academy in Massachusetts.
- UMass is back in the Mid-American Conference this season. It was in the MAC from 2012 through 2015 where it won seven league games and lost 25.
- UMass is 26-124 since going up to the FBS level in 2011. Its last winning season was 2010.
- Iowa has allowed just three second-half points.
- UMass wide receiver Jacquon Gibson has 19 catches in two games, tied for second in the nation behind another player from a Massachusetts school, Lewis Bond of Boston College.
- The Hawkeyes are 2-0 all-time against teams from Massachusetts, owning wins over Boston University (1948) and Boston College (2017).
- Minutemen punter Keegan Andrews is fifth in the nation with 50.1 yards per punt. Andrews is from Werribee, Australia. That’s a suburb of Melbourne, the home of Iowa punter Rhys Dakin.
- UMass won the 2021 NCAA men’s hockey championship.
- Entering this week, FBS teams were 77-3 against FCS clubs. One of the three losses was UMass’ 27-26 home defeat against Bryant.
- The Hawkeyes have two defensive backs from Massachusetts, graduate transfer Shahid Barros of New Bedford and freshman CJ Bell Jr. of Mansfield.
- Iowa’s chance to grab the nation’s longest streak for consecutive seasons with an interception returned for a touchdown was snuffed last Saturday. Utah had a pick-6 against Cal Poly, giving the Utes 22 straight years with one. Iowa, without an interception through two games, had a pick-6 in each of the previous 17 seasons.
- The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “mismatch” as “a faulty or unsuitable match.”
- Minutemen were an elite force required to be highly mobile and able to assemble quickly. They were some of the first people to fight the British for independence.
- Ohio State played 9-game regular-seasons from 1951 to 1970 when Woody Hayes was racking up most of his 205 coaching wins. During that time, the only bowl the Big Ten sent a team to was the Rose Bowl.
- The Massachusetts Pirates swept their 2025 Indoor Football League series with the Iowa Barnstormers, winning 66-35 in Des Moines and 54-31 in Lowell, Mass. The Pirates finished the season with a 7-9 record, while Iowa was 1-15.
- A study by WalletHub ranked Massachusetts the best state in which to live. Iowa was 12th.
- Bill Cosby received a master’s and a doctorate in education from UMass. The university cut ties with him in 2014.
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