AMHERST — Bill Belichick’s favorite phrase has migrated to the western part of Massachusetts.
The most common refrain from UMass players this summer and into the season has been the same three words the New England Patriots coach has made so famous – “Do your job.” It was the standard answer given this week when players were asked about those busted coverages and missed assignments that allowed Rutgers to score 31 points in the second quarter and pull away from the Minutemen last Friday.
And it wasn’t just the veterans who were relaying that message either. It came from those like senior Isaiah Rodgers, who played his 34th game for UMass last Friday, and redshirt freshman Donte Lindsey, who played his first for the Minutemen.
“The busted coverages are on us,” Lindsey said. “It was on the back end. We had a pretty good scheme, but we just weren’t doing our jobs.”
The consensus out of UMass was the mistakes that led to those explosive plays for Rutgers were simple ones. Senior safety James Bowe Jr. said they were plays the coaches implemented on day one and that any other excuse like the miscommunications and lazy signaling were irrelevant. He said the simple part is the Minutemen knew better and should have executed those plays when they were called against the Scarlet Knights.
Defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim said the mistakes were simple enough that if you simply wrote down the situation for his players, most of them would likely be able to answer with exactly their job on that play.
“A lot of the plays that they made were just mental errors (on our part),” Abdul-Rahim said. “If you asked the kid, what do you have in this particular responsibility, they probably could tell you.”
If the Minutemen cannot sustain pressure on the quarterback — a completely separate issue for Abdul-Rahim and his staff to solve — it will put more pressure on the secondary to not make large gaffes and leave receivers wide open. It’s a large responsibility on a group of players who haven’t played much college football.
Rodgers and fellow senior Martin Mangram have played in enough college football games to understand how it works, but many of their teammates in the secondary are still learning the process. Joseph Norwood played in all 12 games last season, but is in his first year as a starter, while Bowe made the transition from linebacker to safety this year and is still working on his footwork and eyework.
Then there is the quartet of cornerbacks who played in the season-opening loss to Rutgers. Sophomore Justin Lewis is the most experienced of the bunch with eight games of limited snaps last season, but the other three corners are a pair of redshirt freshmen — Lindsey and Dante Nardi — and true freshman Josh Wallace.
“I’ve got all the faith in those guys,” Bowe said. “Me being older, I just have to make sure I communicate to them because sometimes being younger, you can get caught up in all the atmosphere and the hype. Sometimes you get tunnel vision out there, and we need to make sure we communicate with them as a defense and let them know bad things are going to happen, we just need to bounce back.”
Abdul-Rahim said none of the youngsters stood out positively or negatively on film, but that he’s hopeful one of them or graduate transfer Jordan Adams — who will make his UMass debut Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Southern Illinois at McGuirk Alumni Stadium — will take control of the position opposite Rodgers. The coordinator added it’s hard to gauge the younger players in practice because all of the cornerbacks get equal reps during the week, so game film is an important piece of information for him when figuring out playing time.
In the first year of a new defense, there were going to be some issues to correct after the first week, and Abdul-Rahim said he knows the progress will come as everyone settles into the season.
“It’s still a work in progress, I wasn’t happy with any of the corners, including Isaiah,” Abdul-Rahim said. “The other corners, no one stood out, no one was extremely terrible, all of them made a few mistakes and they’ll just try to figure it out. I would like for one of them to take the position, and Jordan comes back this week so he’ll get an opportunity as well.”
“Experience is the best teacher a lot of times, and right now, they’re getting taught, unfortunately,” Abdul-Rahim added.
HILL CONNECTION — The Minutemen and Salukis have met just once in their history, a 34-27 Southern Illinois win in the 2007 FCS quarterfinals.
Southern Illinois’ starting quarterback that game was Nick Hill, who is now the Salukis head coach. Hill passed for 216 yards and three touchdowns, including two in the first quarter that helped the Salukis take an early 20-3 lead. The Liam Coen-led UMass offense cut the deficit down to a touchdown twice in the game, including with four minutes left in the game. However, Hill controlled a nine-play drive to kill the clock and secure the victory.
“I remember getting off to a good start and kind of hanging on in that game,” Hill said Monday during his press conference. “It was a fun game to be apart of.”
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.