AMHERST — Walt Bell probably hadn’t read the firestorm on Twitter when he walked to speak with the media after Saturday’s frustrating 48-20 loss to Southern Illinois.
He probably had no idea that there was ample debate on social media about whether or not the loss he just oversaw was the worst in UMass history. Quite frankly, he probably didn’t care too much about what fans thought after the game because for him, it hasn’t been about one game or one play.
There was no doubting that UMass wanted to win Saturday and that Bell was coaching to win that game, but he was also doing so through the prism of building a program. Everything Bell does in this first year is less about trying to win now and more about trying to create and sustain success in later years.
It’s why the UMass coaches dole out as equal reps as possible during practice between the starters and reserves. If Bell wanted to, he could spend more time with his best players and give them extra attention and hope it leads to more successful Saturdays. Yet he has made the conscious effort to make sure everyone on the roster is developing even if they might not contribute to the Minutemen this season.
“We’ve got so much developing to do,” Bell said after the game. “We don’t just need to develop the top end of the roster, we need to make sure we continue developing all of the roster. For us, there’s a really detailed plan to ensure the development of our football team from the weight room to the meeting room, how much extra time we spend with our freshmen and non-travel guys. We just got to continue to develop our entire roster. Our routine is not going to change, the plan is not going to change.”
As Bell has gone through the process of figuring out which players the staff can trust in games, there have been many young, inexperienced names that have appeared in the first two weeks. Ten true or redshirt freshmen have played in both games for UMass, including seven on defense, and they have been learning lessons along the way about competing at the FBS level.
Some of those have been swift – Jermaine “OC” Johnson Jr.’s back-breaking unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the third quarter – while others have been slower burns like the three freshmen defensive tackles being dominated in the trenches early. Either way, Bell said it’s important for those players to learn from those mistakes quickly and be able to act and play like the Division I athletes they are.
“We are heading into week three and we’ve got a lot of young players that are out there playing,” Bell said. “We have to make sure they understand that they’re not young players anymore. They’ve been in two football games and they’ve got to improve.”
But no demoralizing loss or boneheaded freshman mistake has shaken Bell’s resolve in his vision for the future. He said he knows there is still a lot of football left this season – and most likely in his tenure at UMass – and that at no point Saturday did he ever waver from the plan he has hatched in his brain.
“We obviously have a long way to go,” Bell said. “But even in probably one of the most miserable times I’ve had in my entire life standing outside of a patch of white lines, there’s still zero doubt in my brain that this thing is going to be good. I’m still confident in our plan, I’m still confident in our entire staff, and more importantly, I’m confident in our young people. We’re going to find a way or we’re going to make a way.”
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.