AMHERST — Isaiah Rodgers walked into Luke Paschall’s office with a unique request.
The UMass senior cornerback has been playing almost every defensive snap recently with the lack of depth in the secondary. In addition, he is the Minutemen’s kick and punt returner and ranks in the top 20 nationally in both categories in terms of yards per return. He has scored two touchdowns, returning a punt for a score against Charlotte and taking one of his three interceptions back for a touchdown.
There isn’t much more Rodgers could do to contribute to a disappointing UMass season, but the Tampa, Florida, native found a way to ask for more responsibility. He walked into Paschall’s office and asked the special teams coordinator to put him on the punt coverage unit as well.
“We’re down a lot of bodies so I just want to do anything I can do to help the team win and be in a better position,” Rodgers said. “So if me going to punt is good for the team, I’m willing to do it.”
Rodgers’ ethos is the norm for the UMass senior class, which won’t be on the team if/when the Minutemen turn the corner as a program. The group is committed to leadership and setting examples for the underclassmen, thus ensuring that the freshmen are able to learn the lessons they need to be better players in the future.
Coach Walt Bell said he’s been very pleased with how the veterans have embraced their mentorship roles and are putting in the work to help make everyone around them better on a daily basis.
“That’s being a good human being and we have a lot of good human beings in that older group,” Bell said. “We’ve got a great group and I think for them it’s no different than myself. I’ve got two personal goals in life and one of those is to make sure everybody I encounter in my life I can create benefit for them. Hopefully those guys being apart of this program … that it’ll be something they value and somehow we’ve benefited them.”
Where that influence has shown the most is in the morale around the team. Even after the 0-4 start and a tough 44-0 loss last week at Florida International, the relentless positivity Bell preaches has taken hold within the locker room.
And as UMass (1-5) gets set to play at Louisiana Tech (4-1) on Saturday for a 6 p.m. kickoff with an off week looming, there isn’t the same level of frustration that seemed to be boiling with slow starts the past two seasons.
“You can feel it, you can see it and you can also taste it,” Rodgers said. “The people around us have a different vibe around us and they’re doing a lot of different things that you didn’t think certain people on the team would do. Everybody is just changing around us and we’re hoping the changing of the culture will come soon.”
And when that change does come, it’ll be on the backs of the younger players Rodgers and his senior teammates have taken under their wing this season. Though Kyle Horn admitted it will be tough to have to watch from afar after this season, the redshirt senior tight end said it’s worthwhile to him to know he was part of the catalyst for the change.
“It’s definitely going to be tough because I’m going to have to watch from the sidelines next year,” Horn said. “But just knowing that when we’re good that I helped be a part of that process, that’s good enough for me.”
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.