Rutgers football set to battle familiar faces in opener vs. UMass

PISCATAWAY – For three seasons, Joe Harasymiak worked on Rutgers football’s coaching staff as Greg Schiano’s defensive coordinator, learning the ins and outs of how Schiano leads his program and getting an up-close daily look at how offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca runs his system.

Keep that in mind when Rutgers plays UMass its season opener.

The Minutemen, the Scarlet Knights’ opponent on Thursday at SHI Stadium, are now led by Harasymiak, a Waldwick native in his second year at the helm in his second head coaching opportunity.

UMass struggled in Harasymiak’s debut season in 2025, going 0-12 in their first season back in the MAC.

“I know Joe will have his team ready,” Schiano said. “Really an excellent coach. I had the privilege of working with him for three years. Really a fine football coach. Most of his leadership in his program is from Rutgers.”

Rutgers football, UMass know each other well

Harasymiak’s coaching staff is filled with former Rutgers personnel, including defensive coordinator Jared Keyte, who’s worked with Harasymiak for years going back to their time together at Maine.

The fact that both Harasymiak and Keyte have such intimate knowledge of Ciarrocca’s offense can only help the Minutemen’s preparation – Ciarrocca will have to stay ahead of it.

“Coach Keyte understands our program, understands what we do,” Schiano said. “So I’m sure it’s going to be a battle between he and Coach Ciarrocca as far as matching X’s and O’s.”

Will it help that Rutgers knows what UMass is likely going to do defensively?

“They probably have a little better beat on what we’re going to do then we do them,” Schiano said. “You watch some different things they were doing defensively last year, toward the end of the season especially, and you can say, ‘OK, yeah that’s something they believe in now that maybe we didn’t do.’ So it’ll be interesting to see what further growth they’ve had.”

Still, it comes down to the personnel on the field, not on the sideline.

Certainly on paper, Rutgers holds the talent advantage as the Big Ten team – regardless of who UMass has on defense, slowing down Scarlet Knights running back Antwan Raymond and wide receiver KJ Duff will be a challenge.

But the Minutemen still have players to watch out for.

Rutgers football vs. UMass: Minutemen to watch

Quarterback Pop Watson is one of them. The 6-foot, 210-pound Massachusetts native transferred to UMass after spending three seasons at Virginia Tech – he played in 11 games in that time, going 36-of-63 passing for 558 yards and one touchdown.

Schiano also highlighted running backs Elijah Faulkner and Justin Williams-Thomas, as well as wide receivers Joseph Griffin Jr. and T.Y. Harding – Griffin was at Wisconsin for two seasons, and Boston College for two years prior to that.

And in the middle of UMass’ defense is another familiar face – linebacker Timmy Hinspeter, a Don Bosco Prep graduate who played at Rutgers for three seasons before following Harasymiak to Amherst.

Hinspeter made 69 tackles last season.

“It still comes down to the players,” Schiano said. “At the end of the day they’ve got to go out and execute, they’ve got to go out and play. We’ve got to put them in position to do that but then they’ve got to go make the plays.”

There’s a lot of history between these two programs.

A lot of familiarity.

How much that factors into the final result remains to be seen.

“Definitely an opener that has a lot of plot twists to it,” Schiano said. “At the end of the day we’ve got to be prepared and we’ve got to go play. Go play our best game. That’s all I’m concerned with, is go play our best game.”

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers football set to battle familiar faces in opener vs. UMass