UMass pulls off a huge upset: beats Rutgers 37:21 and ends the longest active losing streak in the FBS
The University of Massachusetts opened the new college football season with a victory that immediately became one of the biggest stories of the first week of competition. The Minutemen defeated Rutgers 37:21 on September 3, 2026, at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, ending a run of 16 consecutive losses, which before the game was the longest active losing streak among Football Bowl Subdivision teams, the highest level of NCAA college football. UMass entered the matchup as an underdog by around 30 points; the Associated Press and several U.S. sports media outlets listed the line at 29.5 points in Rutgers' favor. Instead of the expected comfortable home victory, 42,454 spectators witnessed a complete turnaround after the Scarlet Knights took the early lead. According to the official statistics of both schools, UMass scored 30 unanswered points after falling behind 0:7 and entered the closing stages with an insurmountable advantage.
The victory is particularly significant because of the context in which UMass entered the season. The Minutemen finished 2025 winless, with a 0-12 record, and had last won on October 26, 2024, against Wagner. Their last victory over an FBS opponent had come even earlier, on October 28, 2023, when they defeated Army 21:14. The NCAA states that the triumph over Rutgers was also UMass' first victory over a program from today's leading conferences since the school moved to the FBS in 2012, as well as its first against a current member of such a conference since 1978. For a team that had lost all 12 games a year earlier, the result in Piscataway therefore represents much more than an ordinary opening-week victory.
Rutgers took the lead, then disappeared under UMass' surge
Rutgers opened the game as expected from a heavy favorite. The home team took the lead after a 12-play, 75-yard drive that quarterback Dylan Lonergan finished with a four-yard pass to KJ Duff for a touchdown. UMass, however, responded almost immediately. William "Pop" Watson III connected with Elijah Faulkner for a 21-yard touchdown and a 7:7 tie, and that play proved to be the beginning of a period of complete control by the visitors.
Early in the second quarter, Watson found Faulkner again, this time from two yards, for UMass' first lead. After that, the Minutemen defense put increasingly heavy pressure on Lonergan. Romando Johnson stripped him of the ball after a sack, and UMass turned the short field into another touchdown when Watson connected with Joseph Griffin Jr. for 31 yards. Derek Morris then made a 30-yard field goal, sending UMass into halftime with a surprising 24:7 lead. According to the NCAA, it was the first half in which UMass had held a lead against a program from the leading conferences since its game against Mississippi State in 2017.
The visitors did not slow down after halftime. Morris made a 52-yard field goal in the third quarter to extend the lead to 27:7, and the defense then stopped Rutgers on a fourth-down conversion attempt. Early in the final quarter, Isaiah Reed intercepted a Lonergan pass, and Jahmad Harmon soon came up with another interception after a UMass punt pinned Rutgers at its own one-yard line. Morris' third field goal of the evening, from 31 yards, made it 30:7. That extended UMass' run to 30 unanswered points.
Watson nearly flawless in his Minutemen debut
The central figure of the UMass offense was William "Pop" Watson III. According to the official box score, he completed 19 of 22 passes for 197 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions, while also adding 40 rushing yards on six attempts. His three touchdown passes were split between Faulkner, who caught two, and Griffin, who caught one. Watson also connected with several different receivers and kept the offense in rhythm for almost the entire game, which was particularly important against a team from the Big Ten Conference.
The NCAA noted that Watson became the first UMass quarterback since Liam Coen in 2008 to throw three touchdowns in a game while completing at least 80 percent of his passes. UMass did not depend solely on its passing game. The Minutemen rushed for a total of 200 yards, with Curtis Kimmons IV leading the team with 78 yards on 11 attempts. In addition to his two touchdown receptions, Faulkner added 62 rushing yards on 19 attempts, while Kimmons scored on a 17-yard run late in the game. That balance forced the Rutgers defense to defend the entire width of the field instead of focusing only on Watson's passing.
The official statistics show just how efficient UMass was. The visitors produced 397 total yards, including 197 passing and 200 rushing, and held the ball for 36 minutes and 21 seconds. Rutgers finished with 349 yards, but only 30 net rushing yards, partly because of the five sacks recorded by the UMass defense. The Minutemen did not turn the ball over once, while Rutgers paid a heavy price for mistakes and poor quarterback protection. That difference in ball security, combined with control of possession time, was one of the most important reasons the favorite was unable to regain control of the game.
Lonergan's mistakes defined the evening, but official sources differ on the numbers
Early reports after the game particularly emphasized that Dylan Lonergan had turned the ball over five times. The Associated Press, in its report published after the game, listed four interceptions and one lost fumble, while the NCAA also wrote about five forced turnovers by the UMass defense. However, Rutgers' official box score, available on September 5, currently credits Lonergan with three interceptions and one lost fumble, or four officially recorded Rutgers turnovers. The record also shows that UMass stopped Rutgers once on fourth down, while one potential interception was nullified during the game because of a pass interference penalty. Because of this discrepancy between the initial wire-service reports and the official record, the most precise formulation is that Lonergan had four turnovers according to the current official box score, although some reports immediately after the game listed five.
According to the official statistics, Lonergan completed 16 of 29 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns, but the mistakes erased much of the value of his positive plays. He was brought down behind the line of scrimmage four times, while Rutgers allowed five sacks in total. Backup quarterback AJ Surace entered late and completed six of nine passes for 77 yards and one touchdown. The home team managed to produce big plays through the air, but almost completely lost its ability to control the game on the ground. Antwan Raymond had 42 yards, but because of the quarterbacks' lost yardage, the team's net total remained at only 30.
Rutgers' only consistent major threat was KJ Duff. The wide receiver caught nine passes for 196 yards and all three of his team's touchdowns. After opening the game with a four-yard touchdown, he caught a 78-yard pass from Lonergan in the fourth quarter to cut the score to 30:14. Rutgers briefly gained hope that it could make the finish complicated, but Harmon recorded his second interception of the evening on the home team's next series. UMass immediately punished the opportunity: Kimmons scored on a 17-yard run to make it 37:14, while Surace's late six-yard touchdown pass to Duff merely set the final score at 37:21.
UMass' defense turned the game into a test of patience for Rutgers
The result was not the consequence of one big play, but of a series of situations in which UMass forced Rutgers to play from unfavorable positions. The Minutemen defense combined pressure on the quarterback with aggressive play in the secondary. Harmon finished with two officially recorded interceptions, Reed with one, while Johnson forced and recovered a fumble. Timmy Hinspeter led UMass with nine tackles. Add in the fourth-down stop and the fact that Rutgers failed to score a single point in the middle two quarters, and it becomes clear why the game turned so quickly.
After its opening touchdown, Rutgers went scoreless throughout the entire second and third quarters. During that time, UMass built a 27:7 lead and then moved ahead 30:7 in the fourth quarter. The home team scored two late touchdowns only when it was forced to play almost exclusively through the air and increase the tempo. That development allowed UMass to take control of possession time and run its offense without needing to make risky decisions. The Minutemen produced points in most of the key situations from their first ten possessions, while kicker Morris was perfect whenever drives stalled before reaching the end zone.
Morris' evening deserves special emphasis as well. He made all three of his field-goal attempts, from 30, 52 and 31 yards, as well as all four extra points after touchdowns. According to UMass Athletics, he was the first Minutemen player to make three field goals in one game since Jacob Laurie against Toledo in September 2024. The 52-yard kick in the third quarter was particularly important, as it extended UMass' lead immediately after halftime and put even more pressure on Rutgers to speed up its game.
A victory with additional significance for Joe Harasymiak
The game also carried a personal dimension for UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak. Before arriving in Amherst, he served as Rutgers' defensive coordinator from 2022 to 2024, so he knew the program, part of the team's structure and head coach Greg Schiano's working methods well. UMass states that Harasymiak was named the 32nd head coach in program history in 2024, and the victory in Piscataway was his first over an FBS opponent as the Minutemen's coach. After a winless 2025 season, it was against his former employer that he achieved a result that changes the tone of the new season's opening.
The change was also visible in the roster. Before the season, UMass announced that 56 new players had joined the team, including 30 transfers and 26 freshmen. Such extensive roster turnover carries a major risk in terms of cohesion, but against Rutgers the team looked organized and disciplined in the most important phases of the game. Watson, who joined the program after a spell at Virginia Tech, immediately provided stability at the most important offensive position. At the same time, the defense showed exactly the kind of aggressiveness Harasymiak had developed as a defensive coach before arriving at UMass.
For Rutgers, the loss sends the completely opposite signal. Greg Schiano's team entered the game as a strong favorite and was at home in a stadium where the season opener was supposed to serve as a calm introduction to the more demanding part of the schedule. Instead, the Scarlet Knights allowed nearly 400 yards, did not force a single turnover and lost the battle at the line of scrimmage, especially when their offense tried to establish the run. The defeat therefore represents not only a poor result in one game, but also an early test of Rutgers' ability to quickly correct its problems before the start of more important conference games.
From 0-12 to a victory over a Big Ten member
The historical significance of the result is best illustrated by comparing it with UMass' previous seasons. The program has often struggled for continuity since joining the FBS in 2012, and in 2025 it also returned to the Mid-American Conference and finished the season winless. After the upset in Piscataway, the NCAA emphasized that UMass had ended a 16-game losing streak and earned its first victory over a program from the leading conferences since moving to the highest level. UMass Athletics also states that it was the program's first victory over Rutgers since October 6, 1973, when the Minutemen won 25:22.
The contrast in offensive production is even stronger. UMass scored 37 points against Rutgers, and several reports after the game noted that this was 11 more than the highest number of points the team scored in any single game during the 2025 season. After a year in which victory did not come in any of 12 attempts, the new season began with a road win over a member of the Big Ten Conference while entering as a 29.5-point underdog. It is precisely the combination of those circumstances that immediately made the result stand out as one of the biggest upsets of the opening of the 2026 season.
The victory, of course, does not solve all of the program's problems, nor can one game guarantee a turnaround for the entire season. But UMass gained what it had lacked most: proof that the rebuilt roster can execute a plan against a favored opponent from the Big Ten Conference. For Rutgers, the opposite applies. The team must quickly find answers to problems in quarterback protection, run defense and ball control, because those were precisely the areas in which UMass created the difference that turned into a 16-point margin on the scoreboard.
The next test for both teams comes quickly. According to the official schedules, Rutgers visits Boston College on September 11, while UMass plays its first home game of the season against Sacred Heart on September 12 at McGuirk Alumni Stadium in Amherst, Massachusetts. There, the Minutemen will attempt for the first time in front of their own fans to confirm that the victory in Piscataway was not an isolated flash. Rutgers, on the other hand, will try on the road to show that a loss in a game it entered as a 29.5-point favorite will not define its season.
Sources:
- University of Massachusetts Athletics - official game report, statistics, information about the losing streak, roster and next game (link)
- Rutgers University Athletics - official box score and team statistics, including the currently recorded three Lonergan interceptions and one lost fumble (link)
- Rutgers University Athletics - official game report and schedule for the next game against Boston College (link)
- NCAA.com - context of the victory, the end of the longest active FBS losing streak and historical information about UMass against programs from the leading conferences (link)
- Associated Press / CBS Sports - wire-service report after the game and the information that UMass was a 29.5-point underdog, along with the initially reported figure of five Lonergan turnovers (link)
- University of Massachusetts Athletics - game preview and 2026 roster information, including 56 new players, 30 transfers and 26 freshmen (link)