Can Don Brown make UMass football competitive this season?

Can Brown turn around a defense that allowed 43.1 points per game?

The defense was flat-out bad last season. Most weekends, the defensive unit was undersized and overmatched. Keith Dudzinski is the defensive coordinator, but the amount of latitude he gets with Don Brown as head coach will be engaging.

To say that the Minutemen had the worst defense in FBS last season is not far-fetched. UMass finished 125th (out of 130 teams) in total defense. They were 130th in points allowed. Only Stanford, Akron, Kansas, and Arkansas State were worse against the run. The pass defense was the closest thing to a bright spot for UMass; they finished 100th in passing yards allowed.

Given those numbers, it is no surprise that many of the transfers Brown and his staff brought were on the defense. Of UMass’ 17 transfers, 11 are defensive players, and of those 11, six are defensive backs. Four of those players are safeties.

What Brown and Dudzinski are looking for by bringing in so many safeties is someone to play that rover/hybrid position in a 4-2-5 multiple front defense. In addition to bolstering a secondary that had just two interceptions last season, UMass football brought in two EDGE rushers and two defensive tackles to bolster a pass rush that finished 128th in sacks with 11 in 2021.