Massachusetts Minutemen at Sacramento State Hornets
Fri Sep 25 · 11:00 PM CT
By Pablo SanchezUpdated 7d ago·2 min read
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Sacramento State's first-ever MAC home game doubles as a fight for relevance against a UMass team still trying to remember what winning feels like.
Bush’s Picks
MASSSAC
MASSSAC
OverUnder
Best BetSacramento State
Sacramento State gets the nod here mostly by default — it's their building's first MAC home game, and a slightly deeper roster on paper against a UMass team still finding its footing offensively. Neither program is walking in with real confidence, so this reads as a lean, not a lock.
Massachusetts
+Second year of continuity under Harasymiak
+Portal haul upgrades a long-broken QB room
−16-game losing streak, winless in all of 2025
−Total roster overhaul brings real uncertainty
Sacramento State
+No Power Four foes on debut FBS slate
+First-ever MAC home game gives it stakes
−Lost top pass rusher and top lineman to portal
−First-year coach, thin depth at the FBS jump
This one's less about who's good and more about who's less bad. UMass rolls into Sacramento carrying a 16-game losing streak that dates back to 2024, a stretch that includes a full 0-12 wipeout in 2025. Second-year coach Joe Harasymiak went to the transfer portal for answers, bringing in Virginia Tech's William Watson III and Florida A&M's RJ Johnson to overhaul a QB room that's been the program's biggest sinkhole.
Sacramento State's angle is different but just as shaky. This is the Hornets' first season in the FBS after 33 years in the FCS, and first-year coach Alonzo Carter is dealing with a defense that lost its best pass rusher in Jayland McGlothen to San Jose State and a 320-pound anchor in DeSean Watts to Washington. The schedule has no Power Four teams on it, which is by design — Sacramento State needs winnable games to find its footing, and this is supposed to be one of them.
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MASS Massachusetts
SAC Sacramento State
Neither side has a betting market up yet for this one, which tracks — books are still figuring out how bad, or not bad, either program actually is. That uncertainty is the whole story here.
Massachusetts Minutemen
Sep 19?vs Stonehill—
Sep 12?vs Sacred Heart—
Sep 3?@ Rutgers—
Sacramento State Hornets
Sep 19?vs North Dakota State—
Sep 12?@ Fresno State—
Sep 5?vs Mississippi Valley State—
Aug 29?@ Eastern Michigan—
Recent form.
What makes this specific date matter for Sacramento State is that it's their first MAC home game ever, a real marker in a debut season built around learning on the fly. A home crowd for a conference opener is worth something, even for a team that's still figuring out its two-deep.
For UMass, the appeal of a game like this is obvious: after years at the bottom of the FBS, a rebuilding MAC newcomer on the road is about as clean a shot at a signature result as this program is going to get. The Minutemen aren't walking into Sacramento loaded, but a retooled QB room facing a defense that just lost three key pieces to the portal is a matchup worth watching.
Both staffs are selling patience over results this year, and that's fair — CFN has UMass projected at 2-10 and Sacramento State at 3-9. But projections are just starting points, and a game against another rebuilding team is exactly where a program looking to snap a losing streak, or validate a jump to FBS, tries to make its move.
