AMHERST — In the midst of trying to hire a new head football coach, the University of Massachusetts athletic department can’t seem to get out of its own way.

While Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford hasn’t addressed the fanbase since firing former head coach Don Brown on Nov. 18, the athletic department has been involved in a pair of controversies that received blowback from not only football fans, but players, too. The first occurred just days after Brown got the boot, when an email to players stated, “the athletics department has decided they will not be individually recognizing players or holding a traditional ceremony due to the number of players who are completing their eligibility and graduating from school.”

Instead of a traditional senior day, UMass offered the option for graduating Minutemen players’ families to be on the field for pregame warmups with a photographer available for pictures. After an overwhelming amount of backlash received on social media regarding that decision, the Minutemen football Twitter/X account posted a statement backtracking the plan.

“We regret the miscommunication with our team regarding the Senior Day activities planned for [the UConn game],” it read. “To be clear, the Senior Day ceremony was never canceled, instead we planned to amend the pregame ceremony due to the large number of seniors this year.”

And after meeting with the team and discussing how they wanted to be recognized for their senior day, an agreement was finally reached. The festivities would eventually go on as initially planned – a standard ceremony with each player announced individually – prior to the Minutemen’s 47-42 loss to UConn in the final game of the year on Saturday. After a large group of UMass fans were displeased with the timing and nature of Brown’s firing, the senior day see-saw was an added distraction for the athletic department.

The day of the season finale didn’t just feature a pregame question mark however, it featured a post-game one as well. Corey Schneider, head of The Midnight Ride Collective – UMass football’s former NIL collective prior to UMass deciding to bring NIL money in-house – helped create a trophy for the UMass-UConn rivalry – naming it “The Southwick Jug.” Both teams rightfully believed that the winner of the game would bring home the first-ever trophy in the long, storied 78-game rivalry (series tied 36-36-2). But after the Huskies took down the Minutemen, they never received the trophy.

𝐀 𝟏𝟐𝟕-𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐲….

The Midnight Ride Collective looked to honor tradition while embracing the future.

Our goal was to create a symbol unique to our region… pic.twitter.com/6fSxXdZp5e

— The Midnight Ride Collective (@MidnightRideNIL) November 28, 2024

UConn head coach Jim Mora responded to a post on Twitter/X that accused both teams of neglecting the trophy, saying he “specifically asked for the trophy at the end of the game” and “was told point blank you folks weren’t giving it up.” Mora was referring to the UMass athletic department when saying “you folks.”

In response to Mora’s comments, UMass athletics again released a statement, this time saying: “Prior to the game the two schools had not discussed awarding the trophy to the winning team or using the trophy in general as a symbol of our long-standing series. The trophy was provided to UMass for the first time earlier in the week, not leaving a lot of time to properly consider an official name, secure a mutually beneficial sponsor or execute a marketing plan.”

For the second time in as many weeks, a UMass athletics statement received backlash – as once again Minutemen fans blasted the athletic department for not awarding UConn with the trophy over reasons including a lack of a sponsor and marketing plan. Schneider then responded to the statement, saying UMass athletics has actually known about the trophy for over a year, which means they indeed had time to find what it felt was necessary to legitimize The Southwick Jug.

Despite the controversy, Schneider and Executive Director of The UConn NIL Collective Jared Guy Thomas were able to get The Southwick Jug back from the UMass athletic department, and Schneider said on Sunday the Huskies would be presented with it in the near future.

Both instances – the senior day and trophy debacles – garnered national attention across social media. And to emphasize, UMass is currently looking for its next football coach. While it may not have a huge impact, the recent decisions from the athletic department are definitely not making that search any easier.