UMass Minutemen (2011-12)

We live in the age of "doubling down." Not just do people refuse to admit to mistakes these days, they'll further defend themselves at the first hint of criticism in an effort to ultimately be proven right. Think Al Bundy and his 555-SHOE hotline on "Married ... With Children."

Which brings us to UMass football and its decade-long disaster known as "FBS football."

I try not to badmouth any schools on this little ol' blog, but UMass' move to football's top tier ... well, as John Fogerty once sang, "Things got bad and things got worse." At least UConn's move up was based on certainties (a new stadium, a BCS conference). UMass' was based on ifs:

* IF we do well in the MAC and get an invite to the Big East ...

* IF we draw at a stadium two hours from campus (Gillette Stadium; that's like UConn playing home games in the Yale Bowl) ... 

Anyway, UMass got kicked out of the MAC when the league realized the school was using it as a steppingstone to a bigger conference, and the Minutemen played before bad crowds at Gillette and returned to campus, where they've played before even worse crowds than in their FCS days. (Don't believe me? Check the attendance figures on UMass' season-by-season Wikipedia pages. I know college can get sketchy with this stuff, but if these numbers are to be believed, they drew more for Stony Brook back in the day than BOSTON COLLEGE in 2021.) Oh, and they've never won more than four games in a season. In an effort to boost the program, the school killed it dead. 

And what does UMass say? "Just give a few more years. ... We'll find the right coach. ... We've got a good plan." Yup, doubling down, even though a return to FCS and the CAA makes all the sense in the world. (And I don't want to hear about money. If you're content winning 1-2 games a year because you're getting seven figures from Florida State and Georgia in body bag games, then you're better off not having a program at all.)

(deep breath) OK, rant over. Onto the uniforms. As you can see above, UMass revamped its unis between 2011 and '12, and it's a good example of how much football uniforms have changed as a whole over the last dozen years. The '11 unis have thick black panels on the jerseys sides and tails crawling up, a la the Denver Broncos. Fashion-wise, they're holdover from the 'aughties. The red-white-blue helmet stripes were done as a 9/11 tribute in the season's second game (which was also when names are added to the shirts), and the Minutemen wound up using them the rest of the year. 

Watch what you ask for, fellas.

In 2012, UMass did a complete overhaul under new coach Charley Molnar (a name that still makes some fans shudder). Black, a trim color the previous few years, became the predominant hue, and the current logo (MASS over the U) debuted, one of the few things the Minutemen have done right in the last decade. The overhaul also marked a change to the "modern" football uniform: UMass switched to the Adidas Techfit jerseys (the kind that look as if they were spray-painted on you) and the Ridell Revolution helmet started to see more use over the next year or two or three. Molnar was fired after the 2013 season -- and the black helmets, jerseys and pants went with him. At least UMass didn't "double down" on that mistake.