Players to watch, keys to victory against UMass

For all the firsts that Hugh Freeze will have this upcoming Saturday as he leads the Tigers onto Pat Dye Field, the opposition is all too familiar. Freeze faced off against UMass in each of his four seasons at Liberty, including last year’s win in Don Brown’s first season back at the helm in Massachusetts. Liberty won all four matchups in the series, the closest being last season’s 18-point victory on the road. 

“I saw a drastic improvement last year under Coach Brown. I have great respect for him. I think he's one of the best defensive play callers in the country. Last year their record was atrocious and they had a top 10 defense in the country. So now I think they've added 27 transfers most from Power Five schools. I thought they looked quite different,” Freeze said.

Brown first led the Minutemen from 2004-08 while the program was still in the FCS ranks. His first stint as head coach with the Minutemen led to the winningest five-year stretch in program history, accumulating a 43-19 record and making two postseason appearances. He spent the last 13 years guiding defenses at Maryland, Connecticut, Boston College, Michigan and Arizona. 

In Brown’s absence, the Minutemen struggled after making the jump to the FBS level. The program hasn’t had a season with more than four wins and won a total of two games in the three years prior to Brown’s return. After a one-win year one for Brown, UMass hit the transfer portal — bringing in 22 new players, 15 of which were former Power Five athletes. 

The Minutemen opened up their 2023 campaign during week zero and defeated New Mexico State 41-30, the program's first road win since 2018 at UConn snapping a 24-game road losing streak. A 28-point fourth quarter sealed the deal for a UMass team that hadn't started a season with a win since 2018. While the win was a big moment for a rebuilding program, the week zero film could benefit the Tigers in the upcoming matchup. 

“It definitely helps. They're quite different on offense than they've been in the past,” Freeze said. “So defensively it's the same that I've faced but offensively they're quite different. And you kind of wish you had even a more of a sample size but it's no question that with everything I saw them do with their motions and shifts and their RPOs and you know that they have more to do with that than just what they showed. And so I think they're very similar to us truthfully now and there's a lot of options and you just got to be aware of the quarterback both running and passing. So it's it was quite different. So I think it was helpful.” 

Players to Watch

UMass Minutemen:

Taisun Phommachanh (QB)

The Minutemen’s new quarterback led the team with 192 yards through the air on 10-for-17 passing, while rushing for a team-high 96 yards on 17 carries with a touchdown. The Clemson and Georgia Tech transfer, was rated as a four-star prospect by Rivals, 247Sports and ESPN and was ranked as the No. 3 quarterback in the nation by 247Sports, the No. 5 QB in the nation by Rivals and the No. 8 pocket passer in the nation by ESPN in the class of 2019.

Tyler Rudolph (S)

The redshirt junior safety led the minutemen with eight tackles and a sack last Saturday in a road win at New Mexico State. The Penn State transfer recorded 62 tackles and two interceptions a season ago for the Minutemen. 

Auburn Tigers: 

Payton Thorne (QB)

Thorne was named the starting quarterback by Hugh Freeze two weeks into fall camp after a summer of impressing the coaching staff not just on the practice field, but in his preparation and study of the game. Thorne notably led the Spartans to a Peach Bowl win during the 2021 season throwing for 3,232 yards, a completion percentage of 60.4% and 27 touchdowns. Thorne’s 3,232 single-season passing yards would rank second all-time in Auburn program history. 

Shane Hooks (WR)

Hooks, a graduate transfer from Jackson State, made headlines throughout fall camp highlighted by his one-handed touchdown catch during the second scrimmage of fall camp. Hooks totaled 82 receptions gaining 974 yards with 12 touchdowns during the 2021 and 2022 seasons for the Tigers. 

Elijah McAllister (Jack)

The Vanderbilt transfer was named one of four team captains for the Tigers this season after serving as a two-time team captain for the Commodores. McAllister played in 36 games in five seasons recording 65 career tackles, 3 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, an interception and a touchdown. McAllister will lead a new-look defensive line for the Tigers which is looking to correct its struggle in run defense from a season ago. 

Keys to Victory:

UMass Minutemen:

The Minutemen were able to turn three turnovers into 21 points on Saturday and will likely need to have the same sort of heroics against Auburn in order to pull off an major upset, as the Tigers are 35-point favorites. Brown’s defense will have to keep Auburn’s run attack at a minimum and force Thorne and a new group of receivers to execute the new offense without error. 

If the UMass offense can keep up the success after a 41-point performance last Saturday — the highest offensive output for UMass since November 3, 2019 — then the Minutemen will have a chance to pull off their first win against an SEC team in program history.

Auburn Tigers:

The Tigers will look to control the ground game offensively in order to set up easy opportunities for Thorne and the new receivers to build chemistry early in the game. Auburn should be able to lean on their talent advantage and, as Freeze mentioned earlier this week, rotate lots of players into the action in order to keep everyone fresh. 

Defensively, Auburn will look to keep dual-threat quarterback Taisun Phommachanh contained and avoid the explosive play. If the Tigers can keep Phommachanh from using his legs, Auburn can lean on its strong backfield in order to keep the Minutemen out of the end zone. 

Auburn will kick off the season against UMass in a "White Out" inside of Jordan-Hare Stadium at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised by ESPN.