UMass opened the season by flipping the script in the loudest way possible, walking into Piscataway and leaving with a 37-21 win over Rutgers in a game that instantly jumped into the upset conversation for the ages.
Rutgers was supposed to cruise. The Scarlet Knights were 29.5-point favorites at home, facing a UMass team that had gone 0-12 last season and carried a 16-game losing streak into Thursday night. Instead, the first game of Week 1 delivered a shocker that will sit with both programs for a long time.
The spread alone tells you how far this result landed outside expectations. Rutgers’ 29.5-point edge makes this the biggest point-spread upset at the FBS level since Kansas stunned Texas as 31-point underdogs in 2021.
And the loss came with a costly twist. According to Brett McMurphy of On3, Rutgers paid UMass $1.55 million to come to New Jersey for the game. That makes Thursday’s result sting even more for an athletic department that has accumulated a deficit of more than $500 million since joining the Big Ten in 2014.
UMass hadn’t tasted victory in 677 days before Thursday. The Minutemen’s last win had come on Oct. 26, 2024, against FCS Wagner.
The skid looked even harsher when narrowed to FBS opponents. Entering Thursday, UMass had dropped 23 straight games against FBS competition and owned the nation’s longest active losing streak at 16 games.
There was also a bigger historical marker buried in the upset. Since moving up to the FBS in 2012, UMass had gone 48 years without a win against a current power-conference opponent.
The Minutemen did beat BYU in 2017, but at that point BYU was still an independent and not part of the Big 12. On Thursday, Rutgers became the team that finally ended that streak.
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Grivnas schedule suggests Purdue will have competition for his attention, with several other schools also expected to get visits. For a program that has built plenty of momentum by identifying bigs early and selling development, getting him on campus this fall is a notable step, even if the real race for his commitment is still a long way off. [Read more 🡒]
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Purdue Finally Has Hope Again But One Concern Isnt Going Away
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Still, one game can only do so much to quiet the larger questions hanging over this program, and Purdue knows it cannot treat this as anything beyond a promising start. The opener was encouraging because it showed speed, efficiency and some swagger, but the challenge now is whether those traits can survive once the competition stiffens and the pressure rises. For a team that has spent too long searching for signs of progress, the early answer is refreshing. The next one matters even more. [Read more 🡒]