UMass hires Harasymiak, an in-vogue Northeastern name, to lead the program into their new conference frontier.
UMass has acted quickly to find the leader who will lead the program to their inaugural Mid-American Conference campaign, with Rutgers defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak announced as the new head coach of the Minutemen on Wednesday afternoon.
Harasymiak is set to replace Don Brown, whose second tenure in Amherst ended with a 6-28 record over three seasons.
“We are thrilled to welcome Joe, his wife, Brittany, and daughters, Sophie and Ellie, to the Massachusetts Athletics family,” UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford said via press release. “With extensive ties to football in the northeast, which began in our back yard where he excelled at Springfield College, he is the perfect fit to lead us into a new era. A successful leader, recruiter and tactician, his feats have included a conference championship at Maine, and most recently helping Rutgers to back-to-back bowl seasons. Joe has been a proven winner at every level.”
Harasymiak, a New Jersey native, graduated from Springfield College in Massachusetts in 2008 after four years as a member of the Pride football program, and has also coached at Maine Maritime and Springfield.
Harasymiak made his bones as a coach at Maine for seven years prior to his promotion to Minnesota, named as head coach in 2016 and finishing with a 20-15 record over three full seasons. The 2018 season was a high mark, as the Black Bears finished 10-4 and won the Colonial Athletic Conference with a 7-1 conference record, peaking at a #5 ranking in the national polls after an FCS Playoffs semifinal loss to Eastern Washington.
From Maine, Harasymiak would coach safeties at Minnesota under PJ Fleck in 2018 and 2019, earning promotion to co-defensive coordinator and safeties/defensive backs coach in 2020. In his final season at Minnesota, the Golden Gophers defense ranked third in the NCAA in total defense (278.8) and sixth in scoring defense (17.3 points per game).
Harasymiak would depart for Rutgers in the 2022 campaign to work under Greg Schiano as the team’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. In his three seasons in Piscataway, Harasymiak made a name for himself at the FBS level, being nominated for the Broyles Award for best coaching assistant in back-to-back seasons for leading one of the quickest defensive turnarounds in recent memory.
Harasymiak’s Scarlet Knights defense immediately had their best campaign by yards allowed (349.8) in a decade in 2022, and improved in a major way in 2023, ranking 16th nationally in total defense (313.5) and 32nd in scoring defense (21.2), while also boasting a Top 10 passing defense (176.3) and a Top 15 red zone defense (75.6 percent).
“I am thrilled and extremely grateful for this opportunity to be the next head coach at the University of Massachusetts,” Harasymiak said via press release. “I want to thank Chancellor Reyes, Ryan Bamford, Trustee Brunelle and alumnus Marty Jacobson for believing in me to be the next leader of this great program. It was clear to me that we have outstanding leadership and alignment from the top down that will allow us to compete for MAC championships and to sustain that success. I can’t wait to get around our student-athletes and start building relationships. My wife, Brittany, and daughters Sophie and Ellie can’t wait to get to Amherst.”
As part of the package to attract Harasymiak from the Big Ten, UMass has reportedly opened the coffers, with $2 million of name, image and likeness funds and revenue share in 2025 and $3 million of those same funds in 2026 to go along with $2.7 million in assistant coaching poll money, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
UMass starts their inaugural MAC campaign on August 30, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they’re set to take on the Temple Owls of the American Athletic Conference.