UMass is sadly a better team with better football players... which is simply inexcusable under any scenario.
Yes, it is difficult to accept that the UMass program, in just a few years, eclipsed our program by hiring better coaches and recruiting better players, even while playing in a lesser conference or as an independent and with no record of achievement. BC and Cuse are again able to cherry pick any regional P5 level talent, while we now face an uphill recruiting battle against UMass for the remaining G5 and FCS level talent.
It's surprising that Diaco, with his energetic enthusiasm, wasn't able to recruit better. Maybe his Coordinators and position coaches sucked as recruiters, I don't know. He certainly could talk the talk, yet he brought in so few players who held other P5 or AAC offers.