Good morning!
On a sunny day at McGuirk Alumni Stadium, a dark cloud hung over the UMass bench. Finish strong or you’re gone, the staff had been told, and the team was hanging on for dear life against heavily favored Liberty.

The visitors had chartered a flight from Lynchburg Regional Airport to Westover Air Force Base in Westfield, where a fleet of four white buses with “Liberty” emblazoned in red letters waited to take them to the Hilton in Springfield, and to McGuirk the next morning.

It was a stunningly beautiful 62-degree day for what would be Don Brown’s last game as the UMass football coach. A westerly wind straightened the U.S. flag and 9,115 fans watched two jets fly overhead for the national anthem.

Liberty trailed at halftime, 20-7, and a glum-faced Virginian watched them jog to the locker room. “UMass is playing its best game of the year,” somebody said, “and Liberty is playing its worst.”

“Yeah,” the fan replied, “because I’m here.”

We all know the feeling, but anyone who’s followed UMass football knows it’s not over until the other team wins. Chris Boti was pedaling a stationary bike near the visitors bench when a fan leaned over and asked, “Hey 92, how’s God been working in your life?”

The 270-pound defensive tackle looked behind him and said, “Huh?”

“How’s God been working in your life?”

“Good,” said Boti.

Liberty is a Southern Baptist college and the football staff has an associate A.D. for spiritual development, but what UMass needs is an exorcist. If you’ve been watching this team since the night Charley Molnar’s Minutemen lost to UConn, 37-0, you know it’s always ripe for defeat.

On Saturday, Jacob Lurie’s 43-yard field goal attempt went wide right with no time left, and his point-after attempt in overtime hit the upright.

Brown should have yanked him for the fan who won a gift card by making two field goals during a timeout.

Liberty’s kicker, North Greenville University transfer Colin Karhu, converted all five of his point-after tries and the Flames won, 35-34. 

Two days later, Brown got his pink slip.

The last time athletic director Ryan Bamford deep-sixed a football coach was after Walt Bell’s club lost by double digits to tiny URI. Bell was an unknown, but Brown and Mark Whipple are two of the most popular coaches in program history. Together they won the 1998 I-AA national championship, Whipple as the coach and Brown as his defensive coordinator.

Today in Athens, UMass is a 42 1/2-point underdog against Georgia. On covers.com it cost $10,000 to win $100 on Georgia, or $100 to win $8,000 on the Minutemen. They will lose today and they will lose next week at home to UConn, and Bamford will have overlorded a program that has lost 100 games since he was hired in 2016.

How did this happen? Previous chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy wasn’t a sports fan, but Javier Reyes comes from football country. If Bamford’s next coach doesn’t build a winning program quickly, he’ll be the next one who’s out the door.

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While I prowled the stadium on Saturday looking for stories, my grandkids Chase and Carter watched the UMass game from behind the south end zone. Standing next to them was Medfield High School coach Erik Ormberg who saw their Pop Warner hats with Frontier embroidered on the front.

“I love to see them playing football,” said Ormberg. “We need them. I value high school and college sports. It’s so important.”

Ormberg looked around the stadium and said, “I wish they played the (high school) super bowls here. It’s perfect for the number of people who show up. Gillette’s nice, but it’s too big. There’s no energy.”

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Earlier this month UMass hockey coach Greg Carvel cut defenseman Kazimier Sobieski. A 20-year-old defenseman from Deerfield, Sobieski went from Eaglebrook to Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota to Sioux Falls of the USHL and finally to UMass where he was expected to have an immediate impact.

“Hard decision for me to make but just because he made poor decisions doesn’t mean that I have to,” Carvel said by email. “I can accept a mistake or two but eventually extreme measures need to be taken. At his age he will change his ways, mature quickly and continue his hockey career at the D1 level. Of this I have no doubt.”

Sobieski’s back in the USHL playing for the Youngstown Phantoms. In three seasons and 105 games for Sioux Falls, he had nine goals and 24 assists and racked up 92 penalty minutes, according to Elite Prospects.

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BC goalie Jacob Fowler got a game misconduct and was suspended for a game by Hockey East for punching UConn forward Tristan Fraser in the head on Nov. 15. Fowler had let in three goals in four minutes and snapped.

At the Big E Coliseum in the 1970s, I was under the grandstand between periods of a Springfield Indians game against the Providence Reds. There was a commotion overhead and I hurried back to see the Reds’ goalie standing in the seats ready to take on all comers. 

Why can’t these guys be more like Todd Boynton and use pickleball to blow off steam?

SQUIBBERS: WFAN’s Joe Benigno thinks the Jets should hire former Dolphins coach and current Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. “He’s got a chip on his shoulder the whole week,” says Benigno. … CBS’s Andrew Bogush on the Lions’ 52-6 win against Jacksonville: “That’s like an FBS vs. FCS score.” Umm, such as Georgia vs. UMass. … CBS’s Andrew Perloff to sidekick Maggie Gray: “You’re not into the Zion train as much as I am.” Maggie to Perloff: “Because it never leaves the station.” … UMass hoops is rated 91st by CBSSports. Tonight’s opponent Temple is 191st. …  Newbury native and Cushing grad Jackson Irving got his first collegiate start between the pipes for UMass versus Providence on Nov. 14. Irving made 26 saves in a 2-1 loss and has a sparkling .949 save percentage. … Former NY Giants coach and Pats assistant coach Joe Judge is on Lane Kiffin’s staff at Ole Miss. … Bob Dobias reports that Swampscott High School made it to the D-6 semis under Peter Bush of the Powertown Bushes, and son Will had a solid year at running back and ILB. … Keith Hernandez said on X last week that he had to put down his 22-year-old cat Hadji. “I loved him so much and miss him dearly. RIP my little guy.”  … Pet grieving aside, happy Thanksgiving everyone. It’s a great country, no matter what.

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com