LAS CRUCES, NM—With about four minutes left on the clock, and UMass within reach of an historic victory, 11 players jogged onto the field for a critical defensive stand. A year ago, four of those 11 Minutemen were practicing four hours west along Interstate 10, at Arizona.
Of the 30 or so UA players who entered the NCAA transfer portal this past offseason, eight ended up together at the unlikeliest of places, on the roster of an independent East Coast program that hadn’t won more than one game in a season since 2018 and never more than four since moving to the FBS level in 2012.