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UMass football ready for its return to Amherst

Workers were readying McGuirk Stadium for the return of UMass football last month. Matthew Cavanaugh for The Boston Globe

When Stanley Andre was beginning his sophomore season at the University of Massachusetts, he suffered an ankle injury during the opening game of 2011 against Boston College.

That resulted in a medical redshirt. Despite the frustration of being forced to the sidelines for the rest of the year, Andre viewed it as an opportunity.

He studied the game of football, particularly on the defensive side where he plays linebacker. That time helped him become a more important contributor over his junior and senior seasons for the Minutemen, who host Bowling Green (2-2) at McGuirk Stadium on Saturday.

“I definitely learned the game of football a lot more,” said Andre, a former Reading High quarterback and a native of Dorchester, who focused some of his free time deciphering gap schemes and positioning for different offensive formations. “It’s just the little things that make you the player that you are. When you can’t do anything physically, the only thing you can process and retain is the mental aspect of it, so you’ve got to focus on that and work on your technique.”

So far, the 2014 campaign hasn’t been a successful one. The Minutemen head into the first weekend of their Mid-American Conference schedule with an 0-4 record.

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Last Saturday, they were schooled at Penn State with the Nittany Lions earning a lopsided 48-7 decision after taking a 34-0 lead at the half.

“We just weren’t in the right places at the right time,” said Andre, who has 38 tackles, 10 solo, this season and one sack. “A football game really just comes down to a handful of plays whether you’re in the right place or the wrong place. It wasn’t in our favor at that point in time. We just didn’t execute on defense. You’ve got to stay with it all four quarters and not take off a portion of the game.”

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One of the reasons for that is the youth of the roster. Coach Mark Whipple said they are learning as they go through each week.

“We’re just a young team,” he said. “We really just have a couple of seniors. We just try to get over the hump. Our first four games were kind of like preseason in the NFL. We’ve got the real deal coming here with Bowling Green.”

Through four contests, UMass has given up 153 points, an average of 38.2, and has scored just 83 (20.75 average). Bowling Green, on the other hand, has scored an average of 35.2 points per game while surrendering a total of 176, or 44 per outing.

“We’re not ready to play in the Big Ten, SEC, ACC or the Pac-10,” said Whipple. “We’ve finished a couple of shots out. We’ll see if we can play in the MAC now. We have a huge test this week against Bowling Green.

“Our guys have gotten better and other than that, we are psyched to go out there and score Saturday. We just try to move forward.”

Andre, who is one of the leaders on the squad, said despite the record, there is plenty of enthusiasm and strong morale among the players.

“Everyone is still positive,” said Andre. “Unfortunately, we’re 0-4 at the moment but we made a lot of positive plays and we also made a lot mistakes that we can learn from and improve on so when we get to conference play, we can make those adjustments. Everyone is looking forward to the remaining eight games we have. We’re going to keep plugging along.”

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This will be the first game the Minutemen have played at the newly-renovated McGuirk and Andre said he thinks that will enhance the atmosphere on Saturday.

“There were some renovations, there’s a new facility, and new turf,” said Andre. “It definitely has the same McGuirk feeling. But it definitely looks newer and it’s going to be exciting when the students and alumni and people who support UMass football will be able to have a presence on the field along with us. We’re excited for conference play and to play our first home game here.”

Whipple said he is hoping that the enhanced environment will add to the excitement on the campus.

“It’s another scenario for us,” said the coach. “Most of our players haven’t played a home game there so I hope it will be an advantage. It seemed to be an advantage when I was [coaching] here the first time. I think not having to get on a bus and go two hours to play a home game [which they were doing at Gillette Stadium] will help us. We’ll have meetings at home for the first time so it will all be new. I hope that will be the one advantage we’ll have. We’re hoping for a good crowd.”


Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Elle1027.

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