Charley Molnar was fired as the University of Massachusetts head football coach after the 2013 season, after leading the Minutemen to a combined 2-22 record for the last two seasons they competed in the Football Bowl Subdivision. So I thought that I would take a look at the Minutemen over the last two seasons in terms of their production rankings using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model, starting with the 2012 season - the first season that I have UMass data analyzed by the model.
2012
Two seasons ago UMass finished at 1-11 overall and 1-7 in the Mid American Conference, while playing against an average strength of schedule as compared to the "league" average. The Minutemen's only victory was a 22-14 decision against #101 ranked Akron and their worst loss of the season was to #114 ranked Miami (OH). In terms of on-field performance, this was the worst team in the Football Bowl Subdivision given their overall rank was #124 out of 124 teams. Why? One reason was their pathetic offense - ranked #124 or worst in the Football Bowl Subdivision and their defense was not much better, ranked #121 out of 124 teams. Surely a season to forget.
2013
Last season UMass finished at 1-11 overall and 1-7 in the Mid American Conference again playing against an average strength of schedule. This season the Minutemen's only victory was over #124 ranked Miami (OH) and their worst loss was to FCS Maine. In terms of the team's on-field performance UMass finished as the #119 ranked team overall with the #121 ranked offense and the #88 ranked defense. While UMass is improving (not much room to decline from last season), this was not enough for the school to retain their head football coach.
Analysis of 2013 NCAA FBS Head Coach Changes
Boise State and Chris Petersen
Texas and Mack Brown
Washington and Steve Sarkisian
Wake Forest and Jim Grobe
Wyoming and Dave Christensen
Eastern Michigan and Ron English
Florida Atlantic and Carl Pelini
Miami of Ohio and Don Treadwell
UConn and Paul Pasqualoni
USC and Lane Kiffen