By admin 
Before kickoff on Saturday night at Hornet Stadium, Mark Orr was presented a commemorative game ball.
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The athletic director for Sacramento State accepted the gift amid good cheer from the Mid-American Conference executives as a keepsake to display on campus to celebrate a night of history, a token to acknowledge the Hornets’ first home game in their new conference in their new era of NCAA Division I FBS football.
That gift gesture was the highlight for the home team. Some day, the Hornets may collectively look back on this occasion as part of the humbling growing pains of stepping up in classification in a sport that allows no grace period for transition.
Massachusetts is proof that a struggling program can become a good one in short order. The Minutemen rolled Sac State, 35-6, in front of 11,007 spectators to improve to 4-0 one year after going 0-12 and not too far removed from a slew of 1-11 seasons.
UMass in beating Rutgers in a season opener halted a 16-game losing streak, and the Minutemen now stand as one of the early-season surprise teams in college football.
Sac State dropped to 1-4 with a much-needed bye next week. The Hornets have to regroup in an effort to save the season before the most curious campaign in the 73-year history of the program veers hard into the ditch.
Sac State landed an invitation to join the MAC after 29 years in the FCS-level Big Sky Conference, using the momentum of winning conference crowns in 2019, 2021 and 2022, reaching the FCS playoffs in 2023 and just missing out on the playoffs last season to gain FBS consideration.
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“Disappointed,” Sac State coach Alonzo Carter said. “Disappointed because I know we have a good football team. We played in spurts. I would never blame it on players. I’ve got to do a better job. If it’s a team that’s physically overpowering us, that’s different. But that’s not the case. It’s our mistakes, and some of the things are undisciplined, out of character.”
He added, “Give UMass credit. They’re good. They’re not undefeated by accident.”
UMass led 21-6 at the half with the Hornets managing just two Grant Meadors field goals. It quickly became 28-6 early in the third quarter when Timmy Hinspeter returned an interception 49 yards for a score, and it was 35-6 after three quarters as UMass was triumphant in the program’s first-ever game in California.
The Minutemen football program started in 1879. The school’s only football game against a California team before Saturday was a 35-14 victory over UC Davis in the 1972 Boardwalk Bowl in Atlantic City, New Jersey, when the schools competed at the Division II level.
Pop Watson III, a Virginia Tech transfer, passed for 101 yards and a touchdown, and he rushed seven times for 72 yards and two scores as the Minutemen were successful on all three of their red zone trips from inside the 20-yard line. UMass is now 14-for-14 this season on red zone scoring this season.
Jackson Sharman passed for 221 yards for Sac State and was sacked four times. The Hornets rushed for 102 net yards on 34 carries as their offensive struggles continued. Sac State has scored 19 points in its last three combined games. Sharman said he has to do a better job with decision-making, adding that he has not lost confidence on his teammates.
The coach echoed the same theme.
“I’m not giving up on this team,” Carter said. “We can be a good football team. We have to get better. It’s on all of us.”
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