The University of Maine’s football team, mired in its first five-game losing streak since the 2022 season, will look to snap its skid when it entertains Bryant University on Saturday at 1 p.m.
UMaine has won the last four meetings between the two teams, and seven of the last eight.
UMaine is 1-5 overall and 1-2 in the Coastal Athletic Association while Bryant, which was picked ninth in the coaches’ preseason poll, is a surprising 4-2 and 2-0, respectively.
Sean Green, the former state championship head coach at Portland and Cape Elizabeth High Schools, will make his debut as interim offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach in the game after replacing Mikahael Waters. Waters was fired after UMaine’s 24-16 loss to Sacred Heart on Oct. 3.
The Black Bears didn’t play last weekend.
Bryant lost to in-state rival Brown University last Saturday, 28-13, even though Bryant junior quarterback Brennan Myer completed 29 of 37 passes for 308 yards and sophomore wide receiver Shamar Fowles caught 12 of those passes for 135 yards. They hooked up on one touchdown pass.
UMaine’s offense is dead last among 13 teams in the conference in points (14.5) and yards per game (270.2) and the Black Bears will be facing a Bryant defense that is third best in the conference in points allowed (23.3).
UMaine head football coach Jordan Stevens called Bryant a very good football team.
“They’re a really disciplined team. They take care of the ball really well,” Stevens said. “They play complementary football in all three phases (offense, defense, special teams). You’ve seen that throughout the season.”
Bryant has great receivers, Stevens added.
“That’s going to be a challenge for us. They have size as well and they’re going to go get the ball. And they have a run game to go along with that,” Stevens said.
Defensively, Stevens said Bryant has a tough, physical, swarming defense.
Bulldogs head coach Chris Merritt said he has a “tremendous amount of respect for Maine” and said his team is in for a dogfight.
“Even though they may be a different team than they’ve been the past two years, they’ve taken us behind the shed in the first half of each game and gotten after us, outscoring us 69-0,” Merritt said.
For the first time this season, UMaine alternated quarterbacks in the Sacred Heart game with regular starter Eddie Buehler completing just one of his five passes for 13 yards before Caden Drezek came on to complete 12 of 28 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown and he finished the game.
On the season, Buehler has completed 54.6 percent of his passes for 828 yards and four touchdowns with six interceptions. Drezek has completed 42.5 percent of his passes for 201 yards and a TD without being intercepted.
A resurgent Rashawn Marshall has rushed for 172 yards on 27 carries in his last two games for an average of 6.4 yards per carry. He has rushed for 348 yards on 77 carries on the season.
Nick Laughlin and Evan Wallace have been the top receivers. Laughlin has 23 catches for 211 yards and Wallace has 18 for 154.
Linebackers Sam Oppenheimer (58 tackles) and Noah Carpenter (42 tackles) and strong safety Jeremiah McGill (44 tackles) have led the UMaine defense and defensive end Chris Bacon has a team-high three sacks.
Oppenheimer is third in the conference in tackles and second in solo tackles (36). He is seventh in the country among players at 124 Football Championship Subdivision teams in solo tackles.
He also has two interceptions and a forced fumble.
For Bryant, Myer has completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 1,075 yards and four TDs with two interceptions. Sean Wilson Jr. has snared 24 passes for 304 yards, Fowles has caught 22 for 322 yards and Jose Leon has 17 for 164 yards including 14 catches in his last two games.
O.J. Ross (66 carries-277 yards) and Jordan Bennett (53-for-224) are the Bulldogs’ leading rushers.
Linebacker Drake Lusk (48 tackles), cornerback Olatunde Mkparu (33 tackles) and free safety Ezra Carter (30) are their top tacklers.
The six Maine Division III football teams will also be in action on Saturday.
Bangor’s Husson University, 1-4 overall and 1-1 in the Conference of New England, will travel to Henniker, New Hampshire, for a conference game against New England College (1-4, 0-2) at noon. New England College is in just its third season of football since reinstating the program following a 51-year absence.
The state’s two other Conference of New England programs, Biddeford’s University of New England and Castine’s Maine Maritime Academy, will square off in Biddeford at noon with each gunning for its first victory of the season. Both are 0-5 and 0-2.
Maine Maritime Academy has lost 37 consecutive games.
The three New England Small College Athletic Conference teams are all 0-4 for the first time since the 2019 season. And they are all taking on 4-0 teams.
Bates will visit Wesleyan and Colby will entertain Amherst in 1 p.m. contests, and Bowdoin will trek to Trinity for a 1:30 p.m. game.