AMHERST — UMass football fans far and wide grew skeptical around this time last year, wondering if Missouri — a team that had climbed its way into college football playoff talks — would actually come to Amherst in 2024 for its scheduled football game with the Minutemen.

That time has finally come, and the UMass faithful has close to sold out McGuirk Alumni Stadium for perhaps UMass’ most highly anticipated home game in program history. Although the Tigers suffered their first blemish of the season last week against Texas A&M and won’t come in undefeated, the No. 21 ranked team in the country is still plenty to be excited about. It is unlikely the Minutemen will host a team of this caliber again anytime soon, and even head coach Don Brown said Saturday’s noon kickoff (on ESPN2) with Missouri is the program’s biggest game since it became an FBS team.

Nobody expects UMass to win the game let alone be competitive, the 27-point spread points to that, so the Minutemen can go out there and perform with no pressure. The only thing that’s left is for them to roll up their sleeves and give their best shot at shocking the world.

“When you get to play an SEC-type opponent, obviously that’s a great thing,” Brown said during Monday’s media availability. “It’ll challenge our players. The nice thing about games like this, you don’t have to work real hard to get the guys excited about playing. They’ll be excited, there’s no doubt about that. We just gotta prepare, put the best plan we can out there both offensively and defensively and in special teams, and we’ve gotta eliminate the big mistake. Compete at a high level, that’s what it’s all about. We’re gonna get that opportunity this weekend.”

Here’s everything to know about UMass’ massive matchup with Missouri.

So you’re saying there’s a chance … ?

Not really, but if the Minutemen were to pull of one of the greatest upsets in college football history, quite a few things would have to go their way. Let’s break down their keys to victory.

In a game where one team is significantly inferior to the other, the lesser team absolutely can’t afford any senseless mistakes, which UMass has made plenty of through its six games in 2024. The Minutemen can’t just not turn the ball over, they need to create turnovers themselves to give their offense extra possessions. On top of that, the penalty bug has to stay away, which it did during last week’s loss to Northern Illinois (four fouls for 15 yards).

“The penalty thing has to stay away, and we’ve got to stop with the turnovers,” Brown said. “I’m saying in all phases. Special teams, offense, whatever. We gotta cut that out. Here we are last weekend, and we give [NIU] two touchdowns ... That makes it hard on the [defense].”

The other two keys are winning on special teams, and finding a way to create big plays on offense. The former of the two the Minutemen have struggled with, and they’ve now coughed up a trio of long kick returns in crucial moments of their half dozen games to date. UMass kicker Jacob Lurie (8-for-14 on field goals) essentially can’t miss any field goals, CJ Kolodziey must flip the field any time he’s called on to punt and those chunk returns must be eliminated.

As for those big plays on offense, UMass has done a great job of creating them of late. Quarterback Taisun Phommachanh, who also needs a stellar outing for the Minutemen to have a chance, has hooked up with receivers Jakobie Keeney-James, T.Y. Harding and Jacquon Gibson for long gains that change the momentum of games. Once again, the offense will have to do that.

Basically, UMass has to play as close to perfect as possible. Simple, right?

Matching up with Missouri

After giving up a whopping 367 yards on the ground to Northern Illinois last Saturday, Brown said on Monday he was going to spend a lot of time with his run defense and front seven throughout the week to prepare for Missouri’s even more physical offensive line and rushing attack.

Leading the way is Tigers running back Nate Noel and his 471 yards and two touchdowns rushing this season. He’s one of three ball carriers over 100 yards for Missouri, and one of those is quarterback Brady Cook, who loves to keep the ball around the goal line and use his physical frame to score. Cook leads the team with four touchdowns on the ground.

“It’s really simple, but hard to do, and that’s stay focused,” Brown said when asked how to improve the run defense. “Just play your responsibility. If you’re the C-gap defender, be the C-gap defender. If you’re the B-gap defender, be the B-gap defender. It comes down to that, and obviously we have to give them a good plan and do a couple things differently. I feel good about it.”

Cook has thrown for 1,132 yards and five touchdowns this season, completing 63.6 percent of his passes with just one interception. His favorite targets on the outside happen to be one of the best wide receiver tandems in all of college football in Luther Burden III and Theo Wease Jr. The two of them are sure to be a handful for Isaiah Rutherford, Lake Ellis and the rest of UMass’ secondary on Saturday.

Burden III (26 receptions, 339 yards, four TDs) and Wease Jr. (28 receptions, 359 yards, one TD) headline a wide receiver room that also consists of solid play makers Mookie Cooper and Marquis Johnson.

Despite all of the weapons Missouri’s pass offense possesses, Brown feels confident in his pass defense — one that has been much improved from a year ago.

“I’m kind of excited about our pass defense and the way we’ve been going,” Brown said. “We’ve been playing at a very, I think, solid level on the back end. We’re starting to get complementary results from the front four in terms of rushing. We play a lot of packages so we get the nickles on the field, get the extra linebackers on the field. I think we’ve done a good job challenging the offenses we play on third down, and we’re gonna continue to try to do that again this weekend.”

Defensively, linebacker Corey Flagg Jr. and safety Marvin Burks Jr. fly all over the turf making plays for Missouri, while Chris McClellan proves to be a game-wrecker on the interior defensive line.