By Pete Pelegrin
Twitter: @Petepelegrin

FIU wraps up the regular season with UMass on Saturday at high noon looking to continue the momentum from last week to its bowl game in December.

The Panthers are coming off a resounding win over Western Kentucky and seek their first win against the Minutemen in three tries.

UMass is playing its best football of the season of late having won four of its last five games after a 0-6 start. The Minutemen have turned it around with their defense producing 15 turnovers in the last five games.

UMass also has a potent offense led by quarterback Andrew Ford, who tossed three touchdowns against FIU in a 21-13 win last season in Amherst, Mass.

For more on the Minutemen here is Matt Vautour, who is the UMass beat writer for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, to answer 5 Questions on UMass. You can follow Matt on Twitter for all UMass things: @MattVautourDHG.

    

1. What was expected of the Minutemen this season? Is the current 4-7 record something you envisioned for them?

MV: I think coming in to the year I would have thought 4-7 was possible, but I might have assumed some of those four wins would have come in the first few weeks against some of the teams UMass lost to -- Hawaii, Coastal Carolina, etc. So it was an odd path to 4-7.

2. What has UMass done better to win four of its last five games after a 0-6 start to the season?

MV: UMass has a new defensive coordinator in Ed Pinkham, who was at Western Michigan last year. It took a couple weeks for the defense to click under his leadership. There were signs early that things could come together, it just took some time for it to happen. After the double bye week, UMass started getting takeaways and things snowballed from there.

3. Looking at the numbers, it seems like UMass has a balanced offense. Is that right and who are some of their playmakers?

MV: It is right. Adam Breneman is a likely NFL draft choice at tight end. He's been the team's best player on offense the past two years. Wide receiver Andy Isabella is small, but plays like a college version of Wes Welker. He gets open and is fast enough to get free for extra yards after a catch. Marquis Young has been the primary ball carrier, but Bilal Ally has come on lately.

4. The UMass pass defense only allows 200 yards per game. Is that the strength of the defense or is the number low because of the 182 rushing yards allowed by the Minutemen per contest?

MV: I feel like so many of the season-long defensive numbers have been hard to read much into because UMass was much worse earlier in the year.

5. Your thoughts on Saturday's game between UMass and FIU?

MV: This feels like a conference game with the regularity facing each other. I'm curious to see FIU's improvement under Butch Davis. I'm expecting a pretty competitive game.