Thursday News-- 11/27/09

UMass had been interested in Seth Sheridan a 6-1 185 pd RB from Oakmont, MA. He tore an ACL and will likely spend a year in prep school. More on Sheridan here. He was drawing interest from Boston College and UNH as well as UMass. Hope he has a speedy recovery.

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BTW, a big congratulations to Holy Cross for making the FCS/I-AA playoffs. The Crusaders have painfully climbed back to respectability after the infamous Fr. Brooks blew up the Holy Cross athletic program (a case study on why one-man rule is bad). The NFL is taking a serious look at Crusader QB Dominic Randolph.

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Updated information about the 2009 FCS playoff brackets.

The Sports Network's Brett Kahn previews the 2009 playoffs.

A couple of stories about UNH-McNeese state here and here.

Villanova has a fan blog I haven't seen before. It bills itself as the "most tasteless and disrespectful" Villanova blog on the net.

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Next year's FBS opponent Michigan is still having problems.

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Thanksgiving Day --11/26/09

I would like to wish all the Blog community a big "Happy Thanksgiving". Hope all is well with you and yours.

I'm thankful for having the opportunity to run the Blog and meet all the UMass fans.

I'm thankful for Mrs Blog. She flew, drove and walked with me a lot of miles this season. Without complaint, she sat through a frog-drowning downpour at Richmond. She's the greatest.

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Matty V has two stories about the UMass All-Decade Team from the 2000's. Here is the story and here is the fan vote. Lots of great UMass players. I am grateful I got to see them play.

Random thought. Has Detroit ever won a Thanksgiving Day game?

Wednesday News--11/28/09

Another story about the sad end of Northeastern Football.

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West Roxbury captains Tony Bland and Garrett Fitzgerald are interested in UMass.

Bland is a Scout.com one-star recruit.

Fitzgerald is also being recruited by UConn.

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Apponequet's Joe Bianchini is also interested in UMass.

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Barnstable's 6-5 285 pd OL Dalton Gifford has been offered a scholarship by UMass.

Highlight film for Gifford here.

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Maryland's Ralph Friedgen is on the hot seat in Maryland. That could mean trouble for Don Brown.

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The CAA's weekly news and notes for all the league teams here.

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Keepers College football ratings has Villanova and William & Mary as favorites and UNH and Richmond as close underdogs in the FCS playoff first round.

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I fixed the javascript for the countdown clock. It now has the correct day count.

Tuesday News---11/24/09

Matty V. has some thoughts about Northeastern dropping football (worth reading).

Matty has quotes from both Don Brown and Kevin Morris on the demise of Northeastern football.

This article relates the feelings of Northeastern OL Brian Palangi.


Matty also has an interview with Coach Morris about the gains and pains of the 2009 season.

Ron Chemlis has an interview with UMass AD John McCutcheon about the end of Northeastern Football.

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The CAA has announced their All-Conference teams yesterday. Vladimir Ducasse, Chris Zardas, Jeromy Miles and and Victor Cruz were first team All-CAA. Tyler Holmes, Kyle C. Harrington and Tony Nelson were second team. Brandon Collier and Armando Cuko were named third team. Two guys were better than Cuko? Armando was third in the nation in kicking stats.

Examiner.com has a story on the nine UMass players honored.

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Josh Buchanan projects the "small school' players who will be invited to the NFL Combine and Vladimir Ducasse is one of them.

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UMass ended up #24 in the final regular season GridIron Power Index.

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Chuck Burton has his "CSN Way" column here.

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Jeromy Miles is on the 2009 Buchanan Award ballot.

No UMass players on the Payton Award Ballot.

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Sam Houston State, Bethune-Cookman and Youngstown State all fired their head coaches.

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Monday Morning News--11/23/09

Northeastern cancels its Football Program. Wow! I am very sorry for Northeastern fans.

More from ESPN and from the Boston Globe here and here. The Boston Herald here.

R.I.P. Huskies football. A loss for New England football.

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UNH faces McNeese State in the first round of the playoffs.

All of Saturday's FCS scores here.

Chuck Burton looks at the 2009 playoff field.

More information about the 2009 FCS Championship tournament here.

Humbled in Hempstead--11/22/09

Mrs Blog and I listened to the game while traveling in eastern New England. WCRN 830 AM in Worcester puts out a monster signal. It was a tough game to listen to, as a mediocre Hofstra team set a all-time passing record against the the Minutemen. It was a disappointing end to a disappointing season.

This one is going to take a while to get over.

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UMass write-up here.

Matty Vautour's story here.

Newday says Hofstra rolled it up.

Ron Chimelis on Scott Woodward's first career start. He also has a game article here.

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The CAA received two seeds and four total teams in the 2009 playoffs. Printable pdf bracket schedule here.

The Sports Network has a playoff article here.

Dave Coulson has a long article reviewing the last regular season games this Saturday.

Both Princeton and former FCS power Georgia Southern fired their head coaches.

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Game Day-- Hofstra 11/21/09

Hofstra finally has its game notes for UMass here.

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CAA Game Day page here.

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Ron Chimelis says UMass needs this game.

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Matty V. says the last game is important to the UMass Seniors.

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Chuck Burton has his weekly "CSN Way" column here.

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Terrance Thomas has his weekly "CAA Today" essay here.

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I totally missed Amherst College having an undefeated season.

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BLOG NOTE:

Because of a commitment, I will not be able to up-date the blog tonight or tomorrow morning. So--- until then-----GO UMASS!