A look back on the A10 North

North

Massachusetts 8 0 1.00 13 2 .867
Maine 5 3 .625 6 5 .545
New Hampshire 5 3 .625 9 4 .692
Northeastern 4 4 .500 5 6 .455
Rhode Island 2 6 .250 4 7 .364
Hofstra 1 7 .125 2 9 .182

In the rush to the National Championship, I sorta lost track of the rest of the league. Some interesting things happened in the A10 this year. UMass we know about. It might be good to take a look back on the other teams in the A10 North.

UNH -- finished tied with Maine for league wins. Played two epic games against UMass. Dominated Big 10 Northwestern. Ricky Santos won the Payton award for the best offensive player in I-AA. The Wildcats were never quite the same team after their All-American DB Corey Graham went down with a season ending injury. Regional grouping in the playoffs hurt UNH as they did not deserve to get UMass in the second round. It will be interesting to see how the Wildcats do in 2007 with out all-everything WR David ball .

Maine --- The Black Bears had the toughest last two games in the nation as they had to meet UMass and UNH back to back. Maine DE Matt King was probably the best defensive lineman UMass played. Maine DB Darren Stone will be playing in the Hula Bowl . They also played a very credible game against Boston College . This blog thinks Maine could have made the playoffs if they had been playing in a lesser league. They had talent on both sides of the ball and their defense was exceptional.

Northeastern--- Played their usual insane schedule . Opened with five road games in a row. The Huskies did have some positive things happen. They beat UNH and Delaware back to back . Northeastern's Maurice Murray was one of the toughest backs UMass played against in 2006. Again, this was a team that would have contended l in most leagues. They probably played the toughest schedule in I-AA and still ended up .500 in the A10. If the Huskies ever decided to play Liberty, VMI and Elon as their OOC, they very well could flirt with being a playoff team.

Rhode Island---The Rams actually made some progress this year. Their assistant coach Harold Nichols was named assistant coach of the year in I-AA. Due to the efforts of former Ram players, they actually made some significant improvements to Meade Stadium. The Rams were hurt when they had some mid-season injuries to their quarterbacks----just where an option team would not want problems. If the Rams can stay healthy, they could make some noise in 2007.

Hofstra ---- Not much went right for new head coach Dave Cohen . Veteran coaches known a good year to retire and Joe Gardi picked a good year to go. The only real bright spot was kicker Rob Zarrilli, who may have the best kicker in I-AA. The Pride probably played their best game against I-A Marshall . The Pride will need a lot of work to be a factor in the A10/CAA in 2007