My Top Ten UMass Football experiences

Only thirty days until the 2008 season opens and only five days till football camp starts! Be still my heart.

I read this article about one man's ten best college football experiences and I started thinking about my ten best UMass football memories. This list only contains games that I was actually in attendance.

1. Attending the National Championship game against Appalachian State in Chattanoogna.
   
2. Attending the 1978 27-0 win over Boston College and the largest ever crowd (20,000) at McGuirk.
3. Being at the 1996 UMass-UConn game at McGuirk. UMass was down 38-19 with twelve minutes to play. UMass TE Eric Henry catches a Jeff Smith pass with 31 seconds left for a UMass win 39-38. Greatest comeback in UMass history.
4. The Fly0ver at the Navy game. Two S-3's go over the stadium 500 feet up. And UMass played great football. The UMass band wows the Navy crowd.
5. Being at the BU game at Nickerson field when Frank Alessio ran for 337 yards.
6. Watching the Hatchell brothers beat UNH in both 2006 games.
7. Watching Steve Lemay's 102 yard interception for a TD against BU.
   
8. Watching Ben Albert score a TD and beat Holy Cross 7-3 and end their long home win streak.
9. Watching UMass beat Lehigh 27-21 in the first FCS playoff game at McGuirk since 1977.
10. Watching UMass crush UConn 62-20 in 1999. UMass played everybody except the student managers.

What's your favorite memory? TV games don't count. You had to have been there.

UPDATE: Just purchased two Texas Tech tickets from the UMass Athletic Ticket office! An honorable mention favorite UMass memory would be the Kansas State game. UMass led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter and there were 60,000 very, very quiet Cats fans at the game.

Football News 7/30/08

The UMass Football Blog completed three full years last month. By internet standards, that's ancient. I read somewhere the average amateur website lasts about 90 days before being abandoned.

But Blogging has opened a whole new world for fans. This article discusses how sportswriters are leaving the MSM for blogging.

The CAA's media day will be covered by CN8's "Out of Bounds" show tonight at 7:00 pm.

CN8's live video internet feed is here.

UPDATE: Coach Brown will be interviewed during the show. The UMass Athletic Dept site has details here . Mute the Red Sox and listen!

Off Topic ------ Photography

Feel free to skip this post if it does not interest you.

Now and then I get an e-mail or two about the images I publish on the UMass Football Blog.

Mrs. Blog got me a Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro zoom lens for Christmas this year. I used it for most of the images in the Spring Game Album and the April 18th Spring Practice. I'm looking forward to an actual game :)

Last weekend I tried the "Macro" capabilities on my flower garden. The results came out pretty good.

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view. More macro images here.

And this last image, which reminded me of Robert Frost's famous poem "Design" published in 1936

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth--
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small.

UMass Football History --- 1982 Game Program Scans

I've added 15 images from various 1982 UMass game programs to the UMass Historical Scans section of the blog. The link is here . Included are some featured scans of Garry Pearson.

In 1982 UMass went 5-6 and 3-2 in the Yankee Conference.

On 11/13/82 UMass defeated New Hampshire to win a piece of their 14th Yankee Conference Championship.

On 11/30/82 Garry Pearson rushed for a then-UMass single game record of 288 yards against AIC. He finished with 1,631 yards, 312 attempts, 5.2 yards/carry and 13 TDs.

All Yankee Conference were:

• Glen Holden CB
• Garry Pearson RB
• Todd Comeau DE
• Gary Frecker TE
• Grady Fuller S
• Scott LaFond LG

I found a number of 1982 game programs in the vast UMass Football Blog archives, that accounts for the larger number of scans than normal for 1982.

The historical scans section of the Blog now includes:

• 1971
• 1973
• 1976 through 1982

Check out George Parks' beard !
Enjoy!

Monday Morning News 07/28/08

The invaluable Draft Daddy Blog has a post from Josh Buchanan about the top 15 "Small School cornerbacks" (scroll to the 07/25 posting). Sean Smalls and Courtney Robinson are ranked #4 and #6 respectively.

Delaware has added 8 I-A transfers since the end of last season and is in the running for Brandon Gilbeaux who started at DE for Syracuse last year. Could he be interested in us?

Saturday Soundoffs Blog reviews the 2008 status of UMass and Boston College .

Coach Brown's show on CBS3 (WSHM)

UMass and Springfield TV station CBS3 (WSHM) have signed a three year deal to produce coaches shows for both football and basketball.

Starting Sept 6th, Coach Brown will have a 30 minute magazine show at 11:30 on Saturday. CBS3 will also increase its coverage of UMass sports on its 6:00 pm and 11:00 pm news shows.

Matty Vautour has a story and his thoughts about the deal here .

The Springfield Republican has a story here .

My feeling is that this is a good deal for UMass football. It seems to include more coverage and the more the better. With most of the 2008 football games moving to an afternoon kickoff, the 11:30 show should be well placed for fans going to the games.

Anything that creates a buzz for UMass football is OK in my book. Maybe NESN will rebroadcast the show and present it New England wide.

Matt Lawrence looking good at Bears Camp.

This article states that Matt Lawrence has a good chance to make the Bears roster.

The Bears have six running backs in camp right now.

Matt's Chicago Bears bio page here.

Friday Morning News 07/25/08

Armando Cuko takes part in a North Shore football camp for kids .

The New Hampshire AD talks about the state of UNH football and the CAA.

The SME broadcaster's preseason poll has UMass ranked #5.

CSN has a composite FCS television schedule for the entire year of 2008 here . I'm going to add that as a permanent link in the sidebar.

UPDATE: This link gives a 2008 TV schedule for all college divisions (I have no idea how accurate it is).

UMass picked first in CAA Preseason Voting

At the CAA Media day, UMass was picked first in the preseason poll. CAA press release here .

OVERALL CHAMPION -- Massachusetts
North Division (First Place votes)
1. Massachusetts (17) Note that we got 17 votes and there are only 12 teams in the league!
2. New Hampshire (1)
3. Hofstra (1)
4. Maine
5. Northeastern
6. Rhode Island

South Division (First Place votes)
1. Richmond (11)
2. James Madison (7)
3. Delaware (1)
4. Villanova
5. William and Mary
6. Towson

Liam Coen got preseason Offensive Player of the year.

Sean Calicchio was preseason All-conference.

The All-conference defensive backfield was a UMass home field with three UMass players selected: Jeromy Miles, Courtney Robinson and Sean Smalls.

Lots of articles about media day.

• UMass athletic dept
• Matty Vautour here and here
• Boston Globe
• Springfield Republican
• Three articles about New Hampshire
• Seven about Richmond
• Two about Delaware

CAA TV Package has 37 games for 2008

CAA has released its 2008 TV package.

It looks like a good deal for UMass fans with high-speed internet. Seven UMass games will be televised, most of them on CN8. As I've said before, CN8 live video feed works great with my Verizon DSL.

• UMass @ JMU CN8 09/13/08 3:30 pm
  
• Delaware @ UMass CN8 10/04/08 3:30 pm
• UMass @ Northeastern CSN 10/11/08 12:00 pm
  
• Richmond @ UMass CN8 10/18/08 3:30 pm
  
• Maine @ UMass CSN 11/08/08 12:00 pm
  
• UMass @ New Hampshire CSN 11/15/08 12:00 pm
• Hofstra @ UMass CN8 11/22/08 2:30 pm

Several other games are available on Dish Network or Direct TV's satellite regional sports packages.

CAA News 07/23/08

There will be a flurry of CAA news after today's Media Day. See yesterday's blog entry for more details of Media Day.

Some news has already been released.

• UMass picked to win the CAA.
• How will be league function when it hits 14 teams?
• The 2008 CAA Media guide is out .
  

Josh Maurer to be the Voice of UMass Football

The Springfield Republican Josh Maurer has been chosen the manager of broadcast properties at UMass replacing the departed Bob Behler.

The UMass Athletic Dept article is here .

Matty Vautour has an article here . Matty has more Maurer stuff in his latest post of his UMass Sports Blog.

Maurer previously called games for Charleston Southern a FCS/I-AA team from Big South Conference.

Audio clip #1 of him calling a Buccaneer football game.

Audio clip #2 .

Welcome Josh!

Image is from the UMass athletic web site.

UPDATE: Article from Charleston Net about him leaving.

CAA Football Media Day tomorrow

In a further sign that football is at last approaching, the Colonial Athletic Association will have its annual Media Day tomorrow.

Besides Coach Brown, UMass QB Liam Coen and Senior DB Sean Smalls will attend (.pdf)

Both the Hofstra and Delaware student stations will cover the event from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. They will have streaming internet audio.

Comcast Sports Net will do a one-hour show on the CAA Media Day on its "SportsNite" show on July 23rd.

CN8 will also cover the event with its "Out of Bounds' show on July 30th at 7:00 pm. This should be available over the internet on CN8's live video feed (requires Windows Media Player).

UMass Field House Tour

The UMass Football Blog was honored to receive an invite to tour the UMass Field House. The invitation was extended by Paul Bys the UMass Equipment Manager. I want to thank him and Coach Brown for allowing us to visit. It certainly was a treat to get a tour of the field house.

About a week before my June vacation I journeyed down to Amherst for the imaging session. I spent a couple of hours talking to Mr. Bys and several of the UMass coaches.

Mr. Bys will be in his 13th year as equipment manager when the season opens against Albany on August 30th. Paul oversees all the game day operations as well as equipment and locker room facilities for both home and away games.

I ended taking 19 images, which are in a Picasa web album here. I've also added a link in the “2008 UMass Images' section in the sidebar.

Truth-in-blogging note: I was not not allowed to take pictures of the coach's rooms in the Field House (the UMass coaching staff has “field' offices in the facility as well as in the main UMass football offices in Boyden). The athletic dept also asked to see a copy of this blog post before I published it, which was fair in my opinion. Many teams would not work with a Blogger.

The UMass field House dates to the construction of Warren McGuirk Alumni stadium in 1965. It was built in the era when real men changed under the bleachers and a facility like the field house was considered first class. It is now definitely on the elderly side, but the staff works hard to make it the home of UMass football. Despite its age, it compares well with facilities in the CAA North. With lights being added this year, there has been a welcome increase in the University's attention to the McGuirk football complex.

After some years of neglect, I reported last year that the field house received a new coat of paint and the roof was repaired.

Certainly, there is room for improvement in the facilities. A field turf practice field would save wear and tear on the stadium surface and an indoor practice facility would benefit all the athletic teams (Lax, Field Hockey, Soccer and Football). We can always hope!

Besides being the training facility, the staff has tried to make the field house “home” to the UMass Football team. It houses the UMass trophies and football memorabilia .

Click on the link and follow me as we tour the UMass field house!

Football News Saturday 07/19/08

Big doin's with the State of Rhode Island's football teams.

Josh Buchanan has a question-and-answer session with UMass OL Ben Coblyn.

Matt Vautour explains what happened to Corey Eason. Also interesting in Matt's article is the fact that UMass Football will have a temporary announcer in 2008. I wonder if Matt Goldstein could switch to play-by-play?

A columnist named Pete Fiutak says Texas Tech could hang a 100 points on the Minutemen if they wanted.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention----- Joe Flacco signed for $30 million.

Notes on the 2008 UMass Football Season Preview

The official UMass Athletic Web site has a six-page 2008 Football Season Preview up.

Notes & comments:

Offense

"Liam Coen is the best quarterback in UMass football history" said coach Brown. That's quite a statement...

A big cog in the offense seems to be backup QB Scott Woodward. Besides backing up Liam he's the holder on kicks and the backup punter.

At RB it looks like we will have the "lighting & thunder" combo of 5-10 210 pd Tony Nelson and 6-2 245 pd Brandon White.

Good to hear 6-1 230 pd FB Chris Zardas will be ready to go. 6-1 215 pd Emil Iqwenagu will back him up.

Bigger news is that 6-0 200 pd Victor Cruz is expected to start at WR. Cruz was a highly touted recruit who will be in his fourth season with the Minutemen. In 2007, Cruz played in eight games and had one catch for 26 yards.

Take a bow anonymous commenter, who told us 6-2 230 pd Ryan Logan would move to H-Back.
It's true.

But you didn't say All-conference RT Tackle Sean Calicchio is moving to center. Taking his place at RT will be 6-6 260 pd Rob Getek. Left Guard will be 6-8 296 pd Ben Coblyn. Reading between the lines, it looks like RG is still open.

Defense:

Brian Ellis will start at SS. At 6-0 210 he's a former LB who played in 11 games in '07 and had 25 tackles. His backup will me 6-0 205 pd Shane Viveiros. Another new face in the two-deep is backup FS Eric Dickson. He played in nine games in 2007 and had five tackles.

A new name in the defense is true freshman Nichlas Haag, who is DB from Bridgton Academy. I don't remember seeing him on previous recruiting lists.

There has always been a lot of comment on the size of our defensive line. Looks like we bulked up for 2007. DE Michael Hansen is 6-2 260 (he was listed as 235 last year). Captain Brandon Collier is now 6-1 280 . Kyle C. Harrington is the NG and is 6-3 280 (up from 256 last year).

Another new recruit is Nicholas Collilouri. He's a 5-11 260 pd DL from Holliston MA. He's apparently a recruited walk-on. Image of him here (sixth image down). Looks like quite a bit of depth on the DL with Shaun Allen, Anthony Monette, JUCO Theluxon Pierre, Bob McLaughlin, Delaware transfer Raymond Jones and RFr Courtney Jackson.

One interesting fact is that Travis Tripucka a defender on the UMass Lax team will contend for the long snapper position. His uncle Mark Tripucka played QB for the Minutemen in the early 70's. Mark was the starting QB in 1974. He went 60-145 817 yards and 6 TD in the old Yankee Conference.

I think this is a good and deep squad. Fall camp opens on August 5th!

Odds & Ends July 17, 2008

Two Colgate football players including their featured RB Jordon Scott are spending 21 days in the county jail. That can't be good for conditioning.

This article seems to imply that the CAA will have two TV games a week starting September 13th. Nothing on the CAA's website about this year's TV package.

Championship Subdivision New Log is the home of the FCS Stadium Google Map. Click on the team icon and it displays the team's Stadium.

A computer geek tip from the UMass Football Blog: If you double click on the stadium image in the above map, it displays the location in decimal longitude and latitude. For Example, Lehigh's stadium displays 40.58908579220241, -75.35554651932216.

You can then load that into your car GPS and create a custom Point of Interest if you want to drive to the stadium. This link shows how to create a custom POI files for Garmin GPS automobile navigation systems. Note the GPS will probaby try to drive you to the center of the stadium. The data could be refined by checking the visitor's parking coordinates when you get there and then updating the POI file. Most GPS units have a way to display longitude and latitude .

And there's a new college football simulation website that includes FCS/I-AA teams. It's a pay site but has free head to head simulations. I did UMass' 2006 team that made the National Championship Game against the 2006 Army team. The prediction----UMass 35 Army 19.

It predicts that if UMass and this year's I-AA team Texas Tech played in 2007----Texas Tech 35 UMass 21. The Red Raiders won in all 25 simulations.

An excellent way to waste time!

Jeff Thomas on the Stadium Lights

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Union on the Stadium lights.

This quote is a little unsettling "McCutcheon said there are no other facility upgrades in the works, but the improvement of Earl Lorden Field has been discussed and doing something with Boyden Gym is on the long-range radar."

Josh Buchanan picks five UMass players preseason All-CAA

Josh Buchanan lists five UMass players in his preseason All-CAA teams.

He has preseason All-League teams for the rest of FCS over at Draft Daddy's blog (scroll down).

Buchanan's home page is over at "Small School Spotlight" at NFL Draft Bible.


College Football Bonus link: The Big East moves to Friday night (and raises some hackles)

We lose one to UConn

Geoff Schultz a 5-10 210 pd OLB will walk on at UConn. Besides UMass, he was recruited by Georgetown, Central Conn and Hofstra.

Scout.com's 2009 list of Massachusetts prospects.

Our final 2008 Rivals.com ranking shows ten players they were tracking. It would be nice if Tyrone McBride will eventually ended up at UMass.

Saturday Morning Odds & Ends 07/12/08

Bob Behler has a farewell video on the main UMass website page . This Blog will miss his calls of UMass football and basketball. The video contains his list of his all-time favorite football broadcasts.

For the teams playing in the FCS Division of football, making the playoffs is the primary goal of the season. I was surprised to find that 18 FCS teams play two BCS teams this season. Although a BCS loss does not count against a team for playoff eligibility, it does reduce the number of possible FCS wins to a razor thin margin.

I just received Phill Steele's PAC-10 version of his football preview magazine through the mail yesterday. I bought it because it has a hundred pages of FCS info. Every FCS team has a half page of details. He picks UMass #5 starting the season.

A number of UMass seniors in mock NFL Draft

The latest iteration of Josh Buchanan's Small School Draft is here .

Sean Smalls is up to #11.

Recruiting News 07/11/08

A UMass Football Blog reader reports that two UMass recruits played in the July 4th 2008 Virginia High School Coaches All-Star game .

Korrey Davis (RB 5-10 185) had five carries for 17 yards and Tyler Homes (LB 6-0 195) was Defensive MVP!

Thanks to Tony for the report!

UMass is apparently interested in Peter Rose a DB who was the Virginia Player-of-the-Year. He was released from a letter of intent to Virginia Tech after getting in trouble.

Rose was considered a model student athlete before his problems.

McGuirk wish list

To paraphrase Lincoln's famous letter to General Meade after the battle of Gettysburg, this blog is grateful----very grateful---for the the recent renovations made to McGuirk.

As I understand the Athletic Department's plan, they would like to renovate the press box and field turf the Gladchuck Practice field. Both are worthy projects. The practice field would get practice sessions for football team off the mall in front of the stadium when McGuirk is in use by other teams.

However, there are a couple of things about McGuirk that could use attention. As pointed out by a commenter in an earlier blog post, the sound system at McGuirk stinks. One year not too long ago it seemed to make a come back, then was bad again the next year. That would indicate the problem is in the wiring or the electronics not the speakers.

Sports Sounds Inc makes systems for college stadiums.

The other repair that would be nice would be the scoreboard. Or maybe replacing the scoreboard. It was the peak of 1970's technology when installed, but is definitely dated in 2008. Towson is adding a new board. One thing about the new scoreboards is that they produce revenue. I certainly would trade watching commercials for a working video scoreboard. The new lights will allow UMass to do night and evening games. A quality scoreboard would really enhance the night game experience.

Among CAA teams, Delaware is adding a 16 X 40 video scoreboard to Delaware Stadium.

More information on state-of-the art scoreboards from Daktronics, Inc.

UPDATE : A number of BCS teams are installing Hi-def football scoreboards. LSU is installing one for both football and basketball .

McGuirk lighting project

I made a quick run to McGuirk during a family obligation on Monday July 7th and checked on the McGuirk lighting project.

There is a short (nine image) Picassa web album here of the images I took during my visit. I'll also add a link in "2008 images' section of the sidebar.

I did not have my notepad with me so any errors in this blog post are totally my fault not the lighting company or the athletic dept.

If I understood correctly what the workers were telling me, there will be eight 110 foot light towers. Two behind each section of stadium seating and two behind each endzone.

The workers described the installation as similar to a project they had done at Springfield College.

They said the eight light towers will put a lot of light on the field.

They were also installing auxiliary lighting for the exits (fire laws require lighted exits) and that's where some of the additional cost occurs above and beyond just the light towers.

Also, some of the UMass players were running wind sprints in the stadium. The temperature was about 89 degrees and it was one of those oppressive humidity days in the valley. There was just no air at all. The players were encouraging each other and they were still at it when I left.

UPDATE I: The UMass athletic site has an article here . The lights are up!. I did get one thing wrong in the post above. There will be three sets of lights per side not four. So the total will be six banks of lights.

UMass Blog News

OK. I now own UMassfootballblog.com domain.

We'll be hosted by GoDaddy.com for at least a year. I have to pay for the hosting, but I at least get some tech support.

One note, most other hosting sites (including GoDaddy) won't do a direct import from Blogger. That would be wwwwaayyyy too easy. Instead, I have to make a knight's move to another blogging platform and then import from there. If you want to see what the UMass Football Blog looks like in WordPress click here. It will probably take a while to complete the shift.

I honor of the occasion, I had a couple of UMass Football Blog hats made up. I have a black one with maroon letters and I had two with maroon and white (Mrs. Blog likes the Maroon ones).

I will give away one of the hats to UMass Football Blog reader. It's a brand new quality hat. I need to figure out a way decide who gets the hat. Any suggestions are welcome. Send me an e-mail if you have a brainstorm. There is an e-mail link in the "About me' section in the side bar. Some more images of the hat here .

The Hat does not violate any UMass trademarks. The font is standard "Ariel" not the script or block "UMass" trademarked by the athletic dept. And as I said it will be free one one blog reader.

More Texas Tech stuff

I know I said that there would be some Blog news today, but I've got a family commitment, so I'm going to push that back until tomorrow when I'm not rushed.

Couple of articles about UMass' BCS/I-AA game Texas Tech.

I found this link about Texas Tech's QB Graham Harell over on Draft Daddy's Blog (a great source for college football enthusiasts).

This Article reviews Big Twelve offenses. The good news: the Red Raiders are not as good as Oklahoma. The bad news: they're better than Texas, Kansas and Nebraska. Gulp!

And lastly, I found this image on the web while searching for the Texas Tech logo. Maybe there are other sports than football...

Shane Viveiros gains attention at safety

The Fall River Herald has an article on RS Freshman Safety Shane Viveiros.

We have not done a poll on the defensive backfield yet, but it looks like Viveiros will backup Brian Ellis at strong safety in 2008.

At 6-0 215 and with a 475 squat (a UMass freshman DB record), it looks like Shane has a bright future in the UMass secondary.

The image to the right is a crop from one of the ones I took at the spring game. It's got a little blur from the long focal length.

Happy Fourth of July !

The image above is of the USS Constitution's annual harbor cruse. Today is the 221st birthday of the world's oldest constitutional republic. Happy Birthday America!

Not much UMass football news on the wires today. There will be some significant UMass Football Blog news coming on Monday.

With the 2008 season coming up I'll be blogging opponent reviews, unit reviews of the UMass Football team and much more.

Everybody have a safe and happy Fourth.

More FCS changes

The upgrade in FCS football in the Northeast continues. The Northeast conference will add ten scholarships in increments to push their total to forty.

With the Northeast conference getting an auto-bid to the playoffs starting in 2010, the extra scholarships should make NEC teams more competitive. Since the opening rounds are not seeded, but selected on travel considerations, UMass could be seeing NEC teams in the first round instead of Patriot League teams starting in 2010.

Speaking of the FCS playoffs, to accommodate the extra teams the NCAA will eliminate the bye week starting in 2010. This may not be as bad as it sounds.

It's likely the top 12 teams will have a bye the first week of the playoffs and the bottom eight teams will have a play-in game as suggested in this David Coulson article. (corrected numbers)

When Georgia Southern was making its great run of FCS championships under Paul Johnson, he always played eleven weeks in a row so that the Eagles would have a bye week going into the playoffs.

We'll just have to be one of the top 16 teams and avoid the play-in game. It will make playing a I-A game harder. Many FCS teams liked to schedule the bye week after the big effort against the BCS team.

Wednesday Morning Odds & Ends 07/02/08

Does UMass play a FCS/I-AA version of Buddy Ryan's 46 defense?

Wanna really know what "zone blitz" is, and how to block it and why the Patriots lost the Super Bowl? Check this article from Smart Football.

Delaware adds a transfer from UConn.

Anyone old enough to remember UMass hanger-on "Eric-the-Rat" ---Blue Wall Jazz musician, Universal Life Church minister and naked guy? Apparently he has a slightly younger brother. Sure looks there is a family resemblance.

And our so-called "Sports marketing" division misses another big opportunity.

Another article about Bob Behler leaving UMass. This time by Matt Vautour.