Friday, November 07, 2008

Maine Preview


The Boston Glove has an article about Josh Jennings.

Jeff Thomas has an article about the resurgent UMass defense .

Bruce Dowd give his weekly long article on the review of the CAA's 10th week and makes predictions for week #11 .

The Sports Network has it's weekly FCS Preview .

This week's TV college games are listed here (with UMass being on Comcast Sports New England).

Matty Vautour previews the Maine game here .

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UMass game notes here (html) and here( pdf).

Maine games note are here (html) and here (pdf).

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Maine has an almost identical record to UMass they have lost to a FBS/I-A team (Iowa) and also to Richmond and JMU.

Losses:
  1. Iowa 3-46
  2. Richmond 17-44
  3. JMU 10-24
Wins:
  1. Monmouth 21-17
  2. Stony Brook 28-17
  3. Delaware 27-10
  4. Hofstra 41-40 overtime
  5. Northeastern 20-0
  6. Iona 55-7
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Maine's top players:

Offense
Rushing: Jhamal Fluellen (6 G, 91-433 yards, 1 TD)
Passing: Michael Brusco (35-49 71% 508 yards 6TD 56.0 yards/game 199.9 EFF)
Receiving: Jared Turcotte (9 G, 20-226 yards, 1 TD) (Note he's an H-back)
Defense
Tackles: Jovan Belcher (9 G, 29 solo, 47 assisted, 76 total) (Note: All-American)
Sacks: Jovan Belcher (9 G, 6.0-33 yards)
Interceptions: Lamir Whetstone (9 G, 3-0 yards)

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Maine actually got better when Brusco took over the QB duties after Adam Farkes got hurt at Delaware.

Maine is 6th in rushing and 6th in Total Defense in the CAA. They are 8th in Total Offense.

They really shine in Turnover Margin. The Black Bears are +10 in turnovers, which is tied for second in the league. They have 8 fumble recoveries and 13 INT's.

The Maine defense also is tied for the league lead in sacks with 20.

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Keys to the game are plain to see. Maine leads the league in sacks. UMass leads the league sacks against with only 6. The UMass offensive line against the Black Bear defensive line.

Saturday is Liam Coen's 23rd birthday. He and the offense need to produce some points to keep the game from turning into one of those 13-10 defensive battles. With a close score, anything can happen.

The UMass defense must continue to improve. Someone said on the UMass football message board that during the last game against Rhode Island the UMass defense looked like the 2006 team that went to the National Championship. That was true. Let's keep that going.

Go UMass!