Saturday-- April 14th, 2012

AP image

Former UMass kicker Chris Koepplin has signed a free agent contract with the Patriots. I thought Chris had kicked well during his stint with them last year. Apparently, the Pats thought so too.

Another article from ESPN on Koepplin's signing.

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Football Scoop has a short video about spring highlights at Indiana. The Hoosiers will be long remembered as UMass' first home Big Ten team and first FBS team to play the Minutemen at Gillette.

Speaking of Indiana, they added six JUCO's this spring.

We never had much luck getting FBS teams to visit McGuirk. Villanova, Ball State and Rutgers in 1967 are the only ones I can recall. Anyone know any other team?

A commenter noted Boston College, of course. I received an e-mail mentioning Toledo in 1976. 

UPDATE: My e-mail correspondent says Buffalo was FBS like Rutgers and Villanova, but dropped football. They were then reincarnated as a FCS/I-AA team, then moved to the MAC. The Ivys could be considered FBS teams back in the 50's and 60's too.

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Philly.com wonders if Temple is ready for the Big East.

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Bleacher Report has a slide show on "Ten college football programs that are clean as a whistle". After this year, the Minutemen will have played four of them.

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