The Season In Purgatory continues...
The game went bad early as Central Michigan scored on their first possession and UMass' offense went backwards about 20 yards on ours.
UMass was not competitive in any portion of yesterday's game. A. J. Doyle had another bad game.He went 6-13-45 with 3 INT's (one for a CMU score).
The cold weather and wind did not bother Central Michigan's Cooper Rush who went 13-21-231 yards and 2 TD's. Rush pretty much had his way with the UMass secondary; whenever CMU needed yards, they got it passing. CMU went 4-4 in the redzone. UMass' one entry was stymied by another Doyle INT.
When Rob Blanchflower does not play, the Minutemen passing game comes to a total halt. No other receiver even sorta picks up the slack. Besides the QB, UMass also needs a big infusion of speed and talent in the receiving corps.
The Miinutemen did shut down the Chippewas running game, holding CMU to 65 total yards rushing.
UMass continues to burn up running backs. They broke Shadrach Abrokwah's redshirt yesterday. He must have been about sixth on the depth chart at the start of the season. It seems like UMass running backs last one game before being semi-permanently injured.
I don't know if anyone picked up on the ESPN3's commentators comments on UMass' struggles. They said UMass only had about 50 scholarships at the I-AA level and after the transfer of 10 players, UMass bottomed out with about 40 scholarships in 2012. If this is true, then that would be the reason Brown left, and it would be the reason UMass struggled in their last three seasons in the CAA. If UMass is barely at the I-AA level for scholarships after two seasons in FBS, then it's going to be another couple of years before there's much improvement.
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UMass writeup on the game.
Paul Bowker of MassLive says UMass routed.
MassLive says Abrokwah shined in his first game for the Minutemen.
The Hampshire Gazette said the UMass offense stalled out.
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UNH whacked previously undefeated Maine.
As I predicted, UConn picked up their first win over hapless Temple.
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