Friday--October 3rd, 2014

Ron Chimelis says the November games won't help UMass motivate fans to McGuirk. Blame that one on the MAC, Ron. I've said all along scheduling a game on a Friday afternoon is nuts. Some people still work. EMU drew 1,300 fans to their Black Friday game two years ago.

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Jackson Porter continues to struggle at CB. I've always thought DB is the toughest position to play. At UMass, it's even tougher as our defensive scheme puts DB's in single coverage a lot. There's no cure for Porter's struggles except for lots of reps.

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Tom Masella discusses his defense giving up a school record 688 yards to Bowling Green. The Minutemen defense is about where I thought they'd be. The defense hasn't had the recruits and JUCO's the offensive has had the last three years. There's no helping that; the offense was one of the worst in all of football last year. It had to come first. Making the Minutemen a good FBS team is a multi-year project. We can hope that Masella will get some impact recruits in 2015. They're not that far off from being good. The D-line could use some help first. UMass had zero sacks against the Falcons.

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Matty V. looks at the relationship between Blake Frohnapfel and Mark Whipple. Coach Whipple is an NFL-caliber QB coach, and seems to able to work well with quarterbacks no matter where he is (Richard Lucero was the exception).

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UMass has its game notes for Miami (Ohio) up.

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BC Interruption does some gloating about the rented video board falling during the Bowling Green game.

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The Miami student newspaper says the Redhawks host winless UMass.

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Sons of Old Massachusetts hands out helmet stickers for the Bowling Green game.

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James Ihedigbo was handed a $16,000 fine for a hit that the officials didn't even flag.

BTW, after Ihedigbo arrived, the Lions have morphed into the NFL's top defense.

ESPN says Ihedigbo looked good in his first start for the Lions (he'd been out with a neck injury).

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