It's forty days until Letter-of-Intent Day. While we wait for this year's recruits to appear, there's almost 20 recruits already on the squad that we haven't seen yet---- the redshirts.
I looked at the player participation lists in all 12 games. Forgive me if I missed any broken redshirts, but these are the apparent totals.
Quarterbacks:
Ross Comis 6-2 205
Andrew Verboys 5-11 200
Verboys has fastest feet than any QB Minutemen fans have seen in a while. Comis is one player I want to watch in 2015's Spring Game. He doesn't have the 6-5 225 size everyone wants in a QB these days, but a lot of quarterbacking is intangibles. Move the offense and win and you're a QB.
Defensive backs:
Charan Singh 6-2 192
Jarell Addo 6-2 186
Joel Devariste 6-0 195
Jeremy Rodriguez 6-2 196
Singh and Addo have FBS size. Rodriguez received some favorable mention by the coaching staff. Devariste is a walk-on.
TE's:
Jordan Fiske 6-3 225
Jon Lucier 6-6 215
Fiske spent a year at East Coast Prep before joining UMass, so he's a year older.
Offensive Line:
Dimitri Angelas 6-5 291
Anthony Fernandez 6-6 302
Dan DiNicola 6-6 275
The FBS-FCS divide is most apparent in linemen. With four OL recruits already verbaled for 2015, UMass will have 20+ offensive linemen on the roster. That's a big change from 2012, where the Minutemen struggled to field five guys.
Wide Receivers:
Alfred Adarkwah 6-4 188
J.T. Kelley 6-6 215
Ryan Heath 5-9 190
Defensive Linemen:
Jack Wynne 6-5 253
Basit Dennis 6-2 280
Chris Carter 6-4 276
Jake Largay 6-6 280
Defensive line is definitely a position where the Minutemen need more and bigger bodies. Besides the four listed above UMass has two DL recruits so far in the 2015 verbals.
Who will see action as a RSFR in 2015? I think Addo and Rodriguez will make the rotation in the defensive backfield. Comis and Verboys should be in contention for the #2 QB. Carter and Largay should get some reps in the defensive line. Everyone else, we'll have to watch in the Spring Game.
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If you somehow missed the wild ending of the CMU-Western Kentucky Bahamas Bowl, here it is. Central Michigan down 49-14 in the fourth quarter, came all the way back to nearly win the game.
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Only a couple of hundred fans went to the Bahamas Bowl, but as USA Today explains, bowl attendance doesn't really matter any more.
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