Friday, December 05, 2014

Friday-- December 5th, 2014

UMass Athletic Dept image
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As a season ticket holder I also received the following e-mail from Coach:


Thank you for being part of an exciting season for UMass Football.

We made great progress this season and you were there to see it on the field.

I want you to know that things are only going to get better.

Some of the highlights of this season from our perspective:

    We made huge strides on offense, especially in the passing game. We nearly doubled our total passing yards from 2013, and tripled our passing touchdown total. Overall, we put up 328 points this season, compared with 140 in 2013.
    We achieved solid improvement on defense. We got our sack and interception totals up, and cut down on rushing yards allowed.
    Three of our players, all of whom have a year of eligibility remaining, got national notice
        Quarterback Blake Frohnapfel was one of the most productive passers in college football, throwing for 3,345 yards despite missing the last two games;
        Wide receiver Tajae Sharpe racked up 1,281 receiving yards, caught a UMass record tying 13 passes in three different games, and was a candidate for the Biletnikoff Award
        Tight end Jean Sifrin piled up 637 receiving yards and six touchdowns and was a candidate for the John Mackey Award
    We came home, playing three of our six home games at McGuirk Stadium on campus.
    We won three games: That's one more than we'd won in our first two years of FBS competition combined.

I want you to know we appreciate your support. Whether you were there for our opener against BC, our return to Amherst for Homecoming or one or our four other home games, you played a part in our success. It means a lot.

We're heading into recruiting season excited about our ability to improve the team for 2015. We've got our sights set on a MAC Championship and a bowl bid. I promise it’s going to be a great ride. I hope you'll be with us again.

Have a great holiday season and a Happy New Year.

See you on National Signing Day.

We Win Together.

Go UMass!

Coach Whip

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The BC Blog "BC Interruption" looks at UMass or Army joining CUSA from a Eagles scheduling perspective.

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The Worcester Telegram has an article on Northbridge and Abington Division 5 State Championship game. UMass Hall-of-Fame member Phip Vandersea (1963, 1965) played for Northbridge and UMass QB Fred Kelliher (1973, '74, '75) played for Abington.

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The MAC Championship game will be tonight at 7:00 PM on ESPN2.

Hustle Belt reports on today's MAC Championship game's press conference.

Cleveland.com says Bowling Green needs to do four things to win its second straight MAC conference title.

Campus Insiders previews the MAC Championship game.

The MAC Conference and Ford Field in Detroit have announced the conference championship game will continue at Ford field until 2019.

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Victor Cruz is off crutches.

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