Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Tuesday--December 9th, 2014

Blake Frohnapfel and Tajae Sharpe were named to the All-New England Team.

Dan Malone has an article on Frohnapfel's and Sharpe's selection to the All-New England Team.

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Dan starts a 2014 position review with the Minutemen defensive line and thinks big things are in store in the future.

Let's parse the DL this way.

Graduating in 2014:

Daniel Maynes 12-11 GP-GS 13 UT 31 AT 44 TT 7.5 TFL 1.5 SACKS (most tackles by a DL).

Returning starters:

Peter Angeh 12-12 GP-GS 7 UT 27 AT 34 TT 4.0 TFL 1.0 SACKS
Sha-Ki Holines 12-9 GP-GS 7 UT 27 AT 34 TT 3.0 TFL 2.0 Sacks

Reserves:

Robert Kitching 12-3 GP-GS 8 UT 35 AT 43 TT 5.5 TFL 0.5 SACKS
Enock Asante 12-0 GP-GS 3 UT 15 AT 18 TT 4.0 TFL
Leo Krisanovic 11-1 GP-GS 6 UT 9 AT 15 TT 2.0 TFL

Other defensive linemen:

Michael Dowe SO
Joe Tyo FSFR
Al Leneus JU
Chris Carter FR
Jake Largay FR
Jack Wynne FR
Josh Smiley (Academically ineligible 2014)

One 2015 recruit so far:

Diasjon Robinson

UMass will gain FBS size down the road as Smiley, Carter, Largay and Wynne are all 6-5 or taller. The defense has not had the recruits the offense has had so far during our three years in FBS. I would think Whipple will bring in several JUCO or FBS transfers in this recruiting cycle. Our defensive stats are impacted by four BCS games, but UMass was 11th in total defense, 9th in run defense and (probably the most important) 11th in scoring defense in the MAC. Moving defense into the middle of the MAC in scoring defense would probably add two or three wins to our 2015 totals.

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UMass is one of a long list of teams interested in UAB safety Bobby Baker. Because UAB dropped football, Baker would not have to sit out a year.

Baker's UAB Bio.

The rest of the Blazers roster is here if you want to speculate on defensive linemen or whatever.
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Anthero Nicolau who coached in four Super Bowls (and one year-1970) at UMass, passed away.

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If you missed it, UConn lost to 0-11 SMU Saturday.

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