Thursday-- February 19th, 2015

Matty Vautour reports Thorr Bjorn is not interested in the UMass AD job.

The Providence Journal says Bjorn is in negotiations for a contract extension.

John McCutcheon is welcomed at UCSB.

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The Athletic Dept is the "business" end of the University. I knew a athletic dept official who, if you called him at 9:30 am "wasn't in yet". If you called at 11:00. he was "gone to lunch". Call at 3:30 and he was "gone for the day". I'm not making this up.

UMass needs a young, aggressive person who wants to ultimately be AD at an SEC school and make a couple of million as a Power Five AD. Getting UMass in a football conference, fixing the swoon in Hockey and women's basketball, all need to be accomplished.

In today's athletic environment, there's no status quo. If you're not improving, you're fading. "We're happy like we are." is not a viable business model. The rest of the world is changing fast and UMass has to adopt.

If UMass wants to be a nationally ranked public university, athletics is one component of that goal. This is a big hire. Let's get it right.

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The Philadelphia Eagles are taking on quite a UMass flavor as former UMass player and coach Brian Smith joins the Eagles staff.

Comcast Sports Philly also has a post on Smith's hiring.

Delaware Online has a story about Smith and UMass recruiting him when he was in high school.

Smith joins Bill McGovern (1987-90. 1992-93) and Jerry Azzinaro (1992-94, 1997) on the Eagles staff.

UPDATE: Several people mentioned I missed Mike Dawson, who's also on the Eagles staff. Mike was a four year letter winner and Captain of the Minutemen in 1997.

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A Notre Dame blog picks UMass as the Irish's easiest opponent in 2015.

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Jean Sifrin gets a mention is this NFL Combine article.

Patriots.com says Sifrin is a terrific athlete.

The MAC Conference has nine players at the Combine.

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UMass recruiting 2023? Ten-year old Daron Bryden has already camped at UMass.

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