Friday--December 30th, 2016

Well the big storm was a bust here in Jaffrey. Looks like we got about six inches or so. I'll go out and shovel after I finish the blog.

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AP image

UMass finished #124 out of 128 FBS teams in rushing offense. A good portion of that result was from the caliber of the opposition: Five Power Five teams plus BYU. Also remember sack yardage comes off the rushing total, which makes the results look worse.

I thought I'd look at the Minutemen's rushing results against the non-Power Five half of the schedule. Blogger does not do columns, so the results will look a little messy.

FIU 36-116 3.2 yards/carry 0 rushing TD's (win)

Tulane 24-131 5.5  yards/carry 1 rushing TD

Old Dominion 28-180 6.4 yards/carry 1 rushing TD

Louisiana Tech 33-131 4.0 yards/carry 1 rushing TD

Wagner 24-143 6.0 yards/carry 1 rushing TD (win)

Troy 28-44 1.6 yards/carry 1 rushing TD

Hawaii 34-117 3.4 yards/carry 2 rushing TD's

Total: 207-862 4.16 yards/carry 7 rushing TD's

Against Power Five teams 153-332 2.16 yards/carry 3 rushing TD's

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Good read about Don Brown and the origin of his pressure defense (hint: Whipple was involved).

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ESPN reports a growing number of Group-of-five officials want their own playoffs. UMass would be eligible as an independent along with Army.

The AAC commissioner is against the idea.

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The MAC is 0-5 in bowl games, but Western Michigan is in the highest rated bowl. This story relates how P.J. Fleck revived the Bronco's fortunes. It started with a season in which Western Michigan's only win was over UMass.

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