UMass Football News--July 29th, 2017

Matty Vautour has a post on Andrew Ford being named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award candidate watch list.

Kevin Dillon of MassLive also has a story on Ford.

Ford went 11-9 GP-GS 222-365 2665 26 TD's 14 INT's 74 LONG 61% 7.3 AVE/P 242.3 AVE/G

Ford was #48 nationally in passing efficiency.

He was in the top-25 in passing TD's and #54 in passing yards.

Ford was #44 in passing yards per game.

Since Ford only started 9 games 75% of the season, we could expect him to have some pretty impressive numbers in 2017. Playing fewer Power Five teams in 2017 should also help. Ford would seem to be the locked-in starter for 2017 and 2018. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass has five QB's on the Spring roster. Besides Ford there are:

Blaine Almeida #3 QB 5-11 191 RSFR DNP in 2016

Ross Comis #2 QB 6-0 200 RSJR 4-3 GP-GS 28-63 370 1 INT 1 TD 58 LONG 44% 5.9 AVE/P 92.5 AVE/G

Michael Curtis #17 QB 6-2 210 JUCO transfer in Spring

Randall West #13 QB 6-4 233 RSSO 3-0 GP-GS 3-5 45 yards 43 LONG

Comis' numbers were impacted because he started against #25 Florida and Boston College who had the #9 ranked defense in 2016. ACL injuries usually requires a year to heal, so he might not be 100% until later in the season.

Michael Curtis appears to have three years of eligibility.

In a 2-10 season, Randall West did not have much chance to play. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joe Biddle of WKRN.com says Tennessee is a "slam dunk" winner over UMass.

Speaking of the Vols, their current running back roster has a total of one career starts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------