UMass will wear a helmet sticker to honor Michael Boland who passed away during the off season.
Matty Vautour reports on the revamped UMass offensive line and the rest of the offensive starters.
One goal for the offense is to run the ball better. UMass was #124 out of 128 teams in rushing offense in 2016. A good part of that came from playing five Power Five teams (not many Group-of-Five teams rack up big rushing totals against SEC teams), but UMass did not do much better against lesser competition. Whipple's FCS offense featured a strong running game to go with his down-the field passing. I think Marquis Young is a good RB, but he needs more room to operate. Did you see the latest two-deep chart? This year Ray Thomas-Ishman weighs 350, Lucas Kotler 315, Derek Dumais 330, Jake Largay 325 and Jack Driscoll 300. Looks like the OL beefed up. Of the ten OL in the two-deep only one weighs less than 300. Let's hope that translates into more holes for Young to run into.
Nearly all the Minutemen wins so far in FBS have been defensive grinds. The lone game where the UMass offense dominated was the 2015 game against Buffalo where Marquis Young ran for 240 yards. It would be beneficial if we could do more of that in 2017.
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Matty also reports Shane Huber is at peace with walking away from football.
Shane Huber's Twitter statement here.
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The UMass Daily Collegian says UMass is getting ready for Hawaii.
The Hawaii Tribune-Herald says the opening game will tell a lot about UMass and Hawaii.
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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the 2017 Minutemen schedule.
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Hawaii flies east for the UMass game and lands in ----- New York?
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Coastal Carolina transitions from Fall Camp to in-season play.
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The Dispatch previews the Mississippi State-UMass game.
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This article reports UMass will play FCS Southern Illinois in 2020. The currently listed UMass 2020 schedule is here.
Stephen Hewitt of the Boston Herald reports UMass is comfortable as an Independent.
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ESPN ranks UMass fans #117 in fan happiness. We're ahead of UConn and only 8 slots behind BC.
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BTW, this was the best image I took of the eclipse. The air was not very steady here. Note the sunspot group near the sun's equator. Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.
