Some thoughts:
1. Ed Pinkham for HC? The UMass defense had 12 TFL against an SEC team known for their running attack. That's 23 TFL for the defense in the last two games. The Minutemen held Tennessee to 135 total yards rushing and Vols star RB Kelley to 101. And 27 of those yards came on one run. The Tennessee passing game was generally ineffective totaling 187 yards and again 66 of those came on one play. Four-star QB Jarrett Guarantano was in for a couple of series and the Minutemen held him to 2-5 -3 yards. The defense did everything we could ask.
2. The offense did not play bad. The offensive line struggled with the pass rush, but the run blocking improved. UMass actually out rushed the Vols 142 to 135 net yards. Even better, Marquis Young averaged 5.4 yards/carry and Bilal Ally averaged 4.9. On the negative side Ross Comis continued to struggle to move the offense. There were some mistakes, but again this was against an SEC team on their home field.
3. If there are 130 teams in FBS, we are #131 in special teams. We kicked the opening kickoff out of bounds. Mike Schreiner missed an extra point. Our senior kicker had a 26 yard punt and in the fourth quarter with six minutes to play, punted into the end zone from the Tennessee 44 yard line. An inside the ten punt would have really upped the pressure on the Vols offense. We just get zero positive plays from the kicking game.
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UMass write-up here.
Tennessee write-up here.
MassLive says UMass fell in a close contest.
Matty Vautour says UMass couldn't complete the comeback.
Matty report the Minutemen came out of the game with some injury concerns.
Mostly sour grapes from the Tennessee side.
SEC country has grades for the Vols.
The Times-Free press says Tennessee managed to hold off UMass. The same newspaper says Elliot Berry knocking Andrew Ford out of the game was key play of the contest.
Vols RB John Kelley said the UMass defense was "a little tougher than expected".
The News-Sentinel said bright spots were hard to find for the Vols.
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Hawaii lost to Wyoming in overtime.
Coastal Carolina was crushed by FCS Western Illinois. I still can't believe we lost to those guys.
Old Dominion was crushed by Virginia Tech 0-38.
Ohio won in double overtime against Eastern Michigan.
USF had routed Temple 43-7 on Friday.
Georgia Southern was run over by Indiana 17-52.
Appalachian State lost to Wake Forest by 1.
Mississippi State was dominated by a strong Georgia defense 3-31.
Maine lost to #1 ranked James Madison 10-28.
FIU beat Rice in a defensive struggle.
BYU had a bye.
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