Multiple news outlets are saying UMass and Coach Whipple are negotiating his leaving UMass.
Josh Wallfish says
sources say UMass and Whipple are parting ways.
MassLive reports
Whipple out as UMass coach.
The Boston Herald reports
the Whipple era may be over.
Hero Sports has
some potential candidates for the head coach for the Minutemen.
MassLive also has
some potential choices for UMass' next coach.
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My take on this year's problems comes down to recruiting. After a successful year three years ago, the quality of the recruiting classes has declined. On defense we were small and lacked athleticism.
After Jarell Addo was suspended, Tyris Lebeau started for him. After Lebeau went down with a shoulder injury, the coaches thought the next best option was to move a safety to OLB.
Consider this quote by Ed Pinkham from October 6th:
“
One of the things we’ve been trying to deal with is we’re trying to
get our best 11 guys on the field,” Pinkham said. “Sometimes when you
have injuries or you don’t have the option of playing a guy, you take a
guy from one position and put him in another position, feeling like this
is the best 11 guys we have. He hasn’t had all the experience, the
amount of time we’ve invested for a guy in a particular position, it
does take awhile for them to play. In addition to when I do that, I look
at the guy I replaced him with and he’s not as good at that position as
the guy I moved from one to the other."
I translate that as "we are exactly one guy deep at OLB".
On the defensive line we had five total sacks in the 2018 season by defensive linemen. Jake Byczko had 4.5-26 and Joe Previte had 0.5-4. That's amazin' stat. In addition UMass had one (1) QB hurry for the entire season. For the last two seasons, if we played a team that had a dual-threat QB we gave up a huge amount of yardage. It's no shame we couldn't compete with Georgia's #1 QB recruit in the nation, but teams like Coastal Carolina had the same results.
Now consider that Bryton Barr, Jarell Addo, both starting safeties and Lee Moses are all graduating. We don't have a pass rushing DE on the roster. We do not have a big run-stopping MLB.
Defensive recruiting has been a train wreck.
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My choice for a new head coach would be someone who is a good fit for the school and I'd probably pick a defensive guy. Most of our wins have been defensive grinds rather than offensive shoot-outs. Offense sells tickets, but losing is worse. We need someone who can recruit enough talent to be competitive. I'm not asking for Power Five recruiting classes. I'm asking for classes that will enable us to compete in the Group-of-Five.
