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This article covers his offer from Syracuse.
McCree currently has one other offer from Syracuse. O-line is a thin position for the Minutemen and McCree could earn a lot of playing time in Amherst.
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Originally committed to Oregon over 15 other offers.
Moorer has offers from Charlotte and Texas State. Wide receiver is a thin position for UMass and Moorer could find a lot of playing time in Amherst.
Kyle Grabowski of the Hampshire Gazette has an update from Spring practice.
As a GridIron club member, I get to go to scrimmage. It should be fun to see UMass players actually running around and doing some plays.
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In last weekend's FCS playoffs both CAA teams advanced.
Delaware beat a scrappy Sacred Heart team 19-10.
JMU beat VMI 31-24. VMI had their best season in decades.
Our old buddies Southern Illinois, delivered the biggest upset of the FCS first round.
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This photo essay covers Hutchinson's win over another top-rated JUCO team. Several images of Edwards.
Edwards would be a good fit with the Minutemen. There should be lots of playing time available in Amherst in future years.
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This article features Watson.
Watson has 13 total offers including Air Force, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Toledo and Western Michigan plus a number of Ivies.
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Boston.com reports Coleman as one of two local products who are NFL draft "sleepers".
Jags Wire reports Jacksonville has met with Coleman.
CBS Sports picks Coleman to have "a long NFL career".
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Neal Brown has received a two-year contract extension at West Virginia.
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OT, but Tony Barbee is the new NC at Central Michigan.
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Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle says UMass went through scrimmages healthy and Coach Bell is pleased.
Bell is pleased with the top five players on the offensive line and said UMass needed to decide on the next three guys.
For the Liberty game UMass had Dalton Tomilson at center, Reggie Marks at LG and Max Longman at RG.
Bell also is quoted there may or may not be a Spring game depending on state of the team on that date.
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Kyle Grabowski of the Hampshire Gazette profiles UMass senior Avien Peah and his leadership on the Minutemen Defense.
It would be nice if Peah had an injury-free senior season. He's stuck with the program and I'd like to see him play well.
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It looks like UMass will allow some fans for football home games.
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Bass has offers from Arkansas State, Houston, Louisiana Monroe, Missouri State and Troy.
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Webber has FBS offers from Fresno State, Houston, Maryland and North Texas. O-line is one position the Minutemen continue to need more players. Lots of playing time is available in Amherst.
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This partial article (some of it is paywalled) features McLain.
McLain has offers from Ball State, Iowa State, Kentucky and Marshall. Offensive line is a unit where UMass needs more players and there will be a lot of playing time up for grabs in Amherst.
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MaxPreps has some video from 2021.
Violissi is a versatile athlete and UMass needs depth everywhere. Hope he has a great career in Amherst and earns a scholarship.
Howard Herman of the Berkshire Gazette reports Coach Bell is happy with the situation at Spring practice.
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The Post Gazette looks at Pitt's prospects for the 2021 game including the game against the Minutemen.
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Joey Isabella makes an impact for Duquesne during the Dukes spring season.
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Sports Illustrated says the new transfer rule may alter college recruiting. Football staffs could spend more time courting transfers than recruiting HS or JUCO players.
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The NCAA will allow the normal recruiting to resume on June 1st. UMass should be able to bring in potential 2022 recruits to visit Amherst. We should start to see some commits after that.
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This article covers his signing with Iowa Western.
This article from 2019 explains how he went from zero to warp speed in learning American football.
Van den Berg has FBS offers from Texas State and Akron. Also drawing interest from Kentucky, Iowa and Memphis.
Kyle Grabowski of the Hampshire Gazette reports Coach Bell takes inspiration from Coach Carvel and the UMass hockey program.
Kyle also reports on North Carolina transfer Bryce Watts.
The starting secondary against Liberty was:
Noah Boykin CB
Te'Rai Powell, FS
Donte Linsey, SS
Josh Wallace, CB
Cody Jones, Nickle
In 2020, sometimes it looked like Te'Ray Powell was UMass' best defensive player. Adding Watts to the group could make the defensive secondary the Minutemen's best unit. For the last three years or so, the defensive secondary had to deal with stopping opponent running backs who had a fifteen yard head start on them. I think this unit could be very good pass defense if they get some support from the front seven.
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Howard Herman of the Berkshire Gazette says Tyler Lytle is adjusting to the quarterback room at UMass.
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UMass in 2010 was the last FCS team Michigan played.
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UConn joins Army, BYU and Notre Dame as an Independent with a media contract.
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Jason Cherry, who was the place kicker during the glory years of Whipple's first tour sent me an e-mail saying he was at the UMass hockey National Championship game.
He had the very same UMass banner that his parents carried at the UMass Football National Championship game in 1998.
That banner qualifies as a UMass relic that should receive some serious veneration. The script "UMass" emblem was designed by UMass coaches, not a marketing firm and has always been one of my favorites.
Jason said he hopes to carry it at future Minutemen football victories.
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I was watching the Northeast conference championship game on ESPN3 a couple of days ago.
Joey Isabella caught at TD for Duquesne. Isabella went 17-194 and 2 TD's as a freshman.
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Ben Bergfeld, a 5-11 200 pound long snapper from Davenport, Iowa has committed to UMass
Rated a five-star long snapper by Kornblue Kicking.
UMass only has one other LS on the roster, Evan Deckers and he is a redshirt junior. Bergfeld should have the opportunity to long snap for the Minutemen for a number of years. Welcome to Amherst Ben.
UMass officially promotes Jamey McClendon to DE's coach. McClendon's appointment brings the UMass coaching staff back to full strength.
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Pitt announces their home promotional schedule for 2021 including the September 4th game against the Minutemen.
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I remember UMass fans greeted the UMass football team even though it was early morning in Amherst after the 1998 national championship win.
It would be nice to see some clips of a happy football locker room. It's been a long time since there has been some joy on our street. Gotta keep grinding.
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Davis has ten total offers including Army, Old Dominion and Utah State. Davis also has offers from a number of Ivies. He'd be a good fit in Amherst.
Thomas Johnston of the Hampshire Gazette has a story on how new UMass QB Tyler Lytle is embracing the challenge.
The Minutemen currently have five QB's on the roster:
Zamir Wise 6-2 188 RSFR
Garrett Dzuro 5-11 200 RDSO
Will Koch 6-3 201 RSFR
Luke McMenamin 6-3 205 RSSO
Hopefully, whoever wins the QB battle will have better OL play and a better running game to work with in 2021.
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The UMass website has a recap of the first week of Spring ball.
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Congrats to UMass Hockey for last night's overtime win. Hockey has been the banner sport in Amherst the last few years.
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Coach Bell stands with college players in NIL rights. The article says Coach Bell said the UMass offense will be different in 2021. Sometimes in 2020, with minimal practices, it seem as if Bell and the staff were trying to get as many players game experience as possible, rather than trying to maximize winning chances.
This sequence from the Liberty game illustrates this:
1-10MAS45#9 G.Dzuro pass complete to #19 S.Emilus for 31 yards to the LIB24, End Of Play, 1ST DOWN.
P71-10LIB24#23 C.Roberson rush for 1 yard gain to the LIB23 (#10 T.Clark).
2-9LIB23#23 C.Roberson rush for 4 yards gain to the LIB19 (#44 A.Lewis).
3-5LIB19#16 J.Johnson rush for 5 yards loss to the LIB24 (#11 D.Johnson).
4-10LIB24#98 J.Martin field goal attempt from 41 yards NO GOOD, clock 12:31
UMass was down 0-21 in the second quarter. Dzuro completed a pass to the Flames 24 yard line. In the plays above, UMass' top back (Merriweather) did not touch the ball and there were a couple of freshman lineman in...
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UNH opts of the remainder of the season.
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Randy Edsall says UConn's spring session was productive despite it's early ending.
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MassLive has paywalled most UMass sports stories.
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The Worcester Telegram has a post on Debs that's inspiring.
As mentioned in the Telegram's story, Debs father played for UMass and won a letter in 1982. UMass is light in the WR room and there is playing time available for a slot receiver. Hope Debs has a great career in Amherst and earns a scholarship.
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UMass is the first offer for Leinberger. The offensive line is a unit where the Minutemen still need more depth and there is lots of playing time up for grabs in Amherst.
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2nd team All-Bergan County on defense.
NJ Super Conference All-Division on defense.
UMass is the first FBS offer for Mandel. He has FCS offers from Fordham, Georgetown and Bucknell.
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| Joe Horn hikes for QB Garrett Druzo |
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West Virginia HC and former UMass player Neal Brown will speak at keynote Boy Scouts dinner.
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The Brawl Network profiles Larnel Coleman for this year's NFL draft.
NFL Draft Buzz also has a post on Coleman.
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I've been watching Rhode Island football on YouTube. The Rams win over Villanova is here. Highlights to Rhody's overtime win over Albany is here.
Rhode Island has their best team in decades. They have ten FBS transfers. QB Kasim Hill is a former four-star recruit who initially signed with Maryland. He has battled injuries for most of his career, but he's 6-2 237 and is an effective dual-threat guy.
Former UMass RB Kevin Brown is quick and has good lower body strength. He ran for four TD's against Villanova--- and he took Wildcat LB"s for a ride all game when they tried to tackle him.
Boston College transfer linebacker Evan Stewart 6-0 225 leads Ram defense.
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| Transfer RB Kay'Ron Adams. |
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Kyle Grabowski of the Gazette reports on UMass Spring practice.
Coach Bell is quoted that three QB's have stood out so far: Tyler Lytle, Garret Dzuro and Zamir Wise. The Minutemen had zero running game in 2020, so I don't think the offensive production was necessarily the fault of the quarterbacks. If you have a good looking running game, you usually have a good lookin' QB. It'll be interesting how it shakes out.
In addition, Grabowski reports the Minutemen have two recruiting slots to give this spring/summer. One will be filled by transfer WR Rico Arnold. The other may go to a offensive lineman. UMass was offering OL transfers earlier.
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The Boston Herald says UMass camp opens with a heated competition at quarterback.
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Former UMass QB Andrew Brito joins the Saint Francis Red Flashes.
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Image is UMass LB Myles Turner, 6-1 235.
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Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle has a post on UMass announcing its Spring schedule.
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Herman also has a story on Jarvis Miller signing a free agent contract with the Steelers.
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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has an interview with transfer WR Rico Arnold.
UMass lost starting WR's Samuel Emilus and Javon Turner from last year's two-deep. JUCO transfer Trey Pettway and Arnold should be in contention to start at the "X" and "Y" receiver spots.
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College Football News predicts "Best-case, Worse Case" results for the Independents in 2021.
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New Mexico State officially announces their 2021 schedule.
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The Kansas City Chiefs have re-signed Tajae Sharpe.
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