UMass Football News--May 31st, 2022

 Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has an interview with Ahmad Haston, a 2023 QB commit.

The Minutemen's defensive woes have been obvious over the last three years. However, the UMass offense has not been a weapon since Andrew Ford graduated. Recently I re-watched the UMass Coastal Carolina game. The Chants were a good team, but the UMass offense only managed 13 first downs (two by penalty). The Minutemen rushed for 28 total yards and went 18-30 125 yards passing. That's 4.2 yards a pass.

We need a QB who is "our guy" a multi-year starter who will add some life to the offense. Hopefully, Haston will be that player in a couple of years.

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Will the SEC dump the NCAA and go it alone?

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247Sports has Texas A&M as the preseason #5.

Athlon Sports also has the Aggies as #5.

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College Football News looks at Liberty's top-ten players for 2022.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Tristen Sion

 

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Tisten Sion, a 6-0 160 pound DB from Tallahassee, FL has UMass in his final eight.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Sion had five INT's in his junior year.

He has 41 total offers and UMass joins Arkansas, Iowa State, Jacksonville, FAU, Nebraska, Old Miss and USF in his final cut. Don Brown personally coaches his DB's and Sion would not get that at other schools. UMass is also arguably the best academic choice.

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Holden Symonds

 

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Holden Symonds, a 6-6 241 TE/DE has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here. 

Also plays basketball.

Besides UMass, Symonds has offers from BC, Buffalo and Old Dominion plus a couple of the Ivies. He could play in front of friends and family in Amherst.

UMass Football News--May 27th, 2022

 Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has an article and interview about UMass DB commit Christian LeBrun.

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Temple announces kickoff times for four games. 

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UConn announces a 7:00 pm Friday night kickoff time for the UMass game. The game will be available on the CBS Sports Network.

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Eastern Michigan announces a 2:00 pm CST kickoff for the October 1st meeting with UMass.

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The SEC Network announces the UMass-Texas A&M game on November 19th will be on the ESPN+ and SEC+ networks.

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Toledo announces its game against UMass will be at 7:00 pm on Sept 10th and will be televised on ESPN+

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Tulane announces a 6:00 pm kickoff time against UMass on Sept 3rd. The game will be televised on ESPN+.

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UMass Football News--May 26th, 2022

 HERO Sports looks at the most likely FCS over FBS games in 2022. 

"The Seawolves are always competitive, and if you’re at least an average FCS team, then you should beat UMass."

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Bull Run proposes a division-less MAC. 

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Temple adds a former ESPN 300 player.

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If you missed it, Liberty QB Malik Willis was drafted in the third round by the Tennessee Titans.

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Cleveland.com previews Arkansas State. 

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Saturday Blitz ranks Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher as #5 in the ranks of Power Five coaches.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Farand Washington

 

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Farand Washington, a 6-0 165 pound athlete from St. Mary's HS in MO has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

 Hudl.com has video.

 Washington has offers from UConn and Eastern Kentucky. He could see playing time early in the Minutemen's revamped offense.

UMass Football News--May 24th, 2022

 

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view. I like the "Massachusetts" end zones.

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Former UMass DB Bryce Watts was hurt during the Steelers mini-camp and is currently on Pittsburgh's IR. Tough break for Watts...

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Sports Illustrated previews Boston College's 2022 season.

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UConn gets a pair of Power Five transfers.

College Football News previews the 2022 UConn Huskies.  They predict one to three wins.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2022--Dallas Elliot

 

Melissa Brousseau image

Dallas Elliot, a 6-3 180 pound WR/DB from Leeds, MA has committed to UMass as a PWO.

The Hampshire Gazette has a post on Elliot's joining the Minutemen. 

Hudl.com has video.

Elliot chose UMass over FCS offers from Rhode Island, Merrimack and Central Conn State. Hope he has a great career in Amherst and gets to earn a scholarship.

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Ahmad Haston commits to UMass

 

Ahmad Haston, a 6-2 190 pound dual-threat QB from West Palm Beach, FL has verbaled to UMass

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has Junior highlights. 

QB Hit List has a profile of Haston. 

Sun Sentinel Palm Beach County Player-of-the-Year (mostly paywalled).

Very nice pickup for the Minutemen. Haston chose UMass over a Power Five offer from Virginia and Group-of-Five offers from Marshall and Charlotte.

UMass Football News--May 20th, 2022

 

The UMass website has bios of eight new Minutemen.

Several have the potential to start. Ben Bohnenberger and Cole Garcia should contend for starting positions on the OL. Conner Vasher could also be in the mix.

Jalen Mackie could also be the impact play on defense.

Mackie was a FCS All-American and a First Team All Ivy. Led the Ivy league with 9.6 tackles per game.

The Minutemen have not had a tackling machine linebacker since Bryton Barr and Jarell Addo.

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UMass Football Recruitinging 2023--UMass re-offers Zyian Moultrie-Goddard

 

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Zyian Moultrie-Goddard, a 6-2 225 pound LB from Iona Prep in NY has been re-offered by Coach Brown's staff.

I previously blogged about Moultrie-Goddard back in June of 2021.

Hudl.com has Junior highlights. 

247Sports three-star player. 

Scheduled to take an OV to Syracuse. 

Moultrie-Goddard has 16 offers including Army, Navy, Buffalo and Syracuse from  the Northeast. In Amherst, he can play for one of the best defensive minds in college football.

UMass Football News--May 18th, 2022

 Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" recaps the Spring game.

I agree the running back depth should be much improved in 2022. The Minutemen went into 2021 with just two scholarship running backs Ellis Merriweather and Kay'Ron Adams. This year the RB room adds Louisville transfer Greg Desrosiers, Indiana transfer Tim Baldwin and true freshman Donta Whack.

Five scholarship RB's puts UMass where most Group-of-Five teams reside. Coach Brown said a number of times he wanted the Minutemen to be a "run first" offense. We are a bad weather team and a power running game would help.

The Minutemen have not really had a unquestioned QB starter since Andrew Ford graduated. I would think JUCO transfer Gino Campiotti or Zamar Wise would be the best fit to jump start the UMass offense. 

Not much could be said about the Minutemen wide receivers. We did not have a passing game in 2021 and basically, for the last half of the season, only threw when we absolutely had to. The wide receivers could surprise if we had someone to get them the ball.

The other critical unit on offense is the offensive line. When was the last time we had a three or four year starter? When did we last have a first team MAC or Independent offensive lineman? A cohesive effective OL would go a long way towards restoring an effective running or passing game.

Our defensive woes were well known, but we finished #126 in scoring and #125 in total offense. Even Coach Brown's most killer defense would not make up for that level of offense.

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The Palm Beach Post ranks Coach Brown #3 out of the 29 head coach hires for 2022.

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UMass Football News--May 17th, 2022

 According the the Sports Illustrated's computer, the worst projected team for 2022 is----New Mexico
State.

The Aggies had a OL sign a free agent contract with the Saints. 

New Mexico State has a tough 2022 schedule featuring games at Minnesota, at Wisconsin and at Missouri. They play at UMass on October 29th. 

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With a 12 team college playoff rejected, Yahoo Sports says the SEC will continue to crush other leagues.

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College football magazines should be out mid-June...

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UMass Football News--May 16th, 2022

 WGGB has a post on Bryce Watts reflecting on his journey to the NFL.

Heavy.com has a post on "the best corner in the draft". 

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UConn offers a four-star RB. 

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2022 opening opponent Tulane gets a graduate transfer. 

Redshirt QB Kai Horton was the star of the Green Wave's Spring game.

Tulane's HC recaps their Spring game. 

The Green Wave has a tough 2022 schedule including Cincinnati, Houston and Kansas State. Tulane went 2-10 in 2021, but played a creditable game against Cincinnati and lost by only five against Oklahoma.

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UMass Football Blog News--May 15th, 2022

 Mrs Blog and I will be traveling this week. I'm not sure about the internet availability at our lodging. If there is, I'll try to keep the blog going as usual.

If not, the blog will be back up on this coming Friday.

UMass Football News--May 14th, 2022

 During the last Grid Iron Club Zoom meeting Coach Brown made the following comments concerning 2022 recruiting:

• UMass recruited 13 true freshmen.
• The Minutemen will add 18 players from the transfer portal
• 2 of the incoming players will grayshirt
• 50% of the incoming players were in for Spring ball
• Another 16 will arrive in Amherst from May to June 1st
• Three offensive linemen will be in the May to June group and that will bring the roster total to 19 OL (which is a far cry from the seven that were available for the 2020 practice I attended).

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Eric King, an OG with a UMass offer, will take an official visit to Syracuse.

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Off Tackle Empire comments on Indian Coach Bell's offense.

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UMass makes an offer to a speedy WR.

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247Sports predicts the 10 worst college football teams for 2023. We're only third worst in this take.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Christian LeBrun commits to UMass

 

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Christian LeBrun, a 6-0 215 pound Safety from Avon Old Farms, Ct has verbaled to UMass.

247Sports three star player.

Hudl.com has video. 

Brian Dohn of 247Sports made the prediction LeBrun would commit to UMass.

LeBrun chose UMass over multiple Power Five offers. He will have a lot of fun and playing time in Coach Brown's blitz-happy defense.

UMass Football Recruiting 2023-Zachary Card

 

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Zachary Card, a 5-10 165 pound WR from Pittsburg, CA has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

This article from 247Sports covers his offer from UMass and two other schools.

MaxPreps has stats.

Besides UMass Card has offers from Nevada and Utah State. The Minutemen need speed at receiver and Card could find early playing time in Amherst.

UMass Football News--May 11th, 2022

 During the last UMass Grid Iron Zoom meeting coach Brown said UMass would have a new field surface by August 6th.

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The Berkshire Eagle has a post on UMass corner Bryce Watts signing a free agent deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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A 247Sports article looks at the changes in Indiana's offense including RB Tim Baldwin's transferring to UMass.

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College Football News ranks all the FBS teams after Spring ball---and we're dead last again.

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ESPN's computer ranks the ten worst teams for 2022.  

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College Football News previews 2022 opponent Arkansas State's 2022 season. 

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UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Nathan Stewart

 

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Nathan Stewart, a 6-5 190 pound WR from Laurel, MD has UMass in his final six.

247Sports three-star player. 

Hudl.com has video.

Stewart is considering Power Five offers from Maryland and West Virginia. Also in the running are UMass, Temple, Marshall and Buffalo. Stewart would be a good fit in Amherst and could be the featured WR in the new Minutemen offense. 

UMass Football Recruiting 2022--Sammy Faustin transfers to UMass

 

Sammy Faustin, a 6-2 170 pound DB that can play both corner and safety from Michigan has transferred to UMass.

Michigan bio here.

Our old friends at Maize & Brew comment on his entering the transfer portal.

Coach Brown loves DB's and the defensive backfield now has enough scholarship players to run Brown's defensive packages. Faustin has at least two years of eligibility. Hope he has a great finish to his football career with the Minutemen.

UMass Football News--May 7th, 2022

 Some images from the Spring game. Click on image and Blogger displays a larger view.

Fr. QB Chase Brewster 6-6 196

JUCO QB Gino Campiotti 6-3 215

Marcus Cushnie #0, Cletus Mathurin#56,Aquan Robinson #50, Marcus Bradley 

#1

Zamar Wise #6

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Steeler Depot has a NFL draft profile for Bryce Watts.

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Former UMass OL Willie Allen enters the transfer portal (again).

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UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Michael Crounse

 

Twitter imagre

Michael Crounse, a 6-5 290 pound OT from De Mantha in Maryland has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video. 

This article covers his offer from Pitt.

Cournse has 13 offers including Buffalo, UConn and Liberty from the Group-of-Five. He also has Power Five offers from Pitt, Louisville and Michigan State. He would find a lot of playing time in Amherst and excellent coaching from Coach Miller.

UMass Football News--May 5th, 2022

 During the last Grid Iron Club Zoom meeting Coach Brown said UMass would be a "run first" offense. The Minutemen objective is to do "conflict running" to put pressure on the defense. The run offense would have motion, quarterback runs maybe some option or jet sweeps.

I took this to mean we would look something like what our old friend Dave Clawson is running at Wake Forest.

During the Spring game it looked to me we were trying more quarterback runs. As usual, defense was ahead of the offense in the Spring, but we did look quicker out of the backfield.

JUCO transfer Gino Campiotti is 6-2 215 and looks ripped. In that style of offense, he could be a favorite to start. His passes looked like they had a lot of zip and a flat trajectory. Zamar Wise's 6-2 190 passes looked better and he is an excellent athlete. Garrett Druzo 5-11 200 was not in pads for the Spring game.

And speaking of the running game, Coach Brown inferred (he is not allowed to comment on player not yet signed) UMass could be the destination for former Indiana RB Tim Baldwin. See the timeline in Baldwin's 247Sports page. Baldwin's Indiana bio here.

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Yahoo Sports looks at FBS Independents prospects for the 2022 season after Spring ball.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Donovan Dyson

 

Hudl.com image

Donovan Dyson, a 6-2 220 pound DE from St Francis Academy in Baltimore, MD has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video. 

Dyson has three FCS offers. UMass is the first offer from FBS. The Minutemen need defensive ends and Dyson could prosper in Coach Brown's  aggressive defense

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Wyatt Gedeon

 

Hudl.com image

Wyatt Gedeon, a 6-1 235 pound LB from Lakewood, OH has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has junior highlights.

This article from January talks about his recruiting.

Also runs track.

Gedeon has 20 offers including all the Service academies and a number of MAC teams. With his size and speed, he would have a lot of fun in Coach Brown's aggressive defense.

UMass Football News--May 2nd, 2022

 The Hampshire Gazette reports defense dominates the Spring game.

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Joey Alberti of the Daily Collegian has takeaways from UMass' Spring game.

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Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle reports UMass wraps up Spring practice with controlled scrimmage. 

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Rico Arnold goes up for a pass/UMass image

The UMass athletic dept has a write-up on the Spring game here. 

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UMass DB Bryce Watts signed a UFA contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Steelers Depot reports Watts wants to be a hidden gem for Pittsburgh. 

Steelers Now reports Pittsburgh signs UFA Bryce Watts. 

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Watts signing with the Steelers.

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