Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a pair of articles on two of the recent transfer portal commitments.
First, he reports DB Steven Ortiz is looking forward to playing closer to his East Coast roots.
Ortiz, a former four-star recruit, should prosper in the Don Brown's defense. Brown takes a personal hand coaching DB's himself. Ortiz has a lot of potential and hopefully for both him and the UMass defense, he'll get to express it in Amherst.
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| Globe.com image |
Mike also has a post on transfer LB Tyler Martin thrilled to be back home.
Martin has the physical build to be a dominate run-stopper. A good defense needs a tackling-machine LB to be effective. Jalen Mackie performed that function this year.
The Minutemen went from #128th in total defense in 2021 to #58 in 2022. Run defense was #126 in 2021 (235.4 yards/game) to #116 in 2022 (194.3 yards/game).
Martin is a pro-size MLB, who also was a former four-star recruit, should do well in Don Brown's attacking defense.
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Buffalo beat Georgia Southern yesterday to become the fourth of UMass' 2022 opponents to win a bowl game.
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