UMass Football News--June 29th, 2024

 UMass loses an administrative staffer to the NFL.

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2024 MAC opponent Miami (Ohio) is favored to repeat as conference champion. 

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Athlon ranks the MAC (and five UMass opponents) for 2024. 

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Former UMass football player Jason Cherry is an accomplished author. His recent book "William Trent:Factor of Ambition" came out in March 2024 to rave reviews. He dedicated the book to his UMass teammate Corey Mitchell who passed away in 2020 from covid complications.

The book opened as the #1 history book of the Colonial period on Amazon. It won praise by prestigious Journal of the American Revolution. Cherry was also interviewed in a 45 minute podcast about the book here.

Cherry's seven extra point kicks in the 1998 championship game was an FCS record at the time.

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ROUTINE

UMass scientists develop groundbreaking device for advanced quantum computing.

People are saying in the comments to the article that the device is a dead ringer for a flux capacitor..

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UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Jamale Clark commits to UMass

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 Jamale "JC" Clark, a 5-10 160 pound CB from Dayton has committed to UMass.

I've blogged about Clark a number of times before.

Chose UMass over a Power Five offer from Kentucky and a MAC offer from Miami. He should prosper in Amherst and I'm looking forward to watching him play in the Minutemen's secondary.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Connor Mathews commits to UMass

 

Connor Mathews, a 5-9 205 pound RB from Navarre, FL has committed to UMass.

I blogged about Mathews back on June 19th.

Sports Illustrated has a post on Mathews joining the Minutemen.

Welcome to Connor and I look forward to following his career with UMass.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Dylan Frechette, AJ Azuakolam and Zachary Lawrence commit to UMass

 Three OV's from last week visits have announced they have committed to UMass.

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AJ Azuakolam, a 6-2 175 pound WR/DB from Cambridge MA has committed to UMass.

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 Dylan Frechette, a 6-6 305 pound OL from West Palm Beach FL has committed to UMass

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Zachary Lawrence, a 6-1 195 pound QB from Mathews, NC has committed to UMass. 

UPDATE: High School OT has a substantial post on Lawrence's commit to UMass.

I've blogged about all three before. Scroll down to last week's posts. Welcome to UMass and I look forward to following their careers with the Minutemen.

There is at least one more commit that has yet to announce.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Jahmal Clark III

 

Jahmal "JC" Clark, a 5-10 160 pound athlete from Dayton, OH , has UMass in his top four. He will be announcing his decision on Thursday.

I've blogged about Clark on June 11th and May 8th.

UMass hits the sweet spot in his top four. Kentucky is SEC, but lots and lots of talent to get around before he sees the playing field. Youngstown is FCS. Miami is MAC, but UMass is a better education and has more playing opportunities.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Anatay Smith

 

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Anatay Smith (good name), a 5-11 160 pound WR from Lake Worth, FL has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

This article covers his recruitment by West Virginia.

Gets a mention in this 247Sports post on top performers in the Palm Beach Showcase.

UMass is in Smith's final four. UM is the top academic school in the mix and Smith could see a lot of playing time Amherst.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Jax Markovich

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 Jax Markovich, a 6-4 215 pound TE from Scottsdale, AZ took an OV to UMass this week.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video. 

Gets a mention in this article.

Markovich has a Power Five offer from Cal. Army and a number of Ivies have offered from the Northeast. He could get a combination of FBS-level football and an East Coast education in Amherst.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Dylan Frechette

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 Dylan Frechette, a 6-5 305 pound OL from West Palm Beach, FL will take a OV to UMass this week.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Gets a mention in this 247Sports recruiting article. 

Also gets some coverage in this article from March. This article also mentions 2024 UMass recruit Damarion Alberic.

Frechette has 13 offers including Power Five BC and Pitt. He could be part of the revival of Minutemen football and also get an excellent education in Amherst.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Jackson Davenport

 

Jackson Davenport, a 6-6 260 pound OL from Darien, CT will take an OV to UMass this week.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video. 

Davenport has seven offers including Akron and Buffalo from the MAC. He could play close to home and be part of the revival of Minutemen football.

 

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Connor Mathews

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 Connor Mathews, a 5-9 205 pound RB from Navarre, FL will take an OV to UMass this weekend.

247Sports page here.

MaxPreps has some stats.

Hudl.com has video.

Holds the FL state record in the clean-and-jerk.

Mathews has five offers including Army, Navy and Northern Alabama. He could get an excellent education and be part of the football renaissance in Amherst.

UMass Football News--June 18th, 2024

 Mizzou Central previews the 2024 Tigers game with UMass. Minutemen fans will be excited to know we won the DII championship in 1998..

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Gavin Young image

About 7:00pm Saturday I sat down in my TV room and turned on a sports channel just in time to watch Marken Michel catch a TD pass  for the Stampeders.

This article discusses his return to the CFL.

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College Football News previews 2024 opponent Miami (Ohio).

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Athlon Sports previews 2024 MAC football. UMass gets to play the top three ranked teams.

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Could the MAC add Youngstown State in the future?

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Hero Sports looks at the 2024 MAC championship odds.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2024--Benjamin Roy commits to UMass

 

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Benjamin Roy, a 6-2 295 pound OL transfer from UCLA has committed to UMass.

247Sports page here. 

Bruins bio here. 

UCLA Wire covers his entering the transfer portal.

Was the 14th-ranked center nationally coming out of HS.

Roy had 15 offers as a HS senior including Power Five UCLA, the service academies and a number of Group-of-Five schools. He's battled injuries in his career so far. If healthy, Roy should compete immediately for a starting position with the Minutemen.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Zack Lawrence

 

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Zack Lawrence, a 6-0 191 pound QB from Matthews, NC will take an OV to UMass in June.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Lawrence has eight offers including Boston College and Minnesota from Power Five.  With UMass joining the MAC, Lawrence could be a good fit in Amherst.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--AJ Azuakolam

 

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AJ Azuakolam, a 6-2 175 pound athlete from Cambridge, MA will take an OV to UMass in June.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Azuakolam currently has an offer from UMass. He can play WR or DB. An excellent all-around athlete, he could play in front of friends and family in Amherst.

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Devon St.Clair

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 Devon St. Clair, a 6-2 192 pound athlete from Orlando, FL has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Will take an OV to UMass in June.

Hudl.com has video. 

MaxPreps has stats.

St.Clair has eighteen offers including all the service academies plus Buffalo and Central Michigan from the MAC. St.Clair has a big frame and could play Don Brown's "Viper" position as well as either safety. He could get an excellent education and see a lot of playing time in Amherst.

UMass Football News--June 12th, 2024

 

UMass announces kickoff times for the Mississippi State and Georgia games.

Dawg Nation has a post on the UMass-Georgia game. 

The Mississippi State game will be Homecoming for the Bulldogs.

The games will be televised on the SEC network, which is available on most cable systems.

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The Clarion Ledger looks at Mississippi State's 2024 schedule.

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College Football News previews UMass opponent the 2024 Northern Illinois Huskies

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UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Jahmale Clark II

 

Jahmale Clark, a 5-10 158 pound athlete from Dayton, OH will take an OV to Amherst on the third weekend of June.

I blogged about Clark back on May 8th, 2024.

Took a not-an-OV to Ohio State recently. 

Clarke can play either WR or DB. A Power Five school would probably want him as a DB. In Amherst, the Minutemen would like their 22 best athletes on the field and would likely consider both positions.

UMass Football Recruiting 2024--Eric Hehl commits to UMass

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 Eric Hehl, a 6-2 263 pound DL from Fullerton College has committed to UMass.

1st team All-state at Fullerton. 33 TT and 5.5 SACKS in six games..

Hudl.com has video.

247Sports page here.

Hehl had thirteen offers out of Fullerton including Akron, Buffalo and New Mexico State. He should be an excellent addition to the Minutemen defensive line and should see a lot of action immediately.

UMass Football News-June 8th, 2024

 First it was the unlimited transfer option permitted by the NCAA, then the recent thunderous lawsuit settlement proposal has the potential to change college football (and UMass) into quite a different experience.

The Hampshire Gazette has a two-part series on the likely effects of the series and I highly recommend reading both.

• Part 1
• Part 2

Although 90% of the settlement will go to players from Power Five schools, 60% or about $990 million will have to be paid by the rest of Division I. For UMass, that will run about $400000 to $500000 for the next 10 years.

I don't think UMass can squeeze that amount of money out of the athletic budget by just cutting positions in the athletic dept.

We're probably looking at a ten-year pause in capital improvements in athletics.

We could also loose some of the Olympic sports.

The saving grace will be the Minutemen will receive about $2 to $2.5 million per year  in TV money from MAC football.

The MAC TV contract runs through the 2027 season. College football is popular and MACtion football games have had good ratings. The MAC conference will likely receive a significant jump in TV revenue in 2028.

The UMass Midnight Ride Collective may transition to be the marketing arm of the Athletic Dept or the University could just drop it.

And the judge overseeing the settlement may rule the whole payment structure is out of whack and make substantial changes in the ruling.

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The 2024-2025 college bowl schedule is out.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2026--Allex Hill

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 Allex Hill, a 6-5 190 pound WR from Youngstown, OH has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Hill has ten offers including Kentucky, Michigan and Penn State. Central Michigan, UMass, Toledo and Miami (Ohio)  have offered from the MAC. At UMass, Hill has a chance to be the featured receiver with his pro-size body.

UMass Football Recruiting 2026--Daniel Vollmer

 

247Sports iamge

Daniel Vollmer, a 6-2 210 pound dual-threat QB from Cincinnati, OH has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

MaxPreps has some stats. 

Hudl.com has video.

 This article covers his offer from Indiana.

Vollmer has seven offers including Duke, Cincinnati and Indiana from Power Five. UMass, Toledo, Miami (Ohio) and Akron have offered from the MAC. The Power Five schools would likely try to convert him to a WR or special teams guy. UMass would probably want to keep him as a dual-threat QB.

UMass Football News--June 5th, 2024

 A Mississippi State site on 247Sports ranks the Bulldogs' 2024 opponents and has UMass behind FCS Eastern Kentucky.

Gotta love SEC guys.

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As you probably heard, former UMass HC Walt Bell has been hired as offensive coordinator for the Western Michigan Broncos.

Bell was fired about halfway through last season as OC of Indiana. After the season the Hoosiers also fired their HC and the rest of the staff. Indiana is currently ranked last in the new eighteen-team Big Ten. The down side of the super conferences is that teams like Indiana have to co-exist with Michigan, Ohio State, USC, Iowa and Penn State. The best the Hoosiers can hope for is a .500 Big Ten season.

Bell will have more talent at Western Michigan than he had at UMass. He inherited a depleted roster in the low 50's in scholarship players. 

At Western Michigan, Bell has transfer QB Hayden Wolff who has over 5,000 career yards and 30 TD's at Old Dominion. He also get MAC Freshman-of-the-Year RB Jalen Buckley who totaled over 1,000 yards in 2023. First Team All-MAC WR Kenneth Wolmack is also on the roster.

The Broncos also return four of five starting offensive linemen, which is always a good thing. The bad thing is the Broncos schedule. They open at Wisconsin and then Ohio State, which is a great way to get your team beaten up. Also, they only play five home games, so I don't expect Western Michigan to improve much on their 4-8 2023 record.

UMass and Western Michigan do not play in 2024, but the Minutemen and the Broncos should hook up shortly when UMass joins the MAC in 2025.

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The Big Ten's and SEC's plot to take over the college football playoffs seems on hold.

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UMass Football News--June 4th, 2024

 College Football News previews the 2024 Minutemen and predicts 3.5 wins.

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 Rene Ingoglia named to the 2025 College Football Hall-of-Fame ballot.

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I think UConn has a decent chance at a bowl game in 2024. Scheduling really helps and the Huskies have a great slate this year.

First, UConn plays seven home games. In addition, the Huskies play SIX of them in a row (something I don't think anyone else in college football does).

Last year UMass played three conference champions (MAC, AAC and CUSA). The Minutemen will likely play three more in 2024 (AAC, MAC and SEC).

UConn's home schedule:

• Wagner- September 7th
  
• Florida Atlantic- September 21st (4-8 in 2023)
• Buffalo- September 28th (3-9 in 2023)
• Temple -October 5th (3-9 in 2023)
  
• Wake Forest-October 19th (4-8 in 2023)
  
• Rice-October 26th (7-6 in 2023)
• Georgia State-November 2nd  (7-6 in 2023)
  

The Huskies also play:

• Away-UAB (4-8 in 2023)
  
• Away-UMass (3-9 in 2023)

Not a conference champion in the pack. UConn will play six sub-.500 teams and two more that were one win over .500.

The Huskies could upset Wake at home and might have a chance against Syracuse (the Orange fired Dino Barbers last year as they went 7-6). Anyway, eight very winnable games in 2024 and UConn should get at least six wins.

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UMass Football News--June 3rd, 2024

 

In Saturday's blog post I talked about the second half of the Minutemen's schedule as being tough. In the last six games, UMass plays three Power Five teams plus Liberty. College Football News previews the 2024 Flames and thinks they'll miss the college football playoffs by one game.

The Minutemen do have a home game against Wagner and they also host UConn for the last game of the season. Probably the best possible results will be 2-4 over the last six games.

However, the first six games are not without challenges. 

Call it the "not being in a league" effect. UMass plays five MAC teams in its first six games. But check this out:

• Eastern Michigan-HOME
• Toledo-AWAY
• Buffalo-AWAY
• Miami (Ohio)-AWAY
• Northern Illinois-AWAY

The Minutemen again play the iron of the MAC as Lindy's ranks Miami (Ohio) as the top team in the MAC east and Northern Illinois and Toledo as the #1 and #2 teams in the MAC west. 

Buffalo is ranked the #5 team in the MAC East. UMass will need to beat Eastern Michigan at McGuirk and then go at least 2-2 in the MAC road games to be bowl eligible at 6-6. Road wins have been hard to come by for the Minutemen.

If UMass was actually in the MAC, we'd get to play Akron and Ball State (the bottom ranked MAC teams) and the home-and-away games would be balanced. 

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College Football News ranks UMass' 2024 schedule as the #84 difficult schedule.

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Athlon's 2024 college football magazine is now available. 

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UMass Football News--June 1st, 2024

 

UMass releases the kickoff times for five 2024 games.

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The 2024 Minutemen schedule is another tough one. The second half of the schedule is brutal.

• Missouri - ranked # 9 by Lindy's and top-10 by most other pundits
• Wagner- the second FCS team of 2024
• Mississippi State- the Bulldogs went 1-7 in the SEC in 2023 but were undefeated in their non-SEC slate with a win over Arkansas on the Razorbacks home field
• Liberty--Lindy's predicts the Flames to go 13-0 in their regular schedule (12-0 in CUSA and a win in the conference championship)
• Georgia-- Everybody's #1 ranked team. The Dogs return the #1 ranked QB, Carson Beck, the #1 ranked recruiting class and have won 25 consecutive home games.

• UConn--The Huskies went 3-9 in 2023. This year UConn plays four Power Five teams (Maryland, Duke, Wake Forest and Syracuse), but their Group-of-Five games (Florida Atlantic, Buffalo, Temple, Rice, Georgia State and UAB) are all winnable games.  

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The Tennessean looks at the possible effects of the proposed 85-player college roster limit.

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 Game Day at Mississippi State. Click on image for a larger view.

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