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This article from April covers his visit to Louisville.
Kent State, Marshall, Miami and Toledo have offered from the MAC. Vaughn could get an excellent education and play for the rising UMass offense in Amherst.
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This article covers his visit to Wisconsin.
This article discusses his recruitment by Michigan State.
Amachree has twenty-nine offers including multiple Big Ten schools. A number of MAC schools have offered as well. Boston College and UMass have offered from the Northeast. Amachree could see the field a lot earlier with the Minutemen and get an excellent East coast education in Amherst.
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Fryzel is the focus of this article.
This article covers his visit to Cincinnati.
Fryzel has Power Five offers from Kentucky, Louisville, Pitt, Minnesota and Cincinnati. Toledo and Kent State have offered from the MAC. Fryzel could get a quality education and see the field early playing for Coach Brown.
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Vegas Insider has UMass over-and-under at 3.5 wins across the board.
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Covers has Georgia at 10.5 wins, Mississippi State 3.5 and Missouri at 9.5.
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Sports Line has the MAC conference championship lines.
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The recent anti-trust lawsuit settlement will raise scholarship limits to 105, which may be the demise of walk-on players.
The rise in scholarships will distort the gap between top-25 schools and the rest of football. Players who would have been signed by teams like Indiana and Illinois will now add depth for Michigan and Ohio State. It will further cement the dominance of the top half of the Power Five leagues over the bottom half.
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Hudl.com has video here and here.
This article features Hamilton.
Hamilton has six offers with Kentucky offering from Power Five. Toledo, Miami, Central Michigan and Toledo have offered from the MAC.
He could get an East Coast education and find a lot of playing time with Coach Brown in Amherst.
Click on an image and blogger displays a larger view.
The UMass website has video on the return of black uniforms for the Minutemen.
As far a I can remember UMass last wore black unis against Indiana on 09/08/12. We were blown out in our 2nd game in FBS at Gillette 45-6 (I was there). AFAIK, we did not wear the black uniforms again.
If UMass wears them against Eastern Michigan on 08/31/24 it will have been 4375 days (11 years, 11 months and 23 days) between their appearance..
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Lancaster Online has another story on the passing of former UMass A.D. Bob Marcum.
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Athlon Sports ranks the MAC conference quarterbacks.
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Scheduling issues and College Football playoff expansion pushed Army to leave Independent status and join the AAC.
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UMass places two on the pre-season Shrine Bowl poll. WR transfer from Miami Frank Ladson and transfer TE Dominick Mazzotti should give QB Taison Phommachanh more targets than he has had since Clemson.
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Former UMass A.D. Bob Marcum passed away on July 23rd. I had a couple of one-on-one talks with Bob back in the day. He was the first professional A.D. UMass had. Previous to him, the position was used a parking spot for Boston politicians.
UPDATE: The UMass website has a post on Marcum's passing and his legacy as the school's A.D.
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Yard Barker ranks the MAC's non-conference schedules. UMass' 2024 schedule would have been the toughest if we were a conference member this year.
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EA Sports College Football 25 rolls out 25 patches.
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One of the top Great Lakes 2024 WR prospects.
Parris has ten offers with Kentucky, Purdue and Wisconsin offering from Power Five. Four MAC teams (five counting UMass) have also offered. There is a lot of talent at Power Five schools to get around before seeing playing time. Parris could find a home and some early starts in Amherst.
Peyton Miller is the focus of this article by the Cumberland Times-News.
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Blake Fronapfel is #2 all-time in single game passing yards (589 vs BGSU in 2014). It took a 7 overtime game for a Buffalo QB to throw for more yards than Blake.
Fronapfel is also #19 in single game passing attempts (61 in the same game as above).
Despite Fronapfel's heroics, UMass lost that game 47-42.
Ross Comis is tied for #1 in single game passing percentage (minimum 8 attempts). He went 8-8 against Notre Dame in 2015.
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In this 2024 preseason strength-of-schedule UConn and Liberty are in the bottom-5. UMass is tied at #20 with SEC powerhouse Georgia.
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The UMass Football Golf Classic is sold out, but the Midnight Ride Collective is sponsoring a silent auction to help support Minutemen football.
Help support UMass football by purchasing season tickets or belonging to the Midnight Ride Collective or the Gridiron club.
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This article features two-time All-Ivy LB Macklin Ayers who is joining the Minutemen this summer.
Also joining UMass from Dartmouth is safety Leonard St. Gourdin.
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The MAC conference held its Media Day Friday.
Five things to know about the Media Day.
The Blade sorts out the 2024 MAC.
UMass opens its season against Eastern Michigan. EMU's website says the Eagles shone at the MAC media event.
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Ervin has offers from Akron, Eastern Michigan, Miami (Ohio) and Toledo. He has a big frame and he could be a good fit into Don Brown's attacking defense.
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I blogged about Mathews back on June 27th and June 19th.
Mathews' lifting totals are impressive for his age. A college training program should provide even more upside.
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The Athol Daily News has a post on how UMass players rate in the new College Football 25 game.
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Josh Atwood gets a mention in this post by Metro-West on local players in EA Sports College Football 25.
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SB Nation has one transfer for each MAC school who will make a difference in 2024.
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The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal looks a changes in college football for 2024 including playoff expansion and helmet communications.
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60+ receptions
550+ yards through 8 games
The news Minutemen WR room should be strong with the addition of Robinson. Besides UMass, he had three DII offers and drew interest from Power Five USC.
I'll look forward to watching his career with UMass.
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The Toledo Blade ranks the MAC's stadiums with McGuirk last.
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Hustle Belt has general rankings for the MAC conference on (in?) college Football 25.
SI.com has the ranking for UConn.
BTW, College Football 25's servers are getting crushed.
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G5Football Daily has Miami (Ohio) Redhawks a slight favorite to win the MAC again.
UMass will play Miami on September 28th at Yager Stadium.
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Laney College ("last chance U") highlights here.
Jones is the second Grambling OL to transfer to UMass. He's a solid addition to the Minutemen's offensive line and should add depth to the inside of the OL.
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SI.com has a post on UMass landing DT Brandon McElroy.
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Single game tickets for the 2024 UMass season are now available.
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Hustle Belt will do preseason previews for all MAC teams plus one future member.
The MAC's media day is not that far off occurring on July 19th.
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Yardbarker ranks the MAC's non-conference schedules.
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Buckeye Huddle has a post that mentions Rogers.
Rogers has seven offers including BC, Georgia Tech and West Virginia from Power Five. Toledo and Kent State have offered from the MAC. Coach Brown likes DB's and has put a bunch of them into the NFL. Rodgers could find a home in Amherst.
Brandon McElroy, a 6-5 310 pound DL from Glendale C.C./Marshall has committed to UMass.
McElroy has Power Five size and he should be in the DL mix right away. The Minutemen needed more size and bodies on the defensive line and McElroy could be an important part of solution for 2024.
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CBS Sports ranks all 134 college football coaches' job security.
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HERO Sports reports on the Group-of-Five football schools are discussing their own playoff system.
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Hero Sports has ACC Conference Realignment News.
Would Boston College get an invite to another Power Five conference if the ACC breaks up? The Eagles are in a big advertising market and they have one of the best graduation rates in all of college football.
However, BC has never won the ACC championship and have not been Atlantic Division winner since 2008.
In 2021-2022 Boston college's athletic dept budget was in the bottom three in the ACC. They would be even lower in the Big Ten, Big Twelve or the SEC.
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Penn has thirteen offers including most of the MAC as well as Marshall and Power Five Kentucky. He could play linebacker, safety or Don Brown's "viper" position. Penn could get a quality East Coast education and maximize his football skills with the Minutemen.
The UMass Football Blog is an AI-free site. All content (including mistakes) is written by me.
Stuff I link to is rapidly becoming another world. I've always been a technology/science buff so I've signed up with a number of language models and have been playing around with them. Over the weekend, I received an e-mail from one of them about the marvels of content generation they can provide.
"Key Benefits:
Up to 100 article generations in parallel
Streamlined content creation
Customizable article parameters
Ensured factual accuracy with citations"
And
"Keep an eye out! We're in the process of expanding your options with an array of various article types to select from, ensuring you have the right fit for every content need.
Comparison blogs
Product reviews
News articles
Factual articles
How-to guides
Blog posts
Technical guides"
Check out this article from Athlon Sports: UMass Football 2024: Season Preview and Prediction". It looks to me to be 100% AI written. The AI had access to the NCAA football stats and derived the rest of the verbiage off that.
Check out this doozy: College Football betting guide: Notre Dame, Independents, PAC-12 and Mountain West.
From the articles' section on UMass:
"Nearly independent no longer! UMass made its return to the MAC in 2025, where it resided from 2012-15. UMass resurrected its program after folding in 1906 and opted for independence after that four-year stretch. Since returning to the football field, it’s been tough sledding for the Minutemen."
The AI probably hit a source that said something like "UMass dropped it's MAC conference affiliation in 2016 and returned to Independent football". The AI couldn't copy that directly so the language model paraphrased the source into the wording above. Where did the 1906 come from? Language models tend to just invent "facts".
If you're interested in AI language models, and you should be, (because most of the "sports writing" you're going to be reading from now on will be coming from that source), I recommend: What is ChatGPT doing...and why does it work?
Welcome to the post-truth world.
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Long has sixteen offers with the entire MAC included. He has a Power Five offer from Kentucky and Liberty has offered from the Group-of-Five. Coach Brown has put more DB's in the NFL than just about anybody and Long would be a good fit with the Minutemen.
Athlon Sports has a 2024 Minutemen preview and prediction.
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UGA Sports has three questions about 2024 opponent UMass.
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CBS Sports has a deep dive into EA Sports Dynasty Mode.
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GridIron Heroics ranks the Group-of-Five conferences (including the Independents).
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Athlon Sports has 13 bold predictions about conference realignment. Article thinks UConn could join UMass in the MAC or join the soon-to-be-reduced ACC.
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Jax Marcovich, a 6-4 235 pound TE from Scottsdale, AZ has committed to UMass.
I blogged about Marcovich back on June 22nd.
One of the Arizona Republic's top-10 tight ends for 2024.
Marcovich chose UMass over a Power Five offer from Cal and 18 other offers. He should prosper in the the Minutemen offense and I look forward to following his career in Amherst.
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This article covers his visit to Louisville.
Rogan has 24 offers including Power Five Missouri, Indiana and Louisville. UConn and BC have offered from the Northeast. Coach Brown is one of the top defensive secondary coaches in the country and Rogan would prosper with the Minutemen.
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Visited Eastern Michigan in January.
Melton has 10 offers including four MAC teams. Yale has offered from the Northeast. Coach Brown has put as many DB's in the NFL as Miami, Buffalo, Bowling Green and Toledo combined. Melton could get an East coast education and advance his craft in Amherst.
