National Championship Friday--12/18/09

UMass gets three transfers from Northeastern. I blogged yesterday about LB Chad Hunte.

Also joining the Minutemen will be All-CAA and All-New England RB John Griffin. He will be joined by 6-5 300 pd OL Greg Niland who started 21 games for Huskies in the last two years. Pre-season All-American Nate Thellan is reported to be leaning towards UMass.

Matty V. also says UMass is in the running for Hofstra DE Deron Mayo.

Some images here.

More than 60 colleges have contacted Northeastern about transfers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A blogger at the Hartford Courant says maybe the Big East should go after Villanova and UMass.

The same blogger asks what happens if the Big Ten expansion raids the Big East.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The recession claims plans for a new stadium at Delaware.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Dowd is on the road to Chattanooga .

Terrance Thomas, Sr has his latest "CAA Today" essay here.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The CAA has updates on Villanova's activities at the National Championship game.

JMU's Arthur Moats won the Buck Buchanan Award for the top defensive player in FCs.

Armanti Edwards won the Walter Payton Award for the top offensive player in FCS.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

William & Mary gets a big I-A transfer at QB.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday News--11/28/09

Another story about the sad end of Northeastern Football.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

West Roxbury captains Tony Bland and Garrett Fitzgerald are interested in UMass.

Bland is a Scout.com one-star recruit.

Fitzgerald is also being recruited by UConn.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apponequet's Joe Bianchini is also interested in UMass.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barnstable's 6-5 285 pd OL Dalton Gifford has been offered a scholarship by UMass.

Highlight film for Gifford here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maryland's Ralph Friedgen is on the hot seat in Maryland. That could mean trouble for Don Brown.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The CAA's weekly news and notes for all the league teams here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keepers College football ratings has Villanova and William & Mary as favorites and UNH and Richmond as close underdogs in the FCS playoff first round.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I fixed the javascript for the countdown clock. It now has the correct day count.

Web Album for the UMass-JMU game

Click on the image and blogger displays a much larger view.

I've posted a Picassa Web Album of the UMass-James Madison game here. Not a great day for photography or the Minutemen.

Can you count the number of holds in the image #14?

Tuesday before the Maine Game--10/27/09

Matty Vautour reports that Kyle Havens will start against Maine.

Coach Morris' weekly CAA telephone transcript.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Gridiron Poweer Index has UMass at #14

Keepers College Football ratings has UMass by 13+ over the Black Bears.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Coulson of The Sports Network looks at last Saturday's games as sees a Weekend of Surprises.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Altoona Mirror has a story about Black Bear CB Troy Harris.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Game Day Delaware--10/10/09

Good Morning from cloudy Lancaster County. The forecast is for possible showers this morning and clearing later in the day. Mrs Blog and I will be driving to Newark at about 3:00 pm after she gets in some last minute emergency shopping.

Let me say before we leave "Go UMass!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matty Vautour says UMass has a tough road trip in Delaware.

The News-Journal says the Hens step up to a tougher CAA test today.

They also have a UMass-Delaware preview.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Dowd has the week six edition of his "Dowd's Den" column up.

Chuck Burton has his "The CSN Way:Numbers" column available.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The CAA has this week's "Game Day" page with all the media details and previews here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kansas State meets Texas Tech today. The Red Raiders do not have anywhere near the team they had last year and K-State seems to be gaining traction. It will be interesting to see how they do.

Albany will be looking for their fourth straight win after playing UMass.

Rhody gets CAA bottom feeder Towson. The Rams lost their impressive QB Chis Paul-Etienne against UConn. They get Towson at a good time.

And Stony Brook (1-3) plays in the Potato Bowl against North Dakota.

UMass-Rhode Island Web Album

Click on the image and Blogger displays a much larger view.

I have 41 images of the UMass-Rhode Island game in a Picassa Web Albumn here. Note that the images will also enlarge if you click on the tiny magnifying glass symbol in the upper right corner of the display.

Half way to Albany - 09/09/09

Ah-- the perils of incomplete information. It turns out that the winner of the UMass Football Blog Hat contest knows a thing or two about football. The contestant that won was Noel E. Schablik. He won two varsity letters playing football back in 1967 and 1968. I'll ship the hat off today.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass has the game notes for Albany up here (html) and here (pdf).

Albany's game notes for the UMass game here (pdf).

On the UMass two-deep chart: congratulations to UMass RG Jared Chivers RSr 6-4 260 who cracked the starting lineup in his last year in the program. Chivers was so far down in the lineup preseason he does not even have a page in the UMass press guide. Chivers is listed as backing up the RG position in addition to his starting at LG.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matty Vautour has an article about the UMass defense. Vautour mentions the excellent play of KeMon Bailey in his first start at CB. He also covers the rebirth of the linebacking corps with D. J Adeoba and true freshman Perry McIntyre playing well.

He also mentions Syracuse transfer Mike Mele has been sidelined with an upper body injury (no information about when he'd be back) and fourth string QB Spencer Whipple has left the program.

I would like to add that I was there and UMass defense did an excellent job. They shut down the Wildcat offense in the second half.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The CAA has state-of-the-league and Sept 12th game previews here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three follow-up game articles about last Saturday's game from the Kansas State side here and here and here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave Coulson of the Sports Network covers the upsets and near upsets in FBS/FCS play last Saturday.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keepers college football ratings has UMass as #18 and CAA teams rated #1 to #4 in the nation.

He also has UMass by 11.72 over Albany in his game predictions page.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recruiting 2009 --- Jesse Hunt, Brandon Potvin

The Worcester Telegram has an article about two 2009 UMass recruits: Brandon Potvin and Jesse Hunt. I don't think I ever published a link to this article back in February that mentions Potvin.

Potvin we already know about as he was part of the 19 player class announced back on February 4th. He's a 6-1 240 pd DL from Holy Name in Worcester. Potvin was a member of the Telegram's Super Team and Central Mass Defensive MVP. Potvin had 298 career tackles.

Hunt went 84-142 1,284 yards and 15TD's in his senior year. He was named to several Central Mass All-star teams. Hunt is 6-3 215. He will be a recruited walk-on .

Welcome to both Jesse and Brandon!

Recruiting 2009 ---- Ryan Carter

The Bedford Minuteman ( good name!), has an article about Ryan Carter a 5-11 185 pd WR/DB who will be joining UMass in the fall. The Blog likes that reported 4.4 40 speed.

I've blogged about Ryan and his brother Woody before. Woody's Northeastern bio here.

Woody Carter is listed as a 6-1 185 pd WR on the Dean College roster. Woody had 6 caches for 161 yards, 26.8 AVE and 1 TD for Dean in 2008.

Monday after the Spring Game

Click on the images above and Blogger displays a much larger view.

I've posted 36 more images in a Picasa Web album here.

The UMass Daily Collegian has a Spring Game story here.

Recruiting 2009 ---- Tyler Major DT

UMass has added Tyler Major a 6-2 325 pd DT from New London, CT to its 2009 class of recruits.

Story here.

Major was first-team All-CT on defense, All-ECC and All-Area. He was also an Honor Roll Student.

Rhode Island, Stony Brook and Central CCSU were also interested.

News Sunday 02/08/09

This Union Leader article states that UMass is interested in Ian Ginnard a 6-2 225 pd LB from Souhegan HS as a recruited walk-on. This article features him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

College Sports News has a national FCS/I-AA 2009 signing list here .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delaware, William & Mary and Maine recruited well in South Jersey according to this reporter.

If you missed it, Penn State QB Pat Devlin transferred to the Hens a couple of weeks ago.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This ESPN article lists the do's and don'ts of recruiting.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday follies 02/06/09

The Springfield Republican has more news about western Mass players including Alex Scyourka, who many thought would get an offer from UMass.

The Laconia Citizen has a nice article about UMass recruit Christian Birt. That's what football should be all about: bringing people together.

Another article mentioning Birt here .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeromy Miles is on Draft Daddy's Juniors-to-watch list.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't remember if I mentioned this before, but former UMass assistant coach John Zamberlin is head coach of Idaho State. I sat with him at an athletic dept function back in the day, and had a fairly long talk about UMass football.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We signed more players than Boston College did.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matty Vautour says he doesn't know how well UMass did with this year's recruits.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raw Data for the CAA South:

• Delaware signs 20 recruits
• James Madison signs 18
• Richmond signs 14
• Towson signs 15 (New Tigers HC Rob Ambrose was in the same situation as Kevin Morris)
• Villanova signs 12
• William & Mary signs 10

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday News 02/05/09

Matty Vautour has an article on the UMass recruits and says UMass is still pursuing several more players.

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has an recruiting article here .

The Metro Daily New has an article about the Brandt brothers signing with UMass.

Kevin Stevens of Press Connects says Jamar Smith is happy to be a Minuteman.

The Worcester Telegram has an article on Rob Blanchflower and Brandon Potvin signing with UMass.

The Boston Herald discusses New England college recruits including UMass.

Some additions and corrections to yesterday's blog post:

I did not add Brandon Potvin to the recruits list. Sorry Brandon! I was getting a little tired.

• Brandon Potvin DT. He's Worcester Telegram's Defensive Player-of-the-year.
  
• Sean Unterkoefler RB. I had him listed as a LB although he still may play there, but the UMass recruiting bio emphasises his RB skills. Ran a 6.14 55 meter sprint (20th in nation). YouTube highlights here .

FYI this was last years recruits under Coach Brown. In 2008 we had three Rivals "starred" players :

• DJ Adeoba two stars (red shirted)
  
• Korey Davis two stars (played as true freshman)
  
• Quinton Sales three stars. (red shirted)

This year we recruited five Rivals starred players

• Christan Birt two stars
• Tim Brandt two stars
• Tom Brandt two stars
• Kyle Havens three stars
• Devin Lindsey two stars.

Rivals.com has us as the #3 rated recruiting class in FCS/I-AA.

Raw Data on the CAA North:

• Maine signs 15 recruits
• New Hampshire signs 10 recruits
• Northeastern signs twelve
• Rhode Island signs 16 (Darren Rizzi's first class)
• Hofstra signs 17

One of our 2009 OOC opponents Albany, signed eleven.

UMass 2009 Recruits up

The UMass Athletic site has the 2009 UMass Recruiting list up.

Ok. Some recruits I've already blogged about. There is quite a bit of material to review on those players. Click on their name and Blogger will display past blogs about them just below the current post.

• Christian Birt DB
  
• Tim Brandt LB
  
• Tom Brandt LB
• Ryan Carter DB
  
• Kyle Havens QB
• Bill Nesselt DL
• Jamar Smith TB
• Royce Terrell LB
  
• Sean Unterkeofler LB
• Rob Blanchflower TE. Worcester Telegram article mentioning him here . He also played defensive line .
• Kevin Byrne DL. Picked UMass over Maine and Northeastern
• Mike Lee DB. Youtube highlight video here. He's #13. (be sure to click on the "high quality" setting". He runs a 4.55 40 and Clemson and South Carolina were interested.
• Devin Lindsey LB. Rivals two star player. He was First Team All-State.
• Thad McCummings DB. He rushed for A LOT of yards at Canterbury School.
• Perry McIntyre LB. Rivals page here . He was All-Area on defense . Also All county.
• Jeff Strait P. Highlight video here . Good athlete too .
• Adham Talaat OL. Big dude.
• Vincent Westcarr. Played Dade-Brower All-Star game. Mentioned in this article (scroll all the way to the bottom)

UMass Athletics has a video interview with Coach Morris on signing day here .

Whew! I'm going to take a break. Everybody play nice.

OK, NOW it's Letter-of-intent Day 02/04/09

The Springfield Republican has a story on several Western Mass players and their college choices.

James Madison beat out Boston College and Maryland (and former UMass head coach Don Brown) for a big DE from Harrisonburg, VA.

Last year's FBS/I-A opponent Texas Tech has the best football graduation rate of public universities.

I have to go out to shovel snow now; I'll be posting later as soon as more information is available.

UPDATE I: Northeastern has their 2009 recruiting list up.

UPDATE II: Richmond has Signing Day Tracker set up with multiple recruits listed here . Winning the National Championship helped the spiders' recruiting states this article.

UPDATE III: Our BCS/I-A 2009 opponent Kansas State has 25 players on their signing list.

UPDATE IV: The New Hampshire Football Report has a list of known UNH verbals here

UPDATE V: New Hampshire now has its official 2009 recruit signing list up.

Day before Letter-of-Intent Day 02/03009

UPDATE: Everybody is correct. I was thinking today was the 4th. So tomorrow is signing day.





Well, it's Letter-of-Intent Day. And it's snowing again here in the great Granite State. I just updated the blog post on Jamar Smith. Scroll down.

Most teams announce their recruits late in the day as it gets really crazy in the last 48 hours. Many recruits hold out for a I-A/BCS offer and then start a hasty re-evaluation when the call does not come.

Many I-A colleges don't get recruits they want and make a last minute bid for local players. Boston College was famous for that in the past. Coach Jimmie Reid said UMass lost a couple of recruits at the end of the recruiting period every year. What really frosted his preserves was that the I-A school would ignore the kid during the whole recruiting period and then sign a UMass leaning kid in one day.

FCS/I-A teams are allowed 63 scholarships over 85 players. So then the "perfect' recruiting class is 17 recruits. Gray shirts and walk-ons are not counted.

Gray shirt definition here .

This article from ESPN looks at why a recruit might disappoint.

I'll be back later when UMass announces it's list. The school cannot comment on a recruit until they get the signed letter of intent.

Recruiting 2009--Jamar Smith verbals to UMass

Jamar Smith a RB from Binghamton, NY has verbaled to UMass. Good name and he wears #5!

Ran for 2,729 yards as a Senior.

This article features him.

YouTube highlights here .

First team All-State.

Interested were Buffalo, Maine, Northeastern and Rhode Island.

UPDATE: New article about Smith's signing here .

Image by Press and Sun Bulletin .

Recruiting 2009 --- Cody Booth

UMass is interested in Cody Booth a 6-5 215 pd TE from Millersville, PA

His ESPN page is here .

MaxPreps has his season totals for 2008 here .

This article is a year old, but has Booth as its feature.

Also having interest from Boston College, Lehigh, Villanova and James Madison.

Another Verbal--William Nesselt DE

This article states UMass has picked up another 2009 verbal from William Nesselt, a 6-3 240 pd DE from powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida.

He was second team 6A-5A-4A All-Broward County.

Lots of action images of Nesselt here.

Played in the Dade-Broward All-Star game.

Key quote from this article:"William Nesselt, DL, 6-3, 245, St. Thomas: Emerged as one of the best defensive line prospects in the state by having a productive off season and making plays all year. Quality talent that is only getting better."

Thanks to a special Blog reader who brought this to my attention!