Tuesday before Stony Brook--Sept 21, 2010

MassLive.com reports UMass jumped to #11 in The Sports Network Poll.

The Minutemen jumped to #9 in the FCS Coaches poll.

Matty Vautour has news about UMass' jump in polls.

The Sports Network says Villanova leads a strong CAA contingent.

The Dunkle Index has UMass at #3.

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Ron Chimelis says UMass one-upped UConn.

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The Detriot Free Press said Michigan may have had a letdown.

Michigan LB Craig Roh says the Wolverine defense was terrible against UMass.

AnnArbor.com says Michigan's defense is getting worse. More from yesterday's Michigan press conference. Key quote from the article:""We just didn't tackle well, and they threw some stuff at us that kind of frazzled us," Roh said. "

Maize & Brew Blog says "They (UMass) were who we thought were"


The image about was from one of the Michigan boards. I forgot which one. The cupcake gave the Wolverines defense an upset stomach didn't it?

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Delaware's Andrew Pierce received the CAA's Offensive Player-of-the-Week. He ran for 200 yards and two TD's-----against Duquesne. UMass' Hernandez and Griffin run for 211 yards and two TD's against Michigan and they don't get the award?

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University of Wyoming has only 67 scholarship players. That's only four more than FCS teams. The Cowboys lost 56-6 to Boise State Saturday.

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When college mascots go bad.

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Saturday News ---- May15th, 2010

Mass Live has an article on the UMass 2010 schedule and start times. Good for printing out.

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Maine, Northeastern, Richmond, Villanova and William & Mary were five of nineteen FCS squads honored by the NCAA for their APR.

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Craig Haley of The Sports Network has his latest article about Old Dominion's second year in FCS football and some additional FCS news here.

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The first ever New England Football Combine and Recruiting Seminar will be held at Bentley this coming weekend.

News on the Massachusetts Combine at Foxborough held on Wednesday.

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Friday News--April 16th, 2010

It's a cold and rainy morning here is the great Granite State. It snowed enough to cover the grass last night.

This article from the Sun Chronicle mentions Chris Zardas as a potential free agent pickup for the Patriots.

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Packernews.com rates Vladimir Ducasse as the third best guard prospect in the NFL Draft.

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More football rules changes from the NCAA for 2010. This one is a doozy:

'PROP also approved a proposal that penalizes unsportsmanlike conduct as a live-ball foul beginning with the 2011 season.

The change means, for example, that if a player makes a taunting gesture to an opponent on the way to scoring a touchdown, the flag would nullify the score and penalize the offending team from the spot of the foul."

The loss of a TD is a really severe penalty. Players will have to keep their heads if they are in the clear and on their way to the endzone.

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Budget troubles in Iowa led to a proposal to drop UNI football. The findings indicated no significant long term financial savings if the program was dropped. Note that in newspaper articles FCS programs are usually quoted to "cost" about $3 million. We have debated before about what are the real, as opposed to accounting, costs for FCS football. One yardstick would be the actual amount of money that would be available to apply to other school needs if football did not exist. The linked article says that amount would be saved is almost exactly what was quoted for the amount of money Hofstra could reassign after they dropped their program:$850,000. IMHO, that's a much better statement of FCS football costs.

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Draft Daddy has a pdf down load with their "Top 250" NFL draft prospects. Vlad and Jeromy Miles make the list.

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Josh Maurer and the UMass Network team have won two awards by the Associated Press for broadcasts in 2009.

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The latest edition of the CAA's Spring football blog is here. Note that the league officials will be meeting with Comcast Sports to work on the league's TV schedule.

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Our in-state OOC foe Holy Cross has announced their 2010 recruiting class. They only signed two players from Massachusetts, one each from South Hadley and Peabody.

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Recruiting 2010-- QB Michael Quinn

UMass is recruiting pro-style QB Michael Quinn of Wayne Hills HS, New Jersey. Quinn is 6-3 and 195 pds.

His Rivals page is here. Quinn is the third ranked pro-style QB in New Jersey.

Story about him here.

Also being recruited by Buffalo, Harvard, Hofstra and Yale.

Recruiting 2010 --- Jay Kenney

UMass is interested in Jay Kenney a 6-6 300 pd OL from Matignon HS in Cambridge MA.

His Scout.com page here . A Scout.com article mentions UMass here .

A YouTube highlights page here .

Image by Scout.com

Also interested are Rhode Island, Northeastern and Boston College.

Recruiting 2010 --- Dominic Wooten

UMass is interested in Dominic Wooten a 6-7 220 pd TE from Norwell, MA. His Scout.com page is here.

An article from Scout.com that mentions Wooten and UMass is here .

Wooten is also getting looks from Boston College, Harvard, Rhode Island, UCF and South Flordia.

With Matt Silver and Andrew Kervis the only veteran TE's on the UMass Spring roster and with Rob Blanchflower as the only incoming TE recruit, Wooten should be in line for some playing time fairly early if he chooses UMass.

Recruiting 2010----Justin Silveria

Could Wareham Junior Justin Silveria be a future safety for UMass? He likes the Minutemen. Silveria sounds like Coach Brown's kinda player.

Image by Mike Valeri.