A look at William & Mary

William & Mary was one of the top FCS teams in 2009. The Tribe went 11-3 and 6-2 in the CAA and reached the semi-finals of the FCS tourney.

In the regular season they lost only to pending National Champ Villanova and Richmond. W&M crushed their first two playoff opponents (Weber State 38-0 and Southern Illinois 24-3). They lost 13-14 to Villanova in a playoff rematch. In regular season the Tribe beat Virginia 26-14.

William & Mary has had a lot of continuity in coaching. HC Jimmye Laycock will start his 31st season with the Tribe when they open against UMass.

The main reason for W&M's success in 2009 was their stellar defense:

• #1 in scoring defense (12.1 points/game)
• #1 in total defense (229.8 yards/game --57 yards/game better than #2 James Madison!)
• #1 in rushing defense (61.1 yards/game)
• #2 in pass defense (186.6 yards/game)
• #1 in sacks (49-- UMass last with 13)

The Tribe's offense (#3 in total offense) revolved around Jonathan Grimes (#1 in the CAA) SO 14 games 277 yards/game AVE 1294 yards 9 TD's 61 Lg 92.4 Ave/game.

Starters returning:

Offense 6

• RB Jonathan Grimes
• WR Chase Hill
• OL Keith Hill, Jr
• OL Derek Toon
• OL Chris Sutton
• FB Terrence Riggins

Defense 6

• DB Ben Cottingham
• LB Evan Francks
• LB Wes Steinman
• LB Jake Trantin
• DL Mike Stover
  
• DB B.W. Webb (CAA defensive rookie-of-the-year, ECAC rookie-of-the-year)
  

Special teams 1

• P-David Miller

The Tribe returns 30 letterman: 14 offense, 15 defense, 1 special teams.

The 2010 edition of the Tribe was picked #4 in the nation by both the FCS Coaches Poll and The Sports Network.

William & Mary will be a tough challenge to a young Minutemen team. This is a team that could contend again for the FCS National Championship.

Tuesday News---11/24/09

Matty V. has some thoughts about Northeastern dropping football (worth reading).

Matty has quotes from both Don Brown and Kevin Morris on the demise of Northeastern football.

This article relates the feelings of Northeastern OL Brian Palangi.


Matty also has an interview with Coach Morris about the gains and pains of the 2009 season.

Ron Chemlis has an interview with UMass AD John McCutcheon about the end of Northeastern Football.

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The CAA has announced their All-Conference teams yesterday. Vladimir Ducasse, Chris Zardas, Jeromy Miles and and Victor Cruz were first team All-CAA. Tyler Holmes, Kyle C. Harrington and Tony Nelson were second team. Brandon Collier and Armando Cuko were named third team. Two guys were better than Cuko? Armando was third in the nation in kicking stats.

Examiner.com has a story on the nine UMass players honored.

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Josh Buchanan projects the "small school' players who will be invited to the NFL Combine and Vladimir Ducasse is one of them.

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UMass ended up #24 in the final regular season GridIron Power Index.

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Chuck Burton has his "CSN Way" column here.

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Jeromy Miles is on the 2009 Buchanan Award ballot.

No UMass players on the Payton Award Ballot.

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Sam Houston State, Bethune-Cookman and Youngstown State all fired their head coaches.

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Wednesday News ---- April 1st, 2009

Josh Buchanan has yet another version of his "Top 100 Small School Prospects".

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Former UMass player and coach Mike Dawson gets some ink (electrons?) in a post by Eagle in Atlanta about his role as special teams coach for Boston College.

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Raw data:

• Rhode Island's Spring roster
  
• The Rams open Spring Football
• The Richmond Spiders Spring Prospectus (pdf)
• James Madison started Spring Practice yesterday

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Only two days until Spring Football!

Friday News 02/13/09

Friday the 13th news:

The Sporting News has two articles discussing the meltdown at Eastern Washington here and here. Eastern Washington's post season ban will probably effect 2009's playoff bracket. It could reduce the Big Sky league to one team in the playoffs.

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The NCAA has changed the uniform colors rule to allow the visiting team to wear their home jerseys if both teams and the league agree.

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Northeastern has released its 2009 schedule. This is the most manageable schedule the Huskies have had in a number of years. For the last five years or so Northeastern has played the toughest OOC slate in the nation.

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You remember last spring I published a tour of the UMass clubhouse, which is still available in the Blog's sidebar, Hofstra has a tour of their facilities here .

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Ricky Santos signs with Chiefs

Ricky Santos signed a free agent contract with the Chiefs.

No info yet on any UMass signings.

Complete list of FCS/I-AA players drafted here .

UPDATE: A commentor stated that Brad Listorti had signed with the Jets on Sunday. Nothing on Google or the Jets website about that as of 5:00 pm.

The Jets did waive Stacy Tutt...

Maine adds an opponent in 2009

University of Maine Black Bears will play Florida State in 2009.

The future of CAA football

As you know, Georgia State University and Old Dominion will be joining the CAA in the next couple of years.

This sports writer thinks it's all about conference realignment.

Monday articles 04/20/08

The same agent that represented Marcel Shipp represents Ricky Santos. The article also mentions the BC Pro-Day workout by UMass players.

This article mentions Matt Lawrence as free agent pick.

The CAA covers this last weekend's Spring Games.

BCS opponent Texas Tech had its spring game Saturday.

If you will remember I've blogged about Texas and Texas Tech loosing money on their respective bowl games. I thought it was interesting that Hawaii, which took a monumental a$$ whipping by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, made $2.2 Million profit.

More on future opponents

Georgia State University has held a press conference about starting football in 2010. They will be joining the CAA, so we'll be seeing them shortly.

This article discusses how they should build a winning program (it includes leaving the CAA for the Southern Conference).

If you are interested in 2008 BCS opponent Texas Tech, their spring game will be televised Saturday on the NFL Network. The NFL network is channel 154 on Dish Network and 212 on Direct TV.

Following up on yesterday's blog post about Texas Tech loosing money on its bowl game, Texas lost money on the Holiday Bowl . BCS division bowl games continue to proliferate. A Washington DC Bowl is pending as well as the "Rocky Mountain Bowl".

Sheese, pretty soon every team in BCS/I-A with a winning record will go to a bowl.

Thursday Morning Odds & Ends

Not much UMass News on the wires (except for you know, the news), so lets looks around the CAA and 2008 opponents.

Holy Cross thinks their offense is going to be good.

Delaware is adding a second field turf practice field and is thinking about a new stadium .

Hofstra just added a new 2008 opponent to go to a twelve game schedule.

The CAA Spring player Blog continues .

Rhode Island has a new helmet style .

Richmond has an eleven page Spring Prospectus up (pdf).

Texas Tech, this year's BCS opponent went to the Gator Bowl last year. The Red Raiders received $2.5 million for the appearance. They ended up loosing $200k on deal.

I know yesterday was kinda depressing for fans of UMass athletics. I hope the regular female readers of the UMass football blog will forgive us for this link to the USC Song Girls-------in bikinis.

Warning, not work safe (babes in bikinis).

CAA Spring paractice news

William & Mary finished their spring in front of a thousand fans.

2008 opponent James Madison's offense is looking better .

They're still looking for a quarterback at UNH.

And the Hens are looking for Omar Cuff's replacement .

Maine's spring prospectus is up.

If you have'nt visited it lately, Thorr seems to be having a good effect on Rhode Island's football website. Lots of Rhody football information now, including spring practice news.

Richmond's named the Spider 2008 captains.

Towson is looking to bounch back from a bad season .

Six UMass games to be televised in 2008

The UMass football page has the CAA TV schedule for 2008. UMass will be televised six times!

• @ JMU 09/13/08 CN8
  
• Delaware 10/04/08 CN8
  
• Richmond 10/18/08 CN8
  
• Maine 11/08/08 CSN -NE
• @ New Hampshire 11/15/08 CSN-MA, CSN-NE
• Hofstra 11/22/08 CN8

Pretty good CAA coverage. Nineteen games with at least one game for every team. CN8 is available over the internet. Both Dish Network and Direct TV cover CSN-NE and CSN-MA.

UMass fans away from New England should have an excellent year.

Spring CAA news

The NY Giants look at a Maine player and three Hofstra players .

New Hampshire looks at life after Ricky.

The Richmond Spiders have injury problems. New Spiders Head Coach Mike London is trying to prove himself to his players.

And they're learning in Delaware .

UPDATE: Spring game recaps from Richmond and Northeastern .

A look at the CAA South's 2008 schedule

Back on Thursday, April 3rd, I took a look at the CAA North's 2008 schedule with an eye on the various teams chances of making the playoffs.

An FCS team needs a minimum of seven DI wins to make the playoffs. Eight is a better goal because seven wins means being the last team named. Eight DI wins will usually being chosen and being sent on the road. Nine DI wins means a home game in the first and maybe another game in the second round. Ten wins or better means home games up until Chattanooga.

Let's take a look at the CAA South.

Delaware: Twelve games in 2008. The Hens retain their home money game against DII West Chester, so they still play an eleven game playoff schedule. Delaware's other OOC games include Maryland, Furman and Albany. I think the Hens have a chance to win all those games, but also could lose against the Terps and the away game at Furman. Delaware must also play UMass at McGuirk.

James Madison: Eleven games in 2008. The Dukes play Appalachian State, Duke and North Carolina Central as their OOC. JMU could win all those games or they could just as well lose two of three. The Dukes do get UMass at home. Getting eight DI wins is not going to be easy. This is a difficult schedule.

Richmond: Twelve games in 2008. The Spiders play Elon, Virginia, VMI and Georgetown as their OOC. They also have to play @UMass. The Spiders should get three DI wins against their FCS OOC schedule. They may have a chance to upset Virginia.

Towson: Twelve games in 2008. The Tigers play Navy, Coastal Carolina, Morgan State and Columbia. That is not a strong OOC, but Towson was not a good team in 2007. Still, the Tigers should win at least two of those games. They do have to play at @ UMass, @ Delaware, @ UNH and @ Richmond.

Villanova: Eleven games in 2008. The OOC includes West Virginia, Lehigh and Penn. The two FCS games are good games, but I think the Wildcats can win both. They do not play UMass.

William & Mary: Eleven games in 2008. The OOC includes North Carolina State, VMI and Norfork State. The Tribe should have no trouble with the latter two. They do not play UMass this year.

Analysis: I think Villanova has the easiest road to the playoffs. The Wildcats could be the surprise team in the CAA in 2008. Richmond is my second choice as the Spiders should get three OOC DI wins and give themselves a leg up on seven DI wins to be playoff eligible. William & Mary and Towson have favorable schedules, which should improve their win total, but not enough to make the playoffs. This article by Myron Hosea of CSN covers three of the CAA's inter league games.

Second issue of the Spring CAA Blogs are up

The CAA website has the second edition of the Spring player blogs up. Just think, next Wednesday, there'll be a UMass entry.

URI and Bryant, our two 2008 Rhode Island opponents have a spring report here.

Northeastern's spring prospectus is here .

A look at the CAA North Schedule

Yesterday, I reported that the CAA has officially released the league's composite 2008 schedule. The goal of all FCS/I-AA teams is to make the playoffs. Each team's schedule has a large bearing on that ambition.

An FCS team needs a minimum of seven DI wins to make the playoffs. Eight is a better goal because seven wins means being the last team named. Eight DI wins will usually being chosen and being sent on the road. Nine DI wins means a home game in the first and maybe another game in the second round. Ten wins or better means home games up until Chattanooga.

Hofstra: Eleven games in 2008. OOC games with UConn, Albany and Stony Brook. The Pride plays the Delaware, JMU and Richmond rotation in the CAA South. The OOC is manageable with two likely wins and the Pride has a chance at UConn. Five playoff teams in the CAA schedule means Hofstra is an unlikely choice for the playoffs in '08.

Maine: Twelve games in 2008. OOC includes Iowa, Monmouth, Stony Brook and Iona. The Black Bears play the Delaware, JMU and Richmond rotation. Maine also plays five CAA playoff teams and is unlikely to win at Iowa. Three DI wins over Monmouth, Stony Brook and Iona gives the Black Bears a chance at seven DI wins however.

UMass: Twelve games in 2008. OOC includes Texas Tech, Albany, Holy Cross and Bryant. The Minutemen also play the Delaware, JMU and Richmond rotation. UMass needs to avoid the upset at Holy Cross to get three DI wins out the the rest of the OOC. Texas Tech should have one of their stronger teams in '08, so an upset win is unlikely. UMass probably won't go undefeated in the CAA, but has the potential to get nine or ten wins.

New Hampshire: Eleven games in 2008. The Wildcats OOC includes Army, Albany and Dartmouth. I think UNH can win all three of those games. UNH plays the non-playoff section of the CAA South: Villanova, Towson and William & Mary. Chances look good for eight or better DI wins for the Wildcats.

Northeastern: Eleven games in 2008. OOC includes Ball State, Georgia Southern and UC Davis. The good Huskies play the non-playoff rotation of Villanova, Towson and William & Mary. Northeastern has a good chance of upsetting UC Davis at home, but the rest of the schedule looks too difficult to get seven wins or better.

Rhode Island: Twelve games in 2008. The Rams OOC includes Boston College, Monmouth, Fordham and Brown. The Rams play the Villanova, Towson and William & Mary rotation out of the CAA South. A coaching change often invigorates a program. Rhody should go 2-2 in the OOC and probably will get a few more upsets in the regular season. Reaching seven DI wins will still be difficult.

Summary: New Hampshire has the most favorable schedule in the CAA North. If they can find a quarterback to replace Santos, the Wildcats have a good chance at the playoffs. UMass should be strong again this year. Three OOC DI wins should give the Minutemen a leg-up on the playoffs. Maine looks like the next best shot.

UPDATE: UNH QB search is on .

UPDATE II: As pointed out by a reader, Northeastern has added a second BCS team to their 2008 schedule, Syracuse.

Wednesday Articles

So far nobody has published anything about UMass' Pro Day. This article mentions the Philadelphia Eagles were there .

Didn't take long to for Rhode Island to derail some of Thor's plans.

2007 opening opponent Albany is happy with their progress .

And the big news is that the CAA has the combined 2008 football schedule up. Printable schedule (in pdf) is here .

Eleven UMass Players named Academic All-Conference

The UMass Football Blog is proud to announce that eleven UMass players made the 2007 Academic All-Conference Team. The UMass announcement is here . The original CAA conference article is here . Players have to have 3.0 or better average to be named to the team.

Congratulations to: David Burris, Matt Stolte, Sean Callicchio, Biff Gottehrer, Jason Grochowalski , Chis Cefalo, Armando Cuko, Kyle Harrington, Josh Jennings, Anthony Rouzier and Michael Boyle .

Parse the Academic All-Conference list this way:

1. Hofstra 15
2. URI 13
3. UNH 12
   
4. UMass 11
5. Villanova 11
6. Delaware 10
7. Maine 9
8. Towson 8
9. William & Mary 8
10. Northeastern 5
11. Richmond 5
12. JMU 3

CAA North 65, CAA South 45

Northeastern Survives

A recent review of athletics by Northeastern University led to rumors that Husky Football was on the chopping block.

Yesterday, the review commission recommended continuing football. Story by the Globe here and another by the Herald here.

Included in the announcement was a wish list to improve Parsons Field. Since I've been following New England football, Northeastern must have announced renovation plans for Parsons about a half-a-dozen times...

UPDATE: The Huskies are playing their traditional killer schedule in 2008. In addition to the CAA schedule they play Syracuse, Ball State and Georgia Southern.

2008 CAA BCS schedule

Right now, eleven CAA teams will play BCS/I-A teams in 2008.

• Villanova @ West Virginia
• Richmond @ Virginia
• UMass @ Texas Tech
• Towson @ Navy
• New Hampshire @ Army
• Maine @ Iowa
• James Madison @ Duke
• Hofstra @ UConn
• Delaware @ Maryland
• Rhode Island @ Boston College
• William @ Mary @ North Carolina State

Discussion: I think UNH has a good chance of winning their fourth BCS-I-A game in a row against Army. Duke improved last year, but JMU should be very competitive against Blue Demons. Navy lost their coach and Towson had tons of injury problems last year. The Tigers could be improved in 2008.

Hofstra and Delaware could be competitive. North Carolina State is not very good, but neither is William @ Mary.

Villanova, Rhode Island, UMass and Richmond should be facing Top-25 teams and are in it for the experience and the $$$.