Saturday--February 4th, 2017

Well, we're heading into the "slow news" portion of the year. I've been cranking out posts seven days a week since August. Unless we sign a defensive coordinator or some other major news, I'm going to start to take Sundays off until things pick up.

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Former NFL player Wade Davis spoke about gender equality during a visit to UMass. He also spoke with the UMass football team.

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Former UMass QB Gary Wilkos is enjoying life after football. Wilkos was one of the most impressive freshman QB's the Minutemen ever had. IMHO, he would have been an All-American if he had not been injured.

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The Pilot Online previews Old Dominion's 2107 schedule and thinks the Monarchs will have a tougher game in Amherst.

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ONE THAT GOT AWAY

Dan McGeough signs with Army.

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Victor Cruz is uncertain about his future with the Giants.

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UMass Historical Scans---1990

I've added 14 scans of 1990 UMass game programs to the UMass Historical Scans section of the Blog.

In 1990, Coach Jim Reid led the Minutemen to their 17th Yankee Conference Championship. UMass went 8-2-1.

UMass opened with a tie against Holy Cross and broke a long home winning streak for the Crusaders. How tough a game was that? Minutemen RB Jerome Bledsoe broke his leg in the first half and then lied to the coaches that it wasn't broke so that he could stay on the sidelines to watch the second half.

UMass defeated Delaware for the first time on 10/20, but UMass QB Gary Wilkos fractured his neck and ended his promising QB career. Wilkos lay on the Delaware stadium turf for 45 minutes because all the ambulances had been called away.

Down to its fourth string QB, UMass lost to William & Mary (not yet in the Yankee Conference) 0-38 in the first round of the FCS playoffs.

Lots of famous names on the UMass roster in 1990: Paul Mayberry. Ron Villone.

UMass had one of its best ever OL with Rich Cavanaugh, Paul Mayberry, Jay Gabbe, Tony Giudice and Kai Dietiker.

On defense UMass had Mario Perry, Rich Kane and Don Caparotti.

If you want a rational for moving to FBS, read this article about UMass' budget cutbacks in 1990. UMass would not pay for a room at the Yankee Conference Media Day so Reid slept on the floor of Richmond Coach Ed Marshall's floor. The Minutemen were playing with three year old uniforms and the UMass coach staff couldn't afford matching shirts...

UMass should achieve a break-even financial status in FBS in a few years. Then the UMass Athletic Dept will hold its revenue stream in its own hands and days like 1990 will never happen again.

UMass Football History--1989

I've added 16 scans from three game day programs and from the 1989 press guide to the UMass Football History Picassa Web album in the side bar of the blog.

Included in the scans is a copy of the 1989 Spring Game handout.

Use the little magnifying glass symbol to enlarge the images, which make reading the text easier.

Click on images for a larger view

UMass would finish 1989 5-5-1 and 3-5 in the Yankee Conference. UMass won the Yankee Conference Bean Pot in 1988 and would win it again in 1990. I believe UMass' 28-28 tie against JMU in 1989 was the last tie in the program's history.

All-Yankee Conference in 1989 were:

• George Karelas LB --150 TT in '89
• Matt Tulley LB
• Chip Mitchell WR -- set a then UMass career record of 1,590 receiving yards
• Kai Dietiker OL
• Anthony Guidice OL
• Joe Cullen-- there is an article about him in the scans.

1989 was the debut of Gary Wilkos.  Despite not starting until the fifth game of the season, Wilkos had 1,171 yards passing and was the second leading rusher on the team with 632 yards. Wilkos was a potential All-American at QB. Wilkos was ECAC Rookie-of-the-Week at Delaware. He also won the New England Gold Helmet award, and the Bill Knight Award for the Minutemen's win over New Hampshire.

 # 18 is Wilkos. #49 is fullback Duncan MacRae. #69 was OG Phil Hallard.

Although not visually exciting, included is a scan of the cover of the UMass-Lehigh game program. The 1989 game was the only time Mrs. Blog and I would visit Goodman Stadium.

I vividly remember Jerome Bledsoe having a great game against the Engineers. UMass rang up 50 rushes for 326 yards. Bledsoe had 209 yards on 19 carries for a 11.0 yards per carry average. He was named ECAC Offense Player-of-the Week. Bledsoe didn't have a lot of long runs. He just flat ran over Lehigh's defense. The Engineer defenders bounced off the 5-10 180 pd Bledsoe all day.

The Lehigh game was another episode in Jimmie Reid's coaching legend. Reid was known to chew out opposing players if he thought they were not playing the game the way he thought they should.

After the Friday practice some of the Engineer players doffed their pads and settled down in the bleachers to watch the UMass practice. Coach Reid went charging into the stands to tell the Lehigh players to get their asses back into the clubhouse and start getting ready to play the next day.

Anyone have any 1989 memories to add in comments?

UMass Football History ---1988

Click on the image for a larger view. I've added 14 scans to my UMass historical scans folder in Picassa. The album is here. Scroll to the new 1988 images. The inconspicuous magnifying glass image allows a zoom-in feature to make reading  print easier.

Included is a scan of the cover of the 1988 UMass Press Guide, somewhat the worse for having being soaked when my cellar flooded...

In 1988 UMass went 8-4 overall and 6-2 in the Yankee Conference to finish as conference champions.

UMass lost to Eastern Kentucky 17-28 in the first round of the FCS playoffs in a driving rain that hampered UMass' passing attack.

Notable game was UMass' 64-42 shootout win at UNH to finish the season on November 19th. I was there and I distinctly remember at the end of the game it was so dark that the field was lit by the glow of the Wildcats scoreboard showing the 64-42 total. The UMass players were jumping up and down and pumping their fists in gathering twilight.

The following players were All-Yankee Conference

• John McKeon (set UMass  single season TT record with 49-128 177 TT.
• Dave Palazzi (144-262 2,403 yards 14 TD's)
• Bill Butler
• Matt Tulley

Chip Mitchell was leading receiver with 33-638 19.4 AVE.

Kevin Smellie was leading rusher 188-807 8 TD's.

Other notables from that team were Gary Wilkos (who went on to have perhaps the best freshman UMass QB season ever), Thorr Bjorn, Paul Mayberry, Ron Villone and Joe Cullen.

A number of players from that squad continue to support UMass football in Friends of Football.

Wisdom of the Blog---- Top UMass Quarterback

The greatest quarterbacks blog poll came directly from the career top 10 list in the 2008 UMass press guide. The 100 Blog votes went like this:

1. Liam Coen- 05-08 39 votes. Liam leads UMass in career TD's, Season and career passing efficiency, total yards and most yards gained in a single game (three of the top four). Coen has played in a lot of games and that adds to his career statistics. He played in 15 games in 2006, which was almost two seasons for the old time quarterbacks.
2. Todd Bankhead- 98-99 23 votes. Todd is the only UMass QB to win a national championship. Coach Whipple offered a scholarship to a QB he never spoke with in person from a JUCO in CA. A couple of months later, Bankhead was all over the Delaware defense and the single greatest season in UMass history was in motion. Bankhead played two years and holds the top two single season yards gained record. He put UMass on the map in the modern era.
3. Greg Landry 65-67 13 votes. Landry is UMass' only first round NFL Draft pick. His 1965 QB efficiency rating of 145.4 still stands as the UMass record. All-Pro for Detroit in 1971. Again, it would be interesting to see Landry in Whipple's offense.
   
4. Dave Palazzi. 85-88 13 votes. Palazzi was a I-A level QB. He was somehow missed by BC, Syracuse or Penn State. If he had played for a I-A team, he would have had several bowl trophies sitting in his rec room. Palazzi's 3rd in all-time career passing. Remember he was playing in an option offense.
5. Jeff Krohn 02-03 5 votes. After UMass' national championship, the question was open if UMass was going to have to wait another 20 years for a top level FCS/I-AA team. Krohn answered that question. Jeff kept the lights on in the Minutemen's reputation as a national and conference power. In his time before UMass, he led the PAC10 in passing...
6. Tim Day 02-05 1 vote. Tim is 6th in career passing for UMass and third in career passing completion average.
7. Mike McEvilly 77-79 1 vote. Mike is 9th in career yards passing.
8. Andrew McNeilly 92-95 1 vote. McNeilly is 10th in total yards passing. Another QB who played in an option oriented offense. He never had more than 86 completions in any season.
9. Gary Wilkos 89-90 1 vote. If any UMass QB reminded me of Tom Brady, it's Wilkos. Gary had that kind of demeanor as a QB. He only played 1.5 seasons before suffering a spinal injury that ended his career. He's still the #3 ranked freshman QB in UMass history.
10. Peil Pennington 71-73 0 votes. Maybe UMass' best pure passing QB. Still #6 in total yards passing.
    
11. Jerry Whelchel 62-64 0 votes. Played in the old-old Yankee Conference "three yards and a cloud of dust" offenses. He's #11 in total yards passing.

The results show a tendency to favor the more recent quarterbacks (as you might expect). Many of the older QB's played in offenses that were far removed from Whipple's high-octane passing game. Parsing the list by yards per attempt is fairer to the older QBs and looks like this:

1. Liam Coen 8.6 yards per attempt
2. Jerry Welchel 8.4
3. Tod Bankhead 7.5
4. Gary Wilkos 7.2
5. Tim Day 7.1
6. Noel Reebenacker 7.1 (1950-1952)
7. Dave Palazzi 7.1
8. Jeff Krohn 7.0
9. Greg Landry 7.0
10. Brian NcNally 6.7
11. Peil Pennington 6.6
    

Steve Baylark named A10 Co-Offensive Player of the Year!

Senior Steve Baylark has been named A10 Offensive Player-of-the-Year . Congratulations Steve!

From the A10 press release:

"One of four players in I-AA history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in four straight seasons, Baylark leads the A-10 in rushing yards (1,308) and ranks second with 10 rushing touchdowns. The Apopka, FL, native shares the league lead with six 100-yard rushing performances and has 13 receptions for 123 yards and three touchdowns. One of 16 candidates for the Walter Payton Award, which is presented to the most outstanding player in I-AA, Baylark led the Minutemen to the Atlantic 10 North Division title with an 8-0 record and an overall mark of 10-1. UMass is ranked third in The Sports Network top 25 poll and is the third overall seed in the 2006 NCAA Division I Football Championship. He joins Gary Wilkos (1990) as the lone players in program annals to be named the Conference's Offensive Player of the Year."