2008 UMass Football --- Offensive line

I've been doing a series of posts on the state of the 2008 UMass football team. This is the last post of the series and we take a look at the OL for 2008 and try to guess what the coaching staff has in store for us.

Remember I have no special inside information.

Freshman are green.
Sophomores are orange
Juniors are blue
Senior are red

I'm working out of the UMass depth chart for the Hofstra game. Teams are only allowed to dress 60 players for the playoffs, so the depth chart for the playoffs may have been different. Note that the class of the player is for fall of 2008 not their current status.

According to the last regular season depth chart:

LT Vladimir Ducasse Junior
----Ben Coblyn Senior

LG Open
-----Open

Center Open
-------John Ihne Sophomore

RG Open
---- Biff Gotteher Redshirt Senior

RT Sean Calicchio Redshirt Senior
----Biff Gottener Redshirt Senior

Other offensive linemen (not including this year's recruits) are Josh Samuda, Tim Nolan, Mike Binkoski, Michael Boyle, Justin Sawicki , Chauncey Incarnato and Brian Ostaszewski.

Discussion: The offensive line is the big (along with WR) rebuilding area for 2008. The offensive line was hit with injuries in training camp last year and depth was problem all year.

John Ihne and Ben Coblyn saw quite a bit of playing time. I read in one of last years reports that if UMass had to break a redshirt it would have been Tim Nolan. Which, presumably, means he was the most advanced of the true freshmen at that time.

I would think that Coach Brown would try to redshirt this year's OL recruits if at all possible. Generally, an eighteen-year-old is not physically ready to play in the line against twenty-three year old players who have been on a college weight program for five years.

Most OL can play more than one position. I would think that the center and both guard positions are open at this time. Until spring and fall training camps are finished, I don't think there is any clear leaders. We will have more depth this year and last year's freshman should be in the mix to start.

This year's redshirts

While watching Appalachian State pull the legs off Delaware last night, I spent some time looking at the UMass roster.

If I didn't miss anyone, and I'm sure someone will point it out if I did , it looks like UMass had 15 red-shirts in 2007.

1. Scott Wallace QB
2. Octavious Hawking QB
3. Shane Viveiros DB
4. Emil Igwenagu LB/RB
5. Jonathan Hernandez RB
6. Josh Samuda C
7. Johnny Evans LB
8. Tim Nolan OL
9. Michael Binkoski OL
10. Brian Ostaszewki OL
11. Justin Sawicki OL
12. Tom Gilson WR
13. Julian Talley WR
14. Courtney Jackson DE
15. Jonathan Emond WR

The players with no bio information are probably walk-ons. We also will have Chauncey Incarnato OL a transfer who was not eligible this year.

Barring any academic problems or players leaving the team, I looks like we are do not have heavy needs at OL and QB.

During later posts, we will look at what we do need in recruits this year.

Sixty-two Days to football and #61

Only sixty-two days until Football!

Wearing #62 for UMass this year will be Freshman recruit Tim Nolan, a 6-4 300 pd OL from Jackson, NJ.

Nolan had mutiple honors in High School including First Team All-State in his school's group.

Welcome to UMass Tim! Hope 2007 is the start of a great career with the Minutemen.

2007 Spring Roster part II

As per yesterday's post the revised Spring Roster has the 2007 recruits.

• Octavious Hawkins QB wearing #14
• Justin Halas LB wearing #23
  
• Emil Igwenagu LB/TB wearing #28
• Sloan Russett FB wearing #33
• Ryan Moreshead LB wearing #37
• Josh Samuda OL wearing #50
• Tim Nolan OL wearing #62
• Brian Ostaszewki OL wearing #67
• Justin Sawicki OL wearing #73
• Julian Talley WR wearing #88
• Courtney Jackson DE wearing #91
  

UMass signs 15 recruits

UMass has signed 15 recruits. A quick look indicates that there are some very interesting additions.

I've already blogged on five of them (seven counting Chris Pollard and Sloan Russett) scroll down to second entry for Sloan, I can't point Blogger to a specific entry), both of whom ended up doing a year of prep school.

Ben Coblyn (scroll to second post), Emil Igwenagu (scroll to the post before this one), Jeromy Miles (two posts), Ryan Moreshead and Tim Nolan.

Looks like a great class! Jeromy Miles is the top signing in all of I-AA football, IMHO. That Florida QB Octavious Hawkins looks interesting too. I'll be bloggin' a lot more in days to come about this class.

In the meantime, here's some more reading for you:

• Hofstra's recruits are here.
• our biggest rival in the CAA, the New Hampshire Wildcats recruits are here .
• Northeastern signs nine recruits.
• The Spiders recruiting list is here.
• The Towson Tigers signed eleven .

Nobody else's list is up yet.

UPDATE:

• Delaware signs 17 recruits W/four from Massachusetts!
• Villanova signs a strong class.
• William & Mary's recruits are here
  
• Rhode Island signs 13 including two from Liam Coen's old school
• Maine, which has a history of signing large classes, signs 17
• The JMU Dukes go for defensive backfield help with 5 out of 15 recruits
  

UMass adds another verbal --- Tim Nolan OL

Tim Nolan a 6-4 301 pd OL from Jackson NJ has verbaled to UMass.

This Scout.com link has some praise for him.

He was 3rd team All-New Jersey by NJVarsity.com.

This ScoutCombines.com article describes him as a "Warrior" (scroll down).

Took a recruiting visit to Monmouth. Also received interest from Duke and Rutgers.

Welcome aboard Tim! You made the right choice!