UMass Football News--February 11th, 2025

 

Congrats to two former Minutemen who won the Super Bowl Sunday.

Jack Driscoll's Eagle bio. 

Isaiah Robert's Ealge bio. 

UMass athletics has Rogers and Driscoll win Super Bowl LIX with the Philadelphia Eagles.

This is great.

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 UMass adds a DB coach with extensive MAC experience with Donald Celiscar.

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UMass Football News--January 31st, 2023

 

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Draft Diamonds has an interview with Marcus Cushnie. Marcus' UMass bio here.

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Jack Driscoll is in the Super Bowl. Driscoll's Eagles bio here.

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247Sports has the 30 best college uniforms for 2023.

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If you're bored and can't find anything to watch on TV, try YouTube's full game replay of 2022's Florida-Florida State game. 

I watched it over two days while on my treadmill. Lot's of great college football action. 

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Game Day--Liberty October 8th, 2022

 Libery might be the second strongest opponent UMass faces in 2022 (although a Liberty-Texas A&M game would be interesting). The Flames might start their reserve QB Johnathan Bennett. He's not quite the offensive machine of the first and second string Flames QB's, but he engineered a win over Old Dominion.

The rest of Liberty's roster is studded with Power Five level players. UMass is not yet a match for the Flames at most positions.

However, the UMass defense has been playing well lately. A couple of turnovers could make the game competitive. The Minutemen offense has to generate more than 10 points. We can't win games at that level of production. 

I'll be there cheering for the Minutemen. Go UMass!

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the Liberty game.

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How YouTube helped Jack Driscoll meet his next challenge. 

Driscoll was an unsung hero for the Eagles during the week 4 win over the Jaguars.  

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Hustle Belt previews today's game between Buffalo and Bowling Green. 

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New Mexico State has a bye.

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Yahoo Sports predicts UConn will win their second in a row. 

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UMass Football News--November 22nd, 2021

 UMass opens as a six point underdog to New Mexico State. I wonder when the last time the Aggies have been the favorites against a FBS team.

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MassLive reports UMass is closing in on Don Brown as the next head coach.

ESPN reports sources say it's Don Brown. 

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Brown's hiring.

I think this would be a good move. UMass probably would have hired a FBS offensive or defensive coordinator or a FCS head coach. Unlike Whipple II, Brown is a current Power Five defensive coordinator. In addition, Brown is a New England guy and understands the area and the constraints it contains.  

Brown was Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015. He made an immediate improvement to Arizona's defense. He was a finalist for the Assistant coach of the year in 2016.

From Brown's Wildcat bio:

"Brown, who brings nearly 45 years of coaching experience to Tucson, was a five-time nominee and a 2016 finalist for the Broyles Award that is annually awarded to the nation's top assistant coach. Over the last decade, 29 defensive players who played under Brown have been selected in the NFL Draft. After orchestrating a miraculous turnaround of the Boston College defense over the course of three seasons, Brown was tabbed as the American Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015.  
 
Under Brown's guidance, the Michigan defense finished among the top 12 units in the nation in total defense four straight years from 2016-19, including a trio of top three performances and a No. 1 ranking in 2016. During that same four-year stretch from 2016-19 the Wolverines defense led the country in pass defense twice (2016, 2017) and combined to make 16 top 25 appearances in total defense, scoring defense, rush defense, and pass defense.
 
During his tenure in Ann Arbor, Brown coached players who earned 49 All-Big Ten recognitions, including 43-of-44 starters who earned all-conference honors across his first four seasons and 10 players that picked up 14 first team nods." 

The UMass program desperately needs to get its feet under itself. Brown has the experience and the skill to get the program stabilized. 

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Bill Murray attended the UMass-Army game and did Bill Murray stuff.

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Thanks to a blog reader who pointed out Jack Driscoll is doing well as a starter for the Eagles.

Game balls are a regular thing for the Eagles offensive line. 

The Eagles Wire has Driscoll as one of the the biggest surprises from Philly's first ten games. 

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UMass Football News--July 8th, 2021

 Saturday Blitz previews the 2021 Minutemen.

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Pittsburgh Sport Now previews UMass' opening opponent Pitt.

247Sports previews Pittsburgh's offense.

The opening line is UMass +36 against the Panthers.

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BYU RB Jackson McChesney, the fourth-string true freshman RB who ran for an all-time freshman Cougar record  against the beleaguered UMass defense in 2019 is returning from a season ending injury.

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UMass and UConn have one player apiece on Yahoo Sport's top-30 pre-season Independents team.

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Former UMass offensive lineman Jack Driscoll's younger brother plays TE for Auburn.

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UMass Football News--October 22nd, 2020

 

 

UMass adds Liberty to the 2020 schedule.

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on the Marshall game.

It's great UMass is playing. This will help recruiting, retention and player development.It will pay dividends in 2021.

However, 2020 wins may be tough to acquire in the revised schedule. The original schedule had UConn, New Mexico State, Albany and Akron. The Minutemen would have had a good chance against all those teams. The revised schedule looks like we will play all high-end teams. This will trigger the anti-football trolls, so UMass fans need to be prepared. You could probably write the Globe hit piece yourself.

Liberty is undefeated and they dominated Power Five team Syracuse.

Army is 5-1 and my pick to win the Commander-in-Chief trophy.

Marshall is also undefeated. And all these games are going to be away.

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Mike Moran of Gazette says the Minutemen are eager to return to the practice field while sitting out the quarantine week.

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Jack Driscoll has been ruled out of the Eagles game against the Giants.

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BTW, this post is the 8,000th UMass Football Blog entry.

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UMass Football News--September 18th, 2020

The New Haven Register has a post about UMass and UConn playing a one-game Spring schedule.

Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle reports UMass AD Ryan Bamford is staying the course.

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 Thanks to the blog reader who sent me the link to a Gazette article on cost cutting measures being enacted at the Athletic Department to cope with budget reductions.

Mrs Blog's niece works at UMass and her department has also been notified about possible furloughs and work force reductions.

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Yong Kim image

Thanks also to another blog reader who sent me this link about the Eagles may have found a keeper in Jack Driscoll.

Driscoll's Eagles bio. 

Eagles RT Lane Johnson has high praise for Driscoll.

The Athletic says signs are encouraging for Jack Driscoll.

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If you missed it, old FCS foe NcNeese State's stadium got hit pretty hard during hurricane Laura.

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UMass Football News--May 5th, 2020

Ta'Rai Powell rockin' his UMass gear.

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Coach Bell had this image on his Twitter feed. New style helmet?

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This article by Matt Vautour features former UMass WR Doug Clark. He lettered in 1995, '96 and '97.

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Eleven Warriors has an interesting story on the chess match between Don Brown and Ryan Day. Mentions UMass numerous times.

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Zip06.com has a story on Jack Driscoll being drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Sports Illustrated says Driscoll is one of Philadelphia's 34 core players.

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The Las Cruces News has a way-to-early two deep for New Mexico State.

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Sports Chat Place thinks New Mexico will get four or five wins in 2020.

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College Football News previews the 2020 Liberty Flames.

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UMass and Temple schedule a home-and-home for 2025 and 2027.

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UMass Football News--May 4th, 2020

The Desert News has a post on what will happen to BYU if college football plays a conference-only schedule.

If college football goes to a conference only schedule there will be some interesting options for UMass and the other independents.

Notre Dame has a relationship with the ACC and all the Irish Olympic teams play a full league schedule. Notre Dame already plays five ACC football teams a year. The Irish are a big media draw and I would think the ACC would clamor to add three or four games with Notre Dame if the ACC plays a league only schedule. I would think media powers like ESPN would throw their weight towards this also. The question would be if Notre Dame could live with only four or five home games (depending if the league schedule is eight or nine games). If the ACC would allow the Irish to add another home game I would think Notre Dame would add Army. The Irish sometimes play all three service academies. This schedule would be a big win for the Irish as they could very well go 9-0 (or 8-0).

BYU, on the other hand would be the big loser. A schedule of two games with UMass, UConn, Army, New Mexico State and Liberty would tough media and ticket sales situation for the Cougars. BYU would likely undefeated against that schedule. I don't know if that would mitigate things for Cougar fans.

UMass fans on the other hand, could be pretty happy. Getting UConn, Army and BYU at McGuirk would be the best home slate ever. Having a service academy to play in Amherst has been a dream for UMass fans for years. The only down side is this would be happening a year early. The Minutemen need another recruiting class to be competitive against Liberty, Army and BYU.

KSL.com says an Independent-only schedule for BYU would be "horrendous".

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Alabama.com says Jack Driscoll is ready for another football transition.

Driscoll shares his NFL draft experience. 

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The Herald-Bulletin says elite speed put Isiah Rogers on the Colts roster.

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College Football News previews the 2020 UConn Huskies.

CFN also previews the Akron Zips.

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UMass Football News--April 27th, 2020

More stories on Isaiah Rogers:

Colts.com reports Rogers bring versatility and a spark to the Colts defense and special teams.

The Berkshire Eagle reports Isaiah Rogers and Jack Driscoll are thankful for their UMass ties.

The Tampa Bay Times reports on local players who were drafted including Rogers.

The San Diego Times gives the Colts an "A" for the 2020 draft.

UPDATE: Colts release uniform numbers for draft picks.

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And on Jack Driscoll:

Thanks to the blog reader who sent me this link to the Montgomery Adviser on Jack Driscoll living out a lifelong dream.

NBC Philadelphia says the Eagles drafted athletic, versatile Jack Driscoll.

The Hartford Courant says the Eagles nabbed local product Jack Driscoll.

Auburn Tigers.com reports on the Philadelphia Eagles drafting OL Jack Driscoll.

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All the NFL free agent signings here. So far, UMass LB Jarvis Miller has not signed.

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UMass Football News--April 25th, 2020

UMass has Episode 4 of "Coffee with the UMass coaches" up. In it Coach Bell reports this Spring the Minutemen will have 67 scholarship players and 90 to 95 players in the program. Note that we are effectively missing one entire recruiting class in respect to other FBS teams as we are still 18 scholarships under the FBS limit. However, this is a big improvement over last year. I don't know how they even ran a scout team in 2019. I think UMass will be much more competitive this year and the 2021 recruiting class will move us close to where UMass fans want to be.

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Which leads us to the consideration if there will actually be a 2020 season. I'm a life-long reader of science fiction and military Sci-Fi in particular. I read so many apocalypse stories I bought a book on viruses. The SARS epidemic of 2003 was a corona virus. It jumped to the human population in a wet market in China that year. It's symptoms were very close to Covid 19. It caused 8000 infections and 800 deaths in 29 countries (note the 10% death rate). Fortunately, it burned itself out quickly; it started in February and was over by July and did not return.

Right now I don't think anyone knows if colleges will open in September. If they don't college football is unlikely in 2020. If they open late, then there will likely be some sort of season. How that will work will be the subject of another blog post.

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MassLive has a story on Jack Driscoll's journey from UMass to a mid-round NFL pick.

Cleveland.com thinks Driscoll could be a player the Browns would choose.

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The Worcester Telegram has Massachusetts prospects in the 2020 NFL draft.

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Blue & Gold.com has a post on how many contributed to Neal Brown's coaching philosophy (mentions UMass).

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UMass Football News--April 22nd, 2020

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The Montgomery Adviser has a post on Jack Driscoll's journey from a two-star recruit to a possible NFL draft pick.

Mel Keiper looks at Driscoll's place in the NFL draft.

NBC Sports has Driscoll #118 in the draft.

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Athlon Sports looks at Auburn's 2020 schedule.

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UConn's president Tom Katsouleas said Fall sports may have to be cancelled and then had to quickly walk back on that statement.

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Rutgers gets a commit from Max Patterson, who had a UMass offer.

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Boise State furloughs its football coaches.

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CBS Sports says college football will take on its most difficult task yet: safely starting the 2020 season.

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UMass Football News--March 10th, 2020

Another article about Nebraska and the Huskers new coaching staff including Matt Dawson.

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NFL Combine image

PFF.com has a mock NFL draft with Jack Dawson as a first round pick by the Tennessee Titians. 

Auburn Undercover says Jack Driscoll is eager to earn a spot on a NFL payroll.

Cleveland.com profiles Jack Driscoll.

Chargers Wire has "Meet Jack Driscoll Auburn's battle -tested OT". Several mentions of UMass

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UMass grad Joe Beveridge has been named coach at Westboro High.

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How Don Brown had an impact on new Michigan Safeties coach Bob Shoop.

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Mountain West Wire looks at New Mexico's 2020 schedule and has their chances of a win against UMass as 50-50.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer has a complete rundown of Temple's Spring football.

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UMass Football News--March 3rd, 2020

Sports writer Pete Thamel reports former UMass coach Jimmie Reid may rejoin the Minutemen as a defensive analyst.

This would be good news for the UMass program. Reid spent 15 years in Amherst as a defensive assistant and then as head coach from 1986-1991. He went 36-29 as a head coach an won three Yankee Conference titles. He was Yankee Conference Coach-of-the-Year twice. Reid did not have a lot to work with during his tenure at UMass. He usually had around 50 scholarships instead of the FCS limit of 63.

Reid is very popular with the football player alumni and with the Massachusetts high school coaching fraternity. He recently was defensive coordinator for a Power Five school. He should help a young UMass staff and also aid recruiting in Massachusetts. Reid's Boston College bio.

This article from September of 2019 features Reid.

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College Football News thinks Danny Gonzalez will turn things around in New Mexico.

Mountain Football West looks at New Mexico's 2020 season.

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Fellow Independent New Mexico State adds Northwestern to their future schedule.

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UConn has a 17 year old freshman running back who is turning heads in Spring practice.

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Could USC and Oregon join the ranks of the Independents?

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2020 opponent Auburn had nine players in the NFL Combine.

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BYW, Jack Driscoll had several good performances at the Combine.

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UMass Football News--February 27th, 2020

Forbes has eight second year coaches who need to turn their programs around. Two years is a narrow window for football.

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College Football News continues their "best case, worse case" 2020 predictions with Akron.

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Human interest story about UConn OL Matt Pearl who stuck it out with the Huskies.

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2020 opponent Troy University opens Spring training with a quarterback battle.

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Appalachian State already has a week of Spring practice under their belt.

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The Draft Network profiles UMass/Auburn OL Jack Driscoll.

Al.com has a nice story about how Jack Driscoll went from a 200 pound OT to a possible NFL draft pick.

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UMass Football News--January 22nd, 2020

UMass Football players are back on campus and back to work.

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The 247Sports UMass recruits page has six of the 2020 recruits as Spring enrollees.

Three of the Spring recruits are JUCO's and they will have Spring ball and Fall camp to integrate into the program.

Generally, JUCO's are brought in for immediate help. Offensive guard Reggie Marks 6-2 300 should compete for a starting spot on the offensive line. I did a blog post on the 2020 offensive line.

Taishan Holmes a 6-2 300 pound DT should also provide immediate help in the defensive line. The two-deep defensive line for the BYU game listed three true freshmen and three sophomores. This is a unit that needs all the help available.

Maybe the player that will be most helped by the early enroll is JUCO QB Kyle Lindquist. I've covered Lindquist in a number of blog posts.

Quarterback was a problem for UMass in 2019. We did not have one.

Lindquist was the conference offensive MVP averaging 234.1 passing yards/game and threw for 24 TD's. His offense led the conference in just about every offensive category. Who's the best QB? The answer is the guy who moves the offense. UMass QB's averaged 168.5 yards a game passing and 15 TD's over 12 games. That was #117 in passing offense and #125 in passing efficiency.

A functioning offense would make a big difference in 2020. The defense is going to need more than this year's recruiting cycle to fix, but a better offense would be a big moral boost for the battered egos of Minutemen fans.

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Big Blue View takes an in-depth look at possible Giant's draft pick Jack Driscoll.

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UMass Football News---January 6th, 2020

The Enterprise-Record has a story about six Butte College players signing with college teams.Lots of quotes from UMass QB recruit Kyle Lindquist.

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Big Blue blog has five OT's the Giants could be interested in. One of them is Jack Driscoll.

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If you missed it Boston college has a new head coach.

The Eagles played in the Birmingham Bowl and delivered the stinker of all bowl performances this season. Without A.J. Dillon, BC had 164 total yards of offense and were 0-11 on third down situations. I watched the game and BC played with total disinterest. UMass was totally outclassed in most games this year, but nobody mailed in their effort like the Eagles did in this game.

BTW, Boston College's leading receiver has entered the transfer portal.

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Against All Enemies review's Army's season and looks forward to 2020.

Coach Bell was pretty stoic on the sidelines during the beatings UMass took in 2019. However, he did not look happy with the Army coach during the post game handshake when the Black Knights up 56-7, scored with 55 seconds left.

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UMass Football News--October 21st, 2019

UMass opens as a 9.5 point underdog on the Vegas Line. Boston College is -34.5 to Clemson...

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UConn will be without starting DT Travis Jones for the half of the UMass game due to a targeting foul. Also likely to miss the UMass game are LB Ryan Gilmartin and safety Diamond Harrell.

UConn has 10 of 12 games on its 2020 Independent schedule finalized.

Huskie QB Jack Zergionis struggled in UConn's loss to Houston.

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Jack Driscoll still talks frequently with his friends on the Minutemen football team.

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Ten years after the stabbing death of UConn's Jasper Howard, his family publishes a book about him.

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Maine lost a shootout to Liberty Saturday.

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Northwestern's offensive and defensive lines mostly held their own against Ohio State, but the Wildcast still lost 52-3.

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BYU rallied around their coach to knock off #14 Boise State.

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UMass Football News--August 12th, 2019

Blog Note: Mrs Blog and I are leaving today for two weeks in Nova Scotia. As usual, I'll try to keep the blog going. There will be one stretch of four days next week when I will not have internet access. We'll be staying in what is described as a "rustic" cabin at Cape Breton National park. No telephone, no TV and no internet.

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Josh Walfish has a notebook about UMass camp including the QB competition. UMass has seven QB's on the roster.

Josh reports Andrew Brito, Mike Curtis, Mike Fallon and Randall West took all the 7-on-7 and 11-on 11 offensive drills.

He also mentions 6-2 245 pound Adam Deese who has been moved to TE. That's a wide open position in the new offense.

Josh also mentions the good performance of freshman CB Josh Wallace. Wallace was ranked the #24 overall player out of Maryland by 247Sports. I think by the end of the season there will be a lot of new faces on the starting defense.

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Auburn senior RT Jack Driscoll has a video interview about the Auburn team. Driscoll is a UMass grad who played two years for the Minutemen.

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Liberty adds three OL verbals including three-star Brian Hannibal, who had a UMass offer.

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Vladimir Ducasse has been released by the Buffalo Bills.

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The Hartford Courant has notes from UConn's camp.

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UMass Football News---August 2nd, 2019

The 2019 preseason practice roster is up.

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Josh Walfish says there's a new energy at the UMass football camp. He also said it looks like seniors Michael Curtis and Randall West, junior Andrew Brito, sophomore Josiah Johnson and redshirt freshman Jaret Pallott are the top competitors for the starting QB slot. He also reports Coach Bell does not like to platoon quarterbacks.

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UMass officially welcomes Notre Dame transfer Noah Boykin.

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Liberty completes their transition to FBS football.

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Jack Driscoll is listed as the starter at RT for Auburn for the second straight season.

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Rutgers starts camp minus some players.

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Hero Sports previews Southern Illinois.

The Southern Illinoisan says the Salukis look deep.

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Like the Minutemen, Charlotte starts camp with a new head coach.

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Coastal Carolina thinks they'll exceed expectations in 2019.

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Hustle Belt has the key story lines for Akron in 2019.

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