Thursday--March 22nd, 2012

I was looking at the 2012 Spring Roster. Seventeen (by my count) underclassmen who were on last year's roster do not appear on this one.

Most of the juniors probably graduated because they had a redshirt year. Some of the losses are probably scout team members.

Missing are (classes are for last year):

• Theo Agnew DL RS So
• Kevin Donahue LB SO
• Nick Gottshall OL RS JR
• James Lizotte WR JR
• John Moran OL RS JR
• Kyle Morgan DL FR
• Manoel Nascimento RB SO
• Kirk Nelms DB SO
• Andrew Ortiz K FR
• Benjamin Patrick RB FR
• Ray Pendagast QB SO
• Ryan Phillips LB FR
• Travis Poston OL RS JR
• Jeff Skoog OL SO
• Caleb Violette K/P JR
• Cody Watts DB FR
• Dominic Wooten TE SO

I miss anyone?
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Eight UMass football players took part in Boston College's Pro Day.

Boston.com says Julian Talley opened some eyes.

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Mike Leach proposes a 64-team college football tourney. The article has a link to a hypothetical 2012 bracket that includes three MAC teams.

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Monday--November 14, 2011

Matty V has an article on various milestones passed by UMass players in the Maine game. Jonathan Hernandez passed a 1,000 yards for the season. Julian Talley passed Victor Cruz and Brandon London (two pretty good receivers) to take 4th place in career yardage.

The Maine Campus said the Black Bears likely secured a playoff birth with the win over UMass.

The UMass Daily Collegian has a story on the loss to Maine.

Jeff Thomas has an article on Ray Pendagast's cold start against the Black Bears.

Coach Morris praised Pendagast in this mention in the Herald

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The Daily Press has a CAA recap from Saturday's games. They mention JMU must win at UMass to have a hope of making the playoffs.

The Pilot OnLine also mentions JMU vs UMass and also states UNH could be in trouble if they lose to Maine next week.

Justin Thorpe returned to the Dukes after a five game suspension and keyed the win over Rhode Island.

Nice human interest story about JMU assistant coach Clayton Matthews who was paralyzed from the waist down in an automobile accident.

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TSN has two articles on the status of various teams playoff hopes here and here.

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Victor Cruz went 6-84 in the Giants loss to the 49ers.

James Ihedigbo started for the Patriots against the Jets.

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Sunday--November 13, 2011

The Maine game was the first I listened to on the radio feed. Josh Maurer and Matt Goldstein do a fine job with the audio call. You can hear why they keep winning AP awards.

The UMass team appeared to play with fire and determination.  That's all I ask. The defense only gave up 18 points.

The loss was the same old story in 2011. I was mentally writing Ray Pendagast's Gold Helmet Award speech at halftime. However, his glass slipper cracked in the second half. He had two fumbles for touchdowns (we must lead the football universe in that category) and a INT.

In addition, we missed two makeable field goals to dig our last-in-the-CAA average deeper.

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Matty V. said second half turnovers doomed UMass.

UMass athletic dept write-up here. University of Maine writeup here.

The Boston Herald said Maine recovered to upend UMass.

The Worcester Telegram said UMass could not hold the ball or the lead.

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UNH lost to Towson to drop the Wildcats into second place in the CAA.

All the CAA results here .

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Game Day--Maine November 12, 2011

UPDATE: WRNX folded last week.  The UMass feed will now be on KIX Country.

UPDATE II: The UMass pre-game show is reporting that both UMass QB's Kellen Pagel and Brandon Hill are out of today's game. UMass emergency QB Ray Pendagast will start.

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UMass adds Florida to its 2016 schedule. Lots of UMass alums in Florida. Playing the Gators in Gainsville will be an experience!

The Palm Beach Post has the original announcement.

The Swamp

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Jeff Thomas reports on UMass' last road trip as an FCS team.

The Kennebec Journal says the Minutemen are making their last trip to Orono.

The Sun-Journal says the Black Bears are happy to have an opportunity to put the loss to Towson behind them.

Maine has put in a bid for their first ever home playoff game.

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All the CAA league game details on the CAA's Game Day post.

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All Right. Let's blow the stink off last week's performance and put a significant dent in the Black Bear's playoff hopes!

Go UMass!!!

Sunday---October 9, 2011

Click on image for a larger view

Some good things happened at McGuirk last night as well as some "OK" things and a couple of bad things.

A really good thing was Jesse Julmiste. If you havn't yet seen him in person, make it a point to come out to McGuirk to see him play. Julmiste was leaving contrails in the cool October night. He had four returns for 148 yards and one 90 yard TD. Julmiste took the kickoff then went to Mach 2 and was still accelerating when hit the endzone. His two kick return TD's this year ties an all-time UMass record held by Phil DeRose and Dennis Dent. He also had a 31-yard run on a reverse.

The UMMB seemed to get its mojo back as the band and the visiting HS bands put on a show that the band, new director Tim Anderson ------and George Parks would have been proud of.

The offense did not have a single turnover. Brandon Hill not only did not throw any INT's, he didn't come close to throwing one.

Darren Thellen had two INT's including an 85-yard return for a TD. Emil Igwenagu caught a sideline pass and the 245 pound TE out ran the CCSU defenders for a 58 yard TD.

Oh, and I heard Shane Viveiros will be back for the next game. Since UMass has not announced the reason for his absence, I won't either. However, I hope to God that the previous scheme of moving him to LB will be scrapped and he will be back at safety.

Some OK things: I was mentally writing good things about the UMass kicking game. Brendon Leavengood thumped a 35 yard field goal that would have been good ten yards further. Jeff Strait made a nice play fielding a high snap----then Leavengood missed a extra point and Ray Pendagast hit a worm burner of a punt.

And some bad things: the offensive line seemed to be having an off night as the CCSU defense shut down Jonathan Hernandez and the UMass rushing game in the second half.

UMass had only 14 first downs...

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Jeff Thomas says UMass used big plays to defeat CCSU.

Matty V. said Jesse Julmiste sparked UMass to a win.

He also has three stars from the CCSU game.

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All the CAA results here. If you missed it, Maine (!?), Towson (!???) and UNH are leading the league.

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Boston College was in a "Death Valley Downer" as the Herald put it.

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Revised Summer Roster up

UMass has a revised 2010 roster up. It includes some additions to the roster and the 2010 recruits have been assigned numbers.

The revisions are probably not complete. Coach Morris mentioned JUCO QB Ian Shultis at the Friends of Football meeting Monday night. He also stated UMass will have FBS/I-A transfers from Temple and Syracuse and those do not yet appear on the roster. He also mentioned UMass might add further players later in the summer.

The one every one will be interested in is #3 Ian Shultis, 6-2 200 pd SO QB from Moorpark JUCO in CA.

His Scout.com page here. He broke Moorepark records in his freshman year. His 2009 YouTube highlights are here.

In HS, Schultis drew recruiting interest from Boston College, Harvard, Holy Cross, San Diego State, TCU, U Cal Davis and Utah.
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Also new on the roster is Raymond Pendagast, a 6-5 195 pd FR QB from Bridgeport CT. I've blogged about Pendagast twice before.

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Wearing #30 will be Igor Garcia, a 6-1 180 pd FR K from Medford, MA. I've previously blogged about him.

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Wearing #32 is Ryan Collins, a 6-0 180 pd FR DB from Walpole, MA.

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Travis Poston, a 6-6 330 pd RS SO OL from Amber PA , actually transferred from Villanova last year and had to sit out 2009 because he was a laterial transfer. I have four previous blog posts about Poston.

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Wearing #98 is Daniel Maynes, a 6-2 265 pd FR DL from Waltham, MA. I've blogged about Maynes before.

Thursday news ----- July 15, 2010

Ray Pendagast, who will walk-on for UMass this August, did well in the New Haven National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Classic All-Star football game .

I've blogged about Pendagast before.

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Craig Haley of The Sports Network has another of his columns "In the FCS huddle: Matchups to Watch". One of them is UMass' opening game with William & Mary.

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Delaware's Pat Devlin is the only FCS/I-AA representative on the Unitas Watch List.

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Josh Buchanan has released his JBS Preseason Player-of-the-Year Award Watch List. The only UMass player to make the group is LB Tyler Holmes.

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Michigan has released the official 2010 Michigan Stadium Capacity: 109,901.

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Ex-Oregon QB Jerimial Masoli is still available.

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Today is fifty-one days until the start of the UMass season. Wearing #51 for UMass is Quinton Sales, a 6-3 280 pd OL from Fort Washington, MD. Sales is a RS SO. He played in two games in 2009 after missing the entire 2008 season with a broken foot.

Recruiting 2010 ------- Ray Pendagast

The Stanford Advocate says Ray Pendagast, a P/QB from Shelton HS in CT will walk-on for UMass this August.

Pendagast was a Walter Camp All-Connecticut as a punter.

MaxPreps has him as 6-5 185.

Image by Christian Abreham/CT Post