Monday--13th, 2016

Former UMass DB Tracey Belton is playing for the Philadephia Soul Area league team.

Former Minutemen WR Tom Gilson is playing for the Portland Steel

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And now----Arena League football in China.

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Former UMass coach Robert Talley steps down as HC at Stonehill.

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Victor Cruz helps make Father's Day special for fathers and children.

Cruz says he might participate in the Giants mini-camp. Article has images from the Father's Day event above.

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LSU bans opposing teams marching bands from performing at halftime.

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Thursday--April 28th, 2016

Coach Whipple's message to the Gridiron Club. He says the team had 42 members with a 3.0 in the Fall semester and will probably better that this Spring.

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Joe Colton, Blake Frohnapfel and Matt Sparks are members of the 2016 National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society.

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Matty Vautour has a post on Tajae Sharpe getting ready for the NFL Draft.

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Inside Nova reports Blake Frohnapfel is going into the NFL Draft with an open mind.

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Liam Coan wants the Maine Black Bears offense to be physical and explosive.

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Former UMass player and coach Robert Talley is leaving Stonehill for a position with Cal State Chico.

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Max Page and his merry minions are back with the facility senate meeting to reduce or eliminate football.

This is the type of story the media loves, not the 40+ team members making the Dean's list.

NBC Sports on the facility senate's meeting. There are several other stories, but I'm not going to link to them.

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Wednesday--October 7th, 2015

Bowling Green has their game notes for UMass up.

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On the way back from the Falcons win at Buffalo, Coach Dino Barbers and an athletic trainer helped rescue a woman from a burning car.

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UMass rises in Dan Malone's MAC power rankings.

Dan has Mark Whipple's scouting report on Bowling Green.

Dan reports Robert Kitching and Rodney Mills may be able to play against Bowling Green and Tajae Sharpe was ECAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week.

#1 Tajae Sharpe

UMass' post on Sharpe being honored.

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Bowling Green's defense says they have room to improve.

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The FIU student newspaper reports on the Panthers loss to UMass.

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Matty Vautour says red-zone production will be critical against the Falcons.

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Marken Michel is turning into a reliable connection for the Minutemen says the UMass Daily Collegian.

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Tom Gilson, a former UMass player has signed a two-year contract with the Los Angles arena football team.

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Julian Talley worked out for the Chicago Bears.

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Iowa coach Kirk Frenentz talks about Hawkeye LB coach Jim Reid and UMass.

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Victor Cruz wonders when the setbacks will end.

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Friday--August 21st, 2015

UMass has some video from Wednesday's practice and comments from DT Robert Kitching and coach Whipple. Kitching's UMass bio.

At 6-2 310, UMass fans hope Kitching is a force in his senior season at NT. In 2014 He went:

12-3 GP-GS 8 UT 35 AT 43 TT 5.5-12 TFL 0.5-1 SACKS. Kitching led the Minutemen with two blocked kicks.

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Dan Malone has five questions with freshman RB Andy Isabella. Not all track guys are football players. One track player who UMass fans remember was Adrian Zullo, who was instrumental in the Minutemen's National Championship. At 5-7 155 Zullo was a tough football player. UMass needs all the team speed it can get (UMass fans who went to the Penn State game last year know what I mean). Hopefully Isabella can add a dimension to the Minutemen offense.

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Dan Malone has a post on Day Four of training camp with some images.

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Matty Vautour has a report on how Trey Seals and Kassan Messiah hope to be in opponents backfield a lot more in 2015.

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John Connolly of the Boston Herald says Blake Frohnapfel takes the lead role for the Minutemen.

Rotoworld reports Frohnapfel has a nice touch on deep passes.

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Anthony Chiusiano of the Daily Collegian says the veteran UMass offensive line looks to improve run blocking.

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The Worcester Telegram reports former UMass player Nick Haag still tries to stay in touch with Jeromy Miles and Vladimir Ducasse.

The UMass Facebook page has post on Jeromy Miles and Julian Talley.

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Victor Cruz suffers a calf injury.

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A Utah reporter looks at Colorado.

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The Boston College blog "BC Interruption" comments on poll that ranks UMass as 114th in the nation.

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Suday--September 16th, 2012

I'm having Wi-Fi connection problems out here in NY. If this keeps up, production will be sparse until I get home tomorrow evening.

Thoughts about this game:

• Gone from the 2010 team that gave Michigan a hard time are All-CAA players Anthony Nelson, Greg Niland, Tyler Holmes, Jonathan Hernandez, Julian Talley and John Griffin.
• We need more team speed at defense. Last time, we were at least able to slow down Denard Robinson.
• Penalties have hurt UMass scoring chances the last two games, but with the number of freshmen we are playing, it may continue.
• The offense seemed to continue to improve. The Michigan defense we played was not the same caliber as the one that got Rich Rodriguez fired after the 2010 season.
• Hafis Williams had five solo tackles. The whole DL only had eight.

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Michael Cox #5/AP image

Matty V. says this time, UMass was no match for Michigan.

He reports on Michael Cox's 4.2 yards/carry. In fact, all UMass running backs averaged over 3.5 yards a carry.

We again had injury problems as UMass ended up with two starters out of the offensive line. Dalvin Battle may be gone for the season with a knee injury.

Robert Kitchings was the 25th  freshman to play in this season.

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MassLive says UMass got steamrollered.

Boston.com says UMass was overwhelmed.

ESPN says Robinson had a real big day.

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MAC conference scores and game summaries.  Ball State beat Indiana on a last second field goal. Eastern Michigan, and established MAC team lost to Purdue by a score only slightly less than the UMass-Michigan game.

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Sunday--august 19th, 2012

MassLive's Harry Plumer has a story about the Minutemen's defensive line.

The "starters" are Chaz Thompson and Galen Clemons at DT with the DE's as Kevin Byrne and Stanley Andre. Also seeing playing time will be Hafis Williams, Brandon Potvin, Ryan Delaire, Daniel Maynes, Trey Seals and possibly Robert Kitching.

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The Berkshire Eagle says UMass has many options in the offensive backfield this year.

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The Associated Press says sophomores will play key roles for the UConn Huskies this year.

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The Boston Globe has a story about Emil Igwenagu looking to get his wings for the Eagles.

The Worcester Telegram has a story about Emil catching the eye of the Eagles.

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SB Nation has a story about the retirement of Boston College's AD Gene DeFilippo and reaction from Eagle bloggers.

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Victor Cruz took a big hit from LaRon Landry last night in the Giants win over the Jets.

Aristide Economopolos image

It was a miserable night for the Jets, who basically had nothing on offense or defensive. Vlad Ducasse played the entire second half and seemed to play pretty good.

I did not see Julian Talley get in the game for the Giants.

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Jeremy Horne caught a 37-yard TD for the Chiefs in their 37-17 loss to St. Louis yesterday.

Dave Eulitt image

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Wednesday--May 2nd, 2012

Matty V. has a short article on James Ihedigbo's "Hope Africa" charity.

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"Lost Letterman" college football site has a review of the 2012 Minutemen.

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Yahoo Sports looks at the five new FBS programs in 2012 including UMass.

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A CBS Sport columnist cites Emil Igwenagu as one of his 20 favorite undrafted free agents.

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Bleacher Report has an article on the Giants are hoping lighting strikes twice with undrafted UMass WR Julian Talley.

Speaking of the Giants, the G-Men's general manager Jerry Reese says Victor Cruz did the right thing by turning down "Dancing with the Stars" (at end of article).

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Our former CAA Conference-mate Maine had one player in the NFL draft and three others sign free agent contracts.

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Boston College has dismissed Montel Harris, their all-time leading rusher, from the team.

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Departing UMass Chancellor Robert Holub looks at UMass' accomplishments including the move to FBS.

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Tuesday Telex ----- 02/24/09

Two former UMass administrators, Bob De Carolis of Oregon and Thorr Bjorn of Rhode Island share the Harold J. VanderZwaag Distinguished Alumnus Award from the UMass Sports Management Program.

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Former UMass DE/LB Mike Dawson has been hired by the Boston College Eagles as an assistant special teams coach.

BC Blogger "Eagle in Atlanta" comments .

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Brandon London has been re-signed by the Miami Dolphins .

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Questions and Answers with Richmond RB Josh Vaughn.

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Former UMass assistant coach Robert Talley is being mentioned as possible replacement HC at Rhode Island.

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BTW, former UMass WR Neal Brown did interview for the UMass Head Coaching job last month. Brown is still the youngest OC in DI football.

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Delaware and Delaware State will play their first ever regular season game this year.

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Sunday after the Maine loss stuff

The Boston Globe said Maine made its point .

The Boston Herald said it was the point of no return .

The Worcester Telegram has a story here .

The Kennebec Journal said Maine picked up a rare win in Amherst.

The Bangor Daily News has an article on the Black Bears win.

Matty Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette says the playoffs are unlikely.

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There was no joy in Durham either yesterday as New Hampshire lost to Villanova . Another article on the UNH loss here .

The Sports Network reports on the Villanova-UNH game here (Notes: Andy Talley became the all-time winningest coach in the CAA with 98 victories).

Our strength-of-schedule continued to improve as:

• Albany beat Robert Morris 41-7
• Holy Cross routed Fordham
• Texas Tech crushed #8 Oklahoma State 56-20

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Rhode Island will announce its new Coach today

Rhode Island will announce its new head football coach today.

It's down to Rutgers assistant Darren Rizzi and former UMass assistant coach and current Stonehill head coach Robert Talley.

UPDATE: Maine coach Dave Cosgrove's applying for the job may have been a negotiation tactic.

UPDATE II: Another Rhody article here . The Providence Journal thinks it's Rizzi.

UPDATE III: It is Rizzi. Story here.

Former UMass Coach Robert Talley interviews for Rhody job

The search for a new coach at Rhode Island has narrowed to four candidates. Including former UMass assistant coach Robert Talley.

I've blogged about Talley before .

Also in contention is Maine Head Coach Jack Cosgrove, Rutgers assistant Coach Darren Rizzi, and Norfork State Head Coach Pete Adrian .

My prediction: Darren Rizzi .

UMass and the Rams have played each other 81 times, more than any other football opponent.

Former UMass assistant Robert Talley appointed Head Coach at Stonehill

Former UMass assistant Coach Robert Talley has been appointed Head Coach at Stonehill College.

San Francisco Chronicle has an article here. The Boston Globe here . The Brockton Enterprise here.

He was an assistant coach at UMass from 1992-95. Delaware Assistant Head Coach Ben Albert was a senior at UMass in 1994. Also on the UMass coaching staff in 1994 was Duke's current head coach Ted Roof.

The image above is a scan from the 1993 UMass football press guide. Right Click for a larger view.

Coaches shown:Front row (L-R) John Strollo, Doug Berry,Todd Rundle, Bill McGovern. Back row (L-R): Head coach Mike Hodges, Jerry Gordon, Robert Talley, Bobby Erhardt and Jerry Assinaro.