Coen looks into the endzone

Maine's last series 

Late in the game 

Lucky young fan 

Sunset at Morse Field 

The end 

Future UMass football I-A opponents

Matt Vautour in a Hampshire Gazette article reveals UMass is negotiating with I-A Texas Tech for a game in 2008.

Oof! Texas Tech is a load. They are currently undefeated 6-0, 3-0 in the Big Twelve and ranked #8 in the nation by AP.

More to the point, they destroyed the two I-A teams they played this year Sam Houston State 80-21 (40 first downs!) and Indiana State 63-7. Check out the quotes from the Sam Houston state game. The SHS coach said "he didn't think Texas Tech ran it up"

Other future UMass I-A opponents are:

1. Navy on 09/09/2006
2. Boston College on 09/29/07

I wonder if the bride will let me go to Lubbock, TX to see the Minutemen play in Jones SBC Stadium???

Boston Globe has a nice article on Serge Tikum

The Boston Globe has a excellent article on UMass Captain Serge Tikum.

Read it today before it disappears into the Globe's archives.

Maine's Offense Hurting

UMass' next opponent is the University of Maine's Black Bears. Maine's record stands at 2-4 with wins over William Penn and Albany. The Black bears lost to Nebraska, Richmond, JMU and Hofstra. Maine's stats are available here .

Things have been getting worse for the Black Bears on Offense. How bad is it?

• In their last two games Maine's offense has only scored 2 points.
• Against Hofstra, Maine was shut out for the first time in 112 games.
• Maine only had 135 total yards of offense against Hofstra---- 28 yrds rushing and 107 passing.
• The Black Bears had fewer first downs (9) against Hofstra than they did against Nebraska (10) !
  

The Black Bears have had injuries at TB. Their starting RB Montel Owens DNP against Hofstra. Also out was All-A10 TE Josh Radulski. Maine also has had offensive line problems.

With only 2 points scored in the last two games, Maine can't be looking forward to meeting UMass' #1 defense in the nation.

A tale of two kickers

UMass kicker Armando Cuko was named a A10 "Special Teams Player of the Week" (click on "award winners" tab) for his game winning with a 41 yard boot with eight seconds left in the JMU game. He also won the UMass "C0-Player-of-the-week" with Christian Koegel.

This was redemption for Cuko, who had struggled so far with his field goal kicking.

Cuko said to Coach Brown before the kick,"I'm going to hit this one" and he drilled the most important kick of the year so far. Congratulations to Cuko and may he make many more.


As for Christian Koegel, if he is not having an ALL-AMERICAN year, I don't know what else he would have to do.

For the second game in a row, he averaged 41.5 yards/punt under atrocious conditions. He hit back to back 56 and 55 yard punts to totally change the field position. After the UMass defense held JMU to three-and-out on their last series, Cuko came in to win the game.

JMU's coach Mickey Matthew said after the game "Their punter out kicked our punter"

Koegel is fourth in the nation in punting average 43.62 yards/punt and he is second nationally with 39.20 yards/punt in net punting average (NCAA stats here ) Of course he is leading the A10 in Punting. A10 stats here .

Coen may be ready for Maine

UMass took a loss when starting QB Liam Coen was knocked out of the JMU game with a concussion. The Springfield Union has an article here saying that his status for the Maine game is uncertain.

Coen has done a great job for UMass since taking over the reins as QB in the second half of the Colgate game. He is 62-103-3, 803 yds and 4 TD's with a 132.67 efficiency rating.

The other major subplot is the great play of former starting QB Tim Day. In one of those amazin' twists of fortune, Day has become a real team sparkplug in several roles. Day struggled as a starter at QB with turnovers. Since he has been moved to second string at QB, Day suddenly excelled as a receiver. He had two athletic catches against Northeastern.

Then when Coen went down in the JMU game, Day came as QB and moved the UMass offense. Note that the field was getting progressively worse as the game went on, but UMass' offense had its best numbers in the second half.

Day also is the holder for field goals and made a perfect placement for Armando Cuko's game winning field goal with eight seconds left.

Both images are from the JMU game by Thom Kendall, UMass Athletic Dept.

Kevin Bourgoin coaches for the Black Bears

When the Black Bears take the field against UMass this coming Saturday, Maine's wide receivers coach is Kevin Bourgoin , former UMass Wide Receiver.

Kevin is in second stint with the Black Bears. He has been coaching for eight years and has coached at Colby and five years with Brown.

While at UMass Bourgoin:

• received four letters in football 92-95
• he had career totals of 36 rec 463 yards 3TD's

Image to the left is a scan of Bourgoin (wearing #23) from the 1994 UMass Football press guide.

UMass-Maine game notes up

UMass has it's game notes up .

So does Maine . The Black Bear's cumulative season statistics are here

Image to the right is Maine QB Ron Whitcomb. Photographer not listed.

Post game articles are up

Some of the post game articles are up. The Boston Globe is here. The Springfield Union is here.

Matt Vautour has some comments on JMU Coach Mickey Matthews post game comments here (click on his UMass Sports Blog)

The image above of the UMass team looking badass is by Thom Kendall of the UMass Athletic Dept.

UMass -JMU images 10/15/05

Below are 20 images from the JMU game.

Click on any image for a larger view!

I do not have any image of Armando Cuko's game winning field goal for two reasons:

1. I was too nervous to take the image
2. I was afraid I'd jinx him!

Game begins 

Kickoff 

JMU runs 

True fans! 

The Band makes do