Thursday--April 5th, 2012

The first half of the April 28th Spring Game will be varsity against alumni. A number of former UMass players will be on hand for one more appearance at McGuirk.

I had an e-mail from Jason Cherry, who recently ended a successful career in arena football. I've blogged about Jason a number of times in the past.

He'll be at the Spring game. He also had part as an extra in the next Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises".

From his e-mail:

"Last August 6th they shot the Dark Knight Rises batman movie in Pittsburgh and they called me and other former professional football guys for a scene shot at Heinz field.  Though I was just standing on sidelines in uniform, I was placed on the Gotham City Rogues team with 10 of the Pittsburgh Steelers as Gotham's kicker wearing #1.  Bill Cowher was also the coach for Gotham City.

 We had a fitting in the locker room at heinz field under the code name Magnus Rex so that media wouldn't hound the sets.  On the fitting day they dressed by position and the guys ahead of me were given equipment and uniforms for the team, the Rapid City Monuments. When I was called I was told I would the kicker for Gotham City.  In fact the real mayor of Pittsburgh Luke Ravenstahl who was a kicker at Washington and Jefferson college got to kick a kickoff with that team to Gotham City Rogues returner real Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward. Hines runs the kickoff the whole way and as he scores, Bane the villian blows up the entire field with explosives leaving nothing left.  Myself and the rest of Gotham players cheered like he was returning it for real then they yelled cut.  This all came with 10,000 volunteers who showed up as Gotham City football fans.
  I had my own locker with my name on it and I was given #1 and it said Gotham on the front of my jersey. It does not say my name on the back however, though Ben Roethlisberger, Ike Taylor, Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward have their names and actual numbers for Gotham.  Ironically, the uniforms are also black and gold."

Hope we have a big turnout for the spring  game!

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Scout.com looks at the head coaches of the MAC East and gives Coach Molnar a positive review.

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Rivals.com looks at the MAC and does a spring preview of UMass.

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Victor Cruz advances to the final eight for the cover of Madden 2013.

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Wednesday--April 4th, 2011

Linebackers, not the sanest of individuals

Continuing our series on the UMass defense. The Minutemen lost only one linebacker out of the last two-deep chart I have. But it was a big loss as Tyler Holmes graduated. He was the leading tackler on the team going 11-11 GP-GS 69 UT 49 AT 118 TT 6.0 TFL 2.0-17 SACKS 1-0 INT  7 BKUP. Holmes also led UMass in pass BKUP.

UPDATE: As a commenter pointed out I missed Shane Viveiros and Courtney Jackson. Actually, I picked up that this morning, but Comcast dropped a 10 hour service outage on me for the rest of the day.

The Minutemen also lose Shane Viveiros 6-6 GP-GS 15 UT 11 AT 26 TT 3.0-17 TFL 1-26 INT 2 BKUP. The UMass defense was a lot better when Viveiros was in there. Also graduating was Courtney Jackson 8-3 GP-GS 7 UT 5 AT 12 TT.

Returning in 2011:

• D.J. Adeoba RSSR 11-3 GP-GS 15 UT 15 AT 30 TT 2.0-4 TFL 1-2 INT 3 BKUP
• Stanley Andre RSSO 1-0 GP-GS 1 UT 1 TT
• Tim Brandt RSJR 11-0 GP_GS 24 UT 9 UT 33 TT 3.5-15 TFL 1 BKUP
• Tom Brandt RSJR 9-1 GP-GS 7 UT 2 AT 9 TT 1.0-4 TFL 1.0-6 SACK
• Matt Campbell RSSO 
• Ryan Delaire RSSO 10-0 GP-GS 3 UT 6 AT 9 TT 10.0-4 TFL 
• Chad Hunte SR 11-10 GP-GS 37 UT 21 AT 58 TT 2.0 TFL
• Perry McIntyre SR 11-10 GP-GS 53 UT 63 AT 116 TT 11.5-56 TFL 6.5-43 SACKS 2 BKUP
• Carlito Weaver RSJR 3-0 GP-GS 2 UT

The Minutemen return the #2 and #4 leading tacklers on the defense. Counting dual-position players there are five possible LB's on the the 2012 recruiting list.

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Matty V reports the UMass offensive line has impressed Coach Hudson.

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Ron Chimelis has a story about the improved UMass hoops program and covers the four MAC games we will play next year. Ohio's run to the Sweet Sixteen should make a good home for UMass fans.

A couple of NCAA appearances would not hurt UMass' image if we try for a BCS league in football in the future.

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Victor Cruz is a restricted free agent, so he is stuck with his contract. He can't imagine holding out.

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Recruiting 2013--Johnell Barnes

Fox sports image

Several sources say UMass has offered to Johnell Barnes, 6-0 170 pd athlete from Dunbar HS in FL.

Barnes' Scout profile here.

Rivals bio here.

Elite Scouting has an extensive page on Barnes here.

Ran a 4.42 at a local combine.

ESPN insider has a post on Barnes.

Barnes holds offers from Northwestern, UConn and Western Kentucky.

Tuesday--April 3rd, 2012

Remember last year we had problems early in the season due to injuries in the defensive backfield. There were 13 DB's on the 2011 roster.

The 2012 Spring roster has 10 DB's

• Christian Birt RSJR 10-2 GP-GS, 24 UT 7 AT 31 TT 1-6 INT4 BKUP
• Ryan Collins JR 7-0 GP-GS 3 UT 2 AT 5TT
• Iric Harris RSFR Redshirted
• Randall Jette RSFR  Redshirted
• Mike Lee RSJR 3-3 GP-GS 8 UT 1 AT 9 TT 2.0-12 TFL
• Ed St-Vil RSSO 9-8 GP-GS 28 UT 7 AT 35 TT 1.5-4 TFL 2 BKUP 1 FF
• Quayshun Smith SO 7-1 GP-GS 5 UT 1 AT 7TT
• Antoine Tharpe JR 9-9 GP-GS 25 UT 6 AT 31 TT 2.0-3 TFL 7 BKUP
• Darren Thellen DBSR 11-11 GP-GS 42 UT 26 AT 68 TT 5-178 INT 3 BKUP

Counting dual position recruits, there are five possible DB's in the 2012 recruiting class

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UMass has spring practice update here.

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Matty V reports on new UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy. The article mentions football. Subbaswamy's  bio here.

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Akron QB Patrick Nicely has left the Zips and is looking to transfer. Nicely's bio here.

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Monday--April 2nd, 2012

Today we can look at losses in the UMass defense.  Gone from 2011 Minutemen defense are:

• Tyler Holmes, RS SR 11-11 GP-GS 69 UT 49 AT 118 TT 6.0-26 TFL 2.0 Sacks-117 7 BKUP 1 INT 1 FF
• Kirk Nelms, RSFR 11-10 GP-GS 30 UT 9 AT 39 TT 2.0-8 TFL 3-116 INT 5 BKUP 1 FF
• Theo Agnew,RSSO 11-3 GP-GS 19 UT 17 AT 36 TT 3.0-8 TFL 1.0-4 SACKS 1 Fumble RCV
• James Gilchrist RSSR 9-3 GP-GS 7UT 6 AT 13 TT 4.5-20 TFL 2.0-16 SACKs 1FF
• Courtney Jackson RSSR 8-3 GP-GS 7 UT 5 AT 12 TT
• James Lizotte JR 10-0 GP-GS 2 UT 3 AT 5 TT
• Travis Tripuka RS SR  10-0 GP-GS  3 UT
• Brandon Yelovich SR 11-0 GP-GS 3 UT

Holmes, Nelms and Agnew accounted for 22% of the TT for the defense in 2011. Gilchrist had a good year in TFL and SACKS.

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Sports Illustrated has an article on regional combines giving overlooked players a chance to show their stuff. Check out halfway down the page. R.J. Cobbs was catching passes from ex-Lehigh QB Chris Lum.

Cobbs was fun to watch when he played for the Minutemen.

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Former UMass WR Joe Sanford appeared in the Central Virginia Combine.

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National Football Post has Emil Igwenagu as the #4 rated FB in the draft and indicates his prospects are improving.

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The MAC Blog "Hustle Belt" says UMass won't be a MAC force anytime soon.

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Recruiting 2013--Freddie Stevenson

Rivals report that UMass has offered to Freddie Stevenson, a 6-1 230 pd OLB from Bartow, FL.

Stevenson's Rivals page here.

This article features him.

Stevenson holds offers from Duke, Florida International, Iowa St, Mississippi, N.C. State, Temple, Texas A&M, UCF and Vanderbilt.

Sunday --April 1st, 2012

One final topic before we leave our look at the UMass offense. We did not get in 2011  good QB play in 2011. One rating of QB play is efficiency.

The top 10 QB's in efficiency in the the high-octane MAC offenses were the following

PASS EFFICIENCY     Cl     G     Comp-Att-Int     Pct.     Yards     TD     Long     Effic.

1.     COYER, Chris-TU     SO     8     30 - 50 - 0     60.0     463     6     61     177.4
2.     OWENS, Terrance-UT     SO     12     166 - 230 - 3     72.2     2022     18     75     169.2
3.     HARNISH, Chand-NIU     SR     14     237 - 384 - 6     61.7     3216     28     79     153.0
4.     DANTIN, Austin-UT     JR     11     122 - 188 - 4     64.9     1404     15     63     149.7
5.     TETTLETON, T-OHIO     SO     14     265 - 413 - 10     64.2     3286     28     78     148.5
6.     CARDER, Alex-WMU     JR     12     330 - 502 - 14     65.7     3873     31     64     145.3
7.     DYSERT, Zac-MIA     JR     12     295 - 448 - 11     65.8     3513     23     71     143.7
8.     STEWART, C.-TU     SR     10     54 - 83 - 2     65.1     743     2     55     143.4
9.     SCHILZ, Matt-BGSU     SO     12     245 - 411 - 13     59.6     3024     28     83     137.6
10.     GILLETT, Alex-EMU     JR     12     109 - 198 - 7     55.1     1504     14     67     135.1

UMass:

11. Pagel, Kellen RSSO 8 G 153-267-9 57.7% 1725 yards 9TD's 55 LONG  116.0 Effic
12. Hill, Brandon RSFR 5 49-84-3 58.3% 598 yards 3 TD 58 LONG 122.8 Effic

UMass tied for 7th in the CAA passing efficiency stats.

FYI, in 2010, Kyle Havens had the following:

 K. Havens       11-11      219-345-7      63.5      2692      20      64      244.7 144.1 Effic

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Phil Steele takes a look at FBS football's opponent winning per cent. According the NCAA UMass will play the 113th toughest schedule in 2012.

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Recruiting 2013--Justin Williams

NextLeveSportsScouting image

Several sources indicate UMass has offered to Justin Williams, a 6-0 170 pd S from Treasure Coast HS in Florida.

Rivals rates him as a three-start recruit and says he could play CB or S.

First team All-Area as a sprinter.

Video highlights here.

Besides UMass, Williams holds offers from Florida International and South Carolina.

Saturday--March 31st, 2012

Athlon Sports analyses the Big East schedule and says UMass shouldn't be any trouble for UConn.

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Yesterday, I had a recruiting post about JUCO K/P Colter Johnson signing with UMass. Here's another mention of his commit. 

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A Bleacher Report slide show has the "most important player" on all 126 FBS teams. Perry McIntyre gets the nod for the Minutemen.

BTW, McIntyre was the second leading tackler for UMass in 2011.

He totaled 11-10 GP-GS 53 UT 63 AT 116 TT (2 behind Tyler Holmes) 11.5-56 TFL-Yds 6.5-43 Sacks-Yds 2 BKUP

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Former UMass player and current Texas Tech offensive coordinator Neal Brown has embraced Twitter.

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Georgia State will be joining the CAA this year. It looks like their stay may be short.

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Recruiting 2012--Colter Johnson

Alfred College image

UMass has signed Colter Johnson, a 6-5 195 pd JUCO K/P from Alfred State College.

Story here.

Johnson was an honorable mention All-American in his freshman year.

Friday--Marchth, 2012

Matty V. has a story with various news about UMass football. Coach Molnar and the Minutemen will be active in a number of community events.

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The Boston Globe has a story about James Ihedigbo's Football Invitational.

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Besides UMass, Ball State is the only other MAC team not to play a FCS game.

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The BC blog says how about a spring scrimmage between UMass and the Eagles? Not sure if something like this is allowable under NCAA regs, but a spring scrimmage between UMass and another FBS team would be interesting as long as every other year it would be a McGuirk.

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UMass student and former UMass dance team menber Siobhan O'Keefe is trying out for the Pats cheer leading squad.

Patriots image

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I watched Stanford crush Minnesota in the NIT championship game. Stanford was up by 30 with a couple of minutes to go. UMass basketball has nothing to be ashamed of in their effort in their last game.

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UMass 2012 Schedule up--March 29th, 2012

The MAC has released the composite football schedule for 2012.

UPDATE: The UMass website has a post on the 2012 schedule.

UMass gets a possible national TV game on ESPNU/ESPN3 on Friday night, November 23rd.

UMass

Aug.30 at Connecticut
Sep.8 Indiana
Sep.15 at Michigan
Sep.22 *at Miami
Sept.29 *Ohio

Oct.6 *at Western Michigan
Oct.20 *Bowling Green
Oct.27 at Vanderbilt

Nov.3 *at Northern Illinois
Nov.10 *at Akron
Nov.17 *Buffalo
Nov.23 #*Central Michigan, (ESPNU/ESPN3)

#ESPN Multiple-Game Selection Date (an ESPN weekday multiple-game selection date will be announced 12 days prior to the listed date.  One (1) game will be selected by each ESPN service listed).

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Whew! Impressive start to our FBS journey. What--maybe five to six bowl teams in the first nine games?

One of my favorite mixes when I lift weights: Metallica's "Jump in the Fire". Turn your computer speakers all the way up!

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Recruiting 2012--- J. D. Juste

Several sources say UMass has offered to D. J. Juste, a 6-1 185 pd Athlete from Port St. Luchie, FL.

Justie's Rivals page here.

He had 390 yards of total offense and 4 TD's in one game last year.

Juste holds offers from Northern Illinois, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Southern and Georgia State.

Wednesday--March 29th, 2012

Matty V has an article on the momentum that UMass Sports are gaining.

Relevant UMass football angle:

The Bobcats and Eastern Michigan will travel to Mullins and the Minutemen will play at Miami-Ohio and Northern Illinois as part of the new annual four-game Mid-American Conference schedule commitment that comes with joining the league in football.

• Ohio - 29-8 NCAA Sweet Sixteen
• Eastern Michigan - 14-16 winner MAC East Division
• Miami of Ohio -9-21 last in MAC East
• Northern Illnois 5-26 last in MAC West

Several sources have Ohio's John Groce moving to Illnois. 

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Counting UMass, UConn will play three MAC teams in 2012.

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A UMass player (not named) took part in Merrimack's first ever Pro Day.

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Former UMass graduate assistant Paul Ferraro has been named defensive coordinator at Maine.

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Recruiting 2013-- Shedrick Williams

Be recruited image

Rivals.com reports UMass has offered to Shedrick Williams, a 5-11 169 pd CB from Madison, FL.

Rivals page here.

All-Area First Team.

Williams also has offers from Arkansas, Florida, Louisville, Mississippi, South Florida and Western Kentucky.

Wednesday--March 28th, 2012

Mass Live/Don Treegar image

Jeff Thomas has an article on UMass' first spring practice. Note that the story mentions 80+ players, while there are 68 listed on the spring roster on the UMass website.

Matty V. said the Minutemen had a second chance to make a first impression.

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WEEI mentions Emil Igwenagu as an under-the-radar prospect for the Patriots.

NFL Mocks.com has a page on Igwenagu with the Combine stats.

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Bleacher Report has nine pages on former UMass football cheerleader Jenny Dell's replacement of Heidi Watney.

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Former UMass assistant coach (1992) Bobby Erhard is now running backs coach for fellow MAC member Western Michigan.

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Speaking of the MAC, SB Nation says the MAC football schedule should be out this week. Mrs Blog and I already have two away games planned. We'll drive down to Rentschler Field to see the UConn game.

We already have reservations to visit the Music City to see UMass play Vanderbilt.

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NIU currently has the longest active win streak in FBS football. The Huskies have won fifteen in a row at home.

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Congrats to UMass hoops for a great season. The future looks bright for the Minutemen.

Victor Cruz and Coach Molnar were at the Garden to watch UMass play last night.

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March 27th, 2012--First day of Spring Practice

Matty V. has an article on the first day of spring practice for the Minutemen.

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Click for larger view/ image from the 2011 fall media day

Continuing our series on the offense. Today we'll look at the offensive line. Lost to graduation were:

• Josh Samuda   starting LG
• Brian Ostaszewki  played in four games in 2011

Returning starters:

• Anthony Dima RS JR LT
• Quinton Sales RS SR C
• Stephane Milhim RS SR RG
• Nick Speller RS SR RT

Other offensive linemen on the spring roster:

• Frank Barile JR
• Jamie Casselberry RS FR
• Mike Kahale RS SO
• Addy Moas SO played in two games in 2011, two-deep at C
• Sean O'Connor RS SR
• Malcom Speller SR played in two games in 2011, two-deep at LG
• Vincent Westcarr RS JR played in 3 games in 2011, 1 game in 2010, 2-deep at LT
• Ryan Young RS SO two deep at RT

Twelve offensive linemen is not a large group for a FBS team. There were four OL on this year's recruiting list.

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BCS officials are trying to get their heads around post season play.

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Good luck to UMass hoops at the NIT Final Four tonight. Matty V has a couple of articles on  the UMass-Stanford matchup.

This article by Marty Dobrow of ESPN brings back some memories of UMass basketball.

Go UMass!

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Monday-March 26th, 2012

Yesterday, we talked about graduation losses for the UMass offense. Today we look at who's returning.

UMass returns two of the three QB's who saw playing time last year

•     Kellen Pagel 8-7 GP-GS 116.0 EFF 153-267-9 57.3 % 1725 yards 9 TD 55 LONG 215 ave/g

•      Brandon Hill 5-3 GP-GS 122.8 EFF 49-84-3 58.3% 598 yards 3 TD 58 LONG 119.6 yards/game

Other QB's on the roster are:

•  Matthew Quinn RS SO
• Ian Schultis SR
• Mike Wegzyn RS FR

Receivers:

• Jarvis Bentley RS FR
• Shawn Campbell RS SO
• Julian Colarusso RS  SR
• Chase Danska SO 1-6 6.0 AVE
• Andre Hill SR
• T.J. Keefer RS FR
• Elgin Long RS FR
• Marken Michel WR SO 3-31 10.3 AVE 1 TD

Tight Ends:

• Bob Blanchflower RS JR  18-208 11.6 AVE 1 TD 28 LONG
• Dan Foesel RS FR
• Brandon Howard RS FR
• Jerome Lewis RS SO (transfer Virginia Tech)
• John McGrath RS FR

Running backs:

• Jordan Broadnax SO 35-133 3.3 AVE 18 LONG
• Chris Burns RS SR
• Brian Dowling SO
• Jamar Smith RS JR 10-17 1.4 AVE 7 LONG
• Jamal Wilson RS FR

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Our opening OOC opponent UConn has  five BCS transfers this spring.

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UMass' great run the the NIT continues tomorrow. The A10 took a hit when Temple left. The league needs to reststock and VCU, George Mason and Butler are in discussions to join the league.

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Recruiting 2013- Brandon Lavia

Chris Knight image

ESPN reports UMass is interested in Brandon Lavia, 6-0 200 pd QB/P from Harrisburg, PA.

ESPN player page here.

Rivals page here.

This article features him.

Lavia is drawing interest from Boston College as well as a number of FBS and FCS schools.

Sunday--March 25th, 2012

UMass seniors

UMass spring practice starts Tuesday, March 27th. Let's look at who has to be replaced.The Minutemen graduated 15 seniors. The seniors comprised the majority of the offensive production.

Receptions:

• Tom Gilson WR  39-446  40.5 yards/game
• Jesse Julmiste WR  43-522 4 TD 47.5 yards/game
• Julian Talley WR  60-759 4 TD 69.0 yards/game
• Emil Igwenagu TE R 38-375 3 TD 34.1 yards/game
• Jonathan Hernandez  18-209 19.0 yards/game

That's 198-2311 11 TD's total receiving production. All receptions totaled 221-2560 13 TDS. UMass lost 89.5% of  receptions, 90.2% of the yardage and  84% of receiving TD's.

Rushing:

• Jonathan Hernandez RB 261-1190 12 TD 99.3 yards/game
• Julian Talley WR 7-134 2 TD's 12.2 yards/game
• Jesse Julmiste WR 6-564.5 yards/game
• Emil Igwenagu TE 4-7 0.6 yards game.

Total rushing production of the seniors was 313-1549-16 TD's. All UMass rushing was 404-1761. In 2012 UMass will have to replace  87.9% of rushes, 87.9% of the rushing yards and 84.2% of rushing TD's.

Punt returns:

• Julian Talley 15-122 
• Jesse Julmiste 1-2 

Team totals 16-124. UMass will have to replace 100% of the punt return yardage in 2012.

Kick Returns:

• Jesse Julmiste 32-789 2 TD's
• Julian Talley 1-8
• Kirk Nelms 1-20 (non-senior loss) 

 Total kick returns 54-1061 2 TD's. In 2012 the Minutemen will lose 62.9% of the returns and 77.0% the kick return yardage.

Coach Molnar and staff will need to find a lot of productive replacements on offense this year.