Monday--July 7th, 2014

Downey #41

Dan Malone previews another UMass player in his preseason countdown. This time it's DaSean Downey.

Downey (UMass bio) at 6-5 240 has FBS size. As Dan relates, he looked like the best defensive player on the field at the Spring game. He chose UMass over offers from BC, Penn State, Duke, Old Dominion and UConn.

Last year's experiment with the 3-4 didn't work. If it's going to work this year, the linebackers have to make plays. With Steve Casali and Shane Huber still recovering from injuries, Downey looks like a potential starter on August 30th.

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Gmenhq.com reports on the history Michael Cox's number 29 for the Giants and tells about its most iconic wearer----Alex Webster.

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Las Vegas Informer talks about Eastern Michigan's silver field and UMass' conference dilemma.

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Hustle Belt has a MAC Conference recruiting database.

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Athlon Sports has experts pick the top-ten college football stadiums. Hint, UMass is playing in one this year.

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Brandon London went 5-51 in the the Larks 24-9 win over BC.

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James Ihedigbo says the Lions have championship DNA.

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Recruiting 2016---Will Fries

NJ.com image

NJ.com reports UMass has offered to Will Fries, a 6-6 265 pound OL from Cranford, NJ.

NJ.com article here.

Hudl.com has highlights.

Besides UMass, Fries has offers from Rutgers and Army.

Saturday--July 5th, 2014

Sakur Nesmith

Dan Malone continues his UMass football Top-25 series with Shakur Nesmith.

Nesmith, looked like the best receiver on the field during the Spring game. He's got an NFL body at 6-4 200 pounds. He could be an impact player for the Minutemen this fall. Nesmith is my prediction as the UMass starting "Y" receiver.

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Speaking of rankings, my old school at UMass, the Isenberg School of Business has recently been ranked in the top-40 of best Undergraduate Business Schools.

Now if Whipple can get us into another Top-40 ranking :)
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A Bleacher Report writer predicts a 2-10 start for Mark Whipple.

Another Bleacher Report article looks at possible FCS upsets of FBS teams. One is New Hampshire-Toledo. A couple of other CAA teams are mentioned in article. You remember last year when Central Michigan, a team who blew us out, kicked a field goal with 0:00 left on the clock to edge New Hampshire 24-21.

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UMass gets two of the ten worst MAC non-conference games in 2014.

Sometimes I don't get sports writers. The same guy has the ten most intriguing MAC non-conference games. One of them is Baylor-Buffalo. Baylor hung 70 points on Buffalo last year and that was when the Bulls had Khalil Mack. This year Baylor may hit triple digits...

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Penn State TE Jesse James (good name) has been tabbed a preseason All-Big Ten player.

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Fourth of July--2014

Happy Fourth to all Blog readers! Today is a day to celebrate America. Hope everyone has a great Fourth.

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Dan Malone continues his review of the UMass squad. Yesterday he covered #23 UMass safety Joey Colton.

In FBS the Minutemen have won two games. The UMass defense has won them both. In 2012, Colton was the deciding force in holding Akron to 14 points and a UMass victory.

Colton DNP in 2013's win over Miami (Ohio), but Colton was the heart and soul of a Minutemen defense that did not quit in 2013.

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NBC Sports has an article on the addition of four players to the UMass roster including Drew Harris.

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The Boston Herald says a new day is dawning with Mark Whipple back coaching UMass football.

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Penn State is ranked #1 in college football uniforms by NFL.com.

PennLive has an article with a bunch of links to Penn State football articles including one that thinks the Nittany Lions should have received a ten year death penalty over the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

A couple of day ago I called the UMass ticket office and paid for two tickets to the Penn State game. Mrs Blog and I are excited to be visiting iconic Happy Valley. Hope lots of UMass fans join the UMMB and us at the game.

college life.com image

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A Bleacher Report writer has an article on "Ten teams guaranteed to struggle on offense in 2014". One of his picks is Boston College.

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Thursday--July 3rd, 2014

From the UMass website: UMass adds four players to the 2014 squad.

Dan Malone has a story on the additions.

Drew Harris, wearing #38 (ex-Jessie Monteiro, now wearing #27) could be a game-changer for UMass fans. He's a big back (6-1 220) in the mold of Marcel Shipp and Steve Baylark. Harris certainly has the credentials to vault the Minuteman running game into one of the top units in the MAC. As I said before, if you can run the ball, generally you've got a good looking QB and offense. UMass was 10th in the MAC in rushing offense in 2013 and 104th nationally out of 125 FBS teams.

Harris is probably the highest rated recruit in UMass history.

The addition of Liam Porter, Ryan Johnson and Anthony Fernandez should help the offensive line.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the new UMass offense this fall.

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University of Minnesota-Morris image

Brian McDonald is another nice move by Whipple. I was on the sidelines for the Spring Game and RSFR Logan Laurent's punts needed some work.

McDonald will wear #96 (not assigned in 2013)

Remember, during the first Whipple Era the Minutemen had some of their best ever punters. David Sanger was first-team All-CAA in 2001 and 2002. Andy Maclay (scroll down) was All-CAA in 1998 and Christian Koegel was 7th in UMass history in total punting yards as a freshman in 2003. Maclay, Sanger and Koegel hold 7 of the top-ten punting yards seasonal records in UMass history. They also hold 8 of the top-10 yards/punt records.

YouTube has McDonald's video highlights.

McDonald adds another potential upgrade to the 2014 team.

Dan Malone looks at Logan Laurent vs Brain McDonald.

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Lucas Kolter adds a 6-3 310 pound body to the smallish UMass defensive line. When the Soviet Union broke up there was a sigh of relief in the Olympics community; now they only had to face one German team. If you want to expand your recruiting pool outside of the USA, Germany could be one place to look at. Maybe more so than Canada.

Kolter will wear #93 (not assigned in 2013)

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247 Sports image

Austin Whipple adds some depth to the already crowded Minuteman QB position. Whipple, the pater, will still play Blake Fronapfel as the #1 QB.

Whipple will wear #3 (along with Kessan Messiah)

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Dan also has some football notes. Ed Saint-Vil has graduated and will not play in 2014.

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Sunbelt Conference school UL is not sold on a conference championship game. The story mentions UMass.

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SB Nation says conference realignment seems to be over.

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ESPN ranks the Big Ten's OOC opponents including Penn State-UMass.

Rant Sports ranks the Nittany Lions as #53 going into the 2014 season.

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Wednesday--July 2, 2014

Dan Malone starts a countdown to the 2014 Minuteman season.

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Shadrack Abrokwah #43

The first UMass player featured in Dan's series is Shadrack Abrokwah.

Abrokwah is a 5-9 200 pound RB from Worcester.

He went 2-1 GP-GS 51-208 4.0 AVE 1 TD 31 LONG 101.5 AVE/G. Abrokwah's 4.0 AVE was the highest of the UMass running backs and his 31 yard run was the second longest of the year.

Fixing the UMass running game is going to have to be one of Whipple's priorities in 2014. The Minutemen were 10th in the MAC in rushing offense and 12th in yards/rush. UMass tied for last in the league with a meager 5 rushing TD's.

UMass's opponents averaged 215.5 yards per game, 5.4 yards/rush and scored 23 rushing TD's.

In addition, the running game has a big influence on QB performance. If you can run the ball, generally you've got a good looking QB....

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Bob McGovern reports that Drew Harris is eligible to play for the 2014 season.

Harris is a former four-star recruit.

Video is from Feb 8th, 2011.

Harris could be an impact player in the MAC.

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September 20th will be Band Day at Penn State. The UMass Marching Band will make the trip to Happy Valley.

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Athlon Sports says stability is a virtue for the MAC Conference.

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Recruiting 2015--Billy Atterbury

Big County Preps image

Several recruiting services report UMass has offered to Billy Atterbury, a 6-4 285 pound OT from Clearwater, FL.

247Sports page here.

Scout.com three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

This article from 2013 features Atterbury.

Partial quote from an April 2014 article from Scout.com:

“The kid can move and has terrific feet,” said John Davis, Clearwater Central Catholic’s coach. “I mean he can really move well. He just needs to play nasty. Just like Tyler Moore (Florida) he was taught to play nice his whole life. You can’t be an offensive lineman and play nice. "

Atterbury has 11 FBS offers.

Tuesday--July 1st, 2014

A Syracuse.com pundit says another long year looms for UMass.

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Toledo has a prize drawing for fans who renew their season tickets. Pretty good stuff. UMass could use something like this for new season tickets.

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Hustle Belt reports the MAC has a new conference website. It's here.

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The Adviser looks at the Sun Belt Conference and mentions UMass several times.

A Sun Belt coach doesn't like the way things are trending in FBS.

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NFL.com looks at potential 2015 NFL Draft players from the MAC.

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Rant Sports previews Northern Illinois. It will be interesting to see how much the Huskies fall off this year. They lose Jordan Lynch and also their best defensive player Jimmie Ward.

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Rob Blanchflower gets a lot of quotes in this article about the NFL Symposium.

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Recruiting 2015--Luke Ancrum

Scout.com image

Several recruiting services state UMass has offered to Luke Ancrum, a 6-5 230 pound weak-side defensive end from Sebring, FL.

Rivals three-star player

Hudl.com has video.

Has an offer from Wisconsin.

Besides UMass, Ancrum has offers from Florida Atlantic, Georgia Southern, Pitt and Wisconsin.

Monday--June 30th, 2014

SaturdayBlitz.com ranks Mark Whipple as one of the top-ten coaching hires of 2014.

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Bleacher Report looks at the strengths and weaknesses of Penn State.

Rutgers and Maryland are officially part of the Big Ten.

The Nittany Lions go into 2014 with only 11 seniors.

Not counting graduate transfers, the latest version of the UMass roster lists only three seniors, which is got to be a UMass record.

• Quayshun Smith SR
• Stanley Andre RSSR
• Daniel Maynes RSSR

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Giants off the clock thinks Michael Cox will find it hard to make the team this year.

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James Ihedigbo melds in with his new teammates with the Lions.

Ihedigbo's previous DB coach Terry Austin is now the defensive coordinator with Detroit.

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Recruiting 2015--Gladimir Paul

247Sports image

Several recruiting services indicate UMass has offered to Gladimir Paul a 6-2 210 pound weak-side defensive end from Philadelphia, PA.

Scout.com page here.

Partial quote from a March 27th article on Scout.com:


"I know I can get bigger, and I told them (Temple) that I’m working on my weight. They think I have a lot of potential.”
Paul finished his junior season with 21 sacks for the 5-7 Vikings, and has been picking up interest and making visits since. The junior will trek to Massachusetts and Connecticut this weekend before a potential trip to Penn State April 5."

Hudl.com has highlights.

Paul has eight offers including UMass, UConn and Temple from FBS.

Saturday--June 28th, 2014

UMass players spend the summer helping at the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club.

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Jesse Allen of Hustle Belt looks at the Boston College-UMass opening game and calls an Eagles win.

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Dan Rubin of BC Interruption critiques the BC and UMass advertising campaigns, and likes the Eagles better.

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"Breaking Down the Buzz" from CBS Sports thinks the Eagles have a chance for 6 or seven wins. Mentions BC-UMass.

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Penn State sold out 21,000 student tickets in a couple of hours.

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Mr. SEC.com thinks Derek Mason will keep the Commodores rolling.

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The Advertiser.com looks at the Sunbelt Conference and the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns hopes for the future. The Cajuns are looking for bigger things, which would open up a slot in the Sunbelt.

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CBS Sports looks at 20 moments that led to the growth of college football since 1984.

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A horse named after Victor Cruz won at the Belmont.

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The Steelers Depot thinks Pittsburgh has a lot of tight ends who can play in the NFL.

USA Today previews the Steelers and mentions Rob Blanchflower.

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Recruiting 2016--Kai Gray

Rivals image

Several recruiting services report UMass is showing interest in Kai Gray, a 6-1 185 pound WR from St. Peters Prep in NJ.

Partial quote from a June 25th Rivals article:

"To this point, Gray has already taken a visit to Rutgers and has talked about checking out both Virginia Tech and UMass. He will also make his way back to Rutgers for a 7-on-7 this Saturday, Penn State on July 20th for a camp, and either Syracuse or Maryland for a camp.'

Rivals page here.

BeRecruited.com has stats.

Gray recently received his first offer, from UConn.

Friday--June 27th, 2014

The UMass Gridiron Club will have its annual Golf outing July 25th. The following day will feature a "We Build" event for current and former UMass players only at McGuirk Stadium. Details of the event are here.

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ESPN NY says still hungry Victor Cruz is a Giant rock.

Victor has been nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids Sports Choice award.

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Boston College gets a new video board.

The Eagles also get Amherst player Taj-Amir Torres, who verbaled to Boston College yesterday.

BC blog "Soaring to Glory" comments.

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UMass recruit J.T. Kelley played in a new Central Mass All-Star game yesterday.

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UMass recruit Dan DiNicola played in the 36th Shrine All-Star game. There are some quotes from DiNicola on why he chose UMass.

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Syracuse.com has a feature on how the recruiting services rank recruits.

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Where would sports fans be without the internet? A UMass professor is working on making the internet a more efficient, safer medium.

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Thursday--June 26th, 2014

Some of the changes from the latest UMass roster.

#2--Ross Comis will now share the number with Quayshun Smith
#6-Jamal Wilson switches from #22
#7--Blake Frohapfel shares with D'Metrius Williams
#8--Alex Kenney shares with Shane Huber
#14-Ryan Jacobucci switches from #5
#18-Andrew Verboys ex-Matt Quinn
#23-Charan Singh ex-Greg Oreoya
#26-Jarell Addo ex-Quayshun Smith
#27-Jesse Monteiro ex-Nick Valles
#30-Zeke Edmonds ex-Michael Rapoza
#32-Matt Tuleja ex-Arthur Williams
#37-Andrew Libby ex Tom Brandt
#39-Jordan Fiske ex-Eduardo Cruz
#40-Jon Lucier ex-Dillon Tighe
#41-De'Sean Downey ex Jeff Strait
#43-Matthew Wylie shared with Shadrach Abrokwah
#48-Michael Grasis ex-Vance Barton
#49-Jeremy Rodriguez ex-Galen Clemons
#50-Jack Wynne ex-Justin Anderson
#61-Joe Previte ex Aaron Oberst
#62-Emmett Odegard not assigned last year
#63-Dmitri Angelas not assigned last year
#66-Anthony Fernandez ex Costa Toubelis
#67-Dan DiNicola ex Will Giggi
#70-Ryan Johnson ex Anthony Dima
#71-Basit Dennis not assigned last year
#74-Liam Porter ex Terrel Correia
#79-Jake Largay ex Vincent Westcarr
#82-Connor Lemieux ex #27
#84-Alfred Adarkwah ex E.J. Burston
#87-T.J. Kelley ex Rob Blanchflower
#89-Jon Denton ex Derek Beck

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How Michigan's greed alienated its fans. My first thought when the "Big Five" said they wanted to leave the NCAA and form their own division was this was going to cost their fans an arm and a leg. Paying players and other planned perks is going to be big money. It's going to have to come from somewhere. Tickets, "seat licenses , parking and mandatory contributions to the athletic fund are going to increase.

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Central Michigan will provide $18.5 million to athletics from the general fund.

 Syracuse will only pay the Chippewas $550,000 for a game at the Carrier Dome, but the Orange will play at Central Michigan this year.

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Davon Jones, a DB form St. Johns Prep in MA, verbaled to Boston College yesterday. He was a teammate of current Minutemen players Shadrach Abrokwah and J.T. Kelley.

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UMass plays in the Tangerine Bowl--December 12th, 1964

In 1964 the Minutemen played East Carolina in the only bowl game UMass has ever played in.

The Tangerine Bowl started in 1947 and lasted until 1982.

The Minutemen, featuring players like Bob Gogick and Jerry Whelchel took a 13-0 lead before giving up two touchdowns to East Carolina.

A very kind blog reader has sent me the UMass Daily Collegian's pregame coverage of the game. Special thanks to him for supplying some important UMass football historical information. I'll add the images to the "UMass historical scans" portion of the blog.

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

Wednesday--June 25th, 2014

UMass football will take possession of the lower part of the new Performance Center July 1st. The UMass website has a short video of the interior of the building.

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Yesterday's article by Dan Malone has been updated to show UMass will play a return dated in 2017 with UConn at Rentschler Field.

Desmond Conner article here.
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Did you know Rhode Island has a fan page? RhodyRamPage has a post about the UMass-Rhode Island game in 2016. It says it's a winnable game for the Rams and also takes a shot at UMass attendance  We earned the disrespect by losing to Maine, but Rhody went 3-9 in 2013 and 2-6 in the CAA. The Rams averaged 5,627 in home attendance.

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SB Nation ranks the FBS conferences. The MAC is #9.

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The MAC is doing a good job with its 2015 quarterback verbals.

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The Roanoke Times previews UMass' and Virginia Tech's mutual opponent Boston College.

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The University of Colorado has its 2016 and 2017 OOC schedule completed. Mrs Blog and I are hoping to see Ralphie run in 2015.

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OT, but Rant Sports ranks Jonathan Quick as one of the top-10 former college players in the NHL.

Recruiting 2015--- Diasjon Robinson IV

NJ.com image

I've blogged about Diasjon Robinson, a 6-2 275 pound DT who verbaled to UMass in March several times before.

Robinson recently took part in a New Hersey big man academy and played well.

Robinson appears in several of the article's slide show images. All appearing as a coach is E.J. Barthel.

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Tuesday--June 24th, 2014

A new slide show of the football performance center is available here. It looks beautiful.

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Matty Vautour reports UMass will play UConn and Rhode Island in 2016. We should beat the Rams and adding UConn is a big deal for our program.

Dan Malone says we're 0-2 against New England opponents since we joined FBS and both games were brutal setbacks for the Minutemen.

UMass, UConn and BC playing regularly would help all three teams. The last time we played Boston College I swapped blog posts with "BC Interruption". In one of my questions I wondered how the Eagles would adjust to the ACC. With BC's high academic standards, I expected BC to end up as another Duke, only without Duke basketball. While BC started strong, to me at least, they have started to slip. They've gone 28-35 over the last five years. The Eagles were 71st in attendance last year, averaging 33,006 per game. Those aren't very good numbers. An active instate rivalry would boost their attendance and add some interest in the program.

UConn's fabulously successful basketball programs have done little for the Huskies conference affiliation. All the weight has swung to football. UConn was 75th in attendance last year, averaging 30,932 per game. Despite all the snark coming from both programs towards UMass, an active rivalry would boost all sides

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The following is a cut-and-past from a Athletic Dept e-mail.


Tickets to all away UMass Football games during the 2014 season are on sale now.  Dates, opponents, and prices are listed below:

Sat. 9/13 at Vanderbilt.  Tickets - $35 each

Sat. 9/20 at Penn State.  Tickets - $45 each. 

Sat. 10/4 at Miami OH.  Tickets - $22 each. 

Sat. 10/11 at Kent State.  Tickets - $10 each. 

Sat. 10/25 at Toledo.  Tickets - $25 each. 

Tue. 11/18 at Akron.  Tickets - $20 each. 

To ensure seating with other UMass fans, purchase tickets through the UMass Athletic Ticket Office by calling 413-545-0810. 

For the game at Penn State the UMass Alumni Association has several options available including transportation, lodging and a pig roast tailgate.  For more information, click here.

Thank you for your support.  We hope to see you on the road cheering on the Minutemen this season!

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SB Nation previews Penn State.

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I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about Canadian football because I watch a fair amount of it in the summer. I've never seen anything like this video from football scoop.

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Monday--June 23, 2014

Dan Malone says football is important to the future of the AAC. Again, UMass should be a good prospect for the AAC if Whipple can make us into a decent FBS school. The AAC took Tulsa (3-9 last year in FBS), which is a small, 5000 student religious school. UMass has a far bigger athletic and academic footprint.

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Eastern Michigan goes to gray turf.

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A Bleacher Report writer breaks down the Steelers at TE.

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The Orlando Sentinel ranks Buffalo #63 and looks at the Buffs for 2014. The Minutemen close the 2014 season with Buffalo in this year's Black Friday game at McGuirk.

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Saturday Blitz looks at five teams who will miss their departed QB this season. Northern Illinois is one of them. The Huskies blew out the Minutemen in both games played with Jordan Lych. NIU Gets Northwestern, UNLV and Arkansas in three of their first four games in 2014. It should be apparent early how much Jordan meant to the Huskies.

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Penn State enters this season with just 11 seniors.

You can count the number of Minutemen seniors in the latest version of the UMass roster. The players who joined in the Spring now have numbers. Blake Fronapfel has #7.

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Brandon London had only 1 catch for 5 yards in the Larks loss to Ottawa.

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Mrs Blog and I are on our way home today after a week in Boothbay.

View from our rental

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