UMass Football News--November 2nd, 2018

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the UMass-Liberty game and predicts a Minutemen victory.

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Athlon Sports writers pick UMass over Liberty by two to one.

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Bleacher Report picks the Minutemen in a shoot-out.

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The News & Advance has notes for Liberty's game with UMass.

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Flames HC Turner Gill previews the UMass game.

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I watched a highly entertaining UCF vs Temple game last night. UCF prevailed 52-40. There was 650 yards of offense in the first half.

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Maine's 2019 schedule will include both Georgia Southern and Liberty.

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BYU has struggled on offense this season, but their pass defense is #31 in the country.

The Cougars are simplifying the offense for true freshman QB Zack Wilson.

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UMass Football News--November 1st, 2018

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" asks five questions of Liberty Flames Blog "A sea of Red".

Liberty has certainly exceeded my expectations in 2018. Last year the Flames were a middle-of-the-pack team in the FCS Big South conference. That's not the Southern Conference that had GSU and Appalachian State when we were in FCS. Like UMass, Liberty moved to FBS without a transition year. Unlike UMass, who went 1-11 under Charlie Molnar, the Flames are currently 4-3 and in the hunt for a bowl bid. The Flames remaining games are UMass, Virginia, Auburn, New Mexico State and Norfolk State. Liberty should be favored over the last two. The Flames beat Neal Brown's Trojans who are currently 6-2 with the only other loss to Boise State.

The Flames are a solid Group-of-Five club.

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The Daily Collegian reports Marquis Young propels UMass into the Liberty matchup.

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The News & Advance asks five questions of UMass beat writer Josh Wallfish.

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The Minutemen win over UConn pushed UMass out of CBS Sports "Botton-25".

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The Lawless Republic reviews what has been  a Halloween season for the Cougars.

Cougar Sports Insider previews BYU's remaining schedule and predicts a 71.0% chance of a Cougar victory over the Minutemen.

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The Reflector power ranks the AAC. USF's loss to Houston drops the Knights to 4th and UConn is solidly last.

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UMass Football News--October 31st, 2018

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has some news and notes.

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Marquis young had a great game against UConn. The old saw is "you run to win",--- especially in the fourth quarter. So far this year Young has gone 105-547 5 TD's. That puts him fifth all-time in rushing yards (3387) behind Gary Pearson (3859). His 636 career rushing attempts also has him fifth behind Pearson who had 808. Young's 25 career TD's have him tied for seventh with Tony Nelson.

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The UMass Football Twitter feed has a post on Joe Previte who went from walk-on to starter on the defensive line. As of this week, Previte has gone 9-9 GP-GS 7 UT 20 AT 27 TT 4.0 TFL and 0.5-4 SACKS.

Info on the Burlsworth Trophy is here.

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The Daily Collegian reports UMass prepares for their final game of 2018 in McGuirk.

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BYU fans will get to see the UMass-BYU game on BYU TV.

UMass stays at #10 in a power ranking of BYU's opponents.

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Meanwhile, the Liberty Flames take notice of Ross Comis.

An open week has given some injured Flames players a chance to heal.

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The UConn Daily Campus discusses if the loss to UMass was the worst loss of the season for the Huskies.

Randy Edsall defends the state of the UConn program.

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UMass Football News--October 30th, 2018

 UMass defensive line coach Dave Wissman retires for medical reasons. Graduate assistant Valerian Ume-Ezeoke will be the interim coach.

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UMass RB Bilal Ally has left the program. This leaves the Minutemen really thin at running back...

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Josh Wallfish has a post on Wissman's retirement and Whipple's comments on the four players who left the program.

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" recaps the UMass-UConn game.

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The Deseret News says BYU wants true freshman Zac Wilson cut it loose.

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Georgia is a double-digit favorite over surprising Kentucky.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2019--Khalique Washington

Dodge City athletic dept image

Khalique Washington, a 6-5 290 pound JUCO OT from Dodge City C.C. has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

This article covers Washington's HS career and his signing with Dodge City.

Ranked the #21 JUCO offensive lineman.

Washington has offers from Kansas, Kentucky, UAB and Southern Mississippi.

UMass Footbal News--October 29th, 2018

UMass opens a three point favorite over Liberty.

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The UConn Blog has an image gallery from the Minutemen-Huskies game.

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The Hartford Courant has the good, the bad and the ugly from Uconn's loss to UMass.

The Courant also reports Randy Edsall said the Huskies lack player leadership.

The UConn Daily Campus says the Huskies gave the game away.

The UConn Blog looks at the Huskies remaining schedule.

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A Liberty DB is arrested, charged and dismissed from the team.

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Virginia business.com has a post on the $32 million renovation of Liberty's stadium.

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On a bye week before the UMass game, Liberty eyes a bowl bid.

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BYU only scored six points against Northern Illinois Saturday and the Cougar's Twitter fans were not pleased.

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UMass Football News--October 28th, 2018

AP image

Nice win for the Minutemen yesterday. UConn is a bad team but beating a bad team is infinitely better than losing to a bad team.

The UMass defense played another good game. After giving up an easy opening drive, the defense held the Huskies to 10 points for the rest of the game. They added two fourth-down stops and sealed the win when Lee Moses picked off Pindell's pass with about three minutes to go in the game.

The UMass offense rang up 444 yards, which included 197 yards rushing. The Minutemen had 20 first downs to UConn's eleven. The two-score comeback was the first time in FBS that the Minutemen had done that.

The Minutemen wanted it more and it showed. Good work by everyone!

Geeze guys, it's a lot more fun doing the blog after a victory.

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Josh Wallfish said UMass rallies past UConn behind a strong offensive line.

He also reports UMass overcame adversity to win at UConn. Josh mentions the sad news UMass QB Andrew Ford's career at UMass is over with a torn ACL.

Quote about Ford from the article:

"Ford finishes his career in the top three of several categories in the UMass record books. His 560 completions are third most in school history, one shy of Todd Bankhead’s second-place mark. He was 63 yards short of Bankhead for second-most passing yards, finishing in third with 6,955 yards. His 57 touchdown passes were second most and his 63 percent completion percentage was second best."

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The Berkshire Eagle says UMass rallies in the fourth quarter to beat UConn.

MassLive reports Marquis Young runs for 148 yards to defeat UConn.

The UMass Daily Collegian said the Minutemen defense turned in their best performance of the season.

The Hartford Courant said it was a wet, depressing day for UConn.

The UConn Blog reports the Huskies collapsed late.

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Duquesne had a bye.

BC beat Miami Friday.

Georgia Southern crushed #25 Appalachian State Thursday night 34-14.

FIU stayed atop the C-USA East with a 38-17 win over Western Kentucky.

USF gave up a program-record 57 points and lost to Houston 57-36.

Coastal Carolina continued their run to a bowl game by defeating Georgia State.

Liberty had a bye.

BYU, starting a true freshman QB, lost 7-6 to Northern Illinois.

Jake From re-established his status as Georgia's QB with  a win over the Gators.

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Game Day UConn--2018

 I've seen a lot of bad weather losses over the years. The 3-0 loss to BU in 1980 in a driving rainstorm. The 19-7 loss to Colgate in a blizzard in 2003. I was at Rhode Island in 2007 when the officials huddled to discuss what they were going to do if one of the goalposts blew over. Let's hope the Minutemen break the string today.

The UMass offense has to produce today. The Huskies, prior to last week, not only had the worst defense in college football, they had the worst defense since 2008. We need to protect the ball. No turnovers like that fumbled punt on the UMass 3 yard line at Colgate. Comis needs to protect the ball.

The UMass defense needs to at least contain Huskie QB David Pindell. He's the entire UConn offense having rushed 115 times for 686 yards and 7 TD's.

This may be the last chance for a Minutemen victory in 2018. Let's grab it.

Go UMass!!!

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Josh Wallfish reports WR Samuel Emilus is making an impact despite a late start.

He also has the UConn editon of his weekly "Inside the Press Box".

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Underdog Dynasty previews today's Minutemen-Huskies and predicts a 38-33 UConn victory.

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The Hartford Courant reports UConn is the underdog despite the injury to UMass QB Andrew Ford.

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Click on Detroit previews the UMass-UConn game and predicts a UConn victory.

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The UConn Blog covers today's game and previews the action.

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The Berkshire Eagle says UMass and UConn are set to renew their ancient rivalry.

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Boston College ran their record to 6-2 as they handled #25 Miami 27-14 last night.

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UMass Football News--October 26th, 2018

UConn finally has their game notes for UMass up.

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the UMass-UConn game.

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The UConn Daily Campus reports the Huskies will face old foe UMass on Homecoming Saturday.

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The Minutemen are #10 in the latest BYU opponents power ranking.

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Underdog Dynasty, who apparently did not read the weather report, says take the over in the UMass-UConn game.

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Athlon Sports picks UConn to win straight up.

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In a Thursday night MACtion game, Ohio ran for 411 yards and crushed Ball State 52-14. The Bobcats had 392 against us.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2019---Trenton Waggoner

247Sports image

Trenton Waggoner, a 5-11 165 pound WR from Houston, TX has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

MaxPreps has stats.

UMass is the first FBS offer for Waggoner.

UMass Football News--October 25th, 2018

UMass has their game notes for UConn up.

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News 8 reports UConn is hoping to end their season on a high note.

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UConn WR Keyion Dixon is making an impact for the Huskies on special teams.

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Boston College signs a DT who had a UMass offer.

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A 247Sports writer thinks 6-1 Houston will knock off undefeated USF this weekend.

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Athlon Sports picks UConn over UMass in Saturday's game.

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Coastal Carolina likes all their QB's in their three-deep.

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UMass Football News--October 24th, 2018

Mike Traini of "fight Massachusetts" recaps the Coastal Carolina game.

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The Daily Collegian reports UMass looks to get back in the win column against UConn.

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The UConn Blog (good name 😀) has the Huskies two-deep for the Minutmen game.

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The Sports Chat Place picks UMass to cover the spread against UConn.

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The Hartford Courant reports Randy Edsell hopes the momentum from the USF game carries over to the UMass game.

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The New Haven Register talks about UConn DB Tahj Herring-Wilson's matchup with Andy Isabella.

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UConn adds Maine to their 2020 schedule.

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Speaking of Andy Isabella, the Oakland Press has him as the "Group-of-Five" star.

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The UConn Daily Campus reports the mood of Huskie football is improving.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2019--Shareal Taylor

Shareal Taylor, a 6-3 185 pound Athlete from Sebring, FL has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

MaxPreps page here.

Hudl.com has video.

UMass is the first offer for Taylor.

UMass Football News--October 23rd, 2018

Josh Wallfish has his Week #8 mailbag.

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Las Vegas has UMass -4.5 against UConn.

BYW, the Minutemen are 0-4 against the spread in away games.

The Hartford Courant says there's a silver lining for UConn in playing a lot of freshmen.

Josh Wallfish Tweets that Marquis Young should be ready to go. Andrew Ford is still questionable.

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The News Advance reports Liberty is on a bye week and eyeing a bowl bid.

Liberty also saw the return of one of their top receivers.

The Flames have one of college football's best names in QB Stephen (Buckshot) Calvert.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2019--Mike Ciaffoni

Image from last year's Junior day

Mike Ciaffoni, a 6-3 265 pound DT from Sudbury, MA has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

MaxPreps page here.

UMass is the first offer for Ciaffoni. Also drawing interest from BC and Rutgers.

UMass Football News--October 22nd, 2018

Lost in this train wreck season is the fact the new special teams kicker and punter are doing well. Kickers Mike Caggiano (2-3) and Cooper Garcia (3-3) are 5-6 for the season. Zero blocked kicks.

George Georgopoulos has punted 27-1100 40.9 AVE 60 LONG 3 I20 5 50+. Zero blocked. Georgopoulos had a nifty 53 yard punt in the third quarter of the Coastal Carolina game that got the Minutemen out of their own end zone.

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No Las Vegas odds on UMass-UConn as of 6:45 AM this morning.

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The Sports Chat Place looks at the UMass-UConn game. They say the odds are late do to uncertainty of the status of Andrew Ford and Marquis Young.

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The New Haven Register has five takeaways from UConn's loss to USF.

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The Hartford Courant says the current troubles of UConn are due to bad recruiting under Bob Diaco.

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UMass Football News--October 21st, 2018

The UMass defense played their best game of the 2018 season against an FBS team. The Minutemen held Coastal Carolina to 24 points a season low. They also had two takeaways and stopped the Chants for no points after a turnover on a kickoff. Coastal Carolina ground out 279 yards rushing, but did not pop any long run TD's. The UMass defense played well enough to win.

The UMass offense, on the other hand had a terrible game. UMass had 459 yards of offense and only  scored one TD. In addition, I felt the offense was hindered by some poor play calling. I did not like the redzone play calls on both of the Minutemen's early field goals. On the CCU seven we get a false start moving the ball to the eleven. We call a QB draw for the slow-footed Ford for no gain. On the next play, Ford has green grass in front of him, but passes to Jordan to the CCU four. Another pass on third down to Isabella is incomplete.

On the second field goal, we're on the CCU eleven and get a false start moving us to the 16. Ford completes a pass to Emilus to the 8. Ford then rushes for -2, then is sacked for -12.

We did not give the ball to the RB once in those series and Fredericks averaged 10 yards/carry (7-78 with one 8 yard loss).

In the fourth quarter with UMass down two scores and eight minutes to play, UMass passes up a field goal by Cooper (who was perfect for the day) and goes for it on fourth-and-sixteen and ended up with a -21 yards sack.

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UMass write-up here.

Chants write-up here.

Josh Wallfish said the offense fell flat.

Josh also reports Andy Isabella continues to re-write the record books.

Myrtle Beach Online said three QB's led the Chants to victory.

Fox Sports reported true freshman Fred Payton led the Coastal Carolina comeback.

The Daily Collegian said big plays and Coastal Carolina's running game resulted in a UMass loss.

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Duquesne came from behind to defeat St. Francis 27-20.

Georgia Southern ran their record to 6-1 by dominating New Mexico State 48-31.

FIU stayed unbeaten in C-USA by defeating Rice 36-17.

Charlotte turned the ball over and lost to Middle Tennessee 21-13.

Ohio blew out Bowling Green 49-14.

UConn played the best game of their season against USF but lost 38-30.

Liberty beat Idaho State 48-41 in their Homecoming game.

BYU had a bye.

Georgia had a bye.

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Game Day Coastal Carolina--October 20th 2018

Alright, Coastal Carolina is a solid Group-of-Five team. Several pundits picked them a a bowl team before the season started. The Chants feature a running game and a dual-threat QB, both of whom we have struggled mightily against this year. The UMass offense needs to show up. This is a game we need to win 44-42. It would help if the Minutemen could score early instead of playing from behind. Coastal Carolina has a fairly average defense. UMass has scored on everyone we've played. We need to do a lot of it today.

A win would be a big morale boost for the second half of the season. If UMass is going to salvage the season, it needs to start today.

Go UMass!

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Josh Wallfish reports Whipple senior and Whipple junior balance each other out on the sidelines.

Josh also has his mailbag for Week #8.

Josh also chats with Myrtle Beach writer Alan Blondin about today's game with Coastal Carolina.

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Myrtle Beach online has everything you need to know about today's UMass-Coastal Carolina game.

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The Berkshire Eagle reports after a week of rest UMass is ready to take on the Chants.

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The New Haven Register previews today's UConn-USF game.

The Hartford Courant also covers UConn's game with undefeated USF.

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UMass Football News--October 19th, 2018

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the UMass-Coastal Carolina game.

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UMass announces a 10 year deal with Adidas. The deal includes increased availability of replica jerseys and other fan apparel. I think there is going to be a lot of demand for UMass hockey and basketball stuff in the near future.

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HERO Sports previews the Minutemen-Chants game.

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The first Kennett Band Day was a success. The event is modeled after the UMMB Band Day. This year's Band Day will be November 11th (Veteran's Day) at Gillette.

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Off Tackle Empire recommends watching UMass-Coastal Carolina for the offense.

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Myrtle Beach Online discusses Coastal Carolina's chances for a bowl game. It looks like the Chants will have senior dual-threat QB Kilton Anderson back after missing two games with a high ankle sprain.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2019--Kam Brinson

WRDW.com image

Kam Brinson, a 5-11 180 pound athlete from Augusta, GA has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

MaxPreps has stats.

Hudl.com has video.

This article features Brinson.

Brinson has offers from Navy and Charleston Southern.