Don Brown hired--November 22nd, 2021

 

I'm a member of the Grid Iron Club. Just received the following by e-mail.

Dear Frank,

 

"I am pleased to share with you that we have hired former Minutemen head coach Don Brown (2004-2008) as our next head football coach. I have attached the press release that will be released publicly later today.

 

Coach Brown led our football program to the most wins over a five-year period in program history, including a run to the 2006 I-AA national championship game. He also served as the Defensive Coordinator when the Minutemen defeated Georgia Southern for the national championship in 1998. We are very excited about Coach Brown’s return to the Commonwealth and the immediate impact he will make on our program. Most recently, Don was the Defensive Coordinator at the University of Arizona. He has also had stints at the University of Michigan (Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers 2016-20), Boston College (Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers 2013-15), the University of Connecticut (Defensive Coordinator/Cornerbacks 2011-2012), and the University of Maryland (Defensive Coordinator/Cornerbacks 2009-2010).  Coach Brown brings vast experience to this position, and will help us transform and build competitive success within our football program.

 

In the short-term, an online media-only press conference with Coach Brown will be conducted next week after Don has finished his season at Arizona. With an important recruiting period opening back up on November 29, we plan to re-introduce Coach Brown to our fans and supporters with a public event in the month of December (Date TBD). Thank you for joining me in welcoming Coach Brown and his family back to Amherst.

 

Thank you for your support!

 

Go UMass!

 

Ryan Bamford" 

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I think Brown is a good hire. Reportedly he turned down more money from Arizona than he'll be paid at UMass. Brown wants to be here and that's important.

Hope all UMass fans, players and Grid Iron members welcome home Brown and let's get this ship righted!

UMass Football News--November 22nd, 2021

 UMass opens as a six point underdog to New Mexico State. I wonder when the last time the Aggies have been the favorites against a FBS team.

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MassLive reports UMass is closing in on Don Brown as the next head coach.

ESPN reports sources say it's Don Brown. 

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Brown's hiring.

I think this would be a good move. UMass probably would have hired a FBS offensive or defensive coordinator or a FCS head coach. Unlike Whipple II, Brown is a current Power Five defensive coordinator. In addition, Brown is a New England guy and understands the area and the constraints it contains.  

Brown was Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015. He made an immediate improvement to Arizona's defense. He was a finalist for the Assistant coach of the year in 2016.

From Brown's Wildcat bio:

"Brown, who brings nearly 45 years of coaching experience to Tucson, was a five-time nominee and a 2016 finalist for the Broyles Award that is annually awarded to the nation's top assistant coach. Over the last decade, 29 defensive players who played under Brown have been selected in the NFL Draft. After orchestrating a miraculous turnaround of the Boston College defense over the course of three seasons, Brown was tabbed as the American Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015.  
 
Under Brown's guidance, the Michigan defense finished among the top 12 units in the nation in total defense four straight years from 2016-19, including a trio of top three performances and a No. 1 ranking in 2016. During that same four-year stretch from 2016-19 the Wolverines defense led the country in pass defense twice (2016, 2017) and combined to make 16 top 25 appearances in total defense, scoring defense, rush defense, and pass defense.
 
During his tenure in Ann Arbor, Brown coached players who earned 49 All-Big Ten recognitions, including 43-of-44 starters who earned all-conference honors across his first four seasons and 10 players that picked up 14 first team nods." 

The UMass program desperately needs to get its feet under itself. Brown has the experience and the skill to get the program stabilized. 

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Bill Murray attended the UMass-Army game and did Bill Murray stuff.

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Thanks to a blog reader who pointed out Jack Driscoll is doing well as a starter for the Eagles.

Game balls are a regular thing for the Eagles offensive line. 

The Eagles Wire has Driscoll as one of the the biggest surprises from Philly's first ten games. 

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UMass Football News--November 21st, 2021

 Writing Sunday morning blog posts has not exactly been a joy for me this year. However, that is not the case this morning. Yesterday's game against bowl-bound Army was a game, not a blow out.

Most impressive was how competitive the UMass defense was against the Army option. The UMass defense held Army to 6-15 on third downs and 3-6 on fourth. UMass stopped the Black Knights twice in the red zone. The Minutemen defenders flew to the ball and arrived with a thump. With fourteen minutes left in the fourth quarter, UMass was down by 2. Without the four UMass turnovers, it would have been a much closer game. I thought it was the best defense UMass had played all year.

On offense, the Minutemen had 277 yards of total offense averaged 5.1 yards a carry rushing. Garrett Druzo has the legs and the arm to play. He needs work on his decision making in the passing game. Still, he moved the team. UMass converted half of third and fourth down plays. That's a lot better than we have done recently. 

In addition, this was the first road game where our play was not flatly atrocious. We could actually have a chance against New Mexico State next week. I had been dreading that game recently. Getting blown out by a team that bad was going to be the final insult of a lousy season. If we play like we did at Army, we could win.

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UMass' write-up here.

Army write-up here.

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Pitt clinched the ACC Coastal Division with a win over Virginia.

BC's comeback against Florida State fell short.

Eastern Michigan edged Western Michigan on Tuesday.

Coastal Carolina beat Texas State to run their record to 9-2. 

Toledo beat Ohio Tuesday. 

UConn gave up 49 to UCF.

Florida State beat BC as above.

Louisiana ran over Liberty 42-14.

Rhode Island flopped on the road at Elon. 

Maine beat New Hampshire 33-20. 

New Mexico State fell to 1-10 losing big to Kentucky. 

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Game Day --Army November 20th, 2021

 

UMass will be their road all-whites today.

Another tough match-up game with Army. The Minutemen have struggled with defending the run and the run game is what Army does. 

In 2019, the Black Knights rang up 498 yards rushing, 34 first downs and 63 points. The Minutemen offense was non-existent that day. UMass only had 7 first downs and 125 yards of total offense. Army ran it up a little, scoring with 13 seconds left. Being up 56-7 they could have taken a knee.

UMass could do better today by generating some offense. Army's clock-eating run game means we won't get a lot of chances. The Minutemen need some spark from the passing game and need some third-down conversions. 

The game is available on the CBS Sports Network carried by a lot of cable companies. I'll be watching and cheering for the Minutemen.

Go UMass!

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Desert Swarm says Don Brown is a favorite for the UMass coaching job.

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UnderDog Dynasty reports UMass is targeting Don Brown as the nest head coach for the Minutemen.

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Army defensive coordinator Nate Woody says the Black Knights can't take UMass lightly.

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Sports Illustrated has odds, plays and insights for the UMass-Army game. 

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UMass Football News--November 19th, 2021

 UMass has their game notes for Army up.

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USA Today thinks it'll be an Army massacre Saturday. 

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The Boston Herald reports the UMass defense will have a difficult chore against the Army option.

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MassLive image

247Sports reports Don Brown is a top candidate for the UMass head coaching job.

Brown's Arizona bio.

There are apparently some other coaches also being considered.

Whipple, if you remember, was out of football for a number of years before being hired for his second term in Amherst. Don Brown is an active coach who has recently been DC at Michigan and Arizona. Brown is also from the Northeast, so he would like to be here.

Since our move to FBS we have not been competitive on defense. Remember going to Gillette and watching Western Michigan score 63 points? Or Central Michigan running us over?

Under Whipple, his offense worked, and is still working at Pitt. But we never won any of those shootouts. UMass lost the game where Blake Frohnapfel set a MAC passing record.

Recently we had one sack in two games against FCS teams. Granted part of the defense's troubles was the offense went 10-27 in third down conversions against Rhode Island and Maine, but still the UMass defense was not stopping two FCS offenses.

I've always thought defense was the shortest distance to a good football team, but if UMass can't land Brown whoever is chosen needs to make some major improvements to the defensive side of the ball in Amherst. 

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UMass Football News--November 18th, 2021

 Army has their game notes for UMass up.

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The Lines.com has betting lines and trends for UMass vs Army. 

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Pitt has a chance to win the ACC Coastal Division Saturday and Kenny Pickett is a Heisman contender.

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UConn DT Travis Jones has been selected to the Senior Bowl.

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Florida State travels to Boston College for a noon game on Saturday. 

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UMass Football News--November 17th, 2021

 The Times Herald reports support for teammates goes deep into the Army roster.

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Live Steam, video and kickoff times for Army-Navy on December 11th. 

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Sports Illustrated has odds, plays and insights for UMass vs Army.

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An academic paper purports to find there is little or no gain from conference realignments. Like most academic papers, this could or could not be true.

For example, since the pandemic broke out in February of 2020, there have been 190 retracted academic papers on COVID-19. A further seven have had "expressions of concern". That's more than six retracted COVID papers a month.

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North Carolina's Roy Williams sees a rapid diminishment of the NCAA's powers.

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UMass Football News--November 16th, 2021

 Play Picks has UMass vs Army picks, predictions and tips.

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 Meanwhile, Ellis Merriweather has gone 178-858 4.8 yards/carry 85.8 yards/game and 3 TD's. Merriweather needs 142 yards for a 1,000 yard season. He's been a bright spot in a season in purgatory.

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Vegas Insider has the Black Knights as a 37.5 point favorite over the Minutemen.

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247Sports has a post on how Jim Mora plans to make UConn competitive. 

The Hartford Courant says UConn was a challenge Jim Mora could not resist.

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UMass Football News--November 15th, 2021

 Sports Illustrated has Army vs UMass odds, plays and insights.

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The Bangor Daily news reports the Black Bears scored 35 unanswered points against UMass.

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Thanks to the blog reader who sent me this link: the case for firing a struggling coach.

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ESPN has a story on the school realignment left behind: UConn.

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At Saturday's game against Maine, Tyler Lytle was not uniform and I did not see  him on the sidelines. 

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UMass Football News--November 15th, 2021

 Well another nice weather day at McGuirk. UMass fans continued to show up and nobody booed a second loss to an FCS team.

However runs the show next year really needs to jump start the offense. The Minutemen were 5-16 on third downs. After the first quarter, UMass could not sustain a drive. Merriweather averaged 6.6 yards/carry, but he was all the offense had.

In addition, UMass failed to make some plays that may have made a difference. In the second quarter, with the game close, two Minutemen receivers dropped a pass that would have extended drives. On the Maine side of the field the Black Bear QB hit a UMass linebacker right between the numbers. If he had made the interception it would have given the offense a short field.

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UMass write-up here.

Black Bears write-up here.

The Hampshire Gazette said UMass' fast start was not enough. 

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Pitt ran their record to 8-2 Thursday.

BC beat Georgia Tech 41-30.

Eastern Michigan lost to Ohio on Wednesday.

Coastal Carolina failed on a two-point conversion and was upset by Georgia State.

UConn did better than I expected in a 44-7 loss to Clemson. 

Toledo won on Wednesday. 

Florida State beat Miami in a rivalry game. 

Liberty had a bye.

Rhody beat New Hampshire 28-3. 

Army flattened FCS Bucknell. 

New Mexico State was run over by Alabama.

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Game Day--Maine November 13th, 2021

 

Maine will be the same as our FCS days---big and physical. The Black Bears  pounded Rhode Island 45-24. Maine rang up 27 first downs and 528 yards of total offense.

UMass needs to generate some offense of our own. 150 yards of rushing and 130 yards of passing is not going to do it.

The Minutemen need to show some spark and make some plays or today could be the second consecutive loss to a FCS team.

I'll be there cheering for the Minutemen. Go UMass!

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Sports Illustrated has odds, plays and insights for the UMass-Maine game.

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The Hampshire Gazette reports Alex Miller is bringing the UMass team together ahead of the Maine game. 

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The Berkshire Eagle says Coach Miller leads the Minutemen against the Black Bears. 

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UnderDog Dynasty reports on how UMass presented itself to Conference USA. 

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UMass Football News--November 12th, 2021

 Maine has their game notes for UMass up.

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Black Bear QB Joe Fagnano could return to the field after suffering an injury at JMU.

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247Sports has a post saying money could hurt UMass' chances for Don Brown or Liam Coen.

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Yahoo Sports looks at Liam Coen's offensive background and his moving up the coaching ranks from Maine.

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UConn hires Jim Mora as their new head coach.

Yahoo Sports reports Mora eager to bring success to the Huskies.

UConn plays Clemson this week, so success will not happen soon.

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UMass Football News--November 11th, 2021

 UMass has the game notes for Maine up. Saturday will be Senior Day.

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ESPN has the latest iteration of the Bottom Ten.

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The Deseret News reports Middle Tennessee won't move to the MAC.

Hustle Belt reports the MAC won't expand.

Burnt Orange Nation says college football realignment many be over for now.

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Toledo had 352 yards of offense and scored 35 points in the first half as they pulverized Bowling Green last night. 

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UMass Football News--November 10th, 2021

Maine opens as a 1 point favorite over the Minutemen.

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MassLive has a post on the leadership change and details regarding the coaching search.

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The Boston Herald reports UMass starts its coaching search.

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The Hampshire Gazette reports on Alex Miller taking over as interim head coach.

Linebackers coach Dan Carrol will call the defensive plays from the press box. Jim Reid will do short yardage defense and Jason Tudryn will handle pass defense.

On offense, QB coach Federick Walker will call the plays from the press box. TE coach Kyle Segler will handle offensive sideline duties.

Miller said the choice between Tyler Lytle and Brady Olson will be a game day decision.

During the Rhode Island game, QB/Athlete Zamir Wise was wearing #23. That might indicate he will play WR if Lytle starts.

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UMass Football News--November 9th, 2021

 

Above is a video presentation by the Athletic Dept with A.D. Ryan Bamford about the coaching change. Worth watching.

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The on-line New England Football show has Rene Ingoglia and discusses the changes at UMass

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The Hampshire Gazette has  a post on A.D. Bamford's thoughts on the change and the hiring process.

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UnderDog Dynasty has some potential coaches that could be considered for the UMass job. 

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Predictably, the coaching change has caused the anti-football zealots  to poke their heads out of their holes. I'm not going to link to any of them because I'm tired of the we-can't-do-it-so-we-should-quit types.  

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UMass Football News--November 8th, 2021

 ESPN reports after a 2-23 run Coach Bell is let go.

MassLive says Coach Bell fired after loss to Rhode Island.

CBS Sports reports Bell was let go after a double-digit loss to Rhode Island.

The Athletic (paywalled) offers some thoughts on the coaching change.

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GoLocalProv reports URI scored huge upset over FBS UMass.

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I come from a long line of non-management types, so it always sets my teeth on edge when someone loses their job. However, it's the way of the world in coaching. Hopefully, the administration will get serious and right the ship with UMass football.

As I have said many times here, schools like Southern Alabama, Liberty and Coastal Carolina have moved to FBS and thrived. They can do it and we can't? The UMass fans I've talked to are fairly reasonable in what they want. We don't aspire to go to the Rose Bowl. We want a team we can follow. Be as good as other Group-of-Five teams. That's not a lot to ask.  

I think Coach Miller, Coach Tudryn and Coach Reid are quality coaches. My apologies  to the other coaches as I've never interacted with them. Hopefully, the new head coach will consider keeping some of them.

I hope Coach Miller appoints Coach Reid as defensive coordinator for the rest of the season. 

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As for the coaching search, I'm not in the college football coaching world, so I don't have a favorite candidate. We've tried three offensive coaches. I've always thought the shortest distance to respectability is defense, but I'll support any coach that can bring us back.

Brandon C. Hall of Substack thinks UMass should bring back Don Brown. 

A coach comfortable with football in the Northeast would be the best fit. 

The UMass community should be involved and included in the search. Send an e-mail to the Powers-that-Be saying we need to get it right this time...

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UMass Football News---Coaching change at UMass

 As a member of the Grid Iron club I received a e-mail stating A.D. Ryan Bamford has relieved Coach Bell and defensive coordinator Tommy Restivo of their coaching duties at UMass.

Coach Alex Miller will be the interim HC while the coaching search goes forward.

The Hampshire Gazette has a post on the coaching changes.

More on this subject tomorrow.

UMass Football News--November 7th, 2021

 Well, we were flatly beat by a better team. In particular, next year we need to upgrade the Minutemen defense. The last two years under Whipple and now 2-and-a-half years under Bell we just have not been competitive on defense. 

We have had a lot of injuries probably because of being beaten up by the number of Power Five teams we have played, but UMass can't keep going like this. The Minutemen need more speed, size and athleticism on the D-line, line backer and defensive backfield. This needs to be a major priority for next year.

We did have a great Homecoming crowd. The band was excellent. The weather was wonderful. Live in the moment and appreciate what we've got. And keep grinding...

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UMass write-up here.

Rhody write-up here.

The Hampshire Gazette says it was tough to stomach. Amen to that.

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Pitt crushed Duke.

BC beat a offense-challenged Virginia Tech Friday night. 

Eastern Michigan became bowl eligible earlier in the week. 

Coastal Carolina beat Georgia Southern.

UConn had a second bye.

Toledo got beat by Eastern Michigan earlier in the week.

Florida State lost to North Carolina at home. 

Liberty's comeback against Ole Miss fell short.

Maine lost to Stony Brook. 

Army beat Air Force in overtime. 

New Mexico State lost to Utah State.

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Game Day--Rhode Island--November 6th, 2021

 The Minutemen need to bring their "A" game today. The Rams have Kasim Hill 6-2 234 at QB. He's already been twice CAA offensive player-of-the-week. He's a former four-star recruit who signed with Maryland. I've watched a couple of his games at Rhody. When he gets hit, he gets up kinda slowly as if he has a lot of miles on his body. He probably does, which is probably why he's playing for the Rams. However, every so often he looks like a four-star recruit. 

Hill has gone 96-184 9 TD's 4 INT's and a stellar 127.24 efficiency rating. Rhody is going to score some points. UMass needs to have more offense than just running Ellis Merriweather between the tackles.

I think the Rams are a better football team than UConn. UMass needs to play with some intensity today.

I'll be there watching. Go UMass!

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Yahoo Sport predicts Rhode Island 27 UMass 24.

Sports Illustrated says the odds are "pick em"

The Berkshire Eagle reports Tyler Lytle may dress and play in the game.

The Hampshire Gazette reports Rhody coach Jim Flemming thinks UMass is a "high level CAA team".

The Daily Collegian thinks Rhody and Maine are must wins for the Minutemen.

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UMass Football News--November 5th, 2021

 Fan Duel has a minimalist prediction for the Rhody-UMass game.

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The Old Dominion website says ODU and the Sun Belt are the big winners in the conference realignment struggle.

The Daily Adviser explains why the Sun Belt thinks they are now one of the top conferences in the Group-of-Five. 

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Liberty receives an invite to Conference USA. 

New Mexico State receives an offer to join Conference USA.

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The Huntsville Item says Sam Houston State's potential move to FBS brings some concerns and questions.

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Tech Sideline previews tonight's Hokies-Eagles game. BC is 0-4 in ACC. A loss tonight means the Eagles will need to go 2-1 against Georgia Tech, Florida State and Wake Forest to be bowl eligible.

BC Interruption says Eagles fans should keep the faith.

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