Part III of Jason hatchell's spring blog is up

UMass LB Jason Hatchell has the latest edition of his spring practice blog up on the CAA website.

The New England teams are getting hammered with bad weather. It's snowing again here in New Hampshire again today (after the 8 inches we got last week).

I hope to attend a UMass practice in April and provide some images.

In a reminder, the UMass Friends of Football have updated their site and they are pointing towards their 6th annual UMass Football Golf Classic on 07/23/07.

This blog has been a member of the Friends from day one. If you are interested in UMass Football winning games and performing at the highest level, then you need to be a member. Join here.

UMass History--- 1973 Scans

As related in Monday's post, Ed Hajdusek was kind enough to send us some scans of UMass historical material. The two posts below are scans from 1973. Right Click and Blogger displays a larger view.

In '73 UMass finished 6-5 and 4-2 in the Yankee Conference.

Captains were John Jones and Peil Pennington.

A milestone that year was UMass' 300th win, over Villanova 21-20 on Sept. 15, 1973.

I've blogged before about Dick MacPherson and Bob Pickett, but was not able to get any hits on the assistant coaches. Anyone have any information they wish to share with us?

UMass History ----1973 UMass Coaches

UMass History----1973 Team Photo

Former UMass players involved in local Indoor Football

Four former UMass players are on the roster of the New England Surge a Contental Indoor Football League team.

Ricky Appiah WR/DB, Leroy Brooks WR/DB, Colin Stoetzel OL/DL and Kerry Taylor TE/DE are all on the Surge's roster.

We just published a roster of the 1971 UMass team. One of the stars of that team, Steve Schubert is managing partner of the Manchester Wolves Indoor Football Team.

UMass History 1971

A former UMass player Ed Hajdusek, who played for UMass 1971-'73, was kind enough to send us scans of some UMass historical material.

The following are scans of the 1971 team photo and the 1971 football roster. Right click and Blogger displays a larger view.

1971 was Dick MacPherson's first year as UMass coach. The 1971 UMass squad went 4-4-1 and 3-1-1 in the Yankee Conference. That was UMass' 7th Yankee Conference championship.

Special thanks to Ed for taking the time to provide us with these scans. I don't have any material earlier than 1976.

UMass History---1971 Team Photo

UMass History---1971 Football Roster

Two Spring Practice articles up

Matt Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette has an article here. Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has an article here.

Thomas states that Nick Diana has been moved from LG to Center. That leaves both guard spots open. I would speculate that Matt Austin will remain as LT and Sean Calicchio will return to the RT position.

Chris Hopkins, who filled in at RT for most of the year would probably fill one of the vacant guard spots. Vladimir Ducasse or Kevin Macon will probably fill the other guard spot.

Note that Matty Vautour states that there are only five starting spots in contention. I think Chris Pollard and Navy transfer Jeromy Miles are locks for the two safety positions (scroll down to yesterday's blog post for bio links on them).

The Gazette article states that Brown has high hope for newcomers Josh Jennings LB, Anthony Rouzier LB , Arron Fears WR and Shawn Allen DT.

Blogger troubles

I've been unable to post or update my previous post.

For the nth time, there is some info on Chad Arango here & here.

Spring Practice begins today!

Well, it's 20 degrees and we have 8 inches of snow cover this morning in New Hampshire, but I've been told the last storm was just a dusting in Western Mass.

For the last three months there has been a great disturbance in the force. Now with coach Brown again plotting blitz packages and UMass players back bigger and stronger, serenity has returned.

Spring Football is here.

As reported by Tom um 72, in the comments section of the previous blog, UMass has it's Spring Football Roster up.

Changes:

Additions:

• Chad Arango, LB
• Ben Coblyn, OL (we've blogged about him before)
• Andrew Kervis, DE (we've blogged about him before)
• Jeromy Miles DB (past blog entries)
• Chris Pollard DB (past blog entries)
• Sloan Russett RB (past blog entries)

Subtractions:

• Mike Thomas, DB
• Jon Carnes, OL
• Heath Heekin OL
• Carlos Feliciano OL
• Victor Cruz WR (sigh)
• Kyle C. Harrington DE

The UMass Football Blog hopes all UMass players stay healthy and have a great spring practice.

Two Coaches join UMass

We've blogged before about the return of Brian Crist to UMass. The UMass Website now has an expanded article about his rejoining UMass.

Also joining UMass is Jason Brooks, the son of UMass legend Clarence Brooks. He comes from Middle Tennessee State and will be an assistant defensive backs coach.

Second edition of Jason Hatchel's Blog

The second edition of Jason Hatchel's spring Blog is up. Read the CAA version as it has player blogs from a number of teams (Hatchel's blog is last).

Interestingly, he states something this blog believes-----that Matt Lawrence and Tony Nelson will have a substantial impact for the Minutemen. Can't wait to see them lugging the rock.

Whoa! The 2006 Highlight DVD is Available !

Buried in the clutter of the UMass Athletic Web site is notice that the 2006 Highlight DVD is now available.

I've seen this presentation twice and it's OUTSTANDING.

The DVD is done by NFL Films and the production values are great..

I sent for mine yesterday.

The UMass Football Blog encourages all UMass fans to buy a copy.

• All proceeds benefit UMass Football
• You'll own a piece of UMass' historic 2006 run
• It's practical. Pop it in to your DVD when you are exercising, crank up the volume and get motivated!

I've added a permanent link in the UMass links section.

Matt Dougherty lists Koegel as NFL Draft choice

Matt Dougherty has an article here about NFL draft possibilities from FCS/I-AA.

He lists Christian Koegel as one of the possibilities.

Good to see Koegel get some ink. Last year, the UMass offense was so good Koegel did not get the stats to make a number of All-American teams. However, Koegel has been a great punter all his career. He's effective. Hope he gets a draft chance.

UMass legend Doug Clark plays for Richmond AAA Club

We've blogged before about former UMass WR Doug Clark.

He was a double sport star at UMass and has been in professional baseball since graduation. He just missed a roster spot with the Atlanta Braves and has been assigned to their triple-A club in Richmond.

Two recent articles talk about him here and here.

Football Broadcasts win AP Awards

The UMass Athletic site has an article on the UMass Football broadcast team of Bob Behler and Matt Goldstein winning another Associated press award.

Kudos also to the student team of Marc Bertrand and Mike Walsh of WMUA for their broadcast of the UMass-UNH playoff game.

Something for the 2007 UMass Football Team's bulletin board

Motivation.
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Appalachian State players model their National Championship rings.
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Colgate's Spring Prospectus out

UMass' second opponent of 2007 has it's Spring Prospectus out.

They also have a feature I wish UMass would copy---- video of their 2007 recruiting class here .

The Raiders went 4-7 in 2006. That broke a string of ten consecutive years of winning records for Colgate.

UMass will be playing Colgate at Hamilton in '07. UMass has never won at Colgate's house.

• 1914 0-25 Colgate
• 1974 34-42 Colgate
• 2003 7-19 Colgate (I was there in the blizzard for that one)
• 2005 14-17 (I was there for that one too. Eight turnovers doomed UMass)
• 2007 ???
  

Andy McClay Remembers the Final Four

The Lehigh Valley Morning Call Online has an article about former UMass Punter Andy McClay's trip to the Final Four with John Calipari's 1998 UMass Basketball Team.

The image to the left is a scan from the 1998 UMass Football press guide.

McClay deserves to be remembered as more than a trivia question. He was a great player for UMass.

A 6-4 195 pd punter from Stroudsburg, PA, McClay still holds a number of UMass punting records.

• Season highest average per punt 43.3 (1998)
• Most punts in a game 13 (1996)
• Most Punts in a season 79 (1997)
• Career punts 288 (1995-98)
• Most punting yards career 11,278
• Most punting yards season 3,028

Hopefully, we won't have another 2-9 season anytime soon, so Andy's season punting records will be safe!