Fifty Days until football and #50

Joining UMass this year and wearing #50 will be Josh Samuda a true freshman from Hollywood, FL. Samuda is a 6-4 300 pd OL.

Welcome to UMass, Josh! Hope 2007 is the beginning of a great career in UMass' offensive line.

Fifty-One days until football and #51

Wearing #51 for the Maroon & White in 2007 will be Shaun Allen a 6-3 250 pd DL from Temple Hills MD.

Allen had a redshirt year in 2006 after joining the Minutemen from Dean College.

Welcome to UMass Shaun! Hope 2007 is the start of an excellent career with UMass.

Fifty-Two days and #52

Wearing #52 for the Minutemen this year will be Anthony Rouzier a 6-0 222 pd RS Sophomore from Amherst, MA.

Rouzier sat out 2006 with a medical redshirt. He started for UConn as a true freshman in 2005.

Welcome home Anthony! Hope 2007 is a start on a great career with UMass!

53 Days and #53

Catching up with the days and player countdown is #53, Cesar Rosario a 6-2 220 pd Senior from Paterson, NJ.

In 2006 Rosario played in 14 games and rang up 15 UT 10 AT 25 TT 1 BK 1 TFL.

Cesar, hope you have a great senior year!

UMass Football Blog on Vacation 07/08/07 to 07/15/07

The UMass Football Blog will be on vacation for the week of 07/08/08 to 07/15/07.

Mrs. Blog and I will be in the great American Southwest for a week. I will resume publishing next Sunday.

I was only able to get ahead a couple of days on the player countdown. I'll catch up on the count when I get back. In the meantime feel free to browse the more than 1,400 previous posts.

Only fifty-four days until football and #54

Fifty-four days until football.

Wearing #54 for UMass this year will be Darnel DeLaire a 6-2 232 pd DL from Bloomfield, CT. He will be a RS Junior this year.

In 2006 he played in 11 games. Had 5 UT 7 AT 12 TT 2.5-10 TFL 0.5 -3 Sacks.

Darnel, hope you have an excellent year this year!

Fifty-Five days until football

Only fifty five days until football.

Wearing #55 for the Maroon & White is Andy Resende-Gomes 5-11 215 pd LB from Brockton, MA. He will be a RS Junior this year.

Resende-Gomes played in 13 games last year and had 1 UT 2 AT 3 TT. Wore #91 last year.

Andy, hope you have a great junior year!

Fifty-Six day until the 2006 season opens and #56

Only fifty six days until Holy Cross.

Wearing #56 for the Maroon & White is Brandon Collier a 6-1 260 pd DT from Hudson, Ohio. He's RS sophomore.

Collier played in all 15 games in 2006, starting in 10 of them. He had 15 UT 37 AT 52 TT 5.0-23 TFL 3.0-19 sacks and 1 FR.

Brandon, great work in 2006. Hope you have a great year in '07

Article about Tom Cullen

The Medford Daily News has an article about former UMass coach Tom Cullen.

He coached DL for UMass in 1991.

He also coached a Amherst High School and Amherst College.

UPDATE: Take time to read the comments on this post. Great UMass football story by Drew Comeau, who played some serious LB for the Minutemen in the late 80's. I have the UMass press guide and two game programs from 1989, but no image of Drew to scan. The 1989 Press Guide was the first UMass Guide to go to the large format, but it was still pretty minimal. Prior to '89 the UMass Press Guides were the size of a standard size letter envelope with no pictures and about 50 pages...

Fifty-Seven days until football and #57

Fifty Seven Days until the 2007 season starts.

Wearing #57 for UMass is Chad Arango a 6-0 225 pd LB from Voorhees, NJ. He's a RS Freshman this year. He was All-Conferenc and All-Group in high school,

Arango is a walk-on player who was on the scout team last year.

Chad, hope you have a great career with the Minutemen!

Some New England football gossip

The New Haven Register has a UConn-centric Blog containing some news that tangentially effects UMass.

In the blog (scroll down) it has two stories about Brandon McLean who was dismissed by UConn for academics. He also has some off-the-field problems. The story describes him as "humble and soft spoken". The blog indicates he is interested in eventually transferring to UMass. Maybe some the former UConn players on the UMass squad put in a good word for him.

Notice also a story on how UConn screwed up the recruiting of Terrell Wilks, who ended up signing with CAA foe Villanova.

Listorti named Pre-Season All-American by Street & Smith

The annual football magazine Street & Smith has named UMass' Brad Listorti as a Pre-Season All-American.

Listorti, a 6-4 255 pd Senior was a major force in UMass' run to the National Championship game last year.

He went 38-604 15.9 yds/catch 3 TD 44 Long 40.3 yards/game.

Listorti is certainly the top TE in the CAA and one of the top players in FCS/I-AA. Hope he has an NFL-caliber senior year.

Thorr Bjorn finalist for Rhode Island AD job

UMass Senior Associate Athletic Director Thorr Bjorn is a finalist for the open Rhode Island Athletic Director job.

The Providence Journal article has some interesting information. It states that UMass' sponsorship and marketing income has risen to $1.1 million last year.

The big three are football, basketball and hockey. All seem to be in good hands. Hope this trend continues and UMass continues to push marketing and sponsorships.

Fifty Eight days until football and #58

Only fifty-Eight days until football! Wearing # 58 for UMass this year is Jason Grochowalski, a 6-1 200 pd LB from South Hadley, MA.

Grochowalski appeared in one game in 2006. He's a RS Junior this year.

Jason, thanks of all your good work for the program. Hope you have a great junior year.

Happy Fourth of July

Everyone have a safe and happy Fourth of July. Happy Birthday America!

Just think. If it weren't for the USA, there would not be football and the world would be a poorer place for it.

New UMass Football Web Page opens!

Boy, I can remember the old days when it was off season; I would morosely leaf through the previous years game programs and wonder "What's happening with the program".

It is truly great to have the amount of information available today.

And it just got better for UMass fans. UMass1863 has opened a new UMass football webpage! It's here .

He's got a lot of material including some that would be very difficult to implement on my blog. He's working on interactive depth charts and red-shirt charts. Lots of UMass football info and I expect more in the future.

I've added him to my permenent links in the side bar and will be checking his site frequently!

Sixty days until the 2007 season starts and #60

Only sixty days until we meet Holy Cross! Wearing #60 again this year for the Maroon & White is Nick Diana a 6-3 300 pd OL from North Bellmore, NY.

Diana played in all 15 games last year and made 14 starts. He has already been picked to some pre-season All-Star teams.

Nick, thanks for all your good work in '06 and hope you have a great senior year!

Sixty-one days until footall and #61

I screwed up the sequence of days yesterday and missed #61, which is being worn by RS Freshman John Ilhne. He's a 6-5 255 pd TE from Wayne Hills, NJ.

He earned numerous honors in high school including First Team All-State in his group.

Welcome to UMass, John! Hope you have a great career with the Minutemen!

Phil Steele's CAA review for free!

Adam Nettina the publisher of one of the top football blogs in the nation Pitch Right , e-mailed me that he had noticed Phil Steele has a five page excerpt covering the CAA from his 2007 magazine available online. That's five pages of densely packed CAA information. It'll keep you reading for an hour. I've already printed out my copy.

It's here (pdf)

Note that Phil Steele picks UMass 1st in the CAA North. He also picks Listorti, Austin, Diana, Burris, Hatchell and Smalls as 1st team all CAA. He picks Walker and Koepplin as 2nd team.

The UMass football Blog also encourages all readers to check on Adam's Navy football Blog "Pitch Right". It's one of the best written sports blogs in the nation and I visit it regularly. Thanks for tip Adam!

Sixty-two Days to football and #61

Only sixty-two days until Football!

Wearing #62 for UMass this year will be Freshman recruit Tim Nolan, a 6-4 300 pd OL from Jackson, NJ.

Nolan had mutiple honors in High School including First Team All-State in his school's group.

Welcome to UMass Tim! Hope 2007 is the start of a great career with the Minutemen.