Recruiting 2016--Frank Darby III

I've blogged about Frank Darby, a 6-1 190 pound WR from Lincoln, NJ a couple of times before.

This article from yesterday by NJ.com talks about his performance at a Rutgers skills camp.

Darby has offers from UMass, Pitt, Old Dominion, Iowa and Delaware.

Friday--June 12th, 2015

I've linked to Phil Steele's % of tackles returning, % of offensive yards returning and % of lettermen returning.

Today I thought I'd take a look at MAC returning starters. Figures from the Athlon Sports 2015 College Football magazine

Offense:

3 Miami (Ohio)
4 Akron, Toledo
5 Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan
6 Buffalo, Northern Illinois
7 Kent State
9 UMass, Ohio, Western Michigan
10 Bowling Green, Ball State

Note on UMass: the Minutemen return 10 starters from the end of season two-deep, if you consider Shadrach Abrokah as the starter. I would consider the TB position as the top up-for-grabs position in Summer camp. Whipple could keep Rodney Mills as H-Back or move him to TE. I think he'll do the former unless he thinks there is really no production available from other candidates for TE. Back while I was away, Dan Malone's report on the Spring Game said Lorenzo Woodley's stock was up and TE's were down.

Defense:

3 Buffalo
5 Bowling Green, Central Michigan
6 Akron (five Power Five transfers coming in)
7 Kent State, Western Michigan, Ohio, Ball State, Eastern Michigan
8 Miami (Ohio) Northern Illinois, Toledo
9 UMass

Bonus:

Colorado 6 Offense-9 defense
Florida International 6 offense-8 defense
Temple 7 offense-10 defense
Notre Dame 7 offense 10 defense

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The Mississippi State Blog "For whom the cowbell Tolls" says the Bulldog's series with UMass makes sense.

BTW, I haven't mentioned that Mississippi State fans are the only fans with a dispensation making ringing cowbells legal.

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The CT Post says Syracuse or BC should be UConn's big rivals.

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This article about Chip Kelly mentions former UMass assistant coach Bill McGovern (1987-90, 1992-93) and UMass.

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Football Schedules has a downloadable .pdf MAC helmet schedule here.

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Thursday--June 11th, 2015

Start times for the Minutemen's home games vs Temple and Kent State have been announced.

Temple's announcement.

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Complete MAC Conference TV schedule through September 19th.

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Athlon Sports ranks Mark Whipple #93 among all 128 FBS coaches.

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The Boston College blog "BC Interruption" envies UMass' Mississippi State game.

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NBC Sports looks at the over-and-under odds for PAC-12 teams including Colorado.

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Fan Sided.com previews Toledo and predicts a nine win season for the Rockets.

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Phil Steele has UMass, Temple and Notre Dame in the top ten of all FBS in % of tackles returning for 2015.

The Minutemen lost only NG Daniel Maynes (44 TT), Leo Krizanovic (15 TT)  and ILB StanleyAndre  (128 TT)  from the November 2014 two Deep chart.

Returning in the two-deep are:

DE Peter Angeh Jr 6-2 258
Enock Asante Jr 6-2 264

NT Robert Kitching SR 6-1 307

DT Sha-Ki Holines RSSO 6-3 260

ILB Shane Huber SO 6-3 250
Vondel Langston RSJR 6-2 220

ILB Jovan Santos-Knox JR 6-2 240
Steve Casali RSSO 6-2 234

OLB Da'Sean Downey SO 6-5 234
John Robinson Woodgett RSJR 6-2 228

OLB Trey Seals RSSR 6-4 237
Peter Ngobidi JR 6-2 221
Kessan Messiah SR 6-4 237

CB Randall Jette RSSR 5-11 180

SS Joey Colton SR 5-10 195

FS Khary Bailey-Smith SR 6-2 194
Zeke Edmonds SO 6-0 200

CB Trey Dudley-Giles SR 5-11 182
Jackson Porter RSSO 6-1 192

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NBC Sports report some people think Notre Dame is a College Football Playoff contender.

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Akron offers to a kid in junior high.

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Wednesday--June 10th, 2015

The UMass website has a story on the football team returning to campus for summer school and summer workouts. Lots of quotes from Whipple and Frohnapfel.

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Dan Malone has a story and some quotes from Whipple about the upcomming season.

Whipple was asked on the Jack Arute show about his take on deflategate.

Malone also has details on the MAC bowl tie-ins for 2015.

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Matty V. reports AP does not project UMass in a bowl for 2015.

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UMass recruit Andy Isabella won 100 and 200 in a regional Ohio track meet. His 10.51 in the 100 broke the local record.

More here with quotes from Isabella.

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A Georgia Tech blog has a long interview with Ryan Bamford. Includes a paragraph about UMass' conference search.

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Akron's defense in 2015 will feature five Power Five transfers.

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Phil Steele has UMass #13 in percent of returning offensive yards.

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OT, but UMass hoops signed three-star guard Unique McLean.

Partial quote from an article on Scout.com dated yesterday:


About UMass, McLean said, “When I went on the visit Coach Kellogg and Coach Allison made me feel right at home, and I think the Atlantic 10 is the perfect conference for me.”

This is a commitment that should get the Minutemen going in the class of 2016 as not many guards will be headed to the Atlantic 10 with his combination of size and athleticism.

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Recruiting 2017--Carter Warren

Sam Hellman image

NJ.com reports UMass is recruiting Carter Warren a 6-7 285 pound OT from Passaic, NJ.

NJ.com article here.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Warren holds an offer from Rutgers. Besides UMass, drawing interest from Boston College, Penn State, Michigan and Virginia Tech.

Tuesday--June 9th, 2015

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Dan Malone has a post about the Mississippi State game with quotes from the Bulldogs AD and from coach Whipple.

The Mississippi Clarion-Ledger has some details of the contract.

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Dan also has a story on MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher getting a three year extension of his contract. Has quotes about UMass football.

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Matty Vautour reports on UMass making the Mississippi game official.

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Football Scoop's Zack Barnett doesn't like UConn's new rivalry game or the UMass-Mississippi State series. UConn should have  checked with UCF before announcing the trophy, but OTOH, I often wonder why schools do not snap up sports writers to be their A.D.  :)

The University Herald says the rivalry game between UConn and UCF is going one with or without UCF's consent.

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Jesse Allen of Hustle Belt thinks Blake Frohnapfel is the 6th best QB in the MAC. No Jesse, just no.

P.J.Fleck's 2016 recruiting class is currently ranked #28 in the nation.

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Fox Sports says 2015 might be Notre Dame's best shot at the college playoffs.

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The Orlando Sentinel says the Temple Owls are making steady progress.

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Recruiting 2016--Adian Howard III

I've blogged about Aidan Howard twice before.

The 6-3 185 pound WR from Monroeville, PA recently verbaled to Virginia.

Monday--June 8th, 2015

UPDATE II: UMass officially announces the series with Mississippi State.

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UPDATE: Dan Malone has a post on the Bulldog game.

Matty Vautour reports the Minutemen will host Mississippi State on September 24th, 2016. Wow! The Bulldogs were rated #1 in the country for five straight weeks in 2014. At least we won't have to face Dak
Prescott who rang up 4,435 yards of offense in 2014 (he's a senior).

Sporting News has Mississippi State as 6th in the SEC West in 2015. Athlon has them 7th.

Fox Sports has a post about the game.

All this came about when Tulane canceled it's game against the Bulldogs.

Bulldog HC Dan Mullen looks to continue to build Mississippi State's success.

Mississippi State's 2015 schedule.

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AAC commissioner Mike Aresco is still working to get the league into the Power Five group.

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Three Notre Dame players have been named preseason All-Americans.

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Recruiting 2016---DeAndre Huff

Hudl.com image

Several recruiting services report UMass has offered to DeAndre Huff, a 6-0 185 pound WR from Covington, GA.

247 Sports three-star player.

MaxPreps has stats.

Besides UMass, Huff has FBS offers from Minnesota, Rutgers, Indiana, Charlotte and Georgia State.

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Saturday--June 6th, 2014

I can's get this to link on Ryan Bamford's Twitter feed, but he said:

"Tulane on our schedule. Still have 2 more home games to go but we're close. Stay tuned!"

So the wheels are still turning on the 2016 schedule.

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The 2016 College Football Hall-of-Fame ballot features two Minutemen, Steve Schubert and Rene Ingoglia.

More on the 2016 ballot from the National Football Foundation.

I saw both play. Steve Schubert was untouchable in UMass' 28-7 win over Boston College in 1972. Ingoglia had the best run I ever saw at McGuirk.

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Phil Steele report UMass will be second in the nation in % of lettermen returning in 2015.

NBC Sport has some thoughts about Steele's post.

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The Scout Notre Dame blog "Irish Illustrated" expects a 27 point win over UMass and says the Minutemen are the least talented, least capable 2016 opponent.

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A Fox Sports article names the top five underated teams in 2015 college football: Notre Dame and Temple are two of the five.

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While I was away, ESPN published this preview of Temple.

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The Hartford Courant says Steve Addazio has turned Boston College football around.

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Friday---June 5th, 2015

UMass announces a home and home series with Tulane and Louisiana Tech.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports on the series. Dan Malone also has a post on the announcement.

Matty V. has a report on the additions to the schedule.

Tulane went 3-9 in the AAC last year with wins over SE Louisiana, UConn (yeah!) and Houston. Athlon predicts the Green Wave 5th in the AAC West this year. Sporting News also predicts a 5th place finish.

The Orlando Sentinel previews Tulane as #108 in 2015.

So the 2016 schedule now looks like:


2016 UMass Football Updated Schedule:

Sept. 3 - at Florida
Sept. 10 - Connecticut
Sept. 17 - at Boston College
Oct. 1 - Tulane
Oct. 8 - at Old Dominion
Oct. 15 - Louisiana Tech
Oct. 29 - at Appalachian State
Nov. 5 - at Troy
Nov. 19 - at BYU
Nov. 26 - at Hawaii

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The Minutemen now have three home games for 2016. NCAA regulations require at least five. UMass
will probably add an FCS team to make it to four. If the Minutemen can sign another FBS team, we will end up playing four games in Gillette and one at McGuirk.

So, assuming UMass can scout up the necessary FBS game, why not play two FCS teams in 2016? That would allow a three and three split between Gillette and Amherst. Note that Boston College will play home games against Maine and Howard this year. A home schedule of UConn, Tulane, Louisiana Tech and another FBS team would still be an excellent home schedule for UMass fans. There would be more name recognition than MAC schools.

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Tulane has one player from Massachusetts: Aaron Golub.

Golub is legally blind. Sports Illustrated has an inspiring story on his success in football.

A quartet of four-star recruits took a visit to Tulane.

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Athlon Sports has the best young college football coaches among them are Matt Campbell (Toledo), P.J. Fleck (Western Michigan) and Neal Brown (Troy).

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Victor Cruz will have his own brand of sneakers this year: Air Cruz

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Recruiting 2016--Elias Reynolds and Mason Moran

Two players with UMass offers verbaled to other schools recently.

I've blogged about Mason Moran before. He verbaled to Oregon State.

Elias Reynolds, a three-star LB from Brooklyn who held a UMass offer verbaled to Rutgers.

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Thursday--June 4th, 2015

From the UMass football feed

Good work doing 120 pound dumbbell presses. Before I went on vacation I was doing 60 X 5, 65 X 5 and my last set was 70 X 5 at 173 pound body weight. After a month off, entropy has set in :)

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CBS Sport and the MAC have reached a multi-year TV agreement.

Dan Malone comments.

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Brandon London announces his retirement from football.

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UMass has a Father's Day special on football tickets.

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In 2016, Boston College and Georgia Tech will play at Aviva Stadium in Ireland on Spetember 3rd.

Speaking of BC, their top returning receiver, Dan Crimmins, has left the team.

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BYU Blog "Vanquish the Foe" talks about the 2016 season and says UMass will suck.

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NBC Sports says with media rights contracts on the horizon, Conference USA needs a big year.

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Wednesday--June 3rd, 2015

Dan Malone reports Jean Sifrin was waved by the Colts. That's a shocker; I expected Sifrin to make a strong run at making an NFL roster. Hope he gets picked up by a team with more patience.

Colt Blog "Horseshoe Heroes" blog has more.

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College Football Talk has: former UAB players react to the Blazers bringing back football. Mentions Kelton Brackett.

The Kansas City Star says now UAB has to start rebuilding their program.

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Frederickson.com mentions Blake Frohnapfel's first team preseason All-Mac Selection by Phil Steele.

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More 2016 schedule gymnastics: try to keep up. Southern Mississippi scheduled a home-and-home series with Kentucky. That means their October meeting with BYU has to be moved. Which may then lead to the UMass game at Provo being moved to another date.

You remember BYU and UMass announced a series that would have UMass play @ BYU on October  8th, 2016. Other than the 10/08/16 date, the Minutemen have four open 2016 dates.

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I don't often agree with the Boston College blog "BC Interruption", but they pour scorn on UConn for establishing a new Trophy Game with UCF. They say "Why not UMass?".

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The College Football Play is considering a work-around for Army-Navy.

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Tuesday--June 2nd, 2015

Phil Steele names ten Minutemen to his preseason All-Mac Teams.

Dan Malone has an article on Steele's selections. Both articles only list the UMass selections; Phil Steele's website has all the MAC honorees.

The UMass players are:


QB Blake Frohnapfel,SR (first team)
WR Tajae Sharpe,SR (first)
TE Rodney Mills,SR (first)
LB Jovan Santos-Knox,SR (first)
CB Randall Jette,SR (first)
CB Trey Dudley-Giles,SR (third)
KR Khary Bailey-Smith,SR (third)
RB Shadrach Abrokwah,JR (fourth)
OL Tyrell Smith,JR (fourth)
LB Kassan Messiah,Sr (fourth)

As Dan notes, nine of the ten players were recruited by Coach Molnar. Despite all that went wrong with his tenure at UMass, the man could recruit.

In addition, I think Shane Huber SO and Marken Michel SR and Sha-Ki Holines  SO have a chance to make this year's All-MAC team.

Hustle Belt also has a post on Phil Steele's All-MAC team. UMass ties for fourth in the MAC in total number of selected players.

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The UMass website reports the Minutemen-Buffs game has its kickoff time set and the game will be carried on the PAC-12 Network. UMass fans should be able to watch the game on either Comcast or Dish Network.

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In a stunning turn of events, UAB is going to reinstate football. Dan Malone says Kelton Brackett is still coming to UMass. Tough that Brackett will not be able to play again with his teammates, but as a senior, his options are severely limited. He should be a significant addition to the UMass secondary this year. Brackett's UAB bio.

Matty Vautour also has a post on Brackett.

ESPN has more on UAB's move to reinstate football.

UDA Today says UAB is back all the team's momentum from 2014 is dead.

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College football matrix has UMass tied for 8th in the nation in returning starters.

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The Irish blog "Slap the sign" previews Notre Dame's season including UMass. Clearly I did not spend enough time on considering the name of the UMass Football Blog when I started it.

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UMass plays at Ball State on November 12th, the Cardinals have a new field surface this year.

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Recruiting 2016--Thomas Geddis

Image credit unknown

Several recruiting services report UMass has offered to Thomas Geddis, 6-3 175 pound WR from Pompano Beach, FL.

247Sports two-star athlete.

Hudl.com has video.

Partial quote from a 05/22 article on Geddis:


“From last year to this year I’ve improved all around,” said Geddis, who. “I’ve improved in my speed, my route combinations (hitch, go's, cutbacks), footwork and work off the line. Everything improved very good to this year.

That has turned Geddis from an underrated recruit to one slowly starting to accumulate some impressive offers. Accumulating over 10 scholarship offers, including a power five offers from Cincinnati, Geddis got arguably his biggest offer Thursday night from Wisconsin.

Geddis holds 13 offers including Toledo and Ohio from the MAC.

June 1st, 2015

Mississippi State is looking for a 2016 opponent to play in  Starkville. ESPN is supposedly helping to find a non-Power Five opponent. Could it be UMass? The Minutemen already have a tough 2016 schedule. OTOH, Mississippi State should provide a highly lucrative contract.

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Football.com looks at Ball State's head coach Pete Lembo and wonders if 2015 will be the year he gets a call from a Power 5 team. The Minutemen play at Ball State on October 31st.

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A Bleacher Report writer names UMass as the MAC's potential "Sleeper" team.

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The Buffalo News looks at how the University of Buffalo and other schools will adjust to the additional financial drain of full-cost-of-attendance.

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Like UMass, the Colorado Buffs have no 2016 verbals as yet.

The Buffs are spending $165 million on a facilities upgrade.

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Tajae Sharpe get an "honorable mention" in this college WR ranking. Hopefully, after a full year catching passes from Blake Frohnapfel, he'll be one of the top names in all of college football.

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iSportsweb.com previews Notre Dame's defensive line.

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In this article from May 7th, Temple HC Matt Rhule says there's no reason why the Owls can't compete for the AAC chanpionship. Warning loud auto-run commercial.

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The Giants Blog "Big Blue" wonders what New York will get from Victor Cruz.

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Recruiting 2016--Kee Whetzel II

Image credit above

I've blogged about Kee Whetzel, a 6-3 195 pound WT/DB from Clearwater, FL before.

Partial quote from a Scout.com article dated May 25th.

"It started off pretty slow, but it's starting to pick up now," Whetzel said. "I have offers from South Alabama, Toledo, South Florida, Louisville, Indiana, UMass and Alcorn State. I'm definitely expecting to get some more and I've been talking to a lot of coaches lately."

While he causes matchup problems on the perimeter at wide receiver, a number of Whetzel's suitors covet his explosiveness and ability to wreck havoc and chase down the quarterback. The rising senior has an impressive motor and shows good change of direction as well.

247Sports two-star receiver.

MaxPreps has stats.

Recruiting 2016-- Michael Dwumfour II

Toderick Hunt image

I've blogged about Michael Dwumfour, a 6-2 285 pound DT from Wayne, NJ before.

In this article from yesterday, NJ.com updates his recruiting.

Besides UMass, Dwumfour now has offers from Boston College, Iowa, Wake Forest, Temple, Florida Atlantic and Army.

Saturday--May 30th, 2015

2015 Poster

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Victor Cruz is a "hometown hero" to Patterson, NJ kids.

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This Scout.com story on Pac-12 team 2015 schedules lists Nichols State as Colorado's biggest "trap" opponent.

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Hustle Belt looks at which MAC schools would have a shot at landing Florida State transfer QB John Franklin.

A Ohio State blog looks at NIU and wonders how long the Huskies can keep it going.

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Why when it comes to college sports, it's football and everything else. SEC banks a half a billion dollars.

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