Thursday--July 23rd, 2015

I received the following information about the MAC Conference Media Day


2015 MAC FOOTBALL MEDIA DAY LIVE ON ESPN3;

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29 FROM FORD FIELD IN DETROIT

For Immediate Release—Monday, July 20, 2015

Cleveland, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference (MAC) will host its 2015 Football Media Day on Wednesday, July 29, from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, from Ford Field in Detroit.  The MAC Football Media Day kicks off the 2015 season, which officially begins on Thursday, Sept. 3, and will conclude with the 2015 Marathon MAC Football Championship Game on Friday, Dec. 4 from Ford Field.

Once again this year’s MAC Football Media Day will be show live on ESPN3 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm.  The ESPN3 production will highlight the league’s annual kickoff event as hosts Michael Reghi and Dustin Fox will visit with all MAC head coaches and several students throughout MAC Football Media Day.

Joining MAC Commissioner, Dr. Jon Steinbrecher for MAC Football Media Day will be head coaches from our member institutions and two students from each university.  Commissioner Steinbrecher will begin MAC Football Media Day and address the media at 11:00 am ET. All head coaches and students will be available to the media throughout the day.

In addition, the MAC will also have Michael Kelly, Chief Operating Officer of the College Football Playoff, and Bill Carollo, Coordinator of Football Officials for the Collegiate Officiating Consortium (MAC, Big Ten, Missouri Valley Conferences) as a participant in MAC Football Media Day.

Blake Frohnapfel and Jovan Santos-Knox will be the two UMass players who will accompany Coach Whipple to the Media Day.

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Dan Malone previews the UMass offensive line. One interesting player is former JUCO Ryan Johnson. He did not become eligible until after the season started last year. That meant he did not have summer camp. At 6-5 320 he was touted as a potential starter when he first signed. Johnson only has one year of eligibility left and it will be interesting to see if he cracks the starting lineup.

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Dan also has some comments on UMass AD Ryan Bamford's Twitter feed. Bamford says the Minutemen will play an FCS game every year. With a tough independent schedule coming up, a winnable FCS game will help.

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NFL.com has college football's 15 smartest players. The MAC is well represented.

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The Orlando Sentinel ranks Bowling Green as #36 in the nation, but says the Falcons' defense will have to mature quickly for Bowling Green to win the MAC championship.

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ESPN says Victor Cruz's return would make WR's a Giant strength.

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Wednesday--July 22nd, 2015

Dan Malone looks at the college football preview magazines and discovers the average prediction for UMass is fourth in the MAC East.

Dan also looks at the UMass defensive line as the Minutemen get near to Fall camp.

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Sports Chat Place previews the 2015 UMass Minutemen.

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Notre Dame-UMass game tickets are among the top-25 college football tickets in price.

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A Los Angles radio jock discusses Sun Belt expansion and says Richmond or Coastal Carolina would be a better choice than UMass.

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Hustle Belt ranks the leagues uniforms.

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Former UMass defensive coordinator Keith Dudzinski has been promoted to DC for the Terps.

Coach Dudzinski's Maryland bio.

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Hustle Belt continues its series about the MAC league's OOC opponents. This time is Stony Brook. Former UMass RB Stacey Bedell was 2nd team All-CAA for the Sea Wolves last year.

Bedell's Stony Brook bio.

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The Giants Blog "Big Blue" looks at how Jeromy Miles will fit into New York's defensive secondary.

NJ.com says Miles is a no risk signing for the Giants.

Big Blue also says Julian Talley is still hanging around.

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OT, but an ESPN writer looks at 2015 A10 hoops and thinks UMass is trending down.

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Tuesday--July 21st, 2015

Molly O'Mara named as Associate AD for Communications & Public Relations. She will be the primary contact for UMass football. For the last three seasons she functioned in that capacity for the University of Arizona and was the primary contact for Wildcat football.

Besides the obvious wins and losses, it seems to me that a league would look at a school's athletic dept structure to see if is comparable with what other league schools have. UMass AD Ryan Bamford is continuing to build a athletic dept that meets the needs of FBS football.

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UMass TE Todd Stafford was arrested Saturday for second degree breach-of-the-peace in Connecticut. Stafford was originally recruited by Coach Molnar as a QB and was switched to TE after Coach Whipple arrived. He did not appear on the two-deep last year.

Dan Malone has a story on Stafford's arrest.

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Dan Malone also has post on some uniform changes for the 2015 season.

As I have said numerous times, I like the all-whites for the road uniforms. The all-maroon is good too.

I dunno about the gray. I did not like the black helmets of the Molnar era. Black accent stripes on the helmets and uniforms are OK we did that back in FCS days.

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Max Moore of Hustle Belt has been previewing MAC OOC games. This time he does Florida International.

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Missouri HC Gary Pinkel says Notre Dame should not get an invite to the college football playoffs because they're not in a conference.

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The Sunbelt Conference tables any expansion exploration until after the 2015 season. Mentions UMass not being in their "geographic footprint". Idaho and New Mexico State are???

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Maddox Sports previews the 2015 Colorado Buffs.

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In yesterday's blog post I mentioned Boston College may have a tough time being bowl-eligible in 2015. Phil Steele released his bowl predictions and the Eagles aren't on it. Nor is UMass, for that matter.

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Monday--July 20th, 2015

The Buffalo blog "Bull Run" reviews last November's game against UMass and says "No Frohnapfel, No problem."

State College.com previews Buffalo.

Hustle Belt's "top-70 players in the MAC" features Bulls WR Ron Willoughby. He went 5-90 and had a 38 yard TD against the Minutemen in the November game featured above.

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Syracuse.com previews Ball State.

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The Orlando Sentinel previews Temple.

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Five Notre Dame Game Day traditions.

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The ACC conference is having its Media Days. The Boston College blog "BC Interruption looks at the Coastal Division story lines.

I was reading my preseason college football magazines over the weekend and contemplated Boston College. The Eagles may have a tough time being bowl-qualified this year. They play two FCS teams (Maine and Howard) and only one FCS win counts towards bowl eligibility. It probably doesn't help their season ticket sales either.

Probable BC losses include:

Florida State (consensis ACC champion)
@ Clemson
@ Louisville (BC lost last year at home 19-38)
Virginia Tech (Phil Steele's pick to win the Coastal Division)
Notre Dame (a Top-15 or better pick by the preseason magazines)

That means the Eagles need to win all five of their remaining games:

Northern Illinois (11-3 last year)
@ Duke (9-4 last year)
Wake Forest
NC State  (8-5 last year)
@ Syracuse

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CBS Sports as a post on "Five of the most disrespected teams in college football". Future UMass opponents BYU and Mississippi State make the list.

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Recruiting 2016--Jamari Jiles

Hudl.com image

Several recruiting services report UMass has offered to Jamari Jiles, a 6-1 230 pound  Weakside DE/LB from Delotna, FL

Jiles' Rivals page.

Hudl.com has video.

Jiles gets a mention in this article.

Besides UMass, Jiles has FBS offers from Idaho and UTSA as well as three FCS offers.

Saturday--July 18th, 2015

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MassLive has a short post about Josh Maurer filling in for Don Orsillo.

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Conference USA's new commissioner will have keep a close eye on media markets. Conference USA has a presence in high-growth markets in Florida, Texas and North Carolina, but also has Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee.

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A New Orleans newspaper previews Temple.

Temple's Jahad Thomas, a 5-10 180 pound all-purpose RB has been named to the Paul Hornung Award Watch list.

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A Georgia Blog previews Colorado.

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Notre Dame freshman NT Jerry Tillery looks to see some significant playing time in 2015. BTW, he's
6-7 300 pounds.

The Notre Dame blog "One foot down" previews Boston College.

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Ohio adds a graduate transfer from Michigan.

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Sports on Earth has the all-time best and worse college football teams.

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Friday--July 17th, 2015

Blake Frohnapfel has been named to the Davey O'Brien Award watch list.

The MAC Blog Hustle Belt has a post on Frohnapfel and Western Michigan's Zack Terrell being named to Davey O'Brien list.

Davey O'Brien Award home page.

Django Ellerhorn of the Hampshire Gazette has an article on Frohnapfel being named to the O'Brien Award Watch List.

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Hustle Belt also has a story about five MAC players being named to the Doak Walker Award (running backs) Watch List. No UMass players on that list.

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New Hampshire schedules FBS games against San Diego State and Colorado.

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Shaun Snee, a former UMass assistant strength coach has been hired by Wisconsin.

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NJ.com has a post about the Giants signing Jeromy Miles.

The Giants have a bio page on Miles up.

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Speaking of the Giants, NFL.com ranks Victor Cruz as one of the league's best slot receivers.

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Akron, Ball State and Colorado are included in Phil Steele's summer roster changes.

Steele also has a report on how turnovers affect a team's win-lose ratio. The Minutemen were -6 last year in turnovers.

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OT, but UMass is contending with Indiana among other schools for Bruce Brown, a Top-50 combo guard from Vermont Academy.

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Recruiting 2016--Douglas Tucker

Scout.com image

Several recruiting services report UMass has offered to Douglas Tucker, a 6-4 305 pound DL from Parish Episcopal School in Dallas, TX.

Rivals.com two-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

Partial quote from a 05/19/15 article on Tucker by Scout.com:


"The talent is clearly there. Tucker at one time was on the Scout Top 300 watch list -- before he missed his junior year due to injury. He starred as a defensive lineman on his sophomore tape. 

Now he has grown even more and his future may be on the defensive line, but he has a great wingspan and size to be a real difference maker as well on the offensive line in college. 

O-line may be the position he has the most ranking value, but 'Big Tuck' does not care about his future position. He just wants to play. 

"My biggest strengths are working hard with my teammates and being versatile too," Tucker informed. "I can play the offensive line or the defensive line."

Besides UMass, Tucker holds offers from Tulane, UTSA, North Texas and New Mexico.

Thursday--July 16th, 2015

One of the reasons I've liked UMass football over the years is the players. They're good kids and well spoken. The UMass Athletic Dept has sponsored a training session on how to present themselves. It'll serve them well in job interviews and life.

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Tajae Sharpe has been named to the Fred Biletnikoff Award Watch List. I think Sharpe will be the Minutemen's next NFL draft pick. He's been an FBS receiver since his freshman days. In Whipple's offense, Sharpe will give every team UMass plays this year matchup problems.

Biletnikoff Award home page.

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Blake Frohnapfel has been named to the Wuerffel Trophy Watch List. UMass website's story on Froh's nomination.

Wuerffel Trophy home page.

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Dan Malone has a story on Coach Whipple's reaction to Silento's "Watch me whip/Nae Nae".

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Image credit unknown

The NY Giants sign Jeromy Miles.

The official site of the Giants has five things you need to know about Jeromy Miles.

The Giants blog "Big Blue" also has a post on Jeromy Miles.

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Colorado DL Justin Solis is going to have to raise his game in 2015. Solis' Colorado bio.

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Recruiting 2016--Patrick Volcy

Image credit unknown

Several recruiting services indicate UMass has offered to Patrick Volcy, a 6-3 185 pound WR from Naples, FL.

This article from the News-Press features Volcy.

Volcy's Rivals.com page.

Hudl.com has video.

Besides UMass, Volcy has offers from Appalachian State, UConn and Western Illinois.

Ray Benoit

Special thanks to Jerry Gordon for alerting me about the passing of Ray Benoit.

Benoit's Republican obituary.

Ray Benoit played as a true freshman on UMass' 1978 National Championship team. He won letters in 1978, '79 and '81. He was first team All-Yankee conference at NT in 1979 and second team All-Yankee in 81.

RIP Ray.

Wednesday--July 15th, 2015

Jovan Santos-Knox gathered another pre-season accolade as he was named to the Rotary Lombardi Award Watch List. That's three watch lists for the 6-2 240 pound senior.

A CT newspaper mentions Jovan's award list.

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Blake Frohnapfel has been nominated to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. Froh has made an impact in many ways since his arrival in Amherst. It would be great if he led the Minutemen to their second ever bowl eligibility.

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The Irish Illustrated ranks the schedules of Notre Dame's 2015 opponents.

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The UConn blog says 2015 will be a bridge year for the Huskies.

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Phil Steele has a post on win-loss totals in-conference over the last 10 years. With five wins in three years, UMass would be at the bottom of the MAC for that period.

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The Buffalo student newspaper previews the Bulls Fall sports.

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Colorado's Mike MacIntyre says the Buffs were a JV team last year.

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Lincoln Field wants to raise Temple's rent to $3 million a year.

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Tuesday--July 14th, 2015

Randall Jette has been named to the Jim Thorpe Award Watch list.

Matty Vautour has a post about Jette.

A lot more pre-season honors for the Minutemen this year. Last year Phil Steele had four UMass players on his All-MAC team. This year ten. The Minutemen had no national award watch list players pre-2014. This year Tajae Sharpe, Matt Sparks, Jovan Santos-Knox and Randall Jette have made national watch lists.

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Hustle Belt reports four MAC DB's made the Jim Thorpe list.

John Calipari voted for the Bahamas Bowl Hail Mary as the play of the year for the ESPY's.

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Matty also reports Josh Maurer is excited to be broadcasting the Red Sox games on NESN after the All-Star break.

UMass radio announcers have done well recently. Rene Ingoglia went from the UMass football broadcasts to working for ESPN.

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SB Nation says the Colorado Buffs have been improving whether or not you've noticed.

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Phil Steele has a post on current win and loss streaks in college football.

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UMass tied MAC partner Miami (OHio) for 30th in a ranking of top public universities.

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The Notre Dame blog "One Foot Down" looks at the Irish's opponents and says UMass shows no signs of being a good MAC team.

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Vanderbilt tries to forget about the 2014 season.

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Former Florida A&M HC Rudy Hubbard (the guy who beat UMass in the 1978 FCS Championship game) has been nominated to the College Football Hall-of-fame.

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As long time blog readers know, I'm a life long amateur astronomer. Just about the time I'm wrapping up this post, the New Horizons spacecraft will be making it's closest approach to Pluto. I've got NASA TV playing in the background. If you're looking for a good summer read, try Percival's Planet, a fictionalized story of the discovery of the planet Pluto. When I went to the double star meeting last September at Lowell Observatory, I handled the controls to the telescope Clyde Tombaugh used to discover Pluto.

I am old enough to have been around during the start of the Space Age. it's sobering to realize that no one alive on this planet will ever witness another first time planetary fly-by.

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Monday--July 13th, 2015

It's a slow news day on the internet so let's look at the seniors on the 2015 offense's two deep squad.

QB

Blake Fronapfel

FB

Rodney Mills
Matt Tuleja

TB

Jamal Wilson

WR

Jalen Williams
Tajae Sharpe
Marken Michel
(Bernard Davis and Elgin Long will also be seniors in 2015)

LT

None

LG

None

C

Matt Sparks
Josh Bruns

RG

None

RT

Ryan Johnson

UMass should be if fairly good shape in 2016 at tailback and offensive line. The Minutemen will have a new center to go along with a completely new passing game.

QB will be totally open in 2016 and at least four slots in the wide receiver two deep.

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Sports Illustrated looks at Big 12 expansion candidates. If the Big 12 poaches one or more AAC teams, that could open a slot for the Minutemen.

WVU Sports says the college football landscape is sure to keep changing.

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A UCLA blog previews the Colorado Buffs.

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The Sports Chat place previews the 2015 Temple Owls. They think Temple wins the AAC and gets double-digit wins for the second time in program history.

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The Notre Dame blog "One foot down" previews new Irish QB Malik Zaire. His Norte Dame bio.

The entire Norte Dame roster is here. Be sure to check out Brian Kelly's 34 member staff.

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Football Scoop has a college football recruiting letter-----from 1919.

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Recruiting 2015--Marshall Robinson

A big thanks to a blog reader who sent me this update on 2015 UMass recruit Marshall Robinson.

Twitter reports Robinson has signed with Lacawanna CC.

Robinson, a 6-4 330 pound DT was announced as part of the Minutemen's February signing class.

The Lacawanna Falcons website.

Recruiting 2016--Tyshaun Ingram

Hudl.com image

Several recruiting services report UMass is interested in Tyshaun Ingram, a 6-1 185 pound RB from Winter Park, FL.

Partial quote from a Scout.com article dated last Tuesday:

"I've heard a lot from UMASS, USF, Middle Tennessee and South Carolina lately," Ingram said to the BisonReport. "None of those have offered yet, but UMASS is really interested, USF wants to do some work with me in person and so does South Carolina and Middle Tennessee. They really like me too. I've camped at Rutgers, FAMU and I plan on camping at South Carolina and also Auburn. I have offers right now from Bowling Green, Georgia State, NDSU, FAMU and Bethune Cookman."

MaxPreps has stats.

Hudl.com has video.

Saturday--July 11th, 2015

More preseason honors for Matt Sparks and Jovan Santos-Knox. Sparks has been named to the Outland Trophy Watch List and Santos-Knox to the Bronko Nagurski Award Watch List.

NFL.com has info on the Outland Trophy Watch List.

NFL.com also has a post on the Nagurski Trophy Award Watch List.

Matty Vautour has a story about Sparks and Santos-Knox.

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Josh Maurer, the voice of UMass football and basketball will fill in for Red Sox play-by-play man Don Orsillo for a week following the All-Star break. Looking forward to listening to Josh on the NESN broadcasts.

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Central Michigan loses a DB.

Former CAA conference-mate Albany will play Buffalo this year. If Buffalo is going to play an FCS team, and the Bulls played two last year, Albany should be at the top of the list.

Nick Saban has been named to the Kent State Hall-of-Fame.

Syracuse.com previews Akron.

A NFL.com writer picks Toledo to win the MAC in 2015.

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CBS Sports says Victor Cruz thinks he will be ready for training camp.

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The Lions Blog "Pride of Detroit" looks at the team's safeties including James Ihedigbo.

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Friday--July 10th, 2015

Patrick Breen image

The UMass website has a video featuring Jordan Hamilton, a DB from Paradise Valley, AZ.

Hamilton's UMass bio.

Rival's two-star player in 2013.

Besides Air Force, Hamilton drew interest from Arizona, Arizona State and Northern Arizona.

With five seniors possibly in the Minutemen's 2015 two-deep secondary, Hamilton will a contender to start next year. He and UAB transfer Kelton Brackett should help this year's depth.

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Jesse Allen of Hustle Belt looks at the MAC conference's top running backs for 2015.

Hustle Belt also looks at the seven league centers who were named to the Rimington Award Watch list.

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A Hawaii football blog previews Colorado.

Buffs HC Mike MacIntyre wants vocal captains for Colorado.

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Notre Dame single game tickets go on sale.

A Bleacher Report writer looks at the Irish's strengths and weaknesses.

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Syracuse.com previews Florida International.

The Orlando Sentinel previews the Florida International Panthers.

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Philly.com reports Temple football players are receiving preseason accolades.

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Thursday--July 9th, 2015

Hey everyone. Last night the UMass Football Blog went over 2 million page views. Somebody out there is interested in UMass football. A couple of years ago I said I'd do the blog until I hit the 2 million mark. I've been running the blog continuously since 2005, that's like forever in internet time.

However, I'm still having fun with the blog, Coach Whipple has us on the upswing and we're playing some interesting games in the next few years.

Let's shoot for three million.

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Matt Sparks has been picked for the Rimington Trophy Watch list. He had previously been picked in May for the same award.

Sparks, BTW was listed as 280 in the last UMass two-deep press release in November of last year, is listed at 300 in the latest roster.

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Minutemen A.D. Ryan Bamford continues to build his team as Rob Peterson has been appointed Associate Director of Athletics for Finance and Administration.

I really like UMass having professionals at the helm in athletics. That was not the case for decades in the past.

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The Notre Dame blog "Blue & Gold" looks at the Irish's history with the state of Massachusetts. Some impressive players from the Bay State have played for Notre Dame.

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A Bleacher Report writer picks UMass as the MAC's surprise team in 2015.

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Colorado sells out their rooftop terrace passes for the 2015 season.

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Former UMass great John D'Amato has named to the "Mt Rushmore" of Monsignor Farrell High School athletics.

D'Amato lettered for UMass in 1976, '77 and '78. He was first team All-Yankee Conference as a DE in 1977 and 1978. The Minutemen were Yankee Conference champions in 1977 and 1978. UMass went the FCS National Championship in 1978.

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USA Today looks at new Buffalo HC Lance Leipold.

Sporting News looks at Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck.

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Wednesday--July 8th, 2015

The UMass website has a story about Jovan Santos-Knox being named to the Chuck Bednarik Award Watch list. That's the National Defensive player-of-the-Year folks.

Jovan's totals for 2014 were 12-12 GP-GS 53 UT 90 AT 143 TT 8.5-30 TFL 2.0-17 SACKS 6 BU 6 PD 3 FF.

Santos-Knox broke Kole Ayi's single season TT 1998 record (15 games) of 140.5.

Matty Vautour has a post about Santos-Knox.

Alex Alvarado mentions Jovan is the only MAC player on the Bednarik Award Watch list.

Dan Malone also has a story about Santos-Knox.

The return of Shane Huber should give the Minutemen one of the better inside linebacker tandems in the MAC. If Kassan Messiah can stay healthy, he and Trey Seals should be effective at OLB. Since our move to FBS, the defense has had a bend-but-don't-break mode of operation. Maybe in 2015 the defense start to be a force.

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The Irish Illustrated continues its opponent previews, this time special teams.

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The Star-Press has Ball State vs the preview magazines. Mentions "possibly rising UMass".

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Football Scoop talks about Chip Kelly's offenses while at New Hampshire.

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Victor Cruz inspires IMG Academy players.

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2015 college football conference changes are effective as of July 1st.

The Examiner looks at the future of the AAC and mentions UMass.

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The Las Vegas Review-Journal says Group of Five conference teams need to make a splash in college football this year.

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