Recruiting 2017--Michael Curtis and Jaylen Larry verbal to UMass

UMass picked up two more verbals yesterday to bring the Minutemen's total to 7 plus three grayshirts.

JUCO QB Mike Curtis verbaled yesterday. I blogged about Curtis last Saturday.

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New to the blog is Jaylen Larry, a 6-4 290 pound OL from Milford Academy.

Larry's 247Sports page here.

Twice Milford's offensive-player-of-the game. Not many linemen get that award.

Rivals two-star player.

Was an ESPN three-star player out of HS.

Hudl.com has video from Milford.

Larry also had offers from San Jose State and Buffalo.

Recruiting 2017--Weekend visits

Mike Traini has a post on last weekend's official visits.

I've blogged about Devin Darrington twice before.

Mike Ruane five times before.

Dominick Silvels once before.

Mike Curtis once before.

Tre Person twice before.

Brian Abosi has already verbaled to UMass, which makes three verbals out of that group of visitors.

Recruiting 2017--Brain Abosi verbals to UMass

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Brian Abosi, a 6-7 295 pound OT from Worcester Academy has announced on his Twitter feed he's verbaled to UMass

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Inside the huddle has a paragraph on Abosi.

Recruiting 2017--Clay Cordasco

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Several recruiting services indicate UMass has offered to Clay Cordasco, a 6-6 315 pound OT from Los Angles Harbor college.

247Sports page here.

Back on November 17th, Mike Traini did a post on Cordasco on his "Fight Massachusetts" site.

This article from August 2016 has a video interview with Cordasco.

This article from April features Cordasco and tells how a Maine native ended up in California.

Cordasco holds FBS offers from UMass, New Mexico and North Texas.

Recruiting 2017--Sione Taufahema

Sione Taufahema, a 6-3 310 pound DT has verbaled to Arizona.

Held offers from UMass, New Mexico and Hawaii.

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Recruiting 2017--Isaac Zirco

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Several recruiting services indicate UMass has offered to Isaac Zirco, 6-1 195 pound WR from Georgia Military College.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Bulldogs bio has some stats.

This article recounts a visit to Auburn.

Besides UMass Zirco has 11 offers including Troy. Other schools are mostly MAC or Sunbelt schools.

Recruiting 2017--Michael Curtis

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UPDATE: Curtis has Tweeted he's received a UMass offer from Saturday's visit.

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Michael Curtis a 603 205 pound JUCO QB from Trinity Valley College.

Traini relates Curtis will be visiting Amherst this weekend.

247Sports two-star player.

Trinity college has stats. Curtis went 190-320 2311 59.4% AVE 24 TD's 6 INT's.

Hudl.com has video.

Led his team to victory in the Heart of Texas Bowl.

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Recruiting 2017--Melvin Hill II

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Back on December 2nd I blogged about Melvin Hill, a 6-3 195 pound WR from Alabama verbaling to UMass.

AL.com has an article featuring Hill's commitment to UMass.

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Saturday--December 10th, 2016

Current Jets center Westley Johnson's passionate half-time speech in 2013 fired up Vanderbilt's win over UMass.

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Former UMass RB Lorenzo Woodley finished his senior season at Minnesota State with 5 GP 30-129 0 TD's LONG 14.

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Victor Cruz stands up for a teammate.

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Tajae Sharpe pays tribute to wildfire victims with his cleats.

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Recruiting 2018--Jamari Currence

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Jamari Currence, a 5-10 160 pound DB/WR/Athlete from Rock Hill, SC has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

MaxPreps has some stats.

Partial quote from a 06/16/16 article from Scout.com:

"Florida, South Carolina, and Kentucky also have shown some interest in Currence. He recently visited South Carolina and has plans to visit Kentucky again towards the end of June."

UMass is Currence's first FBS offer.

Friday--December 9th, 2016

Adam Breneman, New England Player-of-the-Year.

Breneman did not make USA Today's All-American team despite having better stats than the two guys on the first and second team.

Jake Butt of Michigan won the John Mackey Award.

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BYU adds Portland State to its 2017 schedule that includes UMass. Note that adding the Vikings will be 13 games for BYU. The NCAA allows an extra game for teams that played @ Hawaii. UMass declined to add another game 2017.

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La Tech's Skip Holtz was named C-USA's coach-of-the-year.

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The Vegas odds are out on the bowl games. BYU, Troy, Hawaii, Mississippi State and Florida are favorites. Old Dominion, Louisiana Tech and South Carolina are 'dogs.

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Recruiting 2017-Mike Ruane V

Image by Mark Brown

I've blogged about Mike Ruane, a 601 220 LB from Rumson, NJ a number of times before.

Ruane was one of the first two verbals for the 2017 UMass recruiting class. 247Sports has bumped his rating from two stars to three after his senior season.

MaxPreps has some senior season highlights.

Team just won fourth consecutive sectional championship.

Thursday--December 8th, 2016

Hoeller #73

Fabian Hoeller, who is the senior center for UMass football has been named co-Fall Scholar Athlete along with Heather McLean of Cross Country.

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The UMass Twitter feed relates the 2017 schedule is not a row of easy-win games; the Minutemen will meet eight eight-win teams with a 2016 total of 94 and 52.

09/02/2017 @ Coastal Carolina 10-2 in FCS. Moving to FBS in 2017.

09/09/2017 Home Old Dominion 9-3. Going to the Bahamas Bowl.

09/16/2017 @ Temple 10-3. Ed Foley named interim HC after Matt Rhule left for Baylor.

09/23/2017 @ Tennessee 8-4. Just signed the #1 recruit in the country.

09/30/2017 Home Ohio 8-5. Going to the Dollar General Bowl.

10/07/2017 Home Hawaii 6-7. Going to the Hometown Bowl.

10/21/2017 @ UCF 6-6. Going to the Cure Bowl.

10/21/2017 Home Georgia Southern 5-7. Fired both co-offensive coordinators.

10/28/2017 Home Appalachian State 9-3. Going to the Camellia Bowl against Toledo.

11/04/2017 @ Mississippi State 5-7. Going to the St. Petersburg Bowl against Miami (Ohio).

11/11/2017 Home Maine. 6-5. Almost beat UConn in the season opener.

11/18/2017 @ BYU 8-4. Playing Wyoming in the Poinsettia Bowl.

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Recruiting 2017--Abule Abadi

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Abule Abadi, a 6-7 240 pound DE from Lakeland, FL has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports page here.

Huld,com has video.

Abadi, a Nigerian immigrant, was adopted by his basketball coach.

Wednesday--December 7th, 2016

Keepers College football ranking has UMass at #120 after 14 weeks of the 2016 season (.pdf download). Only Rutgers and Kansas of the two-win teams are ranked higher. The bottom-10 probably won't change much due to the bowl games.

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Sights and sounds of BYU and Hawaii.

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Neal Brown is being mentioned as one of the candidates to replace Matt Ruhle at Temple.

Brown and Troy are looking to make a good show at the Dollar General Bowl against Ohio.

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Former UNH coach Bill Bowes is inducted into the College Football Hall-of-Fame. Mention Mark Whipple.

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The Chicago Tribune ranks all forty college bowls.

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Recruiting 2017--Dominick Silvels

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Several recruiting services indicate UMass has offered to Dominick Silvels, a 6-3 195 pound WR from San Diego, CA. His Tweet about the UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Huld.com has video highlights.

Max Preps has some stats.

Besides UMass, Silvels has FBS offers from Air Force, San Jose State, Washington State and Utah State.

Recruiting 2017--Calvin Clater II

A couple of days after saying nice things about UMass, Fort Worth WR Calvin Clater verbaled to Texas State.

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Monday--December 5th, 2016

Today Mrs Blog and I leave for home at 11:30 PM. There will be no blog update on Tuesday as we will not be back in New Hampshire until late in the evening.

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Marquis Young talks about his journey to play for UMass.

Besides his education, Young produced 1,045 yards of offense for the Minutemen. Rushing 12-12 GP-GS 197-898 4.6 AVE 4 TD's 83 LONG 74.8 yards/game.

Young was fourth in receiving yards 26-147 5.7 AVE 25 LONG 12.2 yards/game.

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Bowl games:

I had a link about BYU to the Poinsettia bowl and Old Dominion to the Bahamas Bowl yesterday.

Louisiana Tech will face Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Troy will face MAC runner-up Ohio in the Dollar General Bowl.

Hawaii will play at home against Middle Tennessee State.

BC will play Maryland in Detroit.

South Carolina will play UCF in the Birmingham Bowl.

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Sunday--December 4th, 2016

UMass's season is over, but 2016 continues for many of the Minutemen's opponents.

Alabama mauled Florida 56-14 to win the SEC Championship. The Gators left the Georgia Dome dejected and hurt.

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USA predicts Boston College vs Temple in the Military Bowl.

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FIU's new head coach Butch Davis will start at a salary that's roughly twice Coach Whipple's. If he stays five years his compensation will be over $1 million.

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Looks like Mississippi State will face Miami of Ohio in the St. Petersburg bowl.

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Old Dominion will face Eastern Michigan (yes Eastern Michigan) in the Bahamas Bowl, a game that annually draws several dozen fans.

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Louisiana Tech fell to Western Kentucky in the C-USA championship game Saturday.

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South Carolina has made four bowl requests.

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Troy lost to Georgia Southern in the Sun Belt Championship game Saturday.

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Looks like BYU will face Wyoming in the Poinsettia Bowl.

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Recruiting 2017--Qadir White

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Qadir White, a 6-7 291 pound OT from Cardinal Hayes HS in the Bronx has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports four-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

This article from Sports Rants.com features White.

Beside UMass, White has a number of FBS offers including BC, UConn and Syracuse from the Northeast.