UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Andrew Nee

Hudl.com image

Andrew Nee, a 6-4 282 pound OG from Walpole, MA has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

247Sports National Combine All-Combine team. 

UMass is the first offer for Nee. Drawing interest from Army and several Ivy League schools.

UMass Football News--March 9th

UMass Football is working hard in the weight room.

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The Newburyport News has a mock NFL draft with the Patriots taking Andy Isabella in the third round.

Fantasy Pros has sleeper prospects that boosted stock at the 2019 Combine.

Cleveland.com on why the Browns should draft Andy.

247Sports says the Packers take a DL and Andy Isabella.

A CBS Sports writer has the Patriots picking Isabella #32 in the draft (as in the first round).

The Gloucester Times has the Pats picking Andy in the third round.

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Neal Brown's wife Brooke is settling in her job as the first lady of West Virginia football.

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UMass Football News--March 8th, 2019

Athlon Sports ranks all 130 FBS teams going into Spring Ball. UMass is #128. With the Minutemen losing the division's top receiver, both starting QB's and the starting RB and three of the five starting linemen, the offense needs a complete rebuild. We also lose two starting LB's and three of the four 2018 DB's. That's a lot.

Coach Bell will have his hands full for a couple of years.

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NFL Draft Diamonds introduces Jarell Addo. At 6-1 200 Addo would be a Safety in the pros. At UMass he played mostly OLB.

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College Sports Maven says adding Penn State to the Big Ten changed Eastern football. The article thinks if Penn State had stayed in the Big East then the Big East football could have looked like this in 2019:

"Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers, UConn, Miami, Virginia Tech, Temple, Syracuse, UMass and Cincinnati".

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Sports Illustrated has a story on how Rivals and 247Sports turned college football recruiting into a internet obsession. 

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UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Cole Finney

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Cole Finney, a 6-6 230 pound TE from Hingham, MA has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

MaxPreps has stats.

Finney has FBS offers from UMass, Air Force and Army. FCS offers from Ivies Yale, Dartmouth and Fordham.

UMass Football News--March 6th, 2019

The Amherst Wire has a post on the recently announced McGuirk Stadium upgrades.

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Watchstadium.com has changes to the 2019 Bowl schedule. Mentions UMass would have try for an open slot if a bowl could not fill it's tie-in's.

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When Mrs Blog and I lived in Western Mass we would go to Joe's cafe in Northampton after football or basketball games. This article has post on the Northampton fixture.

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The Draft Network has Andy Isabella #75 in NFL Draft.

MassLive considers how Andy Isabella and other Massachusetts players performed at the NFL Combine.

CBS Sports says Andy is trending towards a Day 2 position in the NFL Draft.

247Sports reports Andy was Green Bay's most interesting interview at the Combine.

Larry Brown Sports says Isabella was one of ten prospects who boosted their stock at the Combine.

Chris Johnson at one time held the NFL Combine 40 yard dash record. He has a conspiracy theory about the current 4.22 mark.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2019---Jaykwon jefferson

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Jaykwon Jefferson, a 6-3 230 pound TE from Minnesota State Community College has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

Hudl.com has video.

247Sports page here.

UMass did not sign a TE in February's 2019 recruiting class. Jefferson has two FCS offers.  He would have three years of eligibility.

UMas Football News--March 4th, 2019

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a Twitter post reporting starting UMass center Derek Dumais won't return for his senior year.

That will bring the number of open OL positions to three as LG Jake Largay and RG Lukas Kotler have both graduated.

The probable replacement at center will be Jaylan Larry who appeared in ten games in 2018

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USA Today has a human interest story about Andy Isabella.

Yahoo Sports wonders if the next Patriots slot receiver will come from this year's draft.

The News Herald reports after a timing snafu is fixed Andy Isabella sizzles at the NFL Combine

The News Herald said the clock malfunction could have cost Andy a lot of money.

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Cougar Sports insider ranks BYU's 2019 schedule by how much the fan base wants a win.

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UMass Football News--March 3rd, 2019

Andy Isabella----- faster than your average laser timer..

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" says it could have been 4.27.

MassLive reports Isabella tied for the Combine lead.

Boston.com says Andy ran the fastest.

USA Today reports after clarification, Andy ran 4.31.

NESN thinks Isabella could add another gear to the Patriots offense.

NFL.com reports Paris Campbell and Andy Isabella clocked 4.31's at the Combine.

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UMass Football recruiting 2019--Alec Miseo verbals to UMass

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Alec Miseo, a 6-5 280 pound OL from Bridgewater, NJ has Tweeted he's joining the Minutemen as a PWO.

Hudl.com has video.

NJ.com has him as one of New Jersey's top-40 underrated players.

Chose UMass over a PWO offer from Colorado and several FCS schools.

UMass Football News--March 2nd, 2019

Coastal Carolina releases it's 2019 schedule. UMass and Coastal meet on September 21st. The Chants are 2-0 against the Minutemen. Sigh.

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Andy Isabella aims to keep impressing at the NFL Combine.

The 49ers Web Zone says Isabella met with San Francisco coaches.

Isabella says he was "star struck" on meeting Wes Welker.

The 49ers need a WR who can take it to the next level.

Daniel Jeremiah predicts Andy will run a 4.35 40.

WEEI looks at WR's who could stand out from the Patriots perspective. 

Patriots Wire reports Andy was one of a group of WR's who met with the Pats.

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UMass Football News--March 1st, 2019

Coach Bell at the UMass Club in Boston event

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UMass and Toledo schedule a home & home in 2021 and 2022. The Rockets are usually the MAC's best team. Toledo went 7-6 in 2018 and lost to FIU in the Bahamas Bowl.

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Thanks to the blog reader who sent me the link the top five candidates to run the fastest 40 in the NFL Combine.

NBC Sports has 12 players with something to prove at the NFL Combine.

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Football Scoop says the "Air Raid" offense is more of a philosophy than X's and O's.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Caleb Fauria

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Caleb Fauria, a 6-5 210 pound WR from North Attleboro, MA has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

MaxPreps has some stats.

Son of former Patriot TE Christian Fauria.

Fauria has offers from UMass and UConn as well as Power Five teams Boston College, Colorado and Iowa.

UMass Football News--February 27th, 2019

The Tennessean has Luke Paschall joins "brother" Walt Bell at UMass.

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247Sports has the Spring practice start dates for a bunch of schools including UMass.

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Jake Bentley, who contributed to South Carolina's win over UMass in 2016 leaves the Gamecocks.

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NJ.com has a report from Rutgers Junior Day that features Miles Bailey, who has a UMass offer.

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DetroitLions.com has five things to watch for in the 2019 combine. One of them is how fast will Andy Isabella run the 40?

Saints Wire.com has 20 prospects New Orleans could be interested in at the Combine.

247Sports has nine "burner" WR's the Broncos could be considering at the Combine.

Lombardiave.com has three things the Packers should watch for in slot receivers at the Combine.

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UMass Football News--February 26th, 2019

Sports Day has 10 potential draft picks for the Dallas Cowboys (includes Andy Isabella).

Big Blue View looks at the top ten wide receivers in the NFL Draft, which of course, includes Andy.

Niners Wire thinks a certain speedy small school WR could be the perfect answer for San Francisco.

USA Today looks at ten WR's could star in the NFL Combine.

Yard Barker looks at ten burning questions for the NFL Combine. One of which is how fast will Andy Isabella run?

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SB Nation previews the 2019 Charlotte 49ers and predicts a 61% chance of a win over UMass.

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NJ.com looks at the players Rutgers offered during its Junior Day. A couple of them have Minutemen offers.

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Former UMass coach Jimmy Reid changes to DE coach for the BC Eagles.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Brady Martin II

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Brady Martin, a 6-0 180 pound pro-style QB has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

I blogged about Martin way back in 2016.

Besides UMass, Martin has an FBS offer from Arkansas State. In addition he holds offers from UNH and URI.

UMass Football News--February 23rd, 2019

WWLP takes note of the UMass stadium improvements.

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Minutemen 2020 and 2021 opponent New Mexico State works on finishing their schedule for both those years.

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Two Massachusetts lawmakers want to ban youth tackle football.

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Minutemen 2019 commit Xavier Graham. The 6-3 305 pound Graham is one of two three-star rated OL recruits in the 2019 class.

The 247Sports UMass scholarship distribution page shows Graham and fellow 2019 recruit Bryce Wade as the only three-star offensive linemen on the Minutemen roster.

I've mentioned before that UMass has struggled to run the ball since our move to FBS. As I showed in my February 8th blog note, the Minutemen have not finished above #100 in rushing rankings since 2012. 

As a point of comparison Boston College has one four-star and eight three-star players in their offensive line. The Eagles also have a second four-star recruit coming in.

Let's hope Graham and Wade are the start of an upgrade in the athleticism and run blocking for the O-line.

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UMass Football News--UMass annouces major Football facilities upgrade

Five years after the Football performance center opened in 2014, UMass has announced a major upgrade to its football facilities.

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

The South wall of the stadium will be taken down a a hospitality plaza built. The space will include a new 48 X 20.4 foot video board courtesy of a gift from Paul and David Manganaro.

A new practice field will be constructed parallel to press box side of the stadium.

A seasonal bubble will cover the practice field. All this is because of a $5.8 million gift from Martin Jacobson.

We now have a football complex. The covered practice field should be a big help to a cold weather team. It should also help in recruiting. New restrooms will be added and the sound system will be improved. All the improvements are an exciting improvement to the football program.

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 UMass LB Bryton Barr has been named ECAC defensive player of the year.

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Former UMass coach Scott Woodward has joined Coach Whipple in Pittsburgh.

247Sports thinks Pitt QB Kenny Pickett will benefit from having Whipple as OC.

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UMass Football News--February 21st, 2019

Paul Sheely of Pro Star Sports says Andrew Ford is ahead of schedule on his recovery from his knee injury. Hope he continues to do well and gets a shot at playing in the pros.

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UMass adds URI to the Minutemen's 2021 season. So with two games yet to add the 2012 season looks like:

09/04 - at Colorado
 09/11 - Boston College
 09/18 - Eastern Michigan
 09/25 - at Coastal Carolina
 10/09 - UConn
 10/16 - Rhode Island
 11/06 - at Liberty
 11/13 - Maine
 11/20 - at Army
 11/27 - at New Mexico State

AD Ryan Bamford relates there was no other FBS teams available. We'll add a Group of Five home game and an away pay game with a Power Five team.

The URI game could be interesting. As I blogged back on February 11th, URI coach Jim Fleming said he would love to play UMass.

One of the FCS games does not count towards bowl eligibility, but with no bowl tie-ins for UMass, it probably does not matter.

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Pro Football Focus says Andy Isabella is much more than just a slot receiver.

Full Press Coverage thinks Isabella would be a good fit for the Vikings.

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UMass Football News--February 20th, 2019

247 Sports has three recruiting articles worth reading:

Ten players to know in New England.

Ten players to know in New York's 2020 recruiting class. UMass has offers for a number of these.

Ten Players in District of Columbia's 2020 recruiting class. This is UMass defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim's wheelhouse. While most of the players in all three articles have multiple Power Five offers, it would be nice if UMass could pick up a couple higher-rated recruits from the Northeast.

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This one is a must read. How speed Andy Isabella on a fast tract to the NFL.

Rotoworld has a NFL draft profile of Andy Isabella.

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Michigan ramps up recruiting a Massachusetts player (last part of the article).

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UMass Spring practices will be open to the public. Remember when Don Brown was head coach and you could bring a lawn chair and watch the Minutemen practice on the mall in from of the Stadium?

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Four UNH football players are charged with felony riot charges after a fight at a UNH fraternity.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Kevin Lemieux

Hudl.com image

Kevin Lemieux, a 6-4 235 pound strong-side DE from Ashburnham, MA has Tweeted he's received an offer from UMass.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

Lemieux has six offers. Besides UMass and Tulane, Lemieux has Power Five offers from Rutgers and Syracuse.