Wednesday---May 7th, 2014

NFL Mocks has a Tennessee Titans mock draft with Rob Blanchflower going to Titans in the sixth round.

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More on Florida HS St. Thomas Aquinas pipeline to UMass: last Saturday I blogged about some St.Thomas Aquinas recruits from the first Whipple era.

More recently, Bill Nesselt graduated in 2013. He was redshirted in 2010 before winning All-CAA academic honors in 2011. Nesselt suffered a career-ending injury and worked as a student assistant to the UMass football team in 2012 and 2013. He taught and coached at St. Thomas Aquinas in the fall of 2013 and recently has been hired as linebacker coach at Ferrum College in Virginia. Congrats to Bill and hope he's starting a great career in coaching! Hopefully, he still has some connections with St.Thomas Aquinas and can put in a good word about UMass.

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MAC Blog Hustle Belt looks at Sporting News take on the league's coaches.

Hustle Belt also does a MAC NFL draft preview and round table.

Some other stories on potential NFL picks from the MAC:

Kent State's WR/DB Dri Archer.

NIU's safety Jimmie Ward

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McNeese State's Diaontae Spencer hopes to follow in the footsteps of former FCS receiver Victor Cruz.

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Fan Sided takes a preseason look at the top 10 in FCS football. Mentions Towson and former UMass player Brian Dowling as #9.

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OT, but UMass hoops picks up a 2015 verbal from a three-star point guard.

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Wednesday News ----- July 14th, 2010

The NCAA has an annotated 2010 FCS Vs FBS list here.

Speaking of the NCAA, they have a spiffy new FCS Championship page.

Thorr Bjorn will join the FCS Athletics Directors Association Executive Committee.

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Not everybody is happy with the new look of Michigan's Big House.

MGoBlog has a lot more.

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Montana DB Jimmy Wilson is back with the Grizzlies after an unusual layoff-----he was in jail accused of murder.

His story by the Montana Athletic Dept.

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Only fifty-two days until the 2010 season opens. Wearing #52 for UMass this year will be Bill Nesselt a 6-2 245 pd RS FR DL from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Nesselt was redshited in 2009. He was playing with the first team defense during the spring game.

Friday--August 12, 2011

As I mentioned yesterday the 2011 roster is up.

Deletions from the Spring roster

• Derik Beck (2011 recruit)
• Cedric Gonnet RS JR
• Jesse Hunt RS FR
• John McGrath FR (2011 recruit)
• Bill Nesselt RS So
• Jacob Scott no information

Additions to the Minutemen in 2011(including freshmen already on the Spring Roster as they now have offical numbers). According to articles 40% of the team is new from 2010. There are 100 players on the 2011 roster. There were 91 in 2010.

• Frank Barile OL
• Jarvis Bentley WR (2011 recruit)
• Jordan Broadnax RB (2011 recruit)
• Chris Burns HB (transfer from Pitt)
• Ryan Campbell DB (transfer from Mississippi)
• Jamie Casselberry OL (2011 recruit)
• Chase Danska WR (JUCO)
• Kevin Donahue LB
• Brian Dowling RB (2011 recruit)
• Dan Foesel TE  (2011 Recruit)
• Iric Harris DB (2011 recruit)
• Andre Hill WR (JUCO)
• Greg Hilliard LB (2011 recruit)
• Brandon Howard TE (2011 recruit)
• Randall Jette DB (2011 recruit)
• T.J. Keefer WR
• James Lizotte WR (transfer Holy Cross)
• Elgin Long WR
• Marken Michel WR (2011 recruit)
• Addy Moas OL (2011 recruit)
• Kyle Morgan DL (2011 recruit)
• Manoel Nascimento RB
• Andrew Ortiz PK (2011 recruit)
• Kellen Pagel QB (transfer Bowling Green)
• Benjamin Patrick RB
• Ryan Phillips LB
• Matthew Quinn QB
• Sebastian Russell LB
• Quayshun Smith DB (2011 recruit)
• Malcom Speller OL (transfer from Bowie State)
• John Wallace OL (2011 recruit)
• Cody Watts DB
• Carlito Weaver LB
• Mike Wegzyn QB (2011 recruit)
• Jamal Wilson RB (2011 recruit)
• Brandon Yelovich (transfer from Rice)

I miss anyone?

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Watched Chris Koepplin kick off for the Pats last night. He hit one out of bounds, but boomed the remainder of his kicks deep into the endzone.

ProJo.com mentions Koepplin in their writeup of the game. Gostkowski looked good on his field goals, so Koepplin has to hope his film impresses some other team, or the Pats sign him to their practice roster as insurance.

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Matty V. has an article on Emil Igwenagu's frustrating 2010 season. With UMass' receiving corps depleted this year, hopefully they will throw to Igwenagu and Rob Blanchflower early and often.

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Things went bad for 2012's OOC opponent Indiana Coach Kevin Wilson during a radio interview.

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USA Today has an article on Delaware's Andrew Pierce including an image of him running at the UMass defense.

Sunday--May 1, 2011

Click on image for a large view

UMass' writeup on the Spring Game.

MassLive.com has a story on Bowling Green transfer Kellen Pagel and asks if he will be eligible in 2011.

WWLP22 covers the game.

Ron Chimelis says the team will have to find its own motivation for the 2011 season.

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My notes:

I'll add the usually cravat on Spring games. Everyone was playing at about 4/5 speed and some players are usually wearing the wrong number. Forgive me if I mis-identified someone.

After all the nervous tension from the upgrade, everyone seemed fairly relaxed and happy to out on the field. The same mood applied to the crowd, which was about the same as last year.

I toured the new UMass football offices. They're nice---and empty. No one's moved in yet.

Vladamar Brower (who's coaching HS in Springfield) and 2011 QB recruit Mike Wegzyn attended.

Amazingly, I did not see anyone on crutches.

The following players were wearing jerseys, but were not in pads  and DNP

• Chade Hunte
• Bill Nesselt
• Giddons Rateau
• Julian Colarusso
• Domonic Wooten
• Rob Blanchflower
• Caleb Violette

Both Kellen Pagel and Brandon Hill looked good at QB. Hill was moving well for a player that had missed half of the spring training session. Both QB's showed good velocity.

 Ryan Carter had an INT. Pitt transfer Chris Burns only had 2 carries. He did have on nice block on a rushing defender.

On offense, Anthony Dima was at LT. Jesse Julmiste was the "Y" receiver with the first team offense and Tom Gilson was in the slot.

On defense, it looked to me that the first team consisted of the following:

• Galen Clemons DT
• Kevin Byrne NT
• Brandon Potvin DT
• Perry McIntyre ILB
• Tyler Holmes ILB
• D.J. Adeoba OLB
• Courtney Jackson OLB
• Mike Lee CB
• Antone Tharpe CB
• Christian Birt S
• Darren Thellen S

Added to the Spring Game, but not on website roster was James Gilchrist DT.

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Hope to have a web albumn up tomorrow.

Friday---Feb 4, 2011

The UMass website has an article about Anthony Nelson being named CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

UMass also had fourteen of the fifty-eight players on the CAA Academic All-Conference Team.

On offense: Emil Egwenagu, John Ihne, Mike Kahale, James Lizotte, Greg Niland, Ray Pendergast, Dan Sheeran, Ian Shultis, Caleb Violette and Ryan Young.

On Defense: Ryan Collins, Bill Nesselt, David Ramsden and Jeff Strait.

Last year four Minutemen were named to the Academic All-conference team.

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The Sports Network has a list of recruits for all the CAA teams here.

UPDATE: The CAA football blog has a post that has links to the signing pages of all the CAA teams.

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Tyrell Okoro, a 6-5 290 pd OL chose Morgan State over UMass and Maine.

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The Feds have cracked down on free web video streaming sites including channellsurfing.net. That would impact the opportunity of out-of-town UMass fans to see the Minutemen.

Thanks to a Blog reader who brought this to my attention.

The state of UMass football--Defensive line

The UMass defensive line will be very different in 2010 as we lose four starters.

Gone in 2010 are

• Michael Hansen-started 11 games, 5th in total tackles
  
• Kyle Harrington-started 11 games, 6th in total tackles, 2nd team All-CAA
• Anthony Monette-started 11 games, 7th in total tackles
• Brandon Collier-started 11 games, 9th in total tackles, 3rd team All-CAA

Returning are:

• Charles Thompson RS Soph-played in 9 games, 0 starts 14 TT
• Bob McLaughlin RS SR-played in 7 games, 0 starts 8 TT
• Tyler Major RS FR-Red shirt
• Kevin Byrne RS Fr-Red shirt
• Bill Nesselt RS Fr-Red shirt
• James Gilchrist RS Sr-Played, 0 TT
  
• Gliddens Radeau RS Soph-No game action
  
• Theo Agnew RS FR-Red shirt
• Courtney Jackson RS Jr- six games, 0 starts, 8 TT (corrected)
  

• Brandon Potvin RS Fr- Redshirt

In addition, we will add one transfer:

• Galen Clemons RS Fr (?)- transfer from Central Michigan. No stats listed

Notes: Charles Thompson looks to be the leader of the returning defensive line. Bob McLaughlin should see lots of playing time. Every thing else seems up for grabs. Outside of QB, this has to be the major area of concern for 2010.

UMass 2009 Recruits up

The UMass Athletic site has the 2009 UMass Recruiting list up.

Ok. Some recruits I've already blogged about. There is quite a bit of material to review on those players. Click on their name and Blogger will display past blogs about them just below the current post.

• Christian Birt DB
  
• Tim Brandt LB
  
• Tom Brandt LB
• Ryan Carter DB
  
• Kyle Havens QB
• Bill Nesselt DL
• Jamar Smith TB
• Royce Terrell LB
  
• Sean Unterkeofler LB
• Rob Blanchflower TE. Worcester Telegram article mentioning him here . He also played defensive line .
• Kevin Byrne DL. Picked UMass over Maine and Northeastern
• Mike Lee DB. Youtube highlight video here. He's #13. (be sure to click on the "high quality" setting". He runs a 4.55 40 and Clemson and South Carolina were interested.
• Devin Lindsey LB. Rivals two star player. He was First Team All-State.
• Thad McCummings DB. He rushed for A LOT of yards at Canterbury School.
• Perry McIntyre LB. Rivals page here . He was All-Area on defense . Also All county.
• Jeff Strait P. Highlight video here . Good athlete too .
• Adham Talaat OL. Big dude.
• Vincent Westcarr. Played Dade-Brower All-Star game. Mentioned in this article (scroll all the way to the bottom)

UMass Athletics has a video interview with Coach Morris on signing day here .

Whew! I'm going to take a break. Everybody play nice.

Wednesday before William & Mary --Sept 1, 2010

Matty Vautour looks at the UMass offense and says it hopes to improve. He also has an annotated depth chart.

Offense:

• WR Julian Talley, Dan Sheeran
• LT Nick Speller, Vincent Westcarr
• LG Greg Niland, Anthony Dima
• C John Ihne, Quinton Sales
• RG Brian Ostaszewski or Josh Samuda
• RT Stephane Milhim, Sean O'Connor
• TE Emil Igwenagu or Andrew Kervis, Rob Blanchflower
• TB John Griffin or Jonathan Hernandez, Jamar Smith
• FB Scott Duggan-Thad McCummings
• QB Kyle Havens, Brandon Hill
• WR Anthony Nelson, Jesse Julmiste

Defense

• DE Brandon Potvin, Galen Clemons
• DT Kevin Byrne, Theo Agnew
• DT Brandon Flanagan, Bill Nesselt
• DE Courtney Jackson, Bob McLaughlin
• SLB Perry McIntyre, D.J. Adeoba
• MLB Mike Mele, Stanley Andre
• WLB Tyler Holmes, Chad Hunte
• CB Ke'Mon Baley, David Cozzo
• SS Shane Viveiros, Kumar Davis
• FS Darren Thellen, James Carven
• CB Mike Lee, Antoine Tharpe

Special Teams

• PK Brendon Levengood, Caleb Violette
• H Dan Sheeran
• P Caleb Violette, Jeff Strait
• LS Travis Tripucka, John Ihne
• KR Anthony Nelson and Torrey Esalomi
• PR Julian Talley
  

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Ron Chimelis has a story featuring UMass kicker Caleb Violette. He went 1-2 50% 35 Lg Blk 1 in 2009.

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The Boston Globe has a story on new UMass RB John Griffin. He was First-Team All-CAA and the Huskies MVP. Griffin went 207-1009 (led the CAA in regular season) and added 25-178 REC.

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Three articles from the William & Mary side: Callahan finally gets his shot, final preparations for the Tribe and Callahan gets his chance.

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A Michigan beat reporter from the Detroit Examiner predicts Michigan 47 UMass 17.

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The Greenwich Times says Victor Cruz will land a job with the Giants.

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Craig Haley has the latest edition of his "In the FCS Huddle" up.

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Have your eye bleach handy----Offensive linemen in Speedos.

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Add Atari Bigby to my list of favorite sports names. Back in the day, I had an Atari 800 XL, a hell-of-a computer.