Recruiting 2016--James Reilly III

I've blogged about James Reilly, a 6-4 285 pound OL who has verbaled to UMass a couple of times before.

Reilly recently was listed as #14 in Rivals Top-25 Prep recruits list.

Rivals has him as two-star recruit.

UPDATE 1: Dan Malone has a post on Reilly's early enrollment.

UPDATE 2: Bob McGovern reports on Reilly's signing with the Minutemen.

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Recruiting 2016---James Reilly verbals to UMass II

Yesterday I blogged about James Reilly, a 6-4 285 pound OL from Norwood verbaling to UMass.

Hustle Belt has a post about Reilly's commit to UMass.

Hudl.com has Reilly running a 4.9 forty---that's good for an offensive lineman.

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Recruiting 2016--James Reilly verbals to UMass

Bob McGovern reports James Reilly, a 6-4 285 pound OL from Norwell MA/Fork Union Academy has committed to UMass.

McGovern's story here.

Reilly's Twitter announcement.

Hudl.com has 2014 senior video.

Reilly had eight FCS offers including Maine and UNH.

UMass Football News--December 13th, 2017

With both the Early Signing Period and Letter-of-Intent day coming close, one unit that could use some three-star recruits is the UMass offensive line. The OL played better (as did the whole team) after the two-week break. But it had some serious struggles in the first six.

UMass gave up 46 sacks for the season. That's second-to-last in the NCAA. Hawaii collapsed the pocket the whole game with just their front four. Against Temple we hit a special teams and OL low point. Temple won by nine. They made three field goals and we missed three. The Minutemen gave up nine sacks and 11 tackles for loss. Despite that, Ford threw for 377 yards and 2 TD's. Not being able to run the ball against Power Five opponents is no disgrace, but 79 yards rushing against Coastal Carolina and 79 against Old Dominion is. We also got pushed around by Maine.

Starters listed in the 12/2/17 game notes for FIU:

Ray Thomas-Ishman LT SO GP 12

Jake Largay LG RSJR 12 GP

Derek Dumais C RSSO  GP 12

Lukas Kotler RG RSJR GP 12

Jack Driscoll RT RSSO GP 12 All-ECAC

Also on the roster:

Mike Yardi LG RSSO GP 10

James Reilly LT RSFR GP 9

Larnel Coleman RT RSFR GP 8

Dan DiNicola RG RSJR GP 12

Spencer Goldberg FR Redshirt

Jaylen Larry FR Redshirt

Brian Abosi FR Redshirt

David Weinstock FR Redshirt

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James Madison gives a ten year extension to Mike Houston. The Dukes are currently 13-0 and meet South Dakota State in the FCS playoffs Saturday.

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UMass Football News--June 17th, 2019

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has some UMass news and notes including some roster deletions. Alex Piechocki (DNP in 2018), Leon Flanagan (8 GP-8 GS 17 UT 24 AT 46 TT 4.0-9 TFL), Hunter Brown (DNP in 2018) and Bakhai Goodson (DNP in 2018).

In addition OL James Reilly (DNP in 2018) is leaving the program.

Except for Flanagan, all the leaving players were reserves. UMass has four offensive linemen and four defensive linemen coming in the 2019 recruiting class. A number of those are three-star recruits and playing time was probably going to be limited for those who left. In addition, there are three more OL verbaled for the 2020 class.

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CBS Sports Fantasy Football section covers the Arizona Cardinals including Andy Isabella.

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Syracuse signs DE Leon Loweery, who had a UMass offer.

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Spring Game Day--April 13th, 2018

Note that kickoff for the Spring Game has been moved to 6:30 pm.

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Matty Vautour reports UMass is counting on a veteran offensive line.

The starting OL for 2018 should be;

LT Ray Thomas-Ishman JR 6-5 310

LG Jake Largay RSSR 6-4 325

C Derek Dumais RSJR 6-4 330

RG Lukas Kotler RSSR 6-4 315

RT Jake Driscoll RSJR 6-5 300

The second team OL according to the November 27th 2017 depth chart:

LT James Reilly RSSO 6-3 290

LG Mike Yerardi RSJR 6-4 315

C Lucas Kotler

RG Dan DiNicola RSSR 6-6 305

RT Larnel Coleman RSSO 6-7 300

Other OL on the roster:

Spencer Goldberg SO 6-2 280

Brian Abosi SO 6-8 310

Parker Ogle FR 6-3 290

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The Athletic Dept's post on today's Maroon & White game.

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Another article on Albany scheduling Hawaii and UMass in 2023 and 2020 respectively.

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Patriot News interviews Jordan Matthews and he has good things to say about UMass when he played them at Gillette.

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Thanks to the blog reader who pointed me to this article featuring UMass Director of Player Personnel Tim Silvernail.

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UMass Football News---August 17th, 2017

Mark Chiarelli of Mass Live report both Ross Comis and Andrew Ford will see action against Hawaii.

Matty Vautour also has a post on both QB's playing.

Matty also reports a number of players have played well in training camp and should see increased playing time this fall.

The offensive line was somewhat of a concern in the Spring. Several writers thought UMass might bring in a JUCO to increase depth.

Whipple indicated three new offensive linemen might be in the rotation:

Larnel Coleman 6-7 300 Redshirt Freshman.

Jaylen Larry 6-3 275 True Freshman. Pre-Med major.

James Reilly 6-3 290 Redshirt Freshman.

On defense:

Charlie Timite DL 6-3 275 Redshirt Freshman.

Chinedu Ogbonna LB 6-2 215 True Freshman.

Zeke Edmonds S 6-0 220 Redshirt Junior. Medical redshirt in 2016.

Jarell Addo OLB 6-1 220 Redshirt Junior. 10-0 GP-GS in 2015. DNP in 2016

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Matty also has his second podcast of the season and talks about QB rotation and more.

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Preparing for UMass has Hawaii reinvigorated.

West Hawaii Today reports the Rainbow Warriors are one-point favorites over the Minutemen.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald tells Hawaii football fans not to get use to the free video feed from UMass.

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This has been covered before, but Liberty officially announces 13 future games including three with UMass.

Interestingly, Liberty will receive no guarantee for playing at Marshall.

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BYU's "Vanquish the Foe" rates 2017's opposing quarterbacks.

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Wednesday--April 5th, 2017

Click on image and blogger displays a larger view

Matty Vautoru reports the UMass offensive dedicates the 2017 season to the memory of Michael Boland.

Matty reports the likely starters on the OL would be:

RT Jack Driscoll #58 6-5 294 RS SO

RG Jake Largay  #79 6-5 315 RS JR

C Lucas Kotler #74 6-4 324 RS JR or Derek Dumais #72 6-5 318 RS SO

LG Mike Yeradi #50 6-4 306 RS SO

LT Raquan Thomas #57 6-5 392 SO

Other offensive linemen available are:

Leyshawn Askew #65 6-4 317 RS FR
Larnel Coleman #59 6-6 260 RS FR
Dan DiNicola #67 606 309 RS JR
Spencer Goldberg #70 6-4 295 FR
Jaylen Larry #76 6-5 315 FR
Seamus Murray #51 5-11 243 RS JR
Joe Parsons #56 6-4 280 RS FR
James Reilly #55 6-3 282 RS FR
David Weinstock # 78 6-1 287 FR

First thought: That's a pretty young OL. One objective for 2017 would be to run the ball better. The Minutemen were #124 out of 128 FBS teams in rushing offense (99.5 yards/game) in 2016. UMass was also # 126 out of 128 in sacks allowed. Part of those results were the caliber of the opposition. Not many Group-of-Five teams rack up big rushing totals against SEC teams. Boston College was still one of the defensive leaders in 2016. Still, in losses to Tulane, ODU and Hawaii the Minutemen were out-rushed 722 to 457.

With only two scholarship RB's on the roster so far, the running game will be an area of concern for 2017.

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Meanwhile, Temple is looking for a new QB.

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New Year's Day---2016

Happy New Year to all UMass fans, coaches, players and family. 2016 is the 11th year the UMass football blog has been published. I've done 5,799 blog entries and had 9,750 comments and over 2.1 million page views.

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I've added a couple of updates to yesterday's recruiting post about James Reilly.

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Dan Malone predicts what UMass fans have to look forward to in 2016.

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USA Today previews today's bowl games.

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Sports Illustrated looks at a new training product being used by Victor Cruz and other sports figures.

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Saturday--January 9th, 2016

UMass has a post about recruits Flanagan and Reilly joining the Minutemen for Spring semester.

Bob McGovern also has a entry about Flanagan.

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

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BC Interruption has some quotes by Jimmie Reid about joining the Eagles.

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Eletesportsny.com says its time for the Giants to cut Victor Cruz.

247Sports says Cruz will have to take a pay cut to remain a Giant.

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The Macomb Daily Sports reports James Ihedigbo may not return to the Lions.

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