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.

247Sports image

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.

Wednesday--January 26th, 2017--Nine January Enrollees join Spring Ball

Part 1

UMass has announced the Minutemen will have nine enrollees in for Spring Semester and Spring ball.

UMass announcement here.

Matty Vautour has a post here.

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a longer post on the newcomers here.

Joining UMass will be three defensive grayshirts:

Patrick Volcy 6-3 190 pound Safety from Naples FL. I've blogged about Volcy before. He was a 247Sports two-star player. He's also friends with Claudin Cherelus, who just verbaled to UMass on Tuesday.

Alex Piechocki 6-6 260 pound DE from Attica, NY. Piechocki was not rated coming out of HS. I've blogged about Piechocki before.

DaVonn Hall 6-3 315 DL. Hall was not rated coming out of HS. I've blogged about Hall before.

We've been talking about how the defense struggled in 2016. These three additions fill needs on the DL and defensive secondary. Defensive linemen are the rarest recruits. Piechocki had Power Five DE size. Hopefully, he make some of those schools regret they didn't recruit him. Hall will have two years of eligibility and should be in the defensive line rotation. Volcy also has FBS size in a Safety. With Spring Ball and Fall practice he may not redshirt.

UMass also add three early enrollees:

Mike Ruane 6-1 220 pound LB from Rumson, NJ. I've blogged about Ruane multiple times before. Ruane is the second-highest rated UMass recruit (so far). He seems like a high-energy positive guy who could be a future captain for the Minutemen.

Jaylen Larry 6-4 290 OL from Milford Academy. I've blogged about Larry before. He was a ESPN three-star player coming out of HS with two other FBS offers. Offensive linemen do not often start as freshman, but Larry is older and he could contribute this year.

Mike Curtis a 6-3 205 QB from Trinity Valley Community College. I blogged about Curtis in December. With Ross Comis out of Spring ball and likely only limited availability for Fall Camp, Curtis could be in the mix for the #2 slot this fall.

All in all this is a nice group. All FBS-level players.

I'll look at the three preferred walk-ons in tomorrow's blog post.

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--August 24th, 2019

I'm back. When they said "rustic" up in Cape Breton National Park, they weren't kidding.

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The latest edition of the 2019 roster is up.

UMass announces the home broadcast team for UMass Football. Josh Maurer returns as well as Adam Goldstein and Adam Breneman and Brandon London. That should be an excellent group!

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Ray Thomas-Ishhman is named to the Senior Bowl watch list. Ray is playing guard this year. It's his natural position and we all hope he has a strong senior year. He's come a long way and I would not be surprised if he was a free agent in the NFL draft and then makes the development squad of some pro team.

Three Rutgers players make the Senior Bowl watch list.

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Josh Walfish has a post on Larnel Coleman and Ray Thomas-Ishman anchoring the left side of the 2019 UMass offensive line.

Josh also says the Minutemen starting OL will be

LT Larnel Coleman 6-7 300
LG Ray Thomas-Ishman 6-5 320
C Jaylen Larry 6-3 280
RG Mike Yeradi 6-4 320
RT Brian Abosi 6-8 300

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Josh also has a feature on the return to Western Massachusetts of native son Jason Tudryn.

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Off Tackle Empire does a Q and A with me about UMass' 2019 foray into the Big Ten.

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The Berkshire Eagle says UMass wraps up camp, prepares for Rutgers.

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NJ.com reports who will start for UMass at QB is still under wraps.

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The Herald ranks UMass #10 in anticipated games for the BYU Cougars in 2019.

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UMass Football News--August 3rd, 2022

 A Syracuse site notes that both the Orange and UMass have open slots on their 2024 and 2027 schedules.

A home and home with Syracuse would be fun. I'd like to see a game at the Carrier dome. If coach Brown could get us competitive, it would be even better.

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Former UMass OL Jaylen Larry looks to compete for playing time with the Portland State Vikings. 

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Former UMass long snapper Evan Deckers has been named to the Patrick Mannelly Award watch list. The award honors the top senior long snapper.

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UMass opening opponent Tulane starts fall practice today.

Vegas Insider currently has UMass as the 30 point underdog. Note that's to a team that won two games in 2021...

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Wonder what would have happened if Georgia QB Stetson Bennett had signed with UMass out of junior college?

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VSin has QB rankings for all 131 FBS teams.

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UMass Football News--September 22nd, 2019

Thoughts after the game:

1. Thom Hannum and the UMass percussion still rocks after 40 years.

2. The new bathrooms are beautiful.

3. I don't think Andrew Brito is our QB, now or in the future

4. Cooper Garcia should handle all kickoffs.

5. Isaiah Rogers can shift into a gear no one else on the field has.

6. No one on the team quit. The team mobbed Garcia after he unloaded on a Chant kickoff returner.

4. The UMass fans in attendance were amazing. Nobody booed. The cheered the last TD. Some 3000 or so stayed all the way to the end. Stalwart people. I admire them.

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UMass write-up on the game.

Josh Walfish says Coastal Carolina steamrolled UMass.

He also said the short handed defense faltered.

He reports special teams have been a bright spot for the Minutemen. Josh also reports the Minutemen were without four starting linemen. Center Jaylen Larry and left guard Ray Thomas-Ishman were out with injuries. In addition, FR DT Billy Wooden was injured in practice and FR DT Wilson Frederic was hurt during the game.

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UConn lost to Indiana 38-3.

Southern Illinois lost to Arkansas State 41-28.

Charlotte lost to Clemson 52-10.

Akron lost to Troy 35-7.

Army Beat Morgan State 52-21.

Northwestern lost to Michigan State 31-10.

BYU was run over by Washington 45-19.

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UMass Football News--September 25th, 2019

Josh Walfish reports on this Tuesday's practice. UMass only had about 56 or 57 healthy scholarship players. QB Andrew Brito is still in the concussion protocol and starting center Jaylen Larry is out with a knee injury.

Reserve OL freshman Xavier Graham has been moved to DL for the time being and true freshman walk-on Grant Laws is practicing with the first team DL.

In addition, starting OG Ray Thomas-Ishman has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules.

Isaiah Rogers is 9th in the nation with a 33.4 yards/return. He leads the nation by a wide margin with 434 total return yards.

There's an old coaching saw that says you lose one game for every true freshman you start. UConn played a whole lot of true freshmen last year during their 1-11 season and they seem to have improved quite a bit this year. The Huskies went from last (UMass' current position) to #34 this year after three games.

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UnderDog Dynasty says UMass hits rock bottom.

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The Akron Beacon-Journal reports winless Akron prepares for winless UMass.

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The Hartford Courant wonders if UConn should bench its best players and save them for the future.

Randy Edsall continues to have faith in the Huskies freshman QB Jack Zergiotis.

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UMass Football News--March 19th, 2020

Yesterday I linked to Josh Walfish's article on the possible fallout of the cancellation of Spring football for the rebuilding UMass program.

Some of the difficulty is/was the state of the UMass roster. It's sobering to view the 247Sports scholarship distribution page for the Minutemen.  UMass has 1 (count 'em 1) scholarship senior and 9 juniors on the Spring roster.

Last year the fans hated the UMass hurry-up (because it wasn't working). A run-based grind it out offense would have been better, but the Minutemen only had one recruited RB on the roster. Bilal Ally won UMass' only victory with nine straight carries in the fourth quarter against Akron.

Ally left the Minutemen via the transfer portal. This, I don't understand. He was the feature back last year and surely would have been the feature back again this year.

Probably the biggest glich in the 2019 offense was QB. We did not have one. Randall West gave UMass fans 20 minutes of ecstasy  against Rutgers then got flushed out of the pocket and came up limping and had to leave the game. I thought he never looked the same.

Bad QB play screws up the whole offense. We did recruit JUCO pro-style QB Kyle Lindquist. He's probably the starter unless he arrives injured. UMass also added three-star true freshman Will Koch.

The running back situation in Amherst is still not good.The Minutemen added three-star RB Earl Merriweather, who will likely be the feature back. UMass also added three-star Jared Cole. The problem is depth. Two recruited RB's is not deep even for Group-of-five teams. Temple, for example, has four three-stars.

Offensive line was another problem last year. When I visited a practice UMass had about seven or eight OL on the field. They struggled keep five healthy offensive lineman. The current roster has zero senior linemen and only one junior (!). The staff has done a good job in recruiting and things should improve. I would speculate a OL of Dalton Tomlison and Larnel Coleman at OT, Max Sullivan and Xavier Graham at guard; Jaylen Larry at center.

Another problem is TE. The Minutemen recruited Jacob Orlando and Jackson Manning. UMass did not have a pass catching TE on the roster last year.

What does all this add up to? However we slice it, the UMass offense will be really young and not have a lot of experience playing together. Pro-style offenses usually feature a stud WR like Andy Isabella. Wide receiver is probably the deepest position of the squad and the coaches will want use them.

The spread offense probably best fits the available players. There are a number of "power" spread offense schemes to utilize the running game. UMass could ditch the no-huddle-hurry-up, which would please the fans. The main goals for 2020 could be:

1. A QB who is not an offensive liability
2. Better run blocking and a more effective run game.
3. A lot more production from the WR's.

Hopefully, the NCAA will allow some kind of extended Spring practice to allow UMass to work on all this.

UMass Football News--August 6th, 2018

The Minutemen ran their first scrimmage of the Fall camp yesterday. The UMass website has an image gallery from the scrimmage.

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Not a lot of football news on the intertubes this morning. Mass Live has not done a UMass story in more than a month.

Lets look at the redshirt freshmen for 2018. If I counted right, UMass will have 18 RSFR available this year.

In the already crowded WR corps we have:

Zac Simon 5-10 180.

Jovohn Tucker 5-8 165

Patrick Volcy 6-2 210

Melvin Hill 6-2 195

One new TE becomes available.

Solomon Siskind 6-4 220

One RB.

Victor Santiago 5-9 165

Three offensive linemen.

Spencer Goldberg 6-2 280

Jaylen Larry 6-3 275

Brian Abosi 6-8 310

One LS

Harry Blair 6-3 205

One kicker

Evan Padilla 5-7 160

Seven defensive players become available:

One Safety

Claudin Cherrelus 6-1 210

Two CB's

Chris Hunt 6-0 185

Brian Roberts Jr 6-0 195

Four DL's

Chris DiTommaso 6-4 275

Zack Loan 5-11 240

Alex Piechocki 6-5 255

Caeleb Washington 6-1 250

Of the  offensive linemen Brian Abosi could make the two-deep. Maybe all of the defensive linemen might be in the rotation. Chris DiTommaso could start. The Safety position is pretty deep, but Claudin Cherrelus will get some reps.

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Wednesday--March 29th, 2017

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There's a new version of the 2017 Spring roster up. It has the early enrollees from January. The revised roster shows the numbers they were assigned.

Michael Curtis QB 6-2 210 # 17  (ex James Sosinski)

Jake Froehlich LB 6-1 245 #47 (ex Michael Dowe)

Spencer Goldberg OL 6-4 295 # 70 (ex Ryan Johnson)

DaVone Hall DL 6-3 315 #75 (not assigned in 2016)

Jaylen Larry OL 6-3 287 # 76 (ex Tyshon Henderson)

Alex Piechocki DL 6-6 260 # 91 (ex Chris Carter)

Mike Ruane LB 6-0 227 # 33 (ex Rodney Mills)

Patrick Volcy WR 6-3 190 # 80 (ex Jalen Williams)

David Weinstock OL 6-1 287 # 78 (ex Matt Sparks)

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Speaking of Jalen Williams, he worked out for the 49rs.

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Kyle Daluz of the UMass Daily Collegian has a post on new UMass DL coach Dave Wissman.

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Buffalo Low Down.com has a profile of Vladimir Ducasse. Vlad's been an OG most of his pro career. Up State NY.com asks if he can play right tackle.

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USF DB Hassan Childs was shot multiple times in a possible road rage incident.  The Minutemen play at USF on October 14th.

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UMass Football News--April 17th, 2019

Matty Vautour ranks the top ten UMass athletics moments in the last thirty years.

BTW, congrats to the Minutemen hockey team in their run to the National Championship game. Like the 1998 football team, nobody was expecting anything like this. I hope UMass hockey and the Minutemen hockey fans can keep it rolling next year and be competitive in the top end of Hockey East.

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Rutgers President Richard Barchi says 1-11 won't cut it for the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers will try to improve that record starting with UMass on August 30th.

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Lewis Pro Football profiles BC DB Lukas Denis. His only real success last year was against UMass where he had a half a sack and a pick-six TD

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Andrew Nee image

Three UMass 2020 OL recruits were in Amherst yesterday. I've blogged about Dominik Behrens, Andrew Nee and Ethan Mottinger before.

The UMass roster currently only has nine scholarship offensive linemen and two of them Ray Thomas-Ishman and Mike Yeradi are seniors.

At the practice I attended, the combo above was getting most of the work. RT Michael Sullivan, RG Mike Yeradi, C Jaylen Larry, LG Helber Fagundes and LT Larnel Colemen.

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The Browns local Pro Day was highlighted by Andy Isabella.

An audio interview of Andy who said it was always his dream to play in the NFL.

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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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