Dan Malone has a very early look at projected starters. In 2016 the Minutemen signed their best ever recruiting class. There is just too much talent for some of them to be redshirted.
At RB, UMass only had two scholarship RB's on the roster. I expect one or both of Peytton Pickett and Bilal Ally to play this year.
TE was and is a talent hole in the Minutemen roster. Hopefully Penn State transfer Adam Breneman has some gas left in his tank, but true freshman Cody Banks and Avien Peah, both three star recruits have too much talent to sit.
Meanwhile UMass has added six JUCO's the defensive roster. In the first four years, the defense was kinda the step child of recruiting. The recruiting mix usually ran about 60-40 in favor of offensive players. The UMass defense needed more bodies. This year UMass has added:
Hey, it's 48 degrees here in Jaffrey this morning! Feels like Fall. Feels like football! Video is UMass cadence. Turn your computer speakers all the way up.
Matty Vautour says JUCO transfer could make an impact with the UMass defense this fall. This is a smart move on the part of Whipple and staff. The UMass "D" got the short end of the recruiting numbers for the first couple of years in FBS. Not to mention of the six FBS games we've won, five were due to outstanding defensive efforts. The Minutemen need to fill deficiencies in the roster with JUCO's and transfers. That's just a fact of life for our program at this stage.
Dan Malone has a post on the rebuilt Minutemen offensive line. I thought the OL underperformed last year. With five Power Five teams on this year's schedule, a better running game would sure help.
I went to the Season Ticket holders town meeting last night. We met with Whipple, had a tour of the Performance Center and watched a spirited UMass practice that lasted over two hours.
Whipple praised Andy Isabella as a much improved receiver and felt Isabella would give us a deep receiver threat.
Of the redshirt freshman, he said Jack Driscoll was going to start on the OL.
Whipple that the coaching staff was upwardly surprised by the strength of Andrew Ford's arm.
He said TE transfer Adam Breneman has been healthy and would likely start.
On defense, Whipple said Shane Huber and Steve Casali were both up to about 240. He also likes the JUCO's that joined this supper. Whipple said the UMass coaching staff made a concerted recruiting effort for defensive linemen, but DL's are scarce. He said the defensive staff sent him a list of D-lineman they wanted to offer and he didn't think any of them were good enough to play in Amherst. All five ended up getting Power Five offers. He said it shows how competitive recruiting DL's really is.
Whipple said All-American JUCO Rod Jones arrived out of shape.
Whipple thought the return of Khary Bailey-Smith would be a good help to the young Minutemen defensive secondary.
He said Travis Reynolds could be the back up punter, kicking Australian Rugby style.
I'll have more on the practice and some images in tomorrow's blog post.
Dan also has a report on why national outlets have UMass at the bottom of the FBS heap. No mystery for UMass fans. National writers don't do much but reviews the stats. The Minutemen lost most of their offensive numbers when Frohnapfel and Sharpe graduated. With the toughest schedule in the Group-of-five, and little in the way of returning firepower, the Minutemen would be ranked low. Let's just prove everyone wrong.
