Recruiting 2017--Cole McCubrey IV

I've blogged about UMass commit Cole McCubrey before.

This article from the Worcester Telegram has some news about his 2016 season.

Quote from the article:

"McCubrey, for the second consecutive year, leads Central Mass. in rushing and is closing in on another 2,000-yard season. McCubrey has over 5,600 yards in his career and has a chance to set a new Central Mass. record."

Recruiting 2017--Cole McCubrey III

The Worcester Telegram has a post on 2017 verbal Cole McCubrey's signing with UMass.

I've blogged about McCubery's verbal and recruiting information before.

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Recruiting 2017--Cole McCubrey V

image by ESPN.com

UMass commit Cole McCubrey was named to the second team All-Massachusetts team by USA Today. (fixed spelling and link, apologies for the errors.)

McCubreybroke two Massachusetts football records this fall.

Also named to the Massachusetts "Super 26".

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UMass Recruiting 2017--Cole McCubrey verbals to UMass

Twitter image

The Minutemen pick up their second verbal in 24 hours. Cole McCubery Tweets he's committed to UMass.

I just blogged about McCubery Friday.

UPDATE: McCubery also excels in discus and shot put.

Season football stats from this December 15th article.

Congrats to Mike and Cole. Hope to see 'em on the field when we beat BC and UConn.

UMass Football News--December 5th, 2017

Matty Vautour has an article about UMass football having an interesting off season.

He mentions the possibility that UMass defensive coordinator Ed Pinkham could get an offer from another staff. While UMass could not match a Power Five offer, the Minutemen currently do not have a "assistant head coach". UMass could offer him a raise or extension and the assistant head coach title. I would hope UMass could keep him. The two best wins of 2017, and they were the two best wins of the program in the FBS era, were Appalachian State and BYU. Both games were defensive gems.

Matty mentions the Minutemen will have six QB's on the roster if no one leaves. Andrew Ford has already said he's staying. Ross Comis, Randall West and JUCO Mike Curtis are currently on the roster. UMass adds Jake Pallotta and Josiah Johnson.

Matty says Whipple stated he's received some feelers about grad transfers and is looking at some JUCO's on defense and punter.

He mentions possible breakout players for 2018. Jordan Fredericks joins the running backs.

Chinedu Ogbonna and Jake Byczko will be available for the defensive line. Ogbonna played in eleven games in 2017 and Byczko in twelve. Byczko had 23 TT and three TFL. Ogbonna had 10 TT.

At linebacker, Mike Ruane and Cole McCubrey will complete for playing time. McCubrey had 14 TT and appeared in eleven games. Ruane appeared in ten and had one tackle.

Claudin Cherulis, Xavier Steele and Tyrus Lebeau will be available at Safety. Steele appeared in seven games and five TT. Cherulus and Lebeau redshirted.

Chris Hunt and Brian Roberts will join the cornerbacks.

Brian Abosi joins the offensive line.

Zak Simon, Silky Brown and Melvin Hill will join the receiving corps.

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The UMass Daily Collegian has a post about Whipple's extension.

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UMass Football News--July 13th, 2020

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Matty Vautour reports on if UMass will still get the $1.9 million guarantee from Auburn if the game is not played and concludes it's complicated.

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The Republican American reports UConn football is in a tight spot.

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OAnow.com looks at local players on FBS rosters around the country including Justin Lewis at UMass. Lewis' UMass bio.

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The Deseret News reports BYU's broadcast partner ESPN is expected to help the Cougars find replacement opponents after the PAC-12 and the Big Ten cancel games with BYU.

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A North Carolina State site previews common opponent Troy.

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As of three days ago, there has been no changes to the University of Albany and the CAA schedule.

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The State of New Mexico cancels high school football for 2020.

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Flywareage.com picks the best player from each of Auburn's 2020 and chooses Cole McCubrey from UMass. McCubrey's UMass bio.

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Recruiting 2017--Cole McCubrey

Image by Leominster Telegram

Cole McCubery, a 6-0 220 pound LB/FB from Boylston, MA has announced on Twitter he has received an offer from the Minutemen.

NCSA recruiting page has stats.

Hudl.com has video.

This article from November of 2015 features McCubery.

UMass Football News--September 26th, 2018

Bryton Barr and Michael Curtis were named as two of the three UMass student-athletes of the week.

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UMass has their game notes for Ohio up.

The Ohio site has a transcript of Bobcat coach Frank Solich's UMass game press conference.

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Josh Walfish reports on the new faces in the Minutemen linebacker corps. Tyris Lebeau and Xavier Steele are out with injuries. Jarell Addo is still suspended (maybe back for Ohio?). Getting more reps are Chinedu Ogbonna and Cole McCubrey.

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The Charlotte Observer tells what went wrong for the 49ers against UMass

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The Daily Collegian says UMass considers Ohio to be a big test.

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WOUB reports Ohio is looking for a bounce back win.

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The Post has power rankings for the MAC for week #5. Ohio is #5 and Buffalo (!?) is #1.

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UMass' win over Charlotte moved the Minutemen out of CBS' Bottom 25 poll.

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USA Today predicts bowl games for Georgia, BYU, BC, USF, FIU and Coastal Carolina.

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UMass Football News--March 14th, 2022

 Former UMass linebacker Cole McCubrey prepares for his Pro Day.

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Former UMass athletic dept intern and assistant cheer leading coach Maddy McCormack is now director of recruiting operations at Florida State.

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The New England Football Journal finds Coach Brown's enthusiasm for football is as strong as ever.

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College Football News ranks UMass as #3 in the combined Football-Basketball misery index.

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An Army football player is hospitalized after over dosing on cocaine laced with fentanyl.

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September 28th, 2018

Click on the poster and Blogger displays a larger view.

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Josh Walfish has his weekly "Inside the Pressbox" feature with a Ohio beat writer.

He also has a UMass history article on the UMass-Buffalo game from the 1998 National Championship season.

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Our former friends from "Hustle Belt" thinks Ohio will cover the spread Saturday.

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The Post thinks Ohio will hold off UMass "rather easily".

The Post also has a football mailbag article about the UMass game.

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Minutemen MLB Cole McCubrey is the focus of this article by the Worcester Telegram.

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Bleacher Report picks UMass over the Bobcats 38-30.

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Athlon Sports picks Ohio over the Minutemen 33-14.

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State of the U power ranks USF #3 and FIU #7 in State-of-Florida schools.

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UMass Football News--July 24th, 2020

Cole McCubrey and Solomon Siskind appear on the Wuerffel Trophy Watch List.

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The New Mexico governor asks New Mexico and New Mexico State not to play college football in 2020. UMass plays both those teams this year and New Mexico State is a fellow independent. New Mexico State's canceling their season would eliminate a possible home-and-home with UMass if the Minutemen should try to play an Independents-only schedule.

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Travel restrictions, testing and canceled games are making life difficult for UConn.

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HERO Sports has 50 teams that have never appeared the the NCAA preseason top-25 poll. UMass is one of them.

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The NCAA Board of Governors could vote today to cancel Fall championships. That would cancel all football below FBS level. It could also result in a permanent   break between the NCAA and the Power Five schools.

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Barry Alvarez warns Wisconsin's athletics are "at risk" if the college football season is canceled.

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UMass Football News--February 9th, 2019

 Coach Bell also said at the UMass Signing Day event that the Minutemen would play a base 3-4 defense plus "situational". I have no idea how the coaching staff will populate the three-four. My guess would be Isaiah Rogers will start at one corner and the other 10 positions are up for grabs. Maybe Chinedu Ogbonna and Penn State transfer Jarvis Miller at OLB and Cole McCubrey and Mike Ruane at ILB?

Bell also mentioned 2019 recruit Xavier Gonsalves could play LB in some situations. Since UMass had zero pass rush in 2018, I would think we will see a lot of LB blitzes this year.

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The UMass website has a 2019 Winter roster up. It does not have the Spring enrollees so I would think further updates will occur.

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Brandon London and the "Daily Blast Live".

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Football Scoop has the best recruiting classes for all Ten FBS conferences. Recruiting matters. Toledo has had the top recruiting class in in the MAC the last three years. The Rockets won the MAC title all three years.

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SB Nation has the best and worst recruiting classes relative to each FBS conference.

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Tanner Davis is a determined walk-on for UMass. I've blogged about Davis before.

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Spencer Whipple joins the Cardinals as a quality control coach

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UMass football News--October 14th, 2020

 

UMass chooses Larnel Coleman, Samuel Emilus, Cole McCubrey, Ellis Merriweather and Josh Wallace as 2020 team Captains. The Minutemen have not had a sophomore captain or a first year transfer captain in a long time, if ever. Hopefully they embody a new spirit in the team.

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UMass has released the following images as the depth chart for Georgia Southern

I would not get too excited about the details of this release. I think nearly all the "ors" will play and there might be some names missing due to injury. It's rare (or unheard of) for a team to come out of camp with 100% of the players available.

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Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle says Bell is not ready to commit to a starting QB. He points out only Mike Fallon has had more than a limited number of reps with the offense. I still think we'll see a lot of the younger QB's this season, if not necessarily at Georgia Southern.

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Mike Moran of  the Gazette also has a post on the QB situation.

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The Augusta Journal says GSU has questions about UMass.

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Game Day--Southern Illinois 2019

The cloud cover is already broken up here in NH, so the weather should be fine by game time.

I'm looking for UMass to continue to run the rock. I exciting about seeing new RB's Cam Robinson and Kevin Brown play.

Looking for a crisper passing game with a continuation of spreading the receptions around.

On defense, we should be able to get some pressure on the QB against a FCS team. Better linebacker coverage when the defense rushes three men would be an improvement over last week.

The defense did force three turnovers last week. let's keep that going. West Virginia transfer Jordan Adams might be able to play and that will make the UMass defensive secondary even stronger.

I'm excited about hearing the UMass band and being back on the press box side of the stadium.

Let's go UMass!!

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Josh Walfish reports the inexperienced UMass secondary learns lessons from the Rutgers game.

The Berkshire Eagle says UMass returns home to face SIU.

Click on Detroit has some ATS and over-and-under factoids for the Saluki-Minutemen game.

The Worcester Telegram has a mention of Cole McCubrey's team-leading ten tackles against Rutgers.

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the Southern Illinois game.

The Southern reports both UMass and Southern Illinois feature rookie starters under center.

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Up here in Milford, NH Comcast is showing the game available on NESN+

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UMass Football News--December 19th, 2017

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on tomorrow's Early Signing Day.

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Mike also has a post on Ryan Bamford's question-and-answer session from yesterday.

Several point are relevant to UMass Football: He's working on more package football and basketball series. This is a smart move. Scheduling games as an Independent can be difficult. Bundling makes us more attractive and gives us options with scheduling. 2016 is a year when we had no options and we don't want that situation to reoccur.

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My wish list for recruiting starting with tomorrow's early signing (and/or February's LOI ) Day:

1. Recruits for the front seven on defense. I liked the work of Joe Previte and Jake Byczko this year.  Cole McCubrey and Jarell Addo also showed promise. We've had two HC's since we moved to FBS. Both coaches were offensive guys. In six years of FBS football, I can only remember one game (Georgia Southern) where we offensively blew out the other team. All the rest of our wins were defensive grinds. We scored 95 points against Ohio and FIU and lost both games.

2. A kicker. Consider Temple; we've played twice and twice played well enough to win. Temple had a kicker and we didn't. I'm not asking for an All-American, but we can surely ask for a guy as good as the Owls have.

3.  A tight end. Whipple's offense works best with a pass-catching TE. Travis Reynolds looks like a good athlete, but did not get targeted a lot, which is understandable with Breneman on the roster. If we don't have a pass-catching TE on the roster, then we need a transfer or JUCO.

4. A JUCO or transfer offensive lineman, preferably a RG to pair with Jack Driscoll so we can get our running game going.

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Former UMass QB James Sosinski is doing well as a forward on Kansas' hoops team.

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OT, but Georgia HC Mark Fox said it wasn't UMass, it was the schedule. Somehow we never play good, the opposing team is always off their game.

BTW, I like what's happening with UMass Hoops and Hockey. I was expecting a 8-22 season with basketball, but if UMass keeps playing like they did Saturday, the Minutemen could get an NIT bid.

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UMass Football News--October 2nd, 2020

 Mike Moran reports UMass senior linebackers Cole McCubrey and Mike Ruane are excited to be back.

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The UMass Daily Collegian's staff discusses the Minutemen's return to football and the outlook for the fall season.

The Collegian also has an update from the first week of practice.

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The Boston Herald says Coach Bell is doing a makeover of the Minutemen and the QB position is up for grabs.

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If you missed it, Andy Isabella had two TD's against the Lions last week.

Fan Sided says Andy is finding a role in the Cardinals offense.

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The Denver Broncos placed Elijah Wilkinson on injured reserve.

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" looks at the Madden ratings for Minutemen alumni in the NFL.

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Gee, actual UMass football news!

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UMass Football News--August 25th, 2017

A quick look at the UMass-Hawaii game:

Most football pundits (and Las Vegas) rate the two teams as pretty even. The comparisons somewhat show the tough schedule UMass plays as an independent. Hawaii had a feel-good season last year they went 7-5 and won a bowl game, yet the Minutemen played them pretty even. The Warriors did that with a #79th ranked overall offense and a #112 ranked overall defense. They lost to Michigan, San Diego State and Boise State by a combined total of 19-170.

This year they return eight starters on offense including QB Dru Brown (335-209 2,488 19 TD's) and Diocemy Saint Juste who rushed for 1,006 yards and 3 TD's. Last November the Warriors offense rang up 479 yards of offense and averaged 7.5 yards a play against the UMass defense.

On defense, Hawaii returns five starters. They have a new defensive coordinator this year. Hawaii also lost four-year kicker Rigo Sanchez who punted, kicked off and kicked field goals.

My take is this game is that it will come down to the UMass defense. Last year after UMass had scored twice late in the fourth quarter, the Warriors took only three plays to go 78 yards for the game-winning TD.  The UMass defense got beat over-the-top several times in that game. Hawaii was also 4-4 in fourth down attempts.

UMass can win tomorrow if the Minutemen defense can play better. A stronger UMass running game would help control the clock and keep Hawaii's offense on the sidelines. I think UMass can win this game, but it's going to be a nail-biter. Someone from the UMass defense needs to make a play.

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Kevin Dillon of MassLive reports UMass is ready to open its 2017 season against Hawaii.

Matty Vautour says it'll be a rematch of last November's showdown.

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Keepers College football ratings has UMass the favorite by 3.3.

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SB Nation reports UMass and Hawaii will be playing a 20,000 mile home-and-home.

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The Boston Herald says A.D. Ryan Bamford has confidence in Mark Whipple.

The Herald also report UMass players Ford and Breneman look to revive the UMass program.

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The Worcester Telegram relates Leominster's Jerell Addo is embracing life as a UMass LB.

The Telegram also says freshman LB Cole McCubrey could contribute right away.

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Saturday Blitz has three things to watch for in Hawaii-UMass game.

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Sportsnaut has the most dangerous Group-of-Five players in the country. It includes UMass' Adam Breneman as well as Hawaii's Jahlani Tavai. UMass fans will also get to see Old Dominion's Ray Lawry, USF's Quinton Flowers and Appalachian State's Jalin Moore.

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The Knoxville News-Sentinel says in most seasons, UMass would be the weakest team on Tennessee's 2017 schedule.

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Former UMass RB Sekai Linsay gets a lot of coverage in this article on Florida Tech's fifth season.

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UMass Athletics announces some strategic leadership changes.

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UMass Football News--July 24th, 2018

The UMass website has a post on Bryton Barr being named to the Butkus Award Watch list.

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts' also has entry on Barr being named to the watch list.

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Outside of Joe Previte, the Minutemen returns only one career start for the rest of the available defensive linemen. Will UMass stick with the 4-3 or move to the 3-4? There are also not a lot of career starts available in the linebackers except for Bryton Barr and Jarell Addo.

Returning are:

Bryton Barr SRGR 12-12 GP-GS 45 AT 50 UT 105 TT 9-42 TFL 5 SACKS 1 INT 1 FF.

Jarell Addo RSSR 12-11 GP-GS 32 UT 35 AT 67 TT 1-8 SACKS 8-24 TFL 6 BKUP 1 FF

Cole McCubrey SO 11-0 GP-GS 10 AT 4 UT 14 TT 2 FF

Chinedu Ogbonna SO 12-1 GP-GS 5 AT 5 UT 10 TT 0.5-0 TFL 0.5 SACKS

Mike Ruane SO 10-0 GP-GS 1 AT

James Bowe JR 10-0 GP-GS 1 BKUP

Darian Green FR.

Michael Nesmith FR.

Da'Shon Ross FR

Adam Tucker RSSO DNP in 2017

 If the Minutemen start Addo, Barr and Ogbonna the UMass LB's will be 6-1 200, 6-0 225 and 6-2 215 respectively.

Boston College's reported starters will be Connor Strachan 6-0 240, John Lamont 6-0 240 and Davon James 5-11 230.

 The Minutemen do not have a lot of size in the linebacker corps. They also could move  Leon Flanagan 6-2 220 to LB.

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Penn Live has a short piece on Andrew Ford being named to the Davey O'Brien Watch list.

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Boston College has been picked fourth in the ACC East Division for 2018.The last few years the Eagles have been picked at the bottom of the ACC East.

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Friday--February 3rd, 2017

Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle on UMass' 2017 recruiting class.

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DA Online has an article on how coaches recruit with a backup plan. Mentions UMass recruit Chris Hunt.

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The Union Leader mentions UMass walk-on Jake Froehlich.

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The Telegram cover UMass signeee Cole McCubrey and has some video. Like the UMass banner in the background.

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SOME THAT GOT AWAY

UMass target Jaylen Hall signed with Western Michigan.

Gerrick Vollmer signs with Virginia.

Sekai Lindsay signs with DII Florida Tech.

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