Two year UMass Football Captains

One of he nice things about running the UMass Football Blog is meeting former UMass players and coaches. Earlier this year I exchanged e-mails with former UMass player and Coach Jerry Gordon.

His 1981 Captain's image is in the UMass Historical section of this blog. Gordon walked on to the football team and was the last lineman chosen. He told me "I worked hard, and good things happened." Gordon ended up being one of the few two year UMass Captains.

This year, the UMass players elected Junior Brandon Collier one of 2008's captains. So he has a chance to join a select few UMass players who have been two-year captains. I went through the UMass historical roster twice and did not find a three year captain.

UMass Two-Year Captains:

• Bill Durkin '92,'93
• Jerry Gordon '81,'82
• Ed McAleny "74,"75
• Khari Samuel "97,'98
• Serge Tikum "04,"05
• Brandon Collier '08,?

Did I miss anyone?

Tuesday News--February 16th, 2010

Former UMass two time Captain and assistant coach Jerry Gordon has a new book out:"Coaching the Under Front Defense". Be sure to check out Gordon's bio on the Amazon link.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jacksonville.com has a long and interesting story about former UMass nose tackle and assistant coach Joe Cullen. Lots of UMass connections in the article.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another Michigan post on Bleacher Report predicts an easy win by the Wolverines over UMass.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There will be some rule changes from the NCAA this year concerning taunting and eye black. Eye black?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The University of Texas at San Antonio just signed their first recruiting class. The Roadrunners plan to play two years in FCS starting in 2011 and be in FBS by 2015.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday News---- February 26th, 2010

Former UMass Captain and assistant coach Jerry Gordon is in the news again. He's just been appointed HC at Woodgrove HS in VA. Well, we know one HS where UMass recruiters will always be welcome! Congrats to Jerry!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FWTW, a Bleacher Report columnist says "UMass is clearly the best choice for Big East expansion".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chattanooga made its pitch and now awaits the decision on if it will host the National Championship game. They think it went well.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eastern Washington went through with it and is installing red turf.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Philadelphia Eagles have released Brian Westbrook. He was one of the best FCS/I-AA players I have ever seen. Mrs Blog and I went to the Villanova game in 2001 down on the Mainline and Westbrook was the whole Wildcat team in a 47-13 rout of the Minutemen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This year's FBS opponent Michigan may be in some major hot water with the NCAA due to "potentially serious' rules violations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delaware basketball still sucks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This first came to my attention over at Draft Daddy. Learn "Combine football speak"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Former UMass assistant Robert Talley appointed Head Coach at Stonehill

Former UMass assistant Coach Robert Talley has been appointed Head Coach at Stonehill College.

San Francisco Chronicle has an article here. The Boston Globe here . The Brockton Enterprise here.

He was an assistant coach at UMass from 1992-95. Delaware Assistant Head Coach Ben Albert was a senior at UMass in 1994. Also on the UMass coaching staff in 1994 was Duke's current head coach Ted Roof.

The image above is a scan from the 1993 UMass football press guide. Right Click for a larger view.

Coaches shown:Front row (L-R) John Strollo, Doug Berry,Todd Rundle, Bill McGovern. Back row (L-R): Head coach Mike Hodges, Jerry Gordon, Robert Talley, Bobby Erhardt and Jerry Assinaro.

Wednesday News ---April 28th, 2010

Good Morning from snowy Jaffrey. The weather service is calling for two to five inches upstate.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony Nelson has tryouts with both Washington and Cleveland (last paragraph).

Chris Shores of MassLive.com says Vladimir Ducasse may be in line for a starter's role with the Jets.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scott Sicko's holdout didn't last long. He signed a free agent contract with Dallas.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Craig Haley has apparently taken over the FCS post at "The Sports Network" from David Coulson.

His first FCS article about FCS players taken in the draft is here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over on the "Smart Football Blog", former UMass coach Jerry Gordon has an article on defending the I-formation (includes some UMass references).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The CAA blogger has his latest post on CAA Spring football here.

He also has a list of undrafted CAA free agents (up to the 27th) at the end of this article.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am sad to report that a couple of MIT scientists have discovered a fatal flaw in invisibility cloaks. Don't buy an invisibility cloak without reading this first!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Stuff from the UMass Athletic Dept.

The official UMass football page has a link to the 2007 video highlights.

It also has a link to this year's Don Brown football Camps.

Blog Notes: Under the "It's a small world Dept."----In Wednesday's blog post about defending the spread offense one of the articles was written by none other than Jerry Gordon former two-time UMass Captain and assistant coach.

Ray Benoit

Special thanks to Jerry Gordon for alerting me about the passing of Ray Benoit.

Benoit's Republican obituary.

Ray Benoit played as a true freshman on UMass' 1978 National Championship team. He won letters in 1978, '79 and '81. He was first team All-Yankee conference at NT in 1979 and second team All-Yankee in 81.

RIP Ray.

UMass History -------1981

I've added ten scans from UMass game programs in 1981 to the UMass History link in the sidebar. Double click on the first 1981 image and then use the arrow keys to view that group. Click on the above image for a larger view.

The Minutemen went 6-3 that year (note that was the last year we only played nine games) and were 4-1 in the Yankee Conference and won UMass' 13th Yankee Conference Championship.

In the images displayed, we lost to Rhode Island 10-16 and beat Dartmouth 10-8.

Gary Pearson was first team All-American that year. He rushed for 1,026 yards. Captains Peter DiTommaso and Jerry Gordon are active in the UMass Friends of Football.

One sad note is that UMass center Victor Pizzotti recently passed away.

UPDATE: As pointed out by "Brad82" over on AGS, #56 OG for the Rams was Mike Dwyer. He later transferred to UMass and was moved to NG. He was first team All-Yankee Conference and First Team All-American for us in 1985. He wore #71 for UMass.