UMass 30-10

Click on the image and Blogger displays a much larger view.

Great day at McGuirk. I got to meet Kumar Davis' dad and the guy (I missed his name) who runs the Springfield Republican's website.

Kyle Havens was on fire in the first half going 15-17.

The UMass defense did not give up a touchdown and did some monster hitting. Jeromy Miles, Corey Davis and Kumar Davis all had NFL quality hits.

Tony Nelson was unstoppable in the fourth quarter.

And the UMass Marching Band's sound is just superb this year!

That's it for now. I'm pretty tired. Congrats to UMass for a great game.

Roster Changes

The UMass Athletic Dept has a revised Spring Football Roster up.

Some pleasant surprises here!

• Kevin Macon is back. He was a highly rated OL recruit who made the traveling squad as a true freshman. He should be mix for a starters position this year.
• Kumar Davis is listed in the 2008 recruits. Davis had signed a LOI with UMass, but was not listed among the recruits on the February press release. He was a Rivals and Scout.com Two star recruit. His addition makes a strong 2008 recruiting class even stronger.
• Jared Chivers---A former scout teams player who was invited to join the regular roster in 2007 now joins in '08
• Spencer Whipple-- Son of former UMass coach Mark Whipple. Adds a second left-handed QB to the UMass roster.
• Theluxon Pierre--Former UMass LOI recruit spent two years with Dean Junior College. Should make the DL even deeper.
• Andrew Kervis-- has been moved to TE as reported in several blog comments.

As far as I can see, there were no deletions from the roster list given out at the Spring Game. The addition of Kevin Macon and Kumar Davis adds two highly rated players to the 2008 UMass football squad.

Go UMass!

Bulletin! Bulletin! Kumar Davis signs with UMass

Whoa! UMass lands a two star RB/Safety from Patterson NJ. Story here . Link is now fixed.

See this previous post on Davis for an action shot and more links.

Davis turned down offers from Vanderbilt and Northwestern.

Another big signing for Coach Brown and the Minutemen!

UPDATE: Davis' Rivals page is here .

UPDATE II: An older Davis article here . His Scout.com page here . Key quote from his Scout.com bio: "I like to hit and I look to knock people out."

Official notice that Kumar Davis signed with UMass

UMass has officially confirmed Saturday's blog post that Kumar Davis has signed with the Minutemen.

Worth reading as it adds a number of All-Star teams not previously reported.

Still some recruiting to go, I'll bet.

UMass recruit RB Kumar Davis mentioned in Governor's Bowl

I've blogged before about UMass recruit Kumar Davis. He recently played and scored a TD in New York-New Jersey Governor's Bowl.

Newsday has a story here .

SuperPrep has another story here .

Burlington Conty Times has yet another here .

I'm looking forward to seeing him play for UMass!

Recruiting 2008 ------ Kumar Davis S/TB

Kumar Davis a 5-10 203 pd DB/TB from Paterson NJ took a recruiting visit to UMass on 02/09/08. He's a Scout.com two star recruit.

He is also being recruited by Stanford. His Scout.com page is here . If he gets into to Stanford, he's going to accept.

Another article about him and Stanford here .

Stanford is not doing well in signing players they recruited .

Nice to be competing with PAC10 schools for players. Hope he chooses UMass.

UMass defensive backfield talented and deep

Image taken by me at UMass Media Day. Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

Matty Vautour has an article on the UMass defensive backfield here .

UMass returns three starters and they all made preseason All-Conference.

Courtney Robinson CB 6-0 196. He had 27 UT 21 AT 4.5 TFL 1.5 sacks 3-39 INT and 6 pass breakups in '07. He's also a talented kickoff returner. Robinson is third in UMass career return average (24.6) and seventh in total career return yards (984). Robinson was a honorable mention All-American in 2007

Sean Smalls CB 6-1 190. Smalls had 31 UT 18 AT 49 TT 2.5-7 TFL 2-90 INT. He played as a true freshman and has started the last 28 games. He was a 2007 honorable mention All-American.

Jeromy Miles FS 6-2 207. He was First-Team All-East and ECAC Freshman player-of-the-Year at Navy. Last year at UMass he had 38 UT 29 AT 67 TT 4 FF 2.5-3 TFL and 10 PD. A big hitter, Miles is a preseason honorable metion All-American.

Brian Ellis ROV 6-0 210. Former linebacker moved to SS. In 2007 he had 20 UT 22 AT 25 TT 1-5 sacks 1-5 TFL 1-3 INT and 4 PD. Ellis is a good player who should shine at strong safety.

The top backups in Coach Brown's DB heavy roster include:

Reshaud Goodwin 5-11 186. In 2007 Goodwin had 2 UT 4 AT 6 TT 1 PBU. He's a likely starter at CB on 2009. Excellent speed.

Corey Davis 5-11 190. Davis had 12 UT 4 AT 16 TT in 2007. Usually plays a the nickle cornerback. Also plays special teams.

Eric Dickson 5-11 205. Dickson had 1 UT 5 AT and 6 TT as a backup safety in 2007.

Shane Viveiros 6-0 205. Has been mentioned several times by Coach Brown as being in the mix for playing time in 2008.

Other DBs on the roster include:

• Keron Brown SR 6-0 185
• James Carven RSo 6-0 200
• David Cozzo Fr 5-10 165
• Kumar Davis Fr 6-0 220
• Dan McLaughlin Fr 6-0 215
• Darren Thellin Fr 6-2 195

UMass DB are one of the top units in FCS/I-AA. I'm excited about watching them play against pass happy Holy Cross and Texas Tech.

The State of UMass 2010 ---Defensive backfield

We have reached the second-to-last unit review for 2010. This time we consider the defensive backfield.

Losses for 2010:

• Jeromy Miles-Walter Camp All-American, All-New England, First Team All-CAA, 47 career starts including all 36 games at UMass, third on the team in 2009 with 62 TT.
  
• Cory Davis- Started all 11 games in 2009, led team with 6 BrUps, 24 TT.

Returning defensive backs:

• Ke'Mon Bailey-RS SR, played in 11 games-10 starts, 38 TT, 5 BrUp, 4.5-15 TFL
• Woody Carter IV JR Played in last seven games-0 starts, 4 TT
• James Carven RS SR-Played in 8 games-0 starts, 8 TT
• David Cozzo RS SR- Played in all 11 games-0 starts, 8 TT, 1 TFL
• Kumar Davis RS SOPH-Played in 9 games-1 start, 26 TT, 2 TFL, 1 INT
  
• Tory Esalomi RS SR-Played in all 11 games-0 starts, 3 TT, also returned kick-offs.
• Darren Thellen RS SOPH-Played in 11 games- 7 starts, 8th on team in TT (38), 1 INT
• Shane Viveiros RS JR-Played in 7 games-4 starts, 2 TFL, 1 INT
• Warren Wilson RS JR-Played in all 11 games-0 starts, 8 TT
  

New players available in 2010:

• Christian Birt RS FR
• Ryan Carter RS FR
• Mike Lee RS FR
• Thad McCummings RS FR

Discussion:

I would think Viveiros and Thellen will be the SS and FS respectively. KeMon Bailey should return to his starting postion at one corner. Esalomi, Cozzo, Wilson and Carven are candidates for the remaining CB position. We do return four players who had starts in 2009.

I need to see the RS FR play in the Spring Game to form any opinions on them. Despite the loss of Miles, I think the 2010 edition of the UMass defensive backfield should be pretty good. The unit needs to play every game and avoid meltdowns like Delaware and Hofstra.

Monday News ----- August 2nd, 2010

Wow! It's finally August. It's finally time for football camp next week. In the Blog's view, life is better when there is football.

The Milford Daily News has an article about two sets of NaticK twins on the UMass football team. Tim Brandt and Tom Brandt are RS FR linebackers . Thad McCummings is a RS FR DB, while his brother Theo will have to sit out a year after transferring up from DIII.

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

UMass HC Kevin Morris starts a weekly interview with CBS3 Springfield.

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

Holy Cross now has a Football Blog.

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

A Bleacher Report writer asks if Vilanova will get some votes in the AP College Football Poll.

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

The Virginia Gazette says predictions aside, let the games begin for William & Mary.

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

Catching up on the players countdown. Wearing number 35 for UMass this year will be Stanley Andre, a 6-1 250 pd FR LB from Dorchester, MA. Andre is a 2010 recruit.

Wearing #34 for the Minutemen will be Kumar Davis, a 6-0 215 pd SR DB from Nutley, NJ. Davis played in nine games in 2009 and started one. He went 17 UT 9 AT 26 TT 1.5-2 TFL 1-0 INT.

Wearing #33 for UMass will be Mike Mele, a 6-0 218 pd SR LB from Sea Girt, NJ. Mele played in 3 games in 2009 started in 1. He had 3 UT 8 AT 8 TT 0.5-1 TFL 1 Fumble RCV.

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

Saturday New --- 04/04/09

Woah!, A genuine 2009 UMass football article by Jeff Thomas on the opening of UMass Spring practice.

He reports that Warren Wilson and Ke'Mon Bailey have been moved to CB. With the apparent academic loss of Reshaude Goodwin, UMass is thin at that position. Corey Davis probably has a good shot at one corner and freshman Darren Thellen and Kumar Davis will be in the mix.

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

Lots of players are failing drug tests at the recent Pro Days including Boston College's potential first round draft pick B.J. Raji.

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

The Joe Yukia New Hampshire chapter of the NFL foundation will honor 17 New Hampshire scholar-athletes including UMass recruit Christian Birt.

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

Dave Coulson in his "Around FCS" column thinks that the Villanova football team as well as the Wildcat hoops team may make some noise in 2009.

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

Redshirt Freshman 02/09/08

No UMass news on the wires this morning. I thought it would be interesting to look at 2008's redshirt freshmen. Note that the roster list has not yet been updated for spring. I have no information about any gains or losses after the season ended.

Defense:

1. D.J. Adeoba LB. DJ was praised by Coach Brown in one of his radio shows. Adeoba and one of the few freshman to get significant playing time, Tyler Holms, could start in 2009. A Rivals two star recruit in '08
   
2. C.J. Burnley DB. No bio on the roster
   
3. Chris Chamberlin LB/LS. First Team All-New England and numerous honors in HS.
4. Nick Collouri DL. No bio on the roster
5. Kumar Davis DB. A Rivals two star recruit in '08. Should be in line for some playing time this year.
6. Nick Haag LB. No bio on the roster
7. Dan McLaughlin DB. No bio on roster
8. Darren Thellen DB. Could also be in the mix for playing time in the defensive backfield
9. Charles Thompson DL. Thompson was a Rivals listed player and a member of numerous HS All-star squads. With UMass losing two starters on the DL to graduation, he should be in the mix for significant playing time.

Players without bios are probably walkons. Adeoba, Chamberlin, Davis and Thompson should be players to watch in the Spring Game. With no defensive JUCO's or I-A transfers so far, those players should be the available reinforcements for 2009.

Matty Vautour took a look ahead to 2009's possible new starters back on 11/25/08.

UPDATE: Did you ever think about staying in school and getting an advanced degree?-- No? ----- Good choice.

Wednesday News------ August 25th, 2010

Matty Vautour says UMass' media agreement with CBS3 is kinda a big deal. WSHN-TV has another story on the UMass digital sports availability.

Video Sports Group has more details.

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

Matty also has a story about UMass' starting safeties Darren Thellen (RS SO 6-2 200) and Shane Viveiros (RS JR 6-0 220). Matty says Kumar Davis, James Carven and Christian Birt will see some reps.

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

The Virginia Gazette says William & Mary has depth on the offensive line. The opening game against the Tribe will feature one of the best offensive line and tailback combinations in the nation. UMass and William & Mary should have very good O-lines and John Griffin and Jonathan Grimes are the two best TB's in the league.

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

USC transfer Aaron Corp has been named the starting QB at Richmond.

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

The Sports Network previews FCS independents.

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

The City of Philadelphia is requiring bloggers to have a $300 business license if they have advertising on their blog. One blogger received a demand letter from the city even though he made a grand total of $11.00 in two years.

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

As usual, the CAA is receiving a ton of preseason honors.

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

Monday before the Richmond Game--10/19/09

Good Morning from Fredericksburg, VA. Today Mrs Blog and I will finish our trip down to Virginia Beach. The wireless connection here at the motel is running around 10%, so this morning's blog may be abbreviated.

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

The Boston Herald says the Minutemen are walking on air after the UNH win.

Foster's Daily Democrat says the Wildcats look to rebound.

Matty Vautour has three stars against UNH. Honored were Jonathan Hernandez, Eric Dickson and Armando Cuko.

Kudos also from the Blog to Kumar Davis and Stephine Milhim who also played well filling in for injured starters.

He also says defense and heart was the difference against the Wildcats.

The Springfield Republican looks at the UMass injuries.

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

Six Top-25 FCS teams lost Saturday.

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

Thursday--July 9th, 2012

Matty V. has a list of NFL preseason games with former Minutemen participating.

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

Tickets are available for UMass-UConn as of yesterday. The UMass ticket portal is here. Tickets for the UMass game are only $15.00! I just picked up tickets for Mrs Blog and I.

Let's have a big UMass contingent at Rentschler.

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

The UMass roster has some edits. Several of the true freshmen have numbers.

• Derek Beck wearing #34 (last worn by Kumar Davis)
• Jaurice Jones wearing #4 (last worn by Torey Esalomi)
• Rodney Mills wearing #22 (last worn by Jonathan Hernandez)

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

The Jets waived John Griffin.  AFAIK, Griffin DNP so far in training camp because of an injury.

ESPN has another post on Griffin.

Rich Barnes image

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

Vlad Ducasse lost his bid to be starting guard for the Jets to Matt Slauson.

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

Saturday Blitz takes another look at Stony Brook and Albany's move to the CAA.

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

Two more Penn State recruits decommit.

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

UMass football banquet

About a dozen images from the UMass football banquet are here. The lights were dialed down, so the images are somewhat grainy as I had to do some post-processing.

Before we start, I should say that I left my notes somewhere. So, I'm working from memory; if I should make a mistake on who got what for awards, a polite correction would be appreciated. Mrs. Blog has already chewed me out.

As usual, I had a good time at the banquet. I talked to several members of the UMass staff, Bill Deflavio of Friends of Football and a couple of people who read the Blog.

The turnout was about the same as last year. The food was good and everyone seemed upbeat.

UMass Friends of Football President Bill Deflavo said that the Friends of Football 100-yard club had 25+ members last year and they hope to add to that this year. The 100-yard Club members donate $1000 to UMass football. The Friends are also working on getting their website updated.

The staff members said that Coach Morris has changed a number of internal procedures since being appointed HC. The players and staff seem to enjoy the change in routine.

Every speaker mentioned the outstanding record of the graduating seniors. Players received plaques for being All-American, All-CAA and All-ECAC . I've already blogged on those awards, so I'm not going to cover them here.

Mike Hodges received a UMass football helmet for his thirty years with the program.

The award for best offensive scout team player when to Tom Gilson and the award for best defensive scout team player was given to Kumar Davis and Chris Chamberlin.

The academic achievement award went to Chris Cefalo. This was the second time Chris had won the award.

Most improved offensive player went to Victor Cruz. Most improved defensive player went to Shane Viveiros.

The Marcel Shipp Ironman award went to Vladimir Ducasse on offense and Armando Cuko on special teams. As pointed out by a kind reader, Kyle Harrington received the Ironman award on Defense.

Courtney Robinson and Brent Arnold shared the Special Teams Award.

Offensive MVP went to Tony Nelson.
Defensive MVP went to Jeromy Miles.

Liam Coen was awarded the Team MVP/Player-of-the-Year award.

They showed a 2008 highlight film done by NFL films. It focused on the senior class with clips from the National Championship game as well as 2007 and this year.

Go UMass! Only 33 days until Spring Football.

UPDATE: The UMass website has an article on the banquet here .

Delaware Daze

The superlative UMass Marching Band made the trip and dazzled the home Hen crowd with a solo routine and with a combined set with the Delaware Band. That turned out to be the highlight of the evening for UMass fans.

As for the game, UMass sure didn't look like the squad that went toe-to-toe with Kansas State for sixty minutes.

Maybe the problems of the Foolish Four had its effect after all. It did, in some part, because RFr. safety Darren Thellen started and got picked on by Devlin most of the first half. I don't know if the UMass radio feed mentioned if something was wrong with Kumar Davis. Maybe he had the flu or was nicked up? Jeromy Miles came up limping after one kickoff, and if he had not been able to continue, UMass would have been flat out of Safeties. Not having Shane Viveiros certainly hurt.

The UMass offense was out of sync all game. Mysteriously, we tried running right most of the game instead of left over our All-American tackle Vladimir Ducasse. That did not work very well---we had 15 yards rushing in the first half.

Hopefully, UMass will get its mojo back for the New Hampshire game. Whatever was missing for the Minutemen made this a tough loss to watch.

Then again, win or lose-----Go UMass!

Tuesday -- April 5, 2011

The Spring 2011 roster is up.

Additions:

• Chris Burns HB, wearing #24
• Chase Danska WR, wearing #19
• Greg Hillard LB, wearing #55
• Kellen Pagel QB, wearing #10
• Ryan Campbell DB wearing #13

Changes:

• D.J. Adeoba, now wearing #7
• Brandon Hill, now wearing #6
• Antoine Tharpe now wearing #2

Deletions:

• Devin Linsey LB
• Daniel Maynes DL
• Dawan Nolton LB
• Nick Jablonski TE 
• Mike Delaney RB
• Kumar Davis DB

Thanks to all the sharp eyed roster checkers who found some changes I missed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tyler Holmes and Thad McCummings were named MVP's of UMass' third practice.

McCummings is 5-10 210. Will he be UMass' starting fullback this year?

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

The Daily Collegian has a story on UMass' Pro Day and 2011 football schedule.

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

Two UMass recruits to play in the NY-NJ Football Classic

Two UMass recruits will be playing in the 11th annual NY-NJ All-Star Classic football game. The game will be held on Saturday, June 8th at 3:00 pm. The Press release is here . Note that the rosters listed on the page are last year's rosters.

According to the press release, UMass recruits Charles Thompson and Kumar Davis will play.

The game will be televised on Fox-NY, which is available on Dish Network channel 413 and Direct TV Channel 624.

Wednesday before William & Mary --Sept 1, 2010

Matty Vautour looks at the UMass offense and says it hopes to improve. He also has an annotated depth chart.

Offense:

• WR Julian Talley, Dan Sheeran
• LT Nick Speller, Vincent Westcarr
• LG Greg Niland, Anthony Dima
• C John Ihne, Quinton Sales
• RG Brian Ostaszewski or Josh Samuda
• RT Stephane Milhim, Sean O'Connor
• TE Emil Igwenagu or Andrew Kervis, Rob Blanchflower
• TB John Griffin or Jonathan Hernandez, Jamar Smith
• FB Scott Duggan-Thad McCummings
• QB Kyle Havens, Brandon Hill
• WR Anthony Nelson, Jesse Julmiste

Defense

• DE Brandon Potvin, Galen Clemons
• DT Kevin Byrne, Theo Agnew
• DT Brandon Flanagan, Bill Nesselt
• DE Courtney Jackson, Bob McLaughlin
• SLB Perry McIntyre, D.J. Adeoba
• MLB Mike Mele, Stanley Andre
• WLB Tyler Holmes, Chad Hunte
• CB Ke'Mon Baley, David Cozzo
• SS Shane Viveiros, Kumar Davis
• FS Darren Thellen, James Carven
• CB Mike Lee, Antoine Tharpe

Special Teams

• PK Brendon Levengood, Caleb Violette
• H Dan Sheeran
• P Caleb Violette, Jeff Strait
• LS Travis Tripucka, John Ihne
• KR Anthony Nelson and Torrey Esalomi
• PR Julian Talley
  

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

Ron Chimelis has a story featuring UMass kicker Caleb Violette. He went 1-2 50% 35 Lg Blk 1 in 2009.

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

The Boston Globe has a story on new UMass RB John Griffin. He was First-Team All-CAA and the Huskies MVP. Griffin went 207-1009 (led the CAA in regular season) and added 25-178 REC.

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

Three articles from the William & Mary side: Callahan finally gets his shot, final preparations for the Tribe and Callahan gets his chance.

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

A Michigan beat reporter from the Detroit Examiner predicts Michigan 47 UMass 17.

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

The Greenwich Times says Victor Cruz will land a job with the Giants.

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

Craig Haley has the latest edition of his "In the FCS Huddle" up.

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

Have your eye bleach handy----Offensive linemen in Speedos.

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

Add Atari Bigby to my list of favorite sports names. Back in the day, I had an Atari 800 XL, a hell-of-a computer.