Tuesday --Nov 23rd, 2010

In the spring I would kill for some football news. Yesterday there was a flood of information.

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Rhode Island officially joins the NEC.

Rhody's HC Joe Trainer was chosen CAA Coach of the Year.

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The CAA released the 2010 All-conference awards.

From the UMass website:

Junior linebacker Tyler Holmes was named the CAA Co-Defensive Player of the Year on Monday. He was also named to the CAA First-Team along with senior receiver Anthony Nelson and senior lineman Greg Niland. Junior tailback Jonathan Hernandez and junior receiver Julian Talley were on the second team and senior tailback John Griffin took third-team honors. Holmes is the first UMass player to earn league defensive player of the year honors since Shannon James was the Atlantic 10's top player in 2004. Prior to James, the last honoree was Brian Corcoran in 1994.

One notable omission:

Passing average/game

1. Kyle Havens......... UMAS SR 11 345 219   7  63.5 2692 20 244.7

Total offense

1. Kyle Havens......... UMAS SR 11  -62 2692   384  2630 239.1

Havens was also 4th in passing efficiency.

Tyler Holmes was the CAA Co-Defensive player-of-the-year.

Matty V has an article on the UMass CAA player awards.

Holmes is also a Buck Buchanan Award finalist.

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UMass also released the annual UMass football awards.

From the UMass website:


AMHERST, Mass. -- The UMass football team held its annual team banquet on Sunday as head coach Kevin Morris and his staff handed out the team awards for 2010. Junior linebacker Tyler Holmes was named the Team MVP while senior linebacker Mike Mele was named the Defensive MVP and senior receiver Anthony Nelson was honored as the Offensive MVP.

Here's a look at the team's honors from 2010:

The Team MVP was awarded to junior linebacker Tyler Holmes, who racked up 110 tackles, to tie for the team's lead with Mele. Holmes, who was a three-time CAA Defensive Player of the Week, is a top Buck Buchanan Award Candidate as the top FCS Defensive Player. Holmes led UMass in tackles for a loss with 12 for 45 yards, interceptions with five for 70 yards including two for touchdowns against Maine to set a UMass school record for a game and season. He also led UMass in sacks with five and had two forced fumbles along with six passes defended.

Defensive MVP Mike Mele tied Holmes for the team lead in tackles with 110. He had 2.5 TFLs for 17 yards along with a sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery.

Offensive MVP Anthony Nelson led UMass in receiving with 61 catches for 830 yards. He piled up a team-best 1,249 all-purpose yards. He racked up 242 yards on kickoff returns, 103 on punt returns and 74 rushing yards.

The Most Improved Defensive Player Award was shared by seniors James Carven and Brandon Flanagan. Carven started the final two games of the season, playing all 11 and finished with 35 tackles and two pass break-ups. Flanagan started all 11 games at nose tackle and had 30 tackles on the season with two passes defended.

The Most Improved Offensive Player Award went to senior quarterback Kyle Havens and sophomore center Quinton Sales. Havens threw for 2,692 yards and a 63.5 completion percentage along with 20 touchdowns. He finished with a 144.1 pass efficiency rating and 244.7 passing yards per game. Sales, started five games at center and was solid snapping the ball to Havens all season long.

The Most Valuable Players on Special Teams went to seniors Woody Carter IV and Scott Duggan. Both players was key to coverage and blocking units all season long. Carter and Duggan each made 11 tackles and made many key blocks to spring big releases on the season.

The Iron Man Award for best work in the Weight room went to Holmes and redshirt freshman Jamar Smith.

The team's Academic Awards were claimed by senior cornerback Ke'Mon Bailey and senior center John Ihne.

Offensive Scout Team Players of the Year were redshirt freshman quarterback Jesse Hunt and sophomore wide receiver James Lizotte, who transferred in from Holy Cross.

The Defensive Scout Team Player of the Year was freshman defensive back Ryan Collins.

The awards were about as I expected. I had been meaning to mention that Jamar Smith looked like he had put on some muscle. The blog is looking forward to him running the rock next year.

James Lizotte has FBS size at 6-3 210.

Not much biographical information about FR Ryan Collins. Walpole Times has an article on Collins.
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Thursday before Stony Brook----Sept 23rd, 2010

Click on the above image and Blogger displays a much large view.

I have a Picasa web album from the Michigan game here. Michigan has dire warnings about what you can take into their stadium. "Small cameras" only are allowed. I ended up taking my SLR with a short 18-200mm (28-320 effective focal length) lens. We were up in the the nose bleed seats (row 87), so my longer zoom would have been much better for photography. It turns out the ticket taker never even glanced at my camera. FWIW, check out the album.

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Matty Vautour has a story on the maturation of Kyle Havens.

It turns out I was looking at some of Kyle's stats last night. Blogger does not do columns, so the following may be a little difficult to read.

Passing average/game/2010

2. Kyle Havens......... UMAS SR 3 games 91 -62 1 INT 68.1% 738 yards 5 TD's 246.0/yards/game

Passing average/game/2009

3. Kyle Havens..........UMAS JR 10 146-264 15 INT 55.3% 1908 9 TD's 190.8/yards/game


Pass Efficiency 2010

6. Kyle Havens 152.2

Pass Efficiency 2009

11.(last in CAA) 115.9

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Remember UNH lost to Rhode Island last week? There was one eye-popping UNH stat in CAA's website

Sacks against:

9. Rhode Island........ 3 games 7 sacks 48 loss
10.New Hampshire....... 3 14 sacks 96 (14 sacks in three games !?)

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Matty also has an injury report from the Michigan game. UMass starting center John Ihne has a shoulder injury and will miss the Stony Brook game. Quinton Sales is the likely starter.

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The Sports Network's Craig Haley has a preview of some of this week's FCS games as well as general news about the Division. He also has a link to a .pdf projected 2010 playoff bracket. UMass is in it.

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The Boston Herald says UMass was in the running for former Boston College DB Isaac Johnson, but he chose Cincinnati.

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The CAA website has an article on six CAA teams ranked in the Top 10.

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The MGoBlog breaks down every Michigan defensive play against UMass. Now that's dedicated blogging!

The Maize & Brew Blog breaks down Michigan's offense against UMass.

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UMass Football News--November 28th, 2017

UMass has its game notes for FIU up.

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College TV schedules (note. The times listed on the site are Central Time) says the game will be on C-USA TV.

It's $6.95 for a one-day subscription.

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Andy Isabella needs 75 yards receiving to break 1000 yards for the season. He needs 1 yard to pass Jason Peebler 48-976 (2004). On the single season record list, 101 yards Saturday would put him 5th.

8. Jason Peebler (50-1003) 2003
7. Rasheed Rancher (49-1007) 2007
6. Victor Cruz (71-1064) 2008

Herald image

Andrew Ford has gone 193-303 2575 18 TD's 62.5 % 257.5 AVE/Game.

Ford needs one completion to pass Tim Day (194-341-17) 2004 for 10th place in single season pass completions.

9. 206 Liam Coen 2008
8. 217 Liam Coen 2006
7. 219 Kyle Havens 2010

He's already 10th in single season passing yards. Next up:

9. 2692 Kyle Havens 2010
8. 2749 Liam Coen 2008

Ford is tied for 10th in single season TD's. Next up is:

8. 20 Noel Reebenacker 1952
8. 20 Kyle Havens 2010

Ford #6 in passing completion %. Next in line is:

4. 63.5 Todd Bankhead 1995
4. 63.5 Kyle Havens 2010

Ford is #4 in passing EFF.

3. 156.3 Liam Coen 2007.

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Being a football coach is not easy or fair. Ty Detmer was stuck with a fifth-string true freshman quarterback and gets fired.

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A couple of Knoxville businesses weight in on Tennessee's coaching controversy. Mentions UMass.

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Recruiting 2009-- Kyle Havens QB

Woah! The Kevin Morris era stated with a bang as UMass just signed Kyle Havens a Rivals three star QB from Diablo Valley Community College.

Kyle Havens, a 6-5 230 pd pro-style JUCO verbaled to UMass today.

Rivals position rating of 5.5. viz. "5.7-5.5 All-Region Selection; considered among the region's top prospects and among the top 750 or so prospects in the country; high-to-mid-major prospect; deemed to have pro potential and ability to make an impact on college team "

Video highlights here .

More Diablo Valley CC offensive highlights here .

The links do work, I think we're jamming up their server.

Diablo Valley C.C. had a passing attack that ranked No. 2 in the state of California. The Vikings averaged over 425 yards and 36 points per game in 2008.

Scout.con has him as the #18 JUCO QB in the country.

Chose UMass over Hawaii, Colorado State, Marshal, Middle Tennessee, Hofstra and Eastern Michigan.

Seventeen Days to Kansas State --- 08/19/09

First off, Happy Birthday to UMass QB Kyle Havens! He turns 21 today.

Havens told a good story at the UMass Media Day yesterday. He's a California guy. When he left to report to UMass this January, he got on the airplane in San Francisco and it was 70 degrees. He gets off in New England and it's around zero----and he's wearing shorts and a tee shirt.

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The UMass Athletic Dept website has a transcript of Coach Morris' replies to questions here. The site also has a image gallery.

The Boston Herald has a media day story here.

The Springfield Republican here.

The Worcester Telegram has an article about UMass LB Eric Dickson here.

The Hampshire Gazette has an article on the QB competition. Interesting that Kyle Havens has a redshirt year to give. I didn't know that. Matt Vautour also has a blog note about Havens.

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Not much new information out of the event. Still no decision on QB. Coach Morris said he won't platoon QB's. He said we were strictly a pro-set offense, which seems to preclude having a QB run a series or two from the spread.

I only saw on player on crutches, so it looks like we're healthy so far.

Thanks to UMass SID Jason Yellin for allowing me to attend. Thanks to Josh Maurer for making a point of saying "Hi".

No report from practice. After waiting three hours, I was asked to leave as Coach Morris was closing the practice.

I'll have a image gallery up myself, probably this evening.

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I-originally-started-blogging-about-Syracuse-because-of-the-UMass-connection-but-now-it's-getting-really-weird-dept. Another player quit the Orange yesterday.
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This post on the Courant.com says UMass will play UConn at their stadium on 08/30/2012.

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The day after Michigan--Sept 19th,2010

Klick on the image and Blogger displays a much large view.

UMass writeup here.

Michigan writeup here.

More on the pregame tribute to George Parks.

Matty Vautour says the band played on.

He also said UMass was close.

The Detroit Free Press says UMass was an onside kick away from winning.

The Boston Globe says we nearly brought down the house.

AnnArbor.com says both Denard Robinson and Kyle Havens deserve three game balls.

The Michigan Daily found Ke'Mon Baily's pregame comments no longer comical.

The Detroit Free Press said Michigan's special teams and defense struggled.

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UMass had a good turnout at Michigan. I saw most of the UMass Die-Hards. There were even some who looked like students. I don't know if the team could hear us, but we made some noise.

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At one point during the game, the Michigan announcer gave the attendance. It was the 217th consecutive game at the Big House with more than 100,000 attending. Then he added: "This is currently the largest group of people watching football anywhere."

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UMass out gained Michigan 26-22 in first downs. The Minutemen averaged 4.4 yards/carry and had 439 yards of total offense----- easily UMass' best offensive effort against an FBS/I-A team.

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The UMass Blog was at Richmond last year when Kyle Havens had a terrible game against the Spiders. Yesterday, was Kyle's redemption as he went 22-29 222 2TD's. Tell Kyle he was the best FCS/I-A QB in the nation yesterday.

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The box score reveals just how tough it is for an FCS team to beat FBS team on the road. Besides the starters, take a look at player participation from UMass and Michigan:

Massachusetts: 2-A. Nelson, 4-T. Esalomi, 20-D. Sheeran, 23-S. Viveiros, 28-J. Griffin,
29-R. Carter, 39-J. Carven, 40-S. Duggan,46-C. Hunte, 49-G. Clemons, 87-R. Blanchflower,
93-B. McLaughlin, 94-C. Violette, 96-B. Levengood.

Michigan: 1G-Anderson, Tony, 2B-Talbott, T., 2J-Vinopal, Ray,
3F-Johnson, Zac,6-Stokes, Je'Ron, 7A-Hawthorne, B.,8A-Robinson, T.,
9A-Avery, Courtney, 10-Gallon, Jeremy,14-Jones, Teric, 17-Jackson, Jeremy,
19-Grady, Kelvin, 21-Hemingway, J.,23-Simmons, Floyd, 25-Demens, Kenny, 30-Rogan,
Doug, 34-Gibbons, B., 42-Fitzgerald, J.,43-Hagerup, Will, 44-Moundros, Mark,
46-Broekhuizen, S., 49-McColgan, John, 52-Leach, Kevin,55-Black, Jibreel,
56-Barnum, Ricky, 57-Mealer, Elliott,59-Gyarmati, Paul, 73-Campbell, W.,
75-Schofield, M., 76-Washington, Q., 77-Lewan, Taylor, 80-Webb,
Martell, 82-Miller, Ricardo,86-Koger, Kevin, 91-Pomarico, Tom, 95-Sagesse,
R., 99-Patterson, Adam.

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Michigan is going to hammer Bowling Green.

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Best quote by a Michigan Fan. As we were leaving the stadium, a group
of Michigan fans were going the other direction

One said "If this was Ohio State, they'd be torching your car".

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Great game by the UMass O-line and the running backs. We flat ran
over a very good Big Ten team.

Despite what you hear from some high-priced TV commentary, it's hard to tell
what a team's game plan was.However, to me, it looked as if UMass was trying to
contain Denard Robinson's running first.

To me, it looked if UMass DB's had to do a lot of one-on-one coverage.
I think that was the reason whyMichigan was able to complete some of those long passes.

Kudos to the UMass defense, who battled all day.

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In the scoring poll on the Blog, 507 people voted and only 11 got the point spread right...

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At breakfast Anthony Nelson's father was staying at the same motel we were and he noticed
our UMass gearand made it a point to come over and say "Hi".

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Monday before Delaware--Nov 8th, 2010

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

The UMass Daily Collegian said Kyle Havens led UMass over Maine.

They also said defensive stops were a key to the victory.

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Tyler Holmes was named National Defensive player-of-the-week by College Performance Awards. Kyle Havens was honorable mention QB of the week and Ryan Carter was named kick returner of the week. Whew! UMass writeup here.

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Delaware picked up one vote in the AP College football poll.

Delaware Online's Kevin Tresolini says the Hens current eight wins puts them in the playoffs. With one of Delaware's wins a victory over a DII school, the blog is not certain of that.

TSN's Craig Haley feels Delaware's K.C. Keeler is one of the favorites for the Eddie Robinson Award (Top Coach in FCS).

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Somethings-got-to-give dept: UMass leads the CAA in total offense 3,614 yards 27 TD's 401.6 yards/game; Delaware is #1 in total defense 2,231 yards 7 TD's 247.9 yards/game. Latest CAA stats here.

BTW, the Hens Andrew Pierce leads the CAA in rushing with 195-1014 5.2 AVE 12 TD 112.7 yards/game. Stopping Pierce will be the UMass defense's top priority.

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Keepers College Football rankings have Delaware as #1 and UMass as #14.

He has the Hens by 10.24 over the Minutemen.

The Dunkle Sports Index has the Hens as #2 and UMass as #10.

The College Coaches FCS Poll and TSN's poll won't be out until later today.

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Heck, any football fan could have told them that.

Beer lubricated the rise of civilization.

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Monday--October 20th, 2014

UMass Marching Band

If someone were to ask me who the best team in the MAC is so far in the 2014 season, I would reply the Toledo Rockets.

Toledo is 4-3, but their three losses are to Missouri, Cincinnati and Iowa State. They've beaten Ball State, Western Michigan and Central Michigan. The Rockets also hung 54 points on New Hampshire. UNH is undefeated in FCS and is a good bet to win the CAA North and probably the CAA title and auto-bid.

The Vegas early line is the Rockets over UMass by 17.5

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UMass offense

BLAKE FROHNAPFEL WATCH.

After last week Frohnapfel is 130.9 EFF 185-337-6 54.9 % 2483 18 TD 310.4 AVE/G

Single season pass attempts:

8. 341 Tim Day 2004
9. 337 Blake Frohnapfel 2014 (7 games)
10 334 Liam Coen 2008
10 334 Liam Coen 2006
Knocking Jim Simeone 313 1984 out of the top ten list

Single season pass completions

8.  194 Tim Day 2004
9.   192 Matt Guice 2001
10. 185 Blake Frohnapfel 2014 (7games)
11.  182 Mike Wegzyn 2012

Single season passing yards

7. 2692 Kyle Havens  2010
8. 2483 Blake Frohnapfel 2014 (7 games)
9. 2481 Tim Day 2004
10. 2266 Matt Guice 2001
Knocking Liam Coen 2175 2005 out of the top ten.

Passing yards/game

1. 310.4 Blake Frohnapfel (7 games)
2. 244.7 Kyle Havens 2010
3. 238.4 Todd Bankhead 2007 (13 games)

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Video of Mark Whipple and the UMass players discussing the win over EMU. Ya gotta be happy for the players who have endured a lot over the last three seasons. It's great to see them having fun and getting some rewards for their work.

Tajae Sharpe continues to climb in the UMass record book.

In contrast to prior years when the defense probably wanted to avert their eyes, Jovan Santos-Knox says the Minutemen offense is fun to watch.

Coach Whipple is pleased with the improvement in the defense and with the UMass running game.

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Matty V. says the UMass defense is coming together.

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BTW, Eastern Michigan's field came in runner-up for the best field in the nation.

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Max Moore of Hustle Belt looks at UMass' win over EMU.

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Philly.com looks at Victor Cruz's injury.

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Tuesday--October 14th, 2014

BLAKE FROHNAPFEL WATCH

In only seven games, Blake Frohnapfel is close to or already in several UMass single-season passing records. Frohnapfel totals are currently 135.3 EFF 157-286-5 2146 54.0 % 18 TD's 306.6 AVE/game.

UMass single season records:

Passing yards

9. 2266 Matt Guice 2001
10. 2175 Liam Coen 2005
11. 2146 Blake Frohnapfel 2014 ( 7 games)

Passing TD's

7. 20 Kyle Havens 2010
7. 20 Noel Reebenacker 1952
8. 18 Blake Frohnapfel 2014 ( 7 games)
9. 17 Richard Lucero 2000
9. 17 Todd Bankhead 1999
9. 17 J. Pennington 1973

Pass EFF

7. 137.5 Liam Coen 2005
8. 135.2 Blake Frohnapfel ( 7 games)
9. 134.2 Todd Bankhead 1998
10. 134.1 Todd Bankhead 1999

Passing yards/game

1. 306.6 Blake Fronapfel 2014 (7 games)
2. 261.3 Todd Bankhead  1998 (15 games)
3. 244.7 Kyle Havens 2010 (11 games)

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Great minds think alike. I wrote the above before checking today's media links and Dan Malone reports on Blake Fronapfel by the numbers.

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Coach Whipple quotes from the Monday MAC coaches teleconference.

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Jean Sifrin has been added to the mid-season John Mackey Award watch list.

Dan Malone has a post on Sifrin's season.

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Dan also asks if Logan Laurent is the answer at kicker.

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The UMass Daily Collegian says the Minutemen seek consistency in this week's practices.

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UMass opens at a 14.5 favorite over Eastern Michigan.

Keepers College football rankings has UMass by 18.77

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UMass' win over Kent State does not do much for the Minutemen in the Hustle Belt Power Poll.

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Matty V. says Whipple indicated that Matt Sparks, J.T Blyden, Shadrach Abrokwah and Marken Michel are all on the mend and may play Saturday.

He also says Kent State safety Elcee Refuge (good name) has been suspended for the first half of the Golden Flashes next game after being ejected from the UMass game for a late hit.

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Buffalo fired coach Jeff Quinn, a move Matty Vautour calls odd.

The Buffalo News reports on Quinn's firing.

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The NY York Daily News says Victor Cruz will likely never be the same.

USA Today says the Eagles fans did not  gloat.

Then again drunk Eagles fans stole a prosthetic leg from a disabled veteran.

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It's Havens

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view. Since the first post I worked on the image a little. I cropped the image down and did an auto levels. Think it works a little better.

The UMass athletic site has a sizable article on Coach Morris' announcement that Kyle Havens will be the starting QB at Kansas State.

The Springfield Republican has a story here.

Sunday updates:

The UMass website has a podcast of the press conference with both Coach Morris and Havens commenting on the selection (mp3).

Back on August 18th (Media Day), the Springfield Republican posted a video interview with Havens here.

Matty Vautour has a short article asking if Haven will have Todd Bankhead or Richard Lucero level of success.

Lucero had good success on the field. In 2000 he went 140/235 2065 .596 17 TD 16 INT 143.6 EFF (higher than either of Bankhead's EFF's). His 8.8 yards/attempt is still #3 in UMass single season records. Lucero's 17 TD's that year tied him for 8th in single season along with Todd Bankhead and Peil Pennington.

However, he got in Whipple's doghouse early and often by missing QB meetings and general poor discipline. By the time Lucero got into trouble with the Amherst police, he was already off the team.

Sunday--September 28th, 2014

Click on images and Blogger displays a larger view.

Well, we didn't win, but you didn't like yesterday's game, you don't like college football. The game sold out and there were a lot more than 17,000 people around the stadium.

The lead changed hands seven times.

BTW, only one person out of 75 votes got the poll correct with the Falcons by less than seven.

UMass had 29 first downs and 638 yards of total offense. Blake Frohnapfel shattered a number of UMass records. He went 36-61-1 589 5 TD's 80 LONG.

That broke Kyle Havens 450 yards vs New Hampshire in 2010. It tied the record for 5 passing TD's held by Liam Coen (twice) Matt Guice, Richard Lucero, Todd Bankhead and Mike Fallon. It was second in most pass attempts (63 Matt Guice NH 2001). It broke the record for pass completions (33 Jeff Krohn Northeastern 2002). It tied for 5th in longest passing play (80 Liam Coen to Matt Silver Bryant 2008, Tim Day to Jason Peebler Delaware State 2004). He broke the total offense in a single game record (Kyle Havens 434 NH 2010).

Tajae Sharpe tied the UMass single game reception record of 13 held by three other players (Victor Cruz JMU 2008, J.J. Moore Colgate 2005, Brandon London Hofstra 2005).

We made some errors. We dropped a couple of INT's (one a sure TD). We turned the ball over. We missed a lot of tackles, including one that ended up a Bowling Green TD.

The crowd was great, and so was the atmosphere. Even the UMMB upped its game. The halftime show was the best of the season.

The UMass website has notes, quotes and stats here.

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Matty Vautour reports UMass losses a shootout to Bowling Green.

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Dan Malone comments on the 17,000 sellout.

Nick O'Malley has a post about Blake Frohnapfel's historic day.

Nick also reports the UMass defense was gashed for equally historic numbers.

The video board collapse in the third quarter was impressive. Debris (hydraulic fluid?)flew higher than the stadium walls.

Dan Malone says the Minutemen rushing game continued to struggle.

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And one media pundit has to find fault with UMass football over something. Man, some people are professional jerks.

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The Daily Collegian said missed opportunities overshadowed an impressive day for the Minutemen.

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Randy Carpenter of Hustle Belt says the Falcons hung on.

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All the MAC conference results here.

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Boston College lost to Colorado State. That puts a big crimp in the Eagles season.

Colorado lost in two overtimes to Cal.

Kentucky broke a long SEC losing streak against Vanderbilt.

And Penn State, who played nearly perfect against the Minutemen, self-destructed against Northwestern.

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Thursday---March 24, 2011

Alyssa Creamer and Tom King of MassLive give a balanced presentation about the possible gains and pains from a UMass football upgrade. They do a pretty good job except for the bogus $3 million cost  for the program.

One thing I'd like to point out. The one of the biggest gains for UMass football fans would be the added stability for the program.

Going FBS, as the article says (and every study has found) would change UMass' funding; UMass would have a stable source of income that would move the program into into a break even status.

"From all we have looked at, the program [expansion] would be self-supporting in that way, given the new revenue streams we would be generating,'' McCutcheon told Chimelis."

That would be a very good thing considering the on-again-off-again funding from the state.

We lost a Hall-of-Fame coach (MacPherson) when his scholarships were cut. We lost Jimmie Reid (who won the conference championship three of his six years) when his scholarships were cut.

In addition, the break even status would extend to the additional scholarships for UMass' women's programs.

 Also, UMass football fans would not have to worry about the long-term viability of the program.

There are certainly some risks involved, and I do not expect the move to generate vast amounts of money after all expenses are paid.

However, there does seem to be the prospect that the program will do more than break even if the potential use of Gillette Stadium for some games comes true.

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The UMass Football Broadcast team was honored by the Associated Press for the ninth consecutive year.

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Kyle Harrington and Tracey Belton will be playing in the Arena Football league.

Good Luck Kyle and Tracey!
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Some reports from Boston College's Pro Day here .

Greg Niland from UMass gets some Pro Day coverage here and here.

John Griffin, Kyle Havens, Mike Mele, Anthony Nelson also took part.

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During recruiting season I blogged about Donald Buie and J.J. Hubbard . They both ended up signing with Gardner Webb.

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College football reached new heights in attendance and TV ratings in 2010.

From the article:

"The Big Ten Network's afternoon telecasts ranked first among cable households in its eight metered markets for the second year in a row. The network also produced its top two ratings ever. The noon ET time slot on Sept. 18, which included the Ohio State vs. Ohio and Michigan vs. UMass games, averaged a 5.64 rating while the conference battle between Ohio State and Illinois earned a 5.49 rating on Oct. 2."

How about that UMass fans!

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Game Day-- William & Mary

A couple of Game Day articles: one from WSHM-TV and the Boston Herald says UMass tackles a tough schedule.

Matty Vautour previews the game and looks at UMass' rookie defensive line.

Several sources, including Matty note Brandon London was cut by the Steelers.

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From the UMass game notes"Saturday's game will be televised up and down the East Coast on Comcast SportsNet New England, The Comcast Network and Cox 11 in Virginia. Jon Gurevitch and Andy Gresh will be on the call. Live streaming video will be available via UMass All-Access. "

That's Dish Network's channel 435 in Northern New England.

UMass's radio network "The game will be carried statewide on flagship 100.9 FM WRNX in Western Mass.; 1510 The Zone in Eastern Mass.; 830 AM WCRN in Central Mass. and 95.9 FM WATD on the South Shore. "
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From the William and Mary side: the Virginia Gazette says it's no gimmie for the Tribe and the William & Mary News says both sides await the opener.

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Villanova lost to Temple on a last minute field goal.

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The New York post says Vicyor Cruz was the biggest underdog to stick with the NY Giants team.

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Fox Sports has a interesting article on Villanova's All- American Matt Szcur and notes that he received exactly one offer when he was recruited.

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The Tribe is a tough opening matchup for a young UMass squad. William & Mary should contend for both the CAA Championship and the National FCS Title.

What the UMass Football Blog would like to see out of UMass:

• Kyle Havens manages the game, reads the Tribe defense and has no turnovers. Havens throws short and goes 16-22.
  
• The new UMass receivers catch every thing Havens throws.
• Like Sec 16, the Blog is a believer in the UMass O-line, and and Messrs Griffin and Hernandez. The Blog would like to see 150+ yards of rushing offense against a very good William & Mary defense.
• On defense, I would like to see everyone flying around. No more games like Delaware and Hofstra, where everyone stood around looking at each other.
• Some pressure on Mike Callahan. Last year's sack total:13 (only 6 against CAA teams). Prior to 2009 sack totals: 2008-18, 2007-44, 2006-39, 2005-25, 2004-23).

Let's GO UMass!!!

Wednesday---Jan 5, 2011

UMass WR Anthony Nelson was selected to the FCS ADA Academic All-America Team. Nelson was one of four CAA players chosen (.pdf download).

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Rumour has it that Don Brown's players lobbied for his retention at Maryland. They got their wish; he was kept as DC by new coach Randy Edsell. Stories here and here.

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Speaking of UConn, this article discusses possible replacements for Edsell at Storrs. The UConn AD says they'll move quickly.

Bill McGovern of BC who interviewed for the UMass HC, has met with UConn.

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Meanwhile, at Pitt things are melting down. They fired Dave Wannstedt and his assistants, then the new head coach Mike Haywood was fired due to domestic violence.

Now their recruiting class is evaporating.

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TSN has a writeup on Friday's National Championship game.

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Kyle Havens and John Griffin  are in the latest edition of Josh buchanan's Top 100 FCS players eligible for the NFL draft.

BTW, Havens 2,692 yards in 2010 puts him 6th in all-time career passing yards at UMass. He's behind Peil Pennington and ahead of now #7 Tim Day. His career 29 TD passes places Havens as #6 all-time between Dave Palazzi (31) and Tim Day (27).
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Wednesday --March 23, 2011

Back in February, I published a "unofficial" 2011 UMass schedule. The only opponent not verified was Central Connecticut State.

Now CSN has published a NEC Conference schedule showing CCSU @ UMass on October 8th ----- hopefully not based on my blog post :)

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I received an E-mail saying UMass QB Kyle Havens will be participating in Boston College's Pro Day today.Good luck to Kyle and the other Minutemen players!

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Rhode Island has an article on coaching changes for the Ram staff. It finally lists Liam Coen as QB coach, but there is still no linkable bio for him.

Lots of changes for Rhode Island coaching as Rhody moved two position coaches to offfense and defensive coordinators. Ryan Crawford went from secondary coach to DC and Roy Istvan went from OL coach to OC.

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Jerry Rice Award to honor FCS' Freshman-of-the-Year.

UMass Football Returns 21-14 over JMU

Our plans to travel to Harrisonburg, Va fell through, but UMass football didn't. After wandering in the wilderness for six quarters, UMass football returned.

Matty V will have a tough time picking three heroes in this game.

Kyle Havens was 15-19-163 yards and 2 TD's. If I'm reading the box score right, Kyle had one incompletion in the second half. Nice receiving games by Dan Sheeran, Julian Talley and Andrew Kervis.

The UMass running game returned with Jonathan Hernandez racking up 137 yards with a 4.9 yards/carry against the tough Duke defense.

Anthony Nelson had a scintillating 52 yard punt return.

The defense shut JMU out in the second half. Tyler Holmes had a big sack.

No mistakes on special teams. Caleb Violette was 2 for 2 on field goals.

Great effort by coaches and players. UMass write-up here.

The JMU website has video of the post game press conference as well as audio interviews from both the UMass and JMU sides.

Enjoy the win everyone!

UMass wins 31-7 over Holy Cross

UMass rolled over the Crusaders 31-7 to go 2-0 in the 2010 season.

The game was as lopsided statistically as you will see. the Minutemen topped Holy Cross in first downs 28-12 and had 300+ more yards in total offense. We had 239 yards rushing to 51 for the Cross.

Kyle Havens was as good as you can ask for as he went 25-38 65.7% 293 yards 2 TD's. He made another improvement in his game as he pulled down the ball a number of times and ran for 7 times for a net 26 positive yards. Next he has to work on his hook slide :)

Kyle was very, very good tonight.

Dan Sheeran and Rob Blanchflower had their first career TD's. Blanchflower has been a force blocking the first two games as well.

Anthony Nelson again looked like an All-american with 8-103 yards. The Crusader defense could not stay close to him.

UMass lost focus big time in the second half as they had some players go down. Starting center John Ihne was taken off in the cart, but he may have needed an IV, as he was back on the sidelines later. Courtney Jackson and Ke'Mon Bailey went down on the same series, but both were standing later.

UMass was missing two starters as Stephane Milhim and Captain Emil Igwenagu DNP.

The punting game was awful as we had two punts blocked and we punted 8 times for a 20.7 average. Ouch!

The punting and the sequence where we had about six penalties in eight plays will give the coaches something to yell about despite the total dominance UMass displayed.

The Minutemen should crack the top 15, maybe the top 10 in the FCS polls tomorrow.

Great win by the Minutemen! BTW, also a great turnout with 16,000 + in 17,000 seat McGuirk. The students filled half of the visiting side. Now if we could teach them to stay past the 2nd quarter :)

Eight Days until the start of 2009 Football ---08/28/09

If you missed it, the 2009 College football season opened last night as FCS/I-AA team Indiana State played NAIA Quincy. The Sycamores lost in overtime 26-20. Right away that should be the upset of the season. Indiana State has only won four games in the last five years, so they have to have reduced scholarships and support. Still, they had 16 returning starters and transfers from Wyoming and Kentucky. An NAIA team beating a Div I team is unusual to say the least.

BTW, the Trees next game is against Louisville, who beat Kansas State last year.

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New Rhode Island HC Joe Trainer promises a "Dramatically better Ram team" this year.

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The CSN's Chuck Burton makes 27 fearless predictions for the 2009 season. One of them was Indiana State over the Quincy 48-0.

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Multiple articles about K-State football in the last 24 hours. Read 'em here.

Kansas State supplies tickets to the family of Fort Riley soldier Luke McGuire. Sargent McGuire is currently in his fourth deployment to Iraq.

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Jeremy Cain's Jacksonville Jags bio here.

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My guess on the 2009 UMass starters (and I have had no injury reports except for Josh Jennings)

WR-Victor Cruz
z-Joe Stanford
LT- Vladimir Ducasse
LG- Josh Samuda
C -John Ihne
RG- Brian Ostaszewski
RT-Bob Getek
TE- Matt Silver
QB-Kyle Havens
TB- Tony Nelson
FB- Chris Zardas
WR-Jeremy Horne
x-Julian Talley

Defense:

DE-Bob McLaughlin
DT-Brandon Collier
NT-Kyle Harrington
DE-Michael Hanson
SAM-Kurt Filler
Mike-Mike Mele
Wil-Tyler Holmes
CB-Corey Davis
SS-Shane Viveiros
FS-Jeromy Miles
CB-Ke'Mon Bailey

PK-Armando Cuko
P-Jeff Strait

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24 days before Kansas State 08/12/09

As usual, Matty Vautour has perhaps the most informative article to come out of training camp so far here. The quarterback position seems to be a two-man contest between Kyle Havens and Scott Woodward. I would expect the decision to be made pretty quick.

Other news from the article is that senior LB Josh Jennings is still not practicing due to a chronic back injury. Jennings was CAA co-Defensive player-of-the-week three times (8/31,10/3,113) in 2008. If he is unable to go, then all three LB positions will have new starters this year.

Matty reports that UMass adds another transfer 5-11 212 pd LB Dawon Nolton from New Mexico State. Nolton's 2007 Scout.com page here.

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Matty follows up with an article about the 2009 UMass linebacking corps. Reading between the lines, it does not sound all that good for Josh Jennings. Mentioned are Kurt Filler, Tyler Holmes, Mile Mele (and I would guess that those will be the starting three), as well as Nolton, true freshman Devin Lindsey and senior Eric Dickson.

Kyle Harrington won the bench press competition with 475 pds. Freshman Vincent Westcarr set a UMass freshman record with 435 pds.

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Eastern Washington has dropped its Marching Band due to financial problems. Bummer!

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The New Hampshire Football Report says New Hampshire will play Big Ten team Minnesota in 2012.

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Dave Coulson of The Sports Network previews the Patriot League and picks Holy Cross the winner. A first round playoff game between the Crusaders and UMass would be the biggest cross state game in years for Massachusetts.

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Friday---September 30, 2011

MassLive/ J. Anthony Roberts image

As reported in the comments yesterday, Kyle Havens has signed a contract with the Spokane Shock for the 2012 season. Good luck Kyle!

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Matty V. has an article about the UMass-Old Dominion one game series.

He also has the weekly Matty V vs Matty G.

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Another article on the upgrade to McGuirk.

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The Boston Herald has a story about Tim Berra's reaction to Jesse Julmiste's breaking one of his UMass records.

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Jeff Thomas has a story about Old Dominion's Eriq Lewis.

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The CAA has the weekly press release detailing all this week's league games.

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Vandelay Sports looks at all this week's MAC games including Central Michigan @ UConn and Toledo vs Temple.

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