Saturday--November 28th, 2015

Frohnapfel, Young and Sharpe

Great win for the Minutemen yesterday. Instead of living with a loss for the next nine months, we get finish out with a win and something to build off of.

The revamped OL did an excellent job with Josh Bruns at RT. Dan DiNicola played most of the game and played well.

Marquis Young, who should win his second Gold Helmet Award, ran for 240 yards (6.9 yards/carry). That's the most single game yards in fifteen years (Kevin Quinlan ran for 241 against Northeastern on 10/07/2000).

Blake Frohnapfel, who was playing hurt this year according to Rene Ingoglia, scored the game-winning TD by using all of that 6-7 height to score the winning TD at the end of the first half. Tajae Sharpe has a critical reception to keep that final drive going.

The defense played strong all day. Trey Dudley-Giles actually had two INT's (one was taken away by a real bad call from the Field Judge). And you know that Joe Colton had to tip that late INT to Da'Sean Downey (who make a smart football play by hitting the turf) to seal the win.

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UMass write-up on the game.

Bulls write-up.

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Matty Vautour says it was an emotional win for the Minutemen.

Matty says Buffalo didn't recruit Marquis Young.

Blake Fronapfel praised the makeshift Minutemen OL.

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Dan Malone says the Minutemen held on late.

Dan reports the Buffalo win eased some of the pain of 2015.

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Bob McGovern says the Minutemen ran over the Bulls.

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The Worcester Telegram says Marquis Young led the Minutemen to victory.

The Boston Herald says UMass leaves the MAC on a high note.

The Niagara Gazette says the Bulls missed a chance to play in a bowl game.

Rotoworld comments on Marquis Young's 240 yards.

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All the MAC results here.

Western Michigan beat Toledo. That should knock the Rockets out of the Top-25 and cost the MAC a New Year's Day bowl game.

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Recruiting 2015--Marquis Young

Adrian Krause image

Dan Malone has a story about Marquis Young, a 6-0 200 pound RB that verbaled to UMass yesterday.

Young is averaging 10 yards/carry at Milford Academy.

Hudl.com has highlights and reports a 4.38 40 for Young.

247Sports page here.

This article has Young talking about his decision to do a prep year at Milford.

Young also drew interest from FBS Old Dominion.

UMass Football News--July 21st, 2017

Matty Vautour has a post on Marquis Young being named the the Doak Walker Award watch list.

Keving Dillon of MassLive also has a story about Young.

In 2016 Young went 12-12 GP-GS 197-898 4 TD's 83 LONG 4.6 AVE/A 74.4 AVE/G. He also went 26-147 REC. Young's AVE/A dropped from 6.7 in 2015 to 4.6 AVE/A in 2016. Part of that was likely UMass playing five Power Five teams.

UMASS currently has four other RB's on the roster:

Bilal Ally #22 RB 5-10 190 SO 0-1 GP-GS 17-97 5.7 AVE/A 34 LONG
Tyshaun Ingram #21 RB 6-0 208 SO 0-11 GP-GS 5 TT on defense in 2016
Marcus Odiah #21 RB 6-0 197 RSFR Redshirted in 2016
Nick Orekoya #38 RB 5-9 203 SO 0-7 GP-GS on defense in 2017

This is a thin position for UMass. Young should break a 1,000 yards against a schedule with less SEC teams. Boston College was #1 in the ACC and #7 nationally against the rush.

Bilal Ally performed well with limited carries in 2016. Ally had 4,500 + yards rushing and scored 50 TD's in HS. He should get more carries in 2017.

Tyshaun Ingram averaged 6.2 yards/carry in HS.

Odiah and Orekoya are probably walk-ons.

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Saturday Down South says Marquis Young will rush for 100 yards against Tennessee.

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Tuesday--December 1st, 2015

Marquis Young

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

Marquis Young was named the MAC East offensive player-of-the-week.

Dan Malone has a post on Young being named MAC player-of-the-week.

Young's 960 yards is the most for a true freshman since Steve Baylark. His 6.3 yards/game average just missed being one of the top-ten single season totals (Ron Brockington was #10 at 6.31 yards/game in 1996).

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Blake Frohnapfel won the NY Athletic Club Endowed Scholar-Athlete Award.

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Matty Vautour looks at the Minutemen's future as an Independent.

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Tajae Sharpe has accepted a invitation to play in the NFLPA College Bowl.

NFLPA College Bowl home page here.

Thanks to a blog reader who alerted me to this Bleacher Report post on Sharpe.

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Dan Malone looks at four losses that kept UMass out of a bowl game this year.

I think the turning point came in the Ball State game. UMass had a large number of injuries (including probably Frohnapfel) and was never the same.

Prior to the Ball State game Frohnapfel threw for:

225 yards against Colorado
393 yards against Temple
233 yards against Notre Dame
363 yards against FIU
409 yards against Bowling Green

After the Falcons:

171 yards vs Kent State
240 yards vs Toledo
259 yards vs Ball State
173 yards vs Akron
109 yards vs EMU
181 yards vs Miami (Ohio)
163 yards vs Buffalo

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UMass Football News--August 23rd, 2017

UMass will wear a helmet sticker to honor Michael Boland who passed away during the off season.

Matty Vautour reports on the revamped UMass offensive line and the rest of the offensive starters.

One goal for the offense is to run the ball better. UMass was #124 out of 128 teams in rushing offense in 2016. A good part of that came from playing five Power Five teams (not many Group-of-Five teams rack up big rushing totals against SEC teams), but UMass did not do much better against lesser competition. Whipple's FCS offense featured a strong running game to go with his down-the field passing. I think Marquis Young is a good RB, but he needs more room to operate. Did you see the latest two-deep chart? This year Ray Thomas-Ishman weighs 350, Lucas Kotler 315, Derek Dumais 330, Jake Largay 325 and Jack Driscoll 300. Looks like the OL beefed up. Of the ten OL in the two-deep only one weighs less than 300. Let's hope that translates into more holes for Young to run into.

Nearly all the Minutemen wins so far in FBS have been defensive grinds. The lone game where the UMass offense dominated was the 2015 game against Buffalo where Marquis Young ran for 240 yards. It would be beneficial if we could do more of that in 2017.

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Matty also reports Shane Huber is at peace with walking away from football.

Shane Huber's Twitter statement here.

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The UMass Daily Collegian says UMass is getting ready for Hawaii.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald says the opening game will tell a lot about UMass and Hawaii.

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the 2017 Minutemen schedule.

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Hawaii flies east for the UMass game and lands in ----- New York?

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Coastal Carolina transitions from Fall Camp to in-season play.

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The Dispatch previews the Mississippi State-UMass game.

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This article reports UMass will play FCS Southern Illinois in 2020. The currently listed UMass 2020 schedule is here.

Stephen Hewitt of the Boston Herald reports UMass is comfortable as an Independent.

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ESPN ranks UMass fans #117 in fan happiness. We're ahead of UConn and only 8 slots behind BC.

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BTW, this was the best image I took of the eclipse. The air was not very steady here. Note the sunspot group near the sun's equator. Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

UMass Football News--July 20th, 2018

Marquis Young has been named to the 2018 Doak Walker Award Watch list.

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Young.

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In 2017 UMass totaled 1624 yards rushing and averaged 3.9 yards a rush and 135.6 yards/game.

Opponents rushed for 2375 yards and averaged 4.9 yards/rush and 197.9 yards a game.

Marquis Young SR 12-10 GP-GS 182-982 5.4 AVE 9 TD's 95 LONG 81.8 yards/game

Bilal Ally JR 12-1 GP-GS 84-369 4.1 AVE 3 TD's 57 LONG 30.3 yards/game

Nick Orekoya JR 11-1 GP-GS 15-173 7.5 AVE 1 TD 23 LONG 10.3 yards/game.

Tyshawn Ingram JR 5-0 GP-GS No rushing stats.

Joining the rushing corps this year:

Jordan Fredericks RSJR. Sat out 2017 as a transfer. Fredericks was a Honorable Mention Freshman All-American at Syracuse in 2015.

Rashard Jackson FR 5-11 180.

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KSL.com says BYU's schedule keeps getting more difficult.

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UMass Football News--December 19th, 2018

The Manganaro Family donates $500k for McGuirk improvements. The funds will be applied to a new high-definition video board. I watched Paul Manganaro play back in the day. He lettered in 1982, 83, 85 and was captain in 1986. Manganaro was All-Yankee Conference in 1985. With the new bubble practice facility coming, things are lookin' up at McGuirk.

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Andy Isabella adds his ninth post season award as he is named First Team All-America by Phil Steele.

Nine Minutemen made Steele's All-Independent team for 2018. Andrew Ford, Marquis Young, Jake Largay, Bryton Barr and Isiah Rogers made the first team. Sadiq Palmer, Ray Thomas-Ishman, Joe Previte and Lee Moses made the 2nd team. Marquis Young made the second team as kick returner.

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UMass adds former San Diego (FCS) coach Jim Jackson as OL coach. Jackson's San Diego bio.

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Josh Walfish report Coach Bell has a plan for recruiting.

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The Bangor Daily News reports Maine's  Joe Harasymiak is the CAA's lowest paid coach, but he's in line for more lucrative offers.

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Saturday--April 8th, 2017

Matty Vautour has a post on UMass RB Marquis Young. UMass has two scholarship RB's on the roster for 2017.

Marquis Young JR who went 12-12 GP-GS 197-898 4.6 AVE 4 TD's 83 LONG 74.8 ave/g

Bilal Allay SO 9-0 GP-GS 17-97 5.7 AVE 34 LONG 10.8 ave/game

Matty goes on to relate Khari Bailey-Smith has worked out or will be working out for a number of pro teams.

Bailey-Smith totaled 11-11 GP-GS 41 UT 24 AT 69 TT (third on team) 1.0 TFL 4 BRUP's

CSN Northeast.com has a post on Bailey-Smith working out for the Pats.

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Per Mike Traini at "Fight Massachusetts" the Minutemen will hold their second Junior Day of 2017 this weekend.

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Adam Breneman talks about leaving Penn State and his friendship with current Nittany Lion TE Gisicki.

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Mississippi State will have their Spring game today at 4:00pm. The game will be on the SEC Network and a couple of the ESPN clones.

SEC Country has five things to watch for in the game.

The Minutemen will tangle with the Bulldogs in Starksville on November 4th.

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Monday--November 16th, 2015

Update:

Tonight will be the final UMass Football Radio show of the season.

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I was just noticing how deep into the roster the Minutemen went at Eastern Michigan.

Dan Jonah (1 career catch) started and played most of the game as the "Y" receiver.

Jordan Hamilton (2 career tackles prior to Saturday) played the whole game at one corner. Jesse Monteiro made his first start.  Jackson Porter also played in the Minutemen secondary. Hamilton had 8 tackles and a FF.

Sha-Ki Holines had a good game on the D-line. He 2.5-14 TFL a SACK and one QB hurry.

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Jamal Wilson and Marquis Young will be on this week's UMass Insider.

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UMass' big rushing total against EMU jumped the Minutemen from #125 to #107 in NCAA rushing stats.

Marquis Young is #25 in the nation with his 6.19 yards per carry.

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EMU linebacker Great Ibe was named Walter Camp FBS defensive player-of-the-week for his 21 tackles against UMass.

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Dan Malone reports UMass opened as a 9-point favorite over Miami (Ohio). An interesting line is Ball State by > 7 points over Toledo. Memphus is a 1.5 favorite over Temple. Notre Dame is 16 over BC and Western Kentucky is 14 over FIU. All the odds here.

Keepers College Football Rankings has the Minutemen by 7.62 (.htm download).

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Toledo moved to the top of the "others receiving votes" in the AP poll. Temple's loss knocked them out of the Top-25 in both the AP and Coaches Poll.

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Monday--September 14th, 2015

We did have a few positive things happen in Boulder. Tajae Sharpe had a big day (11-138 yards).

UMass had receivers open most of the first half. The Minutemen also had good looks at a number of new players as a whole bunch of redshirt freshman made their debut.

From the UMass notes:

The first-time Minutemen were Jarell Addo, Kelton Brackett, Ross Comis, Sharif Custis, Larry Franklin, Jordin Hamilton, Dan Jonah, Jake Largay, Connor Lemieux, James Oliphant, Joe Previte, Jeremy Rodriguez and Marquis Young. Brackett (UAB) and Franklin (Vanderbilt) have NCAA Division I FBS experience prior to transferring to UMass ahead of the 2015 season.

Marquis Young looked like he had good speed to go with some shifty moves. He went 7-62 0 LOSS 8.9 AVE.

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Dan Malone looks behind the numbers at Colorado.

Dan also reports what I said here yesterday: Frohnapfel looked rusty.

Dan looks at the Minutemen's bowl watch.

Dan says it's too early to draw any conclusions about the Minutemen. What he says is true about the Minutemen's whole OOC schedule. Colorado at Boulder would be a tough draw for most Group-of-Five schools. We seem to have a knack for running into teams having their best season in years. Remember Texas Tech with Michael Crabtree? Maine had their only CAA championship in 15 years in 2013. And this year Temple beats Penn State for the first time since the Wisconsin Ice Age. Notre Dame is being touted for a playoff birth.

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Matty Vautour looks at UMass' play at Colorado.

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Philly.com says two big wins give Temple fans a reason to dream.

Temple RB Jahad Thomas has run for 332 yards in two games and also has a 102 yard kick return.

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The Westside Gazette says FIU is legit.

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Brian Kelley believes the Irish can play for the National Championship.

Notre Dame moves on with DeShone Kizer as quarterback.

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UMass Football News--November 5th, 2017

Wow! Another great effort against an SEC team. The UMass defense just keeps getting better and better. We held State to 23 points and had two INT's. The Minutemen run defense was stout repeatedly held the Bulldogs to short gains. Fitzgerald did run effectively, but he does that to everyone. The defense did all this against a much bigger Mississippi State offense.

The offense too played well. Isabella was better than anyone State had. I though the O-line played well against a team with a five-star defensive lineman and very good team speed (when was the last time you saw someone catch Marquis Young from behind?). Mississippi State had only given up 24 points for the season at home.

I also liked the intensity of play by the Minutemen. UMass went right at 'em all game. Quote from Marquis Young:

“We don’t want moral victories. We don’t want ‘we almost had them,’ we want the win. We
come out here and work hard every week at practice and we respect our opponent we respect
who we’re playing. We respect the SEC.”

Keep up that attitude and we could win our final three games of 2017.

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The UMass website says it was a near upset.

The Mississippi State site says the Bulldogs held on. Read the quotes by Dan Mullen about UMass.

The Hampshire Gazette says UMass put a scare into Mississippi State.

The Clarion-Ledger reports the Bulldogs avoided disaster.

The Starksville Daily News says Mississippi State survived a UMass scare.

The Boston Herald reports UMass put up a fight.

Dan Mullen said he didn't think the Mississippi State player who was ejected for targeting was trying to hurt Comis.

247Sports reports Mississippi State survived a UMass scare.

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UNLV beat Hawaii in Vegas. Hawaii drops to 3-5 for the season.

Coastal Carolina almost upset Arkansas.

In what must have been an exciting game, Old Dominion defeated Charlotte 6-0.

Temple beat a slumping Navy.

Tennessee beat Southern Mississippi to snap a four-game losing streak. Vols "fans" are trying to organize a boycott to force a coaching change.

Ohio had already beaten Miami of Ohio on Tuesday 45-28. The Bobcats are 7-2 for the season.

Georgia Southern fell to 0-8.

Appalachian State lost their first Sun Belt game in a shootout with ULM.

Delaware rallied past Maine.

FIU beat Texas San Antonio to become bowl eligible.

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Monday--December 5th, 2016

Today Mrs Blog and I leave for home at 11:30 PM. There will be no blog update on Tuesday as we will not be back in New Hampshire until late in the evening.

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Marquis Young talks about his journey to play for UMass.

Besides his education, Young produced 1,045 yards of offense for the Minutemen. Rushing 12-12 GP-GS 197-898 4.6 AVE 4 TD's 83 LONG 74.8 yards/game.

Young was fourth in receiving yards 26-147 5.7 AVE 25 LONG 12.2 yards/game.

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Bowl games:

I had a link about BYU to the Poinsettia bowl and Old Dominion to the Bahamas Bowl yesterday.

Louisiana Tech will face Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Troy will face MAC runner-up Ohio in the Dollar General Bowl.

Hawaii will play at home against Middle Tennessee State.

BC will play Maryland in Detroit.

South Carolina will play UCF in the Birmingham Bowl.

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UMass Football News--October 31st, 2018

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has some news and notes.

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Marquis young had a great game against UConn. The old saw is "you run to win",--- especially in the fourth quarter. So far this year Young has gone 105-547 5 TD's. That puts him fifth all-time in rushing yards (3387) behind Gary Pearson (3859). His 636 career rushing attempts also has him fifth behind Pearson who had 808. Young's 25 career TD's have him tied for seventh with Tony Nelson.

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The UMass Football Twitter feed has a post on Joe Previte who went from walk-on to starter on the defensive line. As of this week, Previte has gone 9-9 GP-GS 7 UT 20 AT 27 TT 4.0 TFL and 0.5-4 SACKS.

Info on the Burlsworth Trophy is here.

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The Daily Collegian reports UMass prepares for their final game of 2018 in McGuirk.

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BYU fans will get to see the UMass-BYU game on BYU TV.

UMass stays at #10 in a power ranking of BYU's opponents.

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Meanwhile, the Liberty Flames take notice of Ross Comis.

An open week has given some injured Flames players a chance to heal.

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The UConn Daily Campus discusses if the loss to UMass was the worst loss of the season for the Huskies.

Randy Edsall defends the state of the UConn program.

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UMass Football News--November 24th, 2018

Josh Walfish has five under the radar candidates for the Minutemen coaching job.

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Marquis Young accepts invitation to the East-West Shrine game.

In 2018 young went 11-11 GP-GS 154-791 5.1 AVE 9 TD's 71.9 AVE/GAME

So Marquis career totals are 685-3,631 29 TD's 5.3 AVE.

That places him 5th in all time career rushing yards. He's also 5th in career rushing attempts and tied for 6th in career rushing TD's with Jonathan Hernandez (2008-2011).

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Have you voted for Andy Isabella today?

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The University of Georgia's football success might be influencing admissions.

Speaking of the Dogs, Georgia opens as a surprisingly heavy favorite over red-hot Georgia Tech.

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ESPN loses 2 million subscribers in 2018.

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UMass Football News--November 6th, 2018

Marquis Young was named to the weekly Paul Hornung Award Honor Roll for his 226 all-purpose yards against Liberty.

BTW, Young is currently fourth in FBS in 2018 with a 168.41 all-purpose yards/game total.

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" recaps the Liberty game.

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The UMass-Georgia game will start at 4:00PM and will be televised on the SEC network.

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Cougar Insider has updated game projections for the rest of BYU's 2018 schedule.

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Bleeding Green nation has Andy Isabella in the top college football prospects from week #10.

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BYU loses a starting cornerback for the rest of the season.

Cougars Sports insider looks at four possible replacements.

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Wednesday--April 6th, 2016

The UMass Football and Field hockey Bone Marrow drive runs until 2:00 PM. Register!

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Marquis Young is one of the players nominated for UMass newcommer of the year.

Young went 152-960 7 TD's as a true freshman in 2015.

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Andrew Cyr of the UMass Daily Collegian focuses on Ross Comis's working with returning receivers Shakur Nesmith, Bernard Davis and Jalen Williams in Spring Practice.

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NFL.com has Blake Frohnapfel as part of their NFL Draft All-Name team.

Bleacher Report has Frohnapfel as the #17 QB in the NFL draft pool.

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Hustle Belt has a NFL Draft report on Tajae Sharpe.

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NJ.com has a video of Victor Cruz showing off his rehab workout moves.

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BYU installs a new defensive scheme.

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UMass Football News--August 9th, 2018

Blog Note: I'll be away from home tomorrow morning. There will be no blog update until Friday afternoon or Saturday morning.

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The UMass Twitter feed has video about Minutemen RB coach Darrius Smith talking about the development of the UMass running backs.

In 2018 UMass returns:

Marquis Young 6-1 215 36 GP 531-2840 20 TD's 95 LONG 5.3 AVE 78.9 y/game. Young is currently 6th in all-time rushing yards. He needs 47 yards to pass Frank Alessio and 1,047 yards to pass Garry Pearson. He's tied for 10th in career TD's and 6th in yards/rush. His yards/game puts him 5th ahead of Jerome Bledsoe , but behind Rich Jessamy (89.0).

Bilal Ally 5-11 185 21 GP 106-466 3 TD's 57 LONG 4.4 AVE 22.2 y/game

Nick Orekoya 5-10 18 GP 15-113 1 TD 23 LONG 7.5 AVE

New to the Minutemen this year are:

Jordan Fredericks 5-10 225. Transfer from Syracuse. Sat out last year per transfer regulations. Was on two freshman All-American teams during his first year at Syracuse.

Victor Santiago 5-9 165. I blogged about Santiago back in March. Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" also had a post on Santiago's signing with the Minutemen.

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Yahoo Sports does a "coaches-on-the-hot-seat" article and mentions BYU and UMass.

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Tennessee attempts to get out of a home-and-home series with UConn.

The Huskies practice in full pads despite the heat.

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Charolotte looks for a fast start to 2018.

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Liberty adds a 3000 square foot video board.

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Thursday before BYU--November 17th, 2016

Marquis Young gets an appearance in the "UMass Rising" video (in the first two minutes), he's psychology/brain science major.

Young has gone 168-741 3 TD's 83 LONG in rushing. 20-114 20 LONG in receiving.He needs 269 yards rushing in the last two games to break a 1,000 yards total. He needs a 145 yards rushing and receiving to to break 1,000 yards of total offense.

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The Hampshire Gazette has a AP post on the Bills picking up James Ihedigbo.

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Adam Aucoin of the UMass Daily Collegian reports UMass travels to BYU in a battle of independents.

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The Deseret News has 6 numbers to know about UMass-BYU.

The News also has three keys to the Cougars-Minutemen game.

The St George News wonders if BYU fans are disappointed  in the Poinsettia Bowl.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the Cougar offensive line looks to continue their domination of opponents as UMass visits.

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OT, but UMass students organize a "sh*t-in" at Whitmore.

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UMass Football News--Jamuary 21st, 2019

I watched Marquis Young play in the East-West Shrine game Saturday. Young led the East with 10 rushes for 54 yards and a 5.4 AVE. He was also 1-for-1 on being targeted for a catch. The QB he was working with threw two INT's stalling East drives or he would have had even better numbers.

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Sports Illustrated gives conference (including Independents) grades for the 2018 season.

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ESPN rates UMass' 2019 opponent Northwestern as #18 in a way-to-early Top 25.

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Football Scoop reports UConn's Randy Edsall will pay $150k of his offensive coordinator's salary.

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Sunday--August 14th, 2016

I went to the Season Ticket holders town meeting last night. We met with Whipple, had a tour of the Performance Center and watched a spirited UMass practice that lasted over two hours.

Whipple praised Andy Isabella as a much improved receiver and felt Isabella would give us a deep receiver threat.

Of the redshirt freshman, he said Jack Driscoll was going to start on the OL.

Whipple that the coaching staff was upwardly surprised by the strength of Andrew Ford's arm.

He said TE transfer Adam Breneman has been healthy and would likely start.

He was pleased with Sekai Lindsay and Marquis Young. Whipple also said FR RB Bilal Ally was running well in practice.

On defense, Whipple said Shane Huber and Steve Casali were both up to about 240. He also likes the JUCO's that joined this supper. Whipple said the UMass coaching staff made a concerted recruiting effort for defensive linemen, but DL's are scarce. He said the defensive staff sent him a list of D-lineman they wanted to offer and he didn't think any of them were good enough to play in Amherst. All five ended up getting Power Five offers. He said it shows how competitive recruiting DL's really is.

Whipple said All-American JUCO Rod Jones arrived out of shape.

Whipple thought the return of Khary Bailey-Smith would be a good help to the young Minutemen defensive secondary.

He said Travis Reynolds could be the back up punter, kicking Australian Rugby style.

I'll have more on the practice and some images in tomorrow's blog post.

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Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle has a post on the Ford-Comis competition.

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The Salt Lake Tribune has a feature on UMass going Independent.

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Underdog Dynasty says UMass is a must win game for FIU and the Panthers "unquestionably" have more talent than the Minutemen.

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Boston College hopes new players will turn the Eagles fortunes around.

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Mississippi State's coach Dan Mullen feels the Bulldogs have a lot of work to do.

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Tajae Sharpe is being evaluated for a concussion after the Titans first preseason game.

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Victor Cruz returns to practice after suffering a groin pull.

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