Michael Yerardi and Jack Driscoll verbal to UMass

UMass picked up two verbals from last weekend's Clam Bake.

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NCSA image

Michael Yerardi, a 6-6 305 pound OL from Suffield Academy chose the Minutemen according to Dan Malone who credits Bob McGovern with the news.

NCSA recruiting profile here.

Hudl.com highlight video here.

Partial quote from an July 7th Scout.com report on Yerardi:

"Suffield Academy (Suffield, Conn.) 2015 lineman Michael Yerardi liked camp and school after arriving with his father for the one-day event at Maryland. 

"It was great, had a lot of fun, and learned a lot of new stuff," Yerardi said. "Had a great time at the camp and the coaches coached me up on everything I need to learn." 

So far, the 6-foot-4, 307-pounder has offers from UMass, ODY and New Hampshire, and is looking for more. 

Terps inside linebackers coach Keith Dudzinski is his area recruiter. "

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Also committing to UMass was Jack Driscoll a 6-4 250 pound OG/DE from Madison, CT.

Dan has the story.

247Sports page here. (Fixed link)

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Saturday-- January 31st, 2015

UMass Athletic Dept image

Slow day on the Intertubes for UMass football stories, so let's look at where UMass stands on recruiting as we go into the final stretch before Wednesday's Letter-of-Intent Day.

UMass has some visits planned this weekend.

The Minutemen currently have 16 verbals.

My take on UMass' needs going into this year's recruiting cycle were:\

1. a kicker
2. running back
3. defensive help everywhere especially in the front seven.

On the kicking front, UMass has a verbal from Michael Caggiano. Most teams make kickers walk-on (even highly rated ones), but the Minutemen apparently offered a scholarship to fix the most glaring need from last year. 

UMass has verbals from two running backs: Sekai Lindsey and Marquis Young (both rated three stars by 247Sports). Lindsey could have an immediate impact in 2015.

The Minutemen have commits from five offensive linemen: Joe Parsons, Michael Yerardi, Jack Driscoll , Derek Dumais and Reche Thomas. UMass will now have 20+ offensive linemen on the roster. All the recruits are true freshman and will help down the road. Thomas is probably the highest rated recruit in this class (so far).

The conventional wisdom in FBS is to recruit a QB every year. This year James Sosinski a 6-7 230 pound QB from Chandler, AZ joins the team. 

The Minutemen have only one receiver, TE Artayvious Lynn a 6-6 200 pound player from Bossier City, LA.

On defense UMass has two defensive linemen: Mario Patton (three stars from 247Sports) and Aaron Kinsey. The de-commitment of Desjon Robinson hurt this group.

For linebackers the Minutemen have: Tom Rodrick (may not play in 2015) and D'Shan Harley from Wichita Falls,TX

UMass has commits from two defensive backs: Lee Moses from Warwick, RI and James Oliphant from  Fort Lauderdale.

Ten of the 16 verbals are offensive recruits. It seems we have addressed some critical needs on the offensive side of the ball. On defense, thus far, it does not look like this recruiting class will have an immediate impact. We could use some JUCO or FBS transfers on the defensive side.

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The NY Giants blog "Big Blue" takes a look at the more than 500 prop bets available for the Super Bowl.

BTW, Mrs Blog and I met at a Super Bowl party. If you're planning one for tomorrow, be sure to invited your single friends.

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Thursday--February 5th, 2015

Some takeaways from Coach Whipple's press conference:

UMass will have 20+ more players taking part in Spring ball. Close to a hundred players are on campus , which is a lot more than 2014.

Whipple is OK with Sosinski and Lynn being interested in basketball. He said "it's our scholarship, so basketball, will be happy." Sosinski was touted as a DI basketball prospect as a power forward. Sosinski's MaxPreps basketball page here. Matty Vautour has a post on Sosinski and Lynn's basketball interest.

Whipple said repeatedly that one goal of 2015's recruiting was more "length", which is the current coaching buzz word for tall players.

Spencer Whipple said UMass' pro-set offense is a recruiting tool in the fact that many colleges are going to the spread offense. UMass not only plays the pro-set "heavy" (with two backs), the Minutemen use NFL play terminology. Spencer Whipple related Sekai Lindsay came to UMass because he wanted to run from the pro-set.

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Dan Malone has a post on the seven UMass Spring Enrollees.

Dan also looks at the wide-ranging recruiting localities of this year's recruits.

Finally, Dan has five takeaways from this year's recruiting class.

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Matty Vautour looks at the 2015 Minutemen recruits.

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Max Moore of Hustle Belt says UMass signs an impressive class.

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The UMass Daily Collegian has two articles on Letter-of-Intent Day here and here.

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The Boston Herald says UMass prospects improve.

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The Boston Globe says UMass bolsters the offensive line.

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Nj.com has an article on kicker Mike Caggiano joining the Minutemen. The News-Transcript also has an article on Caggiano.

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MassLive has a story about offensive line recruit Michael Yerardi.

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The Boston Herald has a post about Xaverian players Joe Parsons and Kenny Kern joining the Minutemen.

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The Shreveport Times says Artayvious Lynn like snowball fights.

UMass football yesterday

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The TC Palm has some images, including Reche Thomas, during the Varo Beach signing day ceremony.

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St. Thomas Aquinas has 17 players, including James Oliphant, sign letters of intent yesterday.

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Buford HS had 15 signees, the most ever, including Brandon Mangram.

Access North Georgia has more on Buford's signees.

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The News-Herald says UMass recruit Andy Isabella set the Ohio state record in the 60-yard dash last week.

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Tomorrow, my thoughts on the 2015 recruiting class.

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Saturday--August 2nd, 2014

Lorenzo Woodley

Dan Malone continues his "Top 25" UMass players with Lorenzo Woodley.

Woodley's UMass bio.

Woodley battled leg troubles in 2014. He ended up 8 GP 84-314 3.7 AVE 25 LONG 2 TD's 39.3 YGS/G. Note that in 2012, Minutemen backs averaged a dismal 2.6 yards a carry. So even nicked up, Woodley did pretty good. The running back position, is one part of the UMass team that has depth and talent. In football, you're always one play away from starting against Penn State. Last year the Minutemen went six deep on the RB roster. I think Whipple's offense will provide more yards for everybody.

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Dan also looks the UMass offense going into Fall camp. I pretty much concur with his conclusions, but I would not be surprised to see Marken Michel or Shakur Nesmith start at one of the WR positions.

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Matty Vautour says there are plenty of questions going into training camp.

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According to a SB Nation writer, former UMass OT Anthony Dima left the Dallas Texans camp and was subsequently cut.

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Hustle Belt has a post on UMass verbal Michale Yerardi.

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The Colorado Buffs see their early schedule, which includes UMass as winnable.

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Boston College is having problems with scheduling in 2015.

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Theo Agnew, who started his college career at UMass, has been signed by the Atlanta Falcons.

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Victor Cruz says buckle up and watch the new Giants attack.

Michael Cox gets a lot of quotes in this article from the Giants camp.

The NY Daily news says David Wilson's injury opens the door for Michale Cox.

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UMass Football News--January 12th, 2020

One section of the UMass team that could also use a portal/transfer is the offensive line.

The two-deep for the BYU game was:

LT Larnel Coleman, Brian Abosi
LG Helber Fagundes, Xavier Graham
C   Mike Yerardi, Parker Ogle
RG Michael Sullivan, Xavier Graham
LT Bryce Wade, Brian Abosi

Note that beyond the starters, we only had three 2nd string guys.

We do have five OL coming in with 2020 class.

JUCO Reggie Marks 6-2 300 pounds from Lackawanna should be in the mix from the start.

In the true freshmen 2020 class four three-star recruits are coming to Amherst.  I've long advocated more athleticism in the OL instead of the really big guys Whipple liked.

Ethan Mottinger 6-4 296
Joe Horn 6-1 301
Dominik Bherens 6-5 310
Andrew Nee 6-4 282

Based on their social media comments the freshmen seem like an enthusiastic  bunch. I'm hoping they will lead us out of the bottom 10% in rushing offense. Teams usually like to redshirt OL if possible because of the difference a year on a college weight program makes. Given the state of the UMass roster it would not surprise me if more than one of the freshmen did not redshirt.

There are currently 67 FBS offensive linemen in the 2020 transfer portal. A fifth-year senior who would play every down of every game would be a big help for UMass.

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Friday--August 19th, 2016

Dan Malone has a post on UMass kickers Logan Laurant and Mike Caggino. Laurant and Caggiano's bios here and here.

Kicking is another facet of UMass football that Minutemen fans hope has turned the corner in 2016. We would have won at least four more games in our FBS era with better kicking. Look at last year. UMass had top-25 Temple on the ropes and ended up losing. That would have been a huge win for the program. Let's hope those days are behind us.

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Matty Vautour has a report on changes to the Minutemen offensive line. Tyshon Henderson has left the program and Lucas Kotler will have foot surgery, which will sideline Kotler for the season.

I think the 2016 line will be:

Elijah Wilkinson LT 6-5 329
Mike Yerardi LG 6-4 306
Fabian Hoeller C 6-3 295
Michael Boland RG 6-6 318
Jack Driscoll RT 6-5 294

Also available are Derek Dumais, Joe Parsons, Dan DiNicola and Jake Largay.

Whipple mentioned Driscoll as a starter during the Town Meeting last week. He also said freshman Raquan Thomas (6-5 392) was so big they haven't been able to find knee braces large enough to fit him. Whipple said they would like Thomas to lose about 25 pounds, which would bring him down to a svelte 360 or so.

Raquan Thomas #57

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The Florida Gators name Jack Del Rio as starting QB for the UMass game.

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A Daily Herald writer predicts the UMass-BYU game as Cougars 48 UMass 9.

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Whipple, when asked how summer training camp was going responded, with 100+ players on camp, there was always a brush fire somewhere. I think if you compared the behavior of the football players to 100+ random UMass male students, I believe the football players would compare favorably.

However, it's truly amazin' how creative some people manage to be in screwing up. South Carolina punter Sean Kelly was arrested for "malicious destruction of a tree".

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OT, but Dennis Eckersley should come with sub-titles.

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