Recruiting 2015--Mike Caggiano & Bennett Moehring

Saed Hindash image

Dan Malone, report two kicking specialists have received Minutemen offers.

The first is Michael Caggiano, a 5-10 160 pound kicker from Manalapan, NJ.

Rivals page here.

This article from September 2014 features Caggiano.

NJ.com reports Rutgers offered Caggiano preferred walk-on status.

Caggiano's Kohl's kicking camp page.

Caggiano holds offers from Hawaii and Stony Brook. Has preferred walk-on status from several Power Five schools

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Kohl's kicking camp image

Also offered was Bennett Moehring, a 5-9 170 pound kicker/punter from Bentonville, AK.

ESPN three-star player.

Hudl.com has highlights.

Kohl's Kicking Camp profile.

Was ranked #1 kicker in 2015 class by Chris Sailer kicking.

Besides UMass, Moehring has an offer from Tulane.

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UMass Football News ---August 11th, 2018

Sarah Crosby image

Josh Walfish has a post on George Georgopoulos being the designated starter at punter for the Minutemen this year.

Georgopoulos is 6-2 225 and the only listed punter on the current roster.

UMass has four kickers on the 2018 roster

Mike Caggiano RSJR 1-3 career in field goals. 14 GP 57-3383 yards 59.4 AVE 8 TB 3 OB in kickoffs.

Cooper Garcia JR. Lindy's Football Magazine picked Garcia at the top newcomer for UMass in 2018. At Ventura College Garcia went 59-59 in EP and 15-20 in FG's in 2017.

Evan Padilla RSFR. Redshirted his freshman year.

Theo Yongue RSSR. Has not played in his UMass career.

The Minutemen have three long snappers on the roster.

Peter Comaroto RSJR. DNP in 2017. Was listed has the #2 LS in the December 2017 two-deep.

Harry Blair RSFR. Redshirted in 2017.

Evan Deckers FR.

I would think the starting punter job is Georgopoulos' to lose. The kicking position is between JUCO Cooper Garcia and Mike Caggiano. Evan Deckers was a highly-rated recruit and at 6-3 250 he could help in kicking coverage.

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Mike Traini Tweets one third of the Canadian recruits have finally arrived in Amherst.

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UMass Football News--July 13th, 2017

UMass announces some changes to the Gameday Experience at McGuirk. For season Ticket holders, there will be a cash bar at Commonwealth Club and a chance to meet some of the coaches. The Minutemen March with the band, spirit groups and the players prior to the game.

Some wins would also make this Minutemen fan's experience better :)

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Mike Chiarelli of Mass Live has a post on Adam Breneman and Logan Laurent being named to the Mackey and Ray Guy Watch list teams.

Matty Vautour also has a story on Breneman and Laurent.

AP image/Marco Carcia

In 2016 Mike Caggiano went 0-2 in field goals.

Laurent went 7-9 77.8% 3-3 20-29 3-5 30-39 1-1 40-49 LONG 44. UMass' .58 field goals/game was #115 nationally.

UMass was #79 in the nation in net punting average 36.71/attempt.

The current UMass roster has five kicking specialists:

Mike Caggiano #31 K 5-11 176 JR Handled all kickoffs and PATS
Jack Coveney #91 K 6-1 185 RSSO
Theo Yongue #92 K 5-8 156 RSJR
Logan Laurent #99 K/P 6-4 217 RSSR Stats as above
Michael Schreiner #23 K/P 6-0 220 RSFR

A vital part of the kick game is the long snappers. The current roster has two:

Nick Berus #53 LS 6-0 220 RSSR Snapped for all 66 punts
Peter Comaroto #59 LS 5-11 218 RSSO

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The Florida State site "Tomahawk Nation" previews their game against Boston College. They'e not impressed.

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CRIME IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT.

Concord woman arrested twice in five hours after returning to the police station to demand the cops return her drugs.

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Friday--September 4th, 2015

Florida International pulled off an upset by beating UCF (a team many pundits picked to win the AAC East) by the score of 15-14.

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Hawaii beat Colorado 28-20. More here.

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VMI, one of the traditionally weaker FCS teams, scored 36 points in their loss to Ball State.

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Villanova turned the ball over and missed a chip shot field goal and lost to UConn 15-20.

San Jose State rolled over New Hampshire 43-13. All the college football scores here.

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Stacey Bedell was running well against Toledo, but weather canceled the game.

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All the MAC results here.

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After a walk-through at Gillette, UMass football had a day at the beach.

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Matty Vautour reports UMass is preparing for mile high Boulder. He says three true freshman players have made the travel squad to Colorado: RB Sekai Lindsay, K Mike Caggiano and DB James Oliphant.

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The Boston Herald says the Minutemen are eyeing a winning season.

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The UMass Daily Collegian reports on the kicking competition between Blake Lucas and Mike Caggiano.

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Cincinnati.com says the Miami Redhawks are young and ready to improve.

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Wednesday--July 1st, 2015

The ink was barely dry from my highlighter when the UMass website puts up another iteration of the 2015 roster. This time all the freshmen are included and most have bios.

Latest roster

Marquis Young--RB 5-11 200 wearing #8 same as Shane Huber
Randell West--QB 6-5 22 wearing #13 worn by Jordan Broadnax last year
James Sosinski--QB 6-6 240 wearing #17 same as Jovan Santos-Knox
Micah Morel--DB 6-0 200 wearing #22 same as Shadrach Abrokwah
Andy Isabella--RB 5-10 185 wearing #23 and J.T Blyden is still missing
Mehki Williams--RB 5-9 180 wearing #25 same as Joe Colton
Mike Caggiano--K 5-11 170 wearing #31 worn by Iric Harris last year
Sekai Lindsey--RB 5-9 210 wearing #35 worn by Stanley Andre last year
Lee Moses--DB 6-1 190 wearing #40 worn by Jon Lucier last year
Brandon Mangram-- DB 5-11 180 wearing #43 worn by Matthew Wylie last year (transferred)
Kenny Kearn--RB 6-0 227 wearing #46 same as Lucas Amato
James Oliphant--DB 5-8 165 wearing #48 number not assigned last year
Mike Yerardi--OL 6-4 295 wearing #50 worn by Mike Wynne last year
Joe Parsons--OL 6-4 305 wearing #56 worn by Sam Zeff last year (transferred)
Reche Thomas--OL 6-4 315 wearing #57 worn by Leo Krizanovic last year
Peter Comaroto--LS 5-11 215 wearing #59 number not assigned last year
Derek Dumais--OL 6-5 325 wearing #72 worn by Rich Queen last year (transferred)
Lamarriel Taylor--WR 6-2 185 wearing #86 worn by Shaquille Harris last year (now wearing #14)
Jon Derolus--WR 6-0 175 wearing #81 same as Kevin Lovaincy
Travis Reynolds--TE 6-5 245 wearing #87 same as T.J. Kelley (G'Day mate!)
Jack Coventry--K 6-1 180 wearing #91 worn by Chris Carter last year
Jesse Noel--WR wearing #93 worn by Seamus Murray last year
Kyle Horn--TE 6-4 250 wearing #95  same as Sha-Ki Holines
Mario Patton--DL 6-4 315 wearing #96 worn by Brian McDonald last year
Aaron Kinsey--LB 6-4 210 wearing #97 worn by Daniel Maynes last year
D'Shan Harley--LB 6-5 210 wearing #98 worn by Ryan Heath last year
Dejion Evans--WR 6-3 no number assigned
Tom Rodrick--LB 6-3 230 no number assigned

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The Notre Dame blog "One foot down" discusses the Irish's 2015 including UMass as a "layup" game.

Scout.com has a story about the strengths and weaknesses of Notre Dame's opponents.

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Marshall fans complain about the Herd scheduling Appalachian State.

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Bloguin.com has five MAC conference story lines for 2015.

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Some UMass fan compiled this Minutemen pump-up video. It's well done.

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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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Wednesday--August 19th, 2015

The UMass website has a post on the Minutemen's first fall practice.

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Dan Malone reports Mark Whipple says Blake Frohnapfel is working at "another level" this fall. The old level was pretty good. Just stay healthy, Blake!

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The UMass Daily Collegian reports on the first day of camp.

Anthony Chusano of the Collegian has a post on the Minutemen's defensive secondary.

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image by Dan Malone

Dan also reports on incoming freshman kicker Michael Caggiano.

Caggiano's UMass bio. There's not many college football fanbases in the country where maybe the top discussed recruit is a kicker, but UMass fans really hope Caggiano is the solution to two years of misery. As we've discussed here many times, UMass finished at or near the bottom of the MAC in most kicking and punting stats. We had five close losses in 2014. Most football gurus believe special teams decide about a third of all contests. If any of the freshman players have an open door to be an impact player and four-year starter, it's Caggiano.

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Matty Vautour says Blake Frohnapfel has a stronger foundation this year. Matty also reports the coaching staff hope to have Andrew Verboys take over as holder on kicks.

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The Buffalo Bulls talk about a new football era.

The Bulls return only four starters on defense.

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Wagner will play at BYU on October 24th. Former UMass player Greg Hilliard is one of the Seahawks top players. Hilliard's Wagner bio. The article also mentions former UMass player and coach Malik Hall.

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The MAC Conference goes to eight officials this year.

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A Bleacher Report writer ranks the MAC sixth in twelve conferences in running back strength.

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Sports Chat Place ranks UMass eighth in the thirteen team MAC.

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Mike Rosenburg has a post on the most-arrested football teams over the last five years. Twenty-four of the top-25 teams are Power Five squads.

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Tuesday before the Gators 08/30/2016

UMass has their game notes for Florida up.

So does Florida.

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Monday news from the Gators.

Antonio Callaway, the SEC's leading receiver, has been cleared to play against UMass.

The Gators two-deep for UMass.

The Miami Herald says the Gators are ready to have a good time.

Florida HC Jim MeElwain comments on the UMass game.

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CBS Sports previews the UMass-Florida game. Requires Adobe Flash player.

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UMass opens as a 37 point underdog to Florida.

Dan Malone has the Minutemen's first official two-deep of the season. Bilal Allay and Raquan Thomas make the offense's two-deep. Jake Largay is listed as the starter at RG.

Isaiah Rogers and Bakhari Goodson make the defensive backfield's two-deep as freshmen and James Bowie at LB.

Mike Caggiano is listed as the kicker.

Dan has notes about the two-deep. As Dan says, I expect a lot more rotation than listed especially on defense. If healthy, I would expect the all the JUCO's to play.

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Matty Vautour has a post on the Minutemen's new two-deep.

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the 2016 UMass season.

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Former UMass player Jordan Fiske joins the Minutemen strength and conditioning staff.

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Randall Jette was cut by the Packers. Marken Michel also likely to be released.

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The Boston College blog "Eagle in Atlanta" looks at BC's season and predicts a win over UMass.

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UMass Football News--August 27th, 2018

We saw some good performances from new players Saturday.

George Georgopoulos- Uncorked a 50-yard punt and another sky high for no return. Let's hope that was the start of a four-year stellar career. Honorable mention to Cooper Garcia and Mike Caggiano who didn't miss an extra point or kick out of bounds.

Joseph Norwood-He already looked bigger and stronger than his HS highlight video. Didn't look lost and, when he was in, he was around the ball, which is a good sign for a defensive player.

Kyle Horn-- Five catches, four for first downs. Andrew Ford needs a TE he can check down to. Great start to 2018.

Larnel Coleman--Jack who? Coleman graded out as one of the top performances Saturday. UMass ran for 282 yards and when you can run the ball, the opposing defense is in trouble.

Bryce McAllister--UConn didn't want to file for the medical redshirt on Mcallister? He looked like a senior out there. Two INT's because he knew where the ball was going to be.

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

Pittsburgh Sports Now says Duquesne was out-classed.

The Boston Herald says the Minutemen found plenty of positives.

SB Nation has eleven fun things from college football's Week 0

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Sports Chat Place previews the UMass-BC game and thinks the Minutemen will beat the spread.

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Tuesday--January 27th, 2015

Well, my snow blower is all gassed up and I'm ready to do battle. Only about four inches of snow so far in Jaffrey.

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Max Moore of Hustle Belt is excited about kicker Mike Caggiano verbaling to the Minutemen.

Mike Karpinski has a post about the seven UMass commits.

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Will the FBS full-cost-of-attendance stipend force FCS schools to do the same? Interesting point. Will the non-FBS schools who want to be top-tier in other sports (Villanova in hoops, UMass-Lowell in hockey for example) give full-cost-of-attendance to those sports. Anything they do for a men's team has to be done for the women's team because of Title IX. Could basketball players at Villanova, men's and women's get the stipend and other sports athletes not?

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MLive.com has an article on Eastern Michigan wanting to bale on their game with Michigan State.

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The Star-Telegram says deflategate is all about home field advantage and hating on Bill Belichick. Patriots fans will not be surprised that Bill is not held with a lot of affection in other parts of the country.

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ESPN reports 45,000 people showed up for Ohio State's Nation Championship celebration.

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UMass Football News--July 10th, 2018

One big change for the Minutemen in 2018 will be the kicking game. Logan Laurant went 13-15 86.7% in field goals. His kicking was the margin of victory in the Appalachian State and BYU victories.

Logan also did all the punting. He went 65-2772 42.6 AVE 63 LONG 6 TB 17 i20 and 14 50+.

Longan and Freshman Michael Schneider (0-4 field goals 35-1960 kickoffs) are gone. Long snapper Nick Berus also graduated.

Returning are:

Mike Caggiano RSJR--Redshirted 2017. He is 1-3 in career field goal attempts. Handled all the kickoffs and PAT's in 2016.

Evan Padilla RSFR. Redshirted in 2017.

Theo Yongue RSSR. No career stats.

Joining the team this year:

Cooper Garcia JR . Lindy's Magazine picked Cooper as UMass' top newcomer for 2018. "PK Cooper Garcia: The transfer from Ventura College steps right into the kicking job, and he will be big for an offense that expects to pile up the points. Garcia was 15 of 20 on field goal attempts and 59-for-59 on PAT's last year for Ventura."

George Georgopoulos FR. Was first-team All-Region as a punter in 2016 and 2017 in HS.

UMass returns two long snappers:

Peter Comaroto RSJR: DNP in 2017.

Harry Blair RSSO: Redshirted in 2017.

The Minutemen add:

Evan Deckers FR. Highly rated LS by several kicking camps.

UMass fans have suffered through 4 1/2 years of tear-your-hair-out bad kicking and six games of great kicking. It was no coincidence that we won four of the six of those games. The Minutemen will start a new kicker, punter and LS on August 25th. We shall see...

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UMass moved to FBS in 2012 and EA Sports NCAA Football computer football game promptly died. SB Nation thinks it could come back.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2019--Patrick Duffy

Patrick Duffy, a 5-10 150 pound kicker from Wilmington, DE has Tweeted he'll attend UMass as a PWO.

Hudl.com has video.

MaxPreps has stats.

I believe both Mike Caggiano and Cooper Garcia will be seniors in the Fall. Garcia was arguably the Minutemen's new player-of-the-year in 2018.

Saturday-- February 7th, 2015

Blake Fronapfel and Matt Sparks named Distinguished MAC Scholar-Athletes. Fronapfel is also a member of the Athletic Director Search Committee.

I think it was Gazette UMass beat writer Matty Vautour who speculated how many  years it would be before Liam Coen was named head coach at UMass.

I wonder when Blake Fronapfel will return to Amherst as Athletic Director. Provided, of course, if his career in athletic administration doesn't get delayed by a six-year stint as QB for the Cleveland Browns.

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A MassLive editorial praises Robert Goodhue as interim UMass A.D.

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The UMass season ticket promo is pretty cool.

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Jean Sifrin has been invited to the NFL Combine.

Matty Vautour also reports on Sifrin's invite.

NFL.com has a mention of Sifrin on this article on under-the-radar draft prospects.

NJ.com has the full list of invitees. A number of MAC players are included.

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Walk-on kicker Matt Wylie has transferred to Texas San-Antonio. Wylie had one really ugly field goal attempt during the Penn State game and then ended up in a walking boot and didn't play again.

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Dan Malone reports Caoch Whipple believes Mike Caggiano will have an excellent career at UMass.

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Central Michigan hires a new HC. Former CM head coach Dan Enos suddenly left for Arkansas after the season ended.

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CBS Sports has a post on possible college football rule changes for 2015.

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Family blames Seahawks fan's death on Seattle's goal line play call.

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Friday--February 6th, 2014

OK, SO HOW'D WE DO?

How do we rate this year's recruiting class? Well, in one respect, it's surprising. The class is all freshmen except for one transfer. No JUCO'S or fifth-year seniors. Whipple repeatedly said UMass was recruiting for the future. For UMass fans, that's a good thing. There's gotta be a back story to this. It appears UMass football has been given the assurance by the powers-that-be the program is on firm footing and UMass football is going to be in FBS for the foreseeable future. It will be nice to have the annual media circus over with.

OTOH, we do need to get into a conference. To do that we need to attain bowl eligibility in the not far future. There doesn't seem to be a lot of immediate impact players in the 2015, except maybe for kicker.

UMass had the worst kicking game in MAC last year. The Minutemen were next-to-last in punting also. Mike Caggiano appears to address that issue. If any of the 2015 recruits have a chance to be a four  year starter it's him.

Ever since Michael Cox graduated, UMass has had issues at running back. Mainly, the lack of durability.  Over the last two years it's been a couple of games and out for the featured running back. Sekai Lindsay is a true pro-set running back. If he could be a workhorse at tailback, Whipple's offense could hit another gear in effectiveness. It looks as if the coaches have worked to fix two long-running deficiencies.

The two defensive line recruits could see some action in 2015. Spencer Whipple inferred UMass would play the 3-4 again in 2015.

UMass did not have 25 scholarships to hand out this year. The 2015 class seems to be a solid MAC-level class. At the end of the press conference Whipple still said his goal was a MAC East championship and a bowl game. Apparently, we're going to go with what we have for that goal. Time will tell if this year's recruits will competitive in a independent schedule when they're juniors and seniors.

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Robert Goodhue has been named interim Athletic Director. MassLive has a story about Goodhue being named interim director. Goodhue is a football guy too...

Matty Vautour also covers the story.

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This is cool. UMass has a behind-the-scenes video of signing day.

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The Boston Herald looks at UMass and BC's recruiting classes.

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UMass apparently passed on 6-6 420 pound Nyquel Alexander.

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The Minutemen's lone decommit Daisjon Robinson ended up at Delaware.

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The UMass Football Performance Center gets an award for being "green"

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The MAC conference website has the whole conference's signing classes.

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J.J. Watts has a message for all 2015 recruits.

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Meanwhile everybody in the conference had a great recruiting class.

P,J. Fleck has an "elite' class.

Ball State adds 24 recruits.

Bowling Green has impressive recruits.

Akron had a big January.

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UMass Football News--October 22nd, 2018

Lost in this train wreck season is the fact the new special teams kicker and punter are doing well. Kickers Mike Caggiano (2-3) and Cooper Garcia (3-3) are 5-6 for the season. Zero blocked kicks.

George Georgopoulos has punted 27-1100 40.9 AVE 60 LONG 3 I20 5 50+. Zero blocked. Georgopoulos had a nifty 53 yard punt in the third quarter of the Coastal Carolina game that got the Minutemen out of their own end zone.

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No Las Vegas odds on UMass-UConn as of 6:45 AM this morning.

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The Sports Chat Place looks at the UMass-UConn game. They say the odds are late do to uncertainty of the status of Andrew Ford and Marquis Young.

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The New Haven Register has five takeaways from UConn's loss to USF.

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The Hartford Courant says the current troubles of UConn are due to bad recruiting under Bob Diaco.

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Monday--September 28th, 2015

Dan Malone says UMass wants to reboot its season.

Dan says UMass tried to Belichick the Irish and it didn't work.

He has three up and three down after South Bend.

Mike Caggiano is now the starting Minutemen kicker.

Brian Kelley praises the Minutemen.

UMass opens as a 3.5 point underdog to FIU. In Vegas Odds, Temple is a 23 point overdog against UCC andColorado +12 against Oregon.

Dan reports Notre Dame was geared up to stop the UMass offense and still had trouble with it.

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FIU was run over by Louisana Tech's Kenneth Dixon.

Florida International has injuries in their secondary.

LA Tech ran over the Panthers top-rated run defense.

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Hustle Belt has Toledo #1 in the MAC power rankings.

Toledo just missed the AP Top-25 poll.

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Victor Cruz expects to be active next week.

James Ihedigbo was not fined for a late hit against San Diego.

Julian Talley and several other Giants visit Ladder Company #3 in New York

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UMass Football News--September 3rd, 2019

 UMass has their game notes up for Southern Illinois.

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Saluki HC Nick Hill looks ahead to the UMass game.

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

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The Boston Herald reports Coach Bell finds positives in the Minutemen's opening loss.

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UnderDop Dynasty says UMass and UConn should play twice a year.

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Young Minutemen. UMass had 16 out of 53 players at Rutgers who were playing their first ever game for the Minutemen. That's 30.1%. In addition, there were a number of players like Brian Abosi (two career appearances) and Melvin Hill (one career appearance) who had minimal playing time prior to Saturday.

Starters:

10-O.C. Johnson WR
35- Shannon Junior II BUCK
2-Jarvis Miller WILL
5-Donte Lindsey CB

 12-WALLACE, Josh, 1-BRITT, Jessie, 13-BOWE JR., James, 23-NESMITH, Michael, 4-DINGLE, Brennon,12-BRITO, Andrew, 16-JOHNSON, Josiah, 17-OGBONNA, Chinedu, 18-EDWARDS, Taylor, 19-EMILUS, Samuel,20-CHERRELUS, Claudin, 23-ROBERSON, Cam, 28-LEWIS, Justin, 30-CAGGIANO, Mike, 31-DARBY, Logan, 33-RUANE, Mike,34-BROWN, Kevin, 37-GARCIA, Cooper, 39-NARDI, Dante, 42-WOODEN, Billy, 54-WEIR, Johnathon, 55-FREDERIC, Wilson,60-MOULTON, Timothy, 67-TOMLISON, Dalton, 68-FAGUNDES, Helber, 73-DITOMMASO, Chris, 80-TURNER, Javon,82-HILL, Melvin, 88-GEORGOPOULOS, George, 90-DECKERS, Evan, 92-WASHINGTON, Caeleb

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Wednesday--February 4th, 2015 Letter-of-Intent Day

Lots more recruiting stuff tomorrow, pant, pant :)

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UPDATES:

Spring Enrollees:

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Marquis Young, 6-0 200 RB from Milford Academy. I've blogged about Young before.

Randall West, 6-4 220 pound QB from Lawrenceville, NJ. I've blogged about West before.

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Lamarriel Taylor, 6-3 WR from Chula Vista, CA. I've blogged about him before.

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Thomas Rodrick, 6-3 230 LB from Liecester, MA. I've blogged about him before.

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Morel #6/ Boston Herald image

Micah Morel, 6-0 190 pound Safety from Milford Academy.

ESPN describes him as one of the best safeties in MA in this 2012 article.

Hudl.com has video.

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Image credit as above

Darrian Josey, 6-2 165 pound WR from Boyton Beach, FL. Transfer from Hawaii.

Whipple said UMass recruited Josey last year. Whipple also said Josey ran the 2nd fastest 100 in the state of Florida in 2014.

Hudl.com highlights. This article from January 2014 features Josey. So does this article.

Rivals two-star player.

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247Sports image

Dejion Evans, 6-3 200 pound WR from Boston, MA.

Hudl.com video.

ESPN player page.

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OK, I've got to do a couple of things and then I'm going to drive down to Amherst to go the 3:00 PM press conference. More updates to the blog in the evening.

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Travis Reynolds joins the Minutemen. Apparently they play football in Australia (Reynolds video highlights)

Bayside Ravens Football Club.

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James Sosinski joins the UMass QB corps.

This article from MaxPreps features Sosinki.

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Boston Globe image

ESPN reports that Kenny Kern, a 6-0 227 pound fullback from Xaverian Brothers will join UMass as a preferred walk-on.

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Jack Driscoll joins the UMass offensive line

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Reche Thomas signs with UMass

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Artayvious Lynn joins the Minutemen

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247 Sports image

Sam Franklin, a 6-4 185 pound WR from Crystal River, FL signs with UMass

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com video.

Rivals two-star player with offers from Cincinnati, Indiana, Kentucky and South Alabama.

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Aaron Kinsey signs with the Minutemen.

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Mario Patton joins UMass.

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James Bowe signs with the Minutemen. I received an e-mail from a UMass fan in Georgia saying Buford is a powerhouse program that has supplied a lot of talent to FBS teams in the past.

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Mike Caggiano joins UMass.

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D'Shan Harley signs with the Minutemen.

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Sekai Lindsay joins UMass Football/

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Brandon Mangram signs with the Minutemen.

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Lee Moses joins UMass

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Hudl.com image

Marshall Robinson a 6-4 330 pound DL from Mars Hill, PA signs with UMass.

Robinson's Hudl highlights.

Also had offers from Temple and Bowling Green.

From the UMass feed:

Fun fact about Marshall Robinson - he can dunk a basketball from a standing position according to coach Sollazzo

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From John Sinnett's office:

Fans are invited to join UMass football Head Coach Mark Whipple and his staff for a College Football Signing Day Party tomorrow, February 4th at the Amherst Brewing Company starting at 5:30 PM. The event is free to attend and light hors d'oeuvres will be provided. The Amherst Brewing Company is located just off the UMass campus at 10 University Drive in Amherst.
Coach Whipple will highlight his incoming class of newcomers for the 2015 season and will be joined by his coaching staff to speak with fans about the newest additions to the UMass football family. The evening celebration will cap off what is sure to be a day of great excitement with players signing their National Letters of Intent beginning that morning.

SECOND RECRUITING EVENT CELEBRATION IN BOSTON

This event will be held at the UMass Club in Boston on February 26th, 2015. This is another opportunity to get to know the newest additions to the maroon and white family, and hear what Head Coach Mark Whipple and the UMass Football coaching staff have in store for the upcoming season.

To RSVP or for more information, please contact Jason Germain in the Minutemen Club Office at jag@admin.umass.edu<mailto:jag@admin.umass.edu> or 413-577-0267.

SIGNING DAY COVERAGE
For full coverage of the day along with an interactive blog check out www.UMassAthletics.com<http://www.umassathletics.com/>. Fans are also encouraged to follow twitter.com/CoachWhipUMass<http://www.twitter.com/CoachWhipUMass>, twitter.com/UMassFootball<http://www.twitter.com/UMassFootball> and twitter.com/UMassAthletics<http://wwww.twitter.com/UMassAthletics> to get the news of each signing as soon as it happens.

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The UMass website has a Signing Day Central Page up.

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Dan Malone says this year's recruits will lead the Minutemen into a unknown future.

MassLive.com will also have live updates.

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Looks like UMass Lax may be playing at McGuirk this season after Garber Field suffered unspecified "damage' from the latest storm.

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BC signs seven Massachusetts players.

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Campus Insiders thinks Sekai Lindsey will be star of the Minutemen's 2015 recruiting class.

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Future UMass opponent BYU got a big boost after it was named a honorary Power Five team.

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Thursday--August 18th, 2016

New McGuirk football banners.

Some Media Day images from the Athletic Dept.

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Mic'd up with coach Walker. Coach Walker's UMass bio

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Dan Malone has a quartet of articles:

Mark Whipple proud of Tajae  Sharpe's transition to the NFL.

Dan reports Marquis Young is ready to lead the UMass RB contingent.

He says UMass wants JUCO transfer Rod Jones to rush the passer.

Dan also reports Infinite Tucker will not attend UMass as he has switched to track. Patrick Volcy and Antoine Webster will grayshirt. T.J. Rayam and Tyler Thompson will attend prep school. That breaks their verbal and they can sign with another school.

Thompson and Tucker were three-star recruits. T.J. Rayam was two star.

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Las Vegas has UMass over/under wins at 2.5

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Matty Vautour has a post on Logan Laurent competition with Mike Caggiano to be starting kicker.

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Florida HC Jim McElwain has suspended two starters for the UMass game due to a training camp fight. Teez Tabor's Florida bio. C'Yontai Lewis' bio.

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BC football and QB transfer Patrick Towles try to put the 2015 season behind them.

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UMass Football News--December 7th, 2017

Thanks to the blog reader who pointed me to this USA Today article on assistant coaches salaries.

UMass is near the bottom of the barrel in assistant coaches salaries. This is another reason a league affiliation would help. Of course, not all leagues are in good shape.

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Speaking of the Sun Belt, seven Coastal Carolina players made the All-Sun Belt. If you read the article, a number of Chants players had their best game against UMass...

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In yesterday's Matty Vautour article he mentioned Coach Whipple is looking for some transfer or JUCO help with punting.

During the second half of the season Logan Laurant took over and had a great six weeks. In two of our biggest victories to date he was the key factor in the game. He kicked the game-tying field goal and then the winner in overtime. His three field goals were the difference in the BYU game. In addition, he was booming his kickoffs into the end of the  Cougars' endzone all game.

Not counting Laurant, we have four more kickers on the roster:

Mike Caggiano-- JR DNP in 2017. I don't know what happened to him.

Evan Padilla--FR He drew some oblique praise from Whipple, but DNP in 2017.

Theo Young--RSJR. DNP in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.

Michael Schreiner---FR Had a solid start in kickoffs and extra points (10 for 10 in the first three games). Then missed one field goal against Coastal Carolina and three against Temple. Then missed his next extra point against Tennessee.

We've had five-and-half years of terrible kicking and six weeks of outstanding kicking and punting. It's no coincidence those six weeks were the best of our FBS era. A decent punter and kicker should be a priority recruiting goal.

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