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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Sunday after the Maine game--Nov 7th, 2010

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

The Boston Herald said UMass picked off Maine. The Herald's game article here.

The Boston Globe said Holmes was twice as nice.

Ron Chimelis says UMass was in tune on Band Day.

Matty Vautour said Tyler Holmes scores on two interceptions.

UPDATE:

Matty has a revised UMass path to post season.

He also has three stars from the Maine game.

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From the UMass game notes about Holmes feat.

Tyler Holmes became the first player in UMass history to return two interceptions for touchdowns in the same game as well as in the same season.

Holmes became the first player in 2010 in all of Division I football (FBS and FCS) to return two INTs for TDs and just the 23rd all-time in all of FCS. The last player to accomplish the feat was Kellin White, Southeast Mo. St. vs. UT Martin on Oct. 30, 2004.

Holmes became the third player in UMass history to return two interceptions for touchdowns in a CAREER. He joined Anton McKenzie (2000-03) and Jerard White (1996-99). For Holmes, the two touchdowns were the first of his career.

The last player in the CAA to return two interceptions for scores was Allante Harrison of Towson in 2004.

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BTW, UMass is tied for third in the CAA. If we should beat Delaware next week we would own the tiebreaker against two of the top three...

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Strength of schedule update.

William & Mary shut down UNH.

Lehigh knocked Holy Cross out of the Patriot League title quest.

Michigan beat Illnois 67-65 in triple overtime. That's the highest point total in the history of Wolverine football.

Stony Brook went to 4-0 in the Big South with a 37-7 win over Presbyterian.

Richmond is still in the playoff hunt with an overtime win against JMU.

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#1 Appalachian State lost at GSU.

Robert Morris won the NEC's first auto playoff bid.

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Saturday---July 23, 2011

Blog News: If you logged on to the UMass football blog from Comcast at 1:20AM this morning you were the blog's 1,000,000 page view.  The first month I started the blog back in 2005, most of the traffic came from me, obsessively checking to see if it was still there :)

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As I mentioned yesterday, the CAA has their press guide available on their website. This pdf download has the 2011 Preseason All-CAA player list. Included are Julian Talley and Tyler Holmes as Defensive Player-of-the-Year.  The most notable omission for UMass is Jonathan Hernandez. I thought Josh Samuda and Nick Speller from the league's top offense were worthy also.

Matty V. has a story on Tyler Holmes being named Defensive Player-of-the-Year.

Delaware has only ten returning starters this year and it seems six of the the ten are All-CAA.

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TSN/FatHead.com has a Preseason All-America list up. Tyler Holmes is one of 10 CAA players to make the list.

The CAA, which annually rates as near or at the top of FCS, is third in number of players on TSN's list.

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CSN has a preview of the NEC Conference up. It seems as if every time we play a NEC team, they are the conference champions. 2011 continues the the trend as CSN picks the Blue Devils to win the league. BTW, the CCSU website is here.

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The Draft Daddy Blog had this link looking at the high school recruiting ratings of the players chosen in the 2011 NFL draft.

Friday News----- July 30th, 2010

Tyler Holmes and Emil Igwenagu have been named UMass captains for the 2010 season. There have been a number of Junior captains for UMass in the past, but this is the first time I can remember where there were two. This is probably because UMass returns only nine starters (second lowest in the CAA) and only six, by my count, are seniors.

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The CAA's website has the coach's and player's video from Media Day fixed.

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UMass' 2010 OOC opponent Stony Brook was picked second in the Big South on their Media Day.

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The UMass JATAM has a story with four links concerning Vladimir Ducasse and James Ihedigbo.

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It's been a while since New Hampshire did not have any preseason All-CAA candidates on offense.

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According to this newspaper blog, Michigan has the 5th best schedule in the Big Ten.

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Delaware's Pat Devlin has reason to be motivated.

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Speaking of QB's, it looks like former Oregon player Jeremiah Masoli is going to be playing for Old Miss instead of an FCS team.

Key Quote:"Hopefully we've put in a good stead in terms with the court and the DA's office."

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Today is thirty-six days until the 2010 season starts. Wearing #36 for UMass is Tyler Holmes, a 6-0 215 pd RS JR LB from Blacksburg, VA. In 2009 Homes was the leading tackler on defense as he went 50 UT 60 AT 110 TT 6.5-14 TFL 1.0-9 SACKS 4-12 INT 5 BkUp 1 FF. Besides tackles, Holmes lead the team in INT's. Holmes was the second leading tackler in the CAA with 11 Avg/G. He has been named one of the UMass Captains for 2010.

Friday---July 29, 2011

CBS Sports has the top 1000+ NFL draft prospects. I found Emil Igwenagu ranked #16 in fullbacks(H-back). I couldn't locate Tyler Holmes or Jonathan Hernandez, but I didn't have much time to play with the site.

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The UMass website has added video interviews with Tyler Holmes and Julian Talley to the CAA Media Day section.

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I've already linked to this article by Matty V on the Indiana game, but I want to make a point. From the article:

"The clash will be the Minutemen's only home nonconference game in 2012. UMass will play a total of three nonconference games, two of which will be on the road. The first of those will be the season opener at Connecticut's Rentschler Field on Aug. 30, a Thursday night. The other will be either:

* a guarantee game - meaning the Minutemen would play a road game, likely at a big name opponent for a substantial amount of money

* the start of another one-for-one series on the road

* or the start of a two-for-one series on the road, in which the Minutemen would travel to an opponent twice and have that team play in Foxborough once."

UMass opens next year with UConn and Indiana. We are not likely to win either game. In addition, the Minutemen should be underdogs to all conference games in the first year in FBS. It might be nice to add a 12th game against a FCS team at McGuirk, so we won't have the potential for an eleven-loss season.

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This year is the last for Rhode Island in the CAA. The Rams want to make it a good one.

2011 should be the only time UMass plays Old Dominion. The Monarchs went 17-5 in their first two years in football. The Virginia Times-dispatch says Old Dominion is looking to roar in their first season in the CAA.

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The FCS Championship game will be January 7th, 2012.

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Dallas strip clubs rejoice now that the Cowboys are opening camp.

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Friday --November 19, 2011

James Madison's game notes for UMass here (html).

No game notes for UMass up yet )??!

UPDATE: UMass game notes are now up.

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Click for a larger view

Julian Tally's stats for the year:

Julian Talley      10-10      54      702      13.0      4      51      70.2

The current single season receptions records show Talley could move up several notches with a good game Saturday.

6. 62 Tim Berra (1973)
7. 61 Anthony Nelson (2010)
8. 60 Brandon London (2005)
9. 59 Victor Cruz (2009)
10. 56 Julian Talley (2020)

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Jesse Julmiste's kick return stats for 2011:

Jesse Julmiste      27      725      26.9      2      100

The single season kick return yardage.

1. 805 Tim Berra (1973) --Julmiste needs 80 yards to break the record.

Total kick returns:

1. 32 Tim Berra (1973)
2. 31 Adrian Zullo (1998)

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Tyler Holmes 2011 stats:

Tyler Holmes      10-10      66      38      104 TT

Single season TT records:

6. 115.0 Jeremy Cain (2002)
7. 113.5 Brian Smith (1998)
8. 113.0 John McKeown (1988)
9. 111.5 Mark Kimener (2003)
10. 108.0 John McKeown (1985)

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Matty V. says there will be many endings this Saturday at McGuirk.

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True freshman DeAndre Smith (good name) is making a contribution for the Dukes this year.

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North Andover's Brandon Walsh will attend UMass on a baseball scholarship.

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UNH and Maine play for the Bryce-Cowell Musket and a lot more this Saturday at Cowell stadium.

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Wednesday News ----- June 30th, 2010

The New York Times says Vladimir Ducasse has a strong showing in the Jets training camp.

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Two UMass players (Tyler Holmes and Emil Igwenau) have been named to Phil Steele's CAA preseason All-League team. Josh Smauda, Julian Talley and John Griffin were named to the second team. The UMass athletic site has the story here.

Speaking of Tyler Holmes, his interception against Maine was voted one of UMass' top plays of the year.

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Old Dominion's first CAA game will be at Delaware on September 24th.

Another post by the same author talks about Rhode Island leaving the CAA.

Old Dominion HC Bobby Wilder talks about changes in FCS recruiting.

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Meanwhile, future CAA member Georgia State gets ready for their first football game.

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Today is sixty-six days until UMass football starts. Wearing #66 for UMass this year will be Anthony Dima, a 6-7 271 pd RS FR OL transfer from Hofstra. Dima has four years of eligibility at UMass.

The state of UMass 2010---Linebackers

This will be the fifth unit review for 2010. Previous editions include:

• Defensive Line
• Offensive Line
• Running Backs
• Receivers

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Losses for 2010:

• Eric Dickson -RSSr 10 Starts, 95 TT, 5 BKRP, 2nd on team in TT, 6th in CAA TT

Returning 2010 (class rank for 2010):

• Tyler Holmes- Jr, 10 Starts, 2nd Team All-CAA, Led UMass 110 TT, 2nd in CAA and 8th in NCAA in TT, led UMass in INT's and tied for most BKRP's
• Perry McIntyre -Soph, Played 11 games-started 7, 3rd on team with 64 TT, CAA Rookie-of-the Week Sept 26th Stony Brook
• Kurt Filler - Sr (?) Played 4 games started 4, season ending knee injury 9/26. Not sure if he wants/will get medical redshirt.
• D.J. Adeoba - RSSoph, Played 8 games-started one. CAA Rookie-of-the-week 9/5 Kansas State, injured during that game 12 TT
• Nick Haag - RSSoph , Played 11 games-started 0, 12 TT
• Mike Mele -SR, Played 3 games-started 1, 11 TT
• Scott Duggan -RSSR, Played 8 games-started 0, 8 TT
• Chris Chamberlin -RSSoph, Played 11 games-started 0, 5 TT
• Dawan Nolton -RS Soph, Played 3 games-started 0, 1 TT

Red Shirt Freshmen for 2010:

• Tim Brandt
  
• Tom Brandt, Scout Team Defensive Player-of-the-Year
• Devin Linsey

True Freshman recruits:

• Stanley Andre 6-1 250
• Matt Campbell 6-1 230

Transfers:

• Chad Hunte -Soph, Transfer Northeastern-Played 11 games, 32 TT
  

Notes: Dickson's graduation causes UMass to lose 29% of their 2009 linebacker tackles. A commenter in another post stated that Nick Haag has transferred to Assumption. I have no information about that. We probably won't know if Kurt Filler took a redshirt year until the spring roster comes out.

Even if we are without those two, there will still be seven returning linebackers who played in 2009. Also available will be three redshirt freshmen and one transfer. So we will have at least eleven linebackers and maybe thirteen available in 2010. UMass will have five linebackers (six if you count the Hofstra transfer) who started at least one game in 2009.

The linebacker corps is the only UMass position unit that returns an All-CAA player for 2010: Tyler Holmes. This has to be the deepest unit on the team. It would seem the two true freshmen linebackers will almost certainly be redshirted unless they are switched to another position.

UMass appears to have a lot more linebackers than defensive linemen. Would UMass consider playing a 3-4 defense----or even a 3-5-3 (gaining popularity to defense the spread) ?

Northeastern transfer Chade Hunt played as a true freshman for the Huskies. I wonder if UMass would like him to take a redshirt year? He is more of a safety in size --- 6-0 205. The UMass secondary could probably use him more than the linebacker corps.

Tuesday before Holy Cross--Sept 7th, 2010

A whole bunch of stories about Victor Cruz making the Giants: Victor is rewarded, He's assigned #80 on the regular roster, he had tears of joy.

The Giants website has a story about Cruz "From long shots to big shots".

MassLive.com says Victor Cruz and Marcel Shipp are keeping an eye on each other.

The UMass Daily Collegian has a story featuring former UMass (and now Ravens) RB Matt Lawrence.

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UMass moved up to #18 in the The Sports Network's FCS poll. Complete poll here.

UMass was ranked #20 in the FCS Coaches Poll.

Matty Vautour has an article about UMass' jump in the polls and says both Emil Igwenagu and Staphane Milhim have ankle injuries, but should be available for Holy Cross.

He also has a blog post about Mike Mele's role in Tyler Holmes' interception that sealed UMass' win over William & Mary. I also watched the game on Comcast. Remember when Coach Brown use to say: "Follow your reads and they will take you to the ball!". I thought of that while watching the game. On every running play, Mele took a step towards where Grimes was heading--- sometimes he took that step before the Tribe snapped the ball. Nice reads by the senior LB.
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For the first time since November of 2008, UMass players captured both the Offensive and Defensive CAA players-of-the-Week, with Jonathan Hernandez and Tyler Holmes winning the respective honors.

The CAA has its weekly press release up. Guess who leads the CAA with alumni in the NFL?
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Vilanova took a big hit when they lost their only returning starter on the DL to a torn ACL in the Temple game.

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SeaCoast Online talks about UNH's big challenge with Pitt this week.

New Hampshire a running team? They had 313 rushing yards against CCU on Saturday.

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The Boston Globe says there are new leaders at Holy Cross. The Crusaders won big against Howard, but fell to "others receiving votes" category in the FCS polls.

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Speaking of rankings, Keepers has UMass up to #3 in his weekly FCS rankings. The Blog feels that's probably a little high.

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July 19, 2011

Jeff Thomas looks at Tyler Holmes chances for the Buck Buchanan award.

Craig Haley of TSN has the original article here.

Matty V. has a blog post about Holmes here.

UMass' switch to the 3-4 should help free up Holmes to fly around and make plays. That should help him in the voting.

The CAA Blogger looks at the three CAA defensive players on the list.

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NESN mentions the Minutemen's last season in FCS.

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The ACC Sports Journal looks at Boston College's lack of buzz and mentions the Minuteman Mania when John Calipari took UMass to the Final four.

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Future CAA team Georgia State is having a rough summer.

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Holmes, Talley wreck the Black Bears

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

OK, now that was a day at McGuirk that would have made George N. Parks proud. The weird, sad atmosphere of Homecoming was totally gone. Lots of good things and lots of energy happening in Amherst today.

First, the UMass Police were directing traffic and access to the Yellow and Green lots were much improved. Thank you UMass Police.

The Announcer Guy, except for a tendency to have John Griffin making the tackle instead of running the ball, had a much better game.

The UMass Band Day was superb as usual. George would have been especially proud of that.

The UMass Media Dept should start beating the drums for Tyler Holmes as a Buchanan Award finalist. If there's another LB in FCS that has as much impact on a game as Tyler, I'd like to see him.

And Julian Talley, took a wicked pop on a pass reception and bounced up to tell the Maine defenders "You can't hurt me!" and then proved it a couple plays later with a circus catch.

UMass write-up with notes, video and photo gallery.

Maine writeup here.

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If you missed it, Rhode Island had the CAA upset of the season by topping Villanova 17-14.

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More tomorrow. Enjoy the day and the win everyone.

Recruiting 2008------Tyler Holmes LB

I've blogged before about Tyler Holmes a 6-0 195 pd LB from Blacksburg HS in Blacksburg VA.

He was All-State, All-Group AA Second Team and All-Region in 2007. District Defensive Player-of-the-Year in 2006 and Defensive Back-of-the-Year in 2007.

This article shows his signing day.

Welcome to the Minutemen, Tyler!

Monday--April 2nd, 2012

Today we can look at losses in the UMass defense.  Gone from 2011 Minutemen defense are:

• Tyler Holmes, RS SR 11-11 GP-GS 69 UT 49 AT 118 TT 6.0-26 TFL 2.0 Sacks-117 7 BKUP 1 INT 1 FF
• Kirk Nelms, RSFR 11-10 GP-GS 30 UT 9 AT 39 TT 2.0-8 TFL 3-116 INT 5 BKUP 1 FF
• Theo Agnew,RSSO 11-3 GP-GS 19 UT 17 AT 36 TT 3.0-8 TFL 1.0-4 SACKS 1 Fumble RCV
• James Gilchrist RSSR 9-3 GP-GS 7UT 6 AT 13 TT 4.5-20 TFL 2.0-16 SACKs 1FF
• Courtney Jackson RSSR 8-3 GP-GS 7 UT 5 AT 12 TT
• James Lizotte JR 10-0 GP-GS 2 UT 3 AT 5 TT
• Travis Tripuka RS SR  10-0 GP-GS  3 UT
• Brandon Yelovich SR 11-0 GP-GS 3 UT

Holmes, Nelms and Agnew accounted for 22% of the TT for the defense in 2011. Gilchrist had a good year in TFL and SACKS.

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Sports Illustrated has an article on regional combines giving overlooked players a chance to show their stuff. Check out halfway down the page. R.J. Cobbs was catching passes from ex-Lehigh QB Chris Lum.

Cobbs was fun to watch when he played for the Minutemen.

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Former UMass WR Joe Sanford appeared in the Central Virginia Combine.

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National Football Post has Emil Igwenagu as the #4 rated FB in the draft and indicates his prospects are improving.

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The MAC Blog "Hustle Belt" says UMass won't be a MAC force anytime soon.

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Sunday---May 8, 2011

Ok, well that was the longest the Blog has been silent for several years. Sorry, I just could not get the motel's WIFI to work. The Blog has been such a regular event in my life these last years, it was a little weird to be without it.

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While I was trapped in the black hole, Tyler Holmes was named the top linebacker in FCS for 2011. I thought Holmes looked even bigger and stronger at the Spring game. Moving him back inside should allow him to ring up some huge numbers in his senior season.

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Victor Cruz (Giants Bio) took part in an improvised passing camp run by Eli Manning.

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MassLive has an image gallery of the new UMass Football offices. It pretty much matches what I took in the Spring Game images.

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Former UConn players have not had a lot of success in the NFL. It will be interesting to see how the New England recruiting wars play out. UMass was the #1 FCS team in number of players in the NFL last year. The Minutemen were also #1 in the CFL. UMass could make a dent in both BC's and UConn's influence in the Northeast.

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Samuda, Holmes, Igwenagu and Talley signed as free agents

Josh Samuda signed with the Maimi Dolphins.

Samuda squats 550 five times.

Tyler Holmes signed with the Chicago Bears.

Emil Igwenagu signed with the Eagles.

Julian Talley signed with the Giants.

Julian Talley jumps 40.5 at UMass' Pro Day.

A scouting report on Talley.

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Wednesday--April 4th, 2011

Linebackers, not the sanest of individuals

Continuing our series on the UMass defense. The Minutemen lost only one linebacker out of the last two-deep chart I have. But it was a big loss as Tyler Holmes graduated. He was the leading tackler on the team going 11-11 GP-GS 69 UT 49 AT 118 TT 6.0 TFL 2.0-17 SACKS 1-0 INT  7 BKUP. Holmes also led UMass in pass BKUP.

UPDATE: As a commenter pointed out I missed Shane Viveiros and Courtney Jackson. Actually, I picked up that this morning, but Comcast dropped a 10 hour service outage on me for the rest of the day.

The Minutemen also lose Shane Viveiros 6-6 GP-GS 15 UT 11 AT 26 TT 3.0-17 TFL 1-26 INT 2 BKUP. The UMass defense was a lot better when Viveiros was in there. Also graduating was Courtney Jackson 8-3 GP-GS 7 UT 5 AT 12 TT.

Returning in 2011:

• D.J. Adeoba RSSR 11-3 GP-GS 15 UT 15 AT 30 TT 2.0-4 TFL 1-2 INT 3 BKUP
• Stanley Andre RSSO 1-0 GP-GS 1 UT 1 TT
• Tim Brandt RSJR 11-0 GP_GS 24 UT 9 UT 33 TT 3.5-15 TFL 1 BKUP
• Tom Brandt RSJR 9-1 GP-GS 7 UT 2 AT 9 TT 1.0-4 TFL 1.0-6 SACK
• Matt Campbell RSSO 
• Ryan Delaire RSSO 10-0 GP-GS 3 UT 6 AT 9 TT 10.0-4 TFL 
• Chad Hunte SR 11-10 GP-GS 37 UT 21 AT 58 TT 2.0 TFL
• Perry McIntyre SR 11-10 GP-GS 53 UT 63 AT 116 TT 11.5-56 TFL 6.5-43 SACKS 2 BKUP
• Carlito Weaver RSJR 3-0 GP-GS 2 UT

The Minutemen return the #2 and #4 leading tacklers on the defense. Counting dual-position players there are five possible LB's on the the 2012 recruiting list.

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Matty V reports the UMass offensive line has impressed Coach Hudson.

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Ron Chimelis has a story about the improved UMass hoops program and covers the four MAC games we will play next year. Ohio's run to the Sweet Sixteen should make a good home for UMass fans.

A couple of NCAA appearances would not hurt UMass' image if we try for a BCS league in football in the future.

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Victor Cruz is a restricted free agent, so he is stuck with his contract. He can't imagine holding out.

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Thursday--Dec 23rd 2101

Tyler Holmes has been named to two more First Team All-American squads.

The Sports Network's team here.

Phil Steele's FCS All-American team here. Note that Holmes was Steele's Defensive Player-of-the-Year.

Matty V has a story here.

The CAA had 13 Sports Network All-Americans.

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Temple was a failure in the Big East, but the move to the MAC has renewed Temple football. The Owls went 8-4 this year, but lost their coach to Miami.

This article says Temple made a mistake hiring Steve Addazio as HC.

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Monday before the Maine game-10/26/09

Well, Mrs blog and I are home safe after driving 630+ miles from Virginia. On the way home, we stopped at an old haunt of mine from UMass days: Joe's Pizza in Northampton. The place was packed.I hope to work on an abbreviated Web album of the Richmond game this evening. I had to cover my camera for much of the game because of the downpour.

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I spent a little time with the UMass press guide and tried to figure out if the six interceptions was a UMass opponent record. We threw five interceptions against Hofstra at McGuirk in 1997 (that's listed as the stadium opponent record). The guide does not list an all-time single game opponent interceptions record.

The CAA press guide has the league record for interceptions as 7, which occurred four times, last by Villanova vs. Penn on 9/22/07.

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Matty Vautour has another article on the Richmond game here. He mentions UMass LB Tyler Holmes has 17 tackles. Tyler had a big contingent of fans at the game. UMass had a pretty decent crowd at Richmond and we were making a lot of noise--at least until the downpour sent a lot of people to the exits.

Vautour's Top-25 vote this week.

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The Bangor Daily News has a story about UMaine and the current and future status of CAA football.

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Josh Buchanan has a mid-year FCS top players watch list posted.

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If you follow New England college football, you probably will be pleased that Dartmouth broke a seventeen game losing streak Saturday.

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Tuesday of th Off Week--Oct 5th,2010

Tyler Homes has been added to Buck Buchanan Watch List. See the stats section below.

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Matty Vautour says UMass has goals within reach.

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Delaware QB Pat Devlin has been cleared to play against Maine after suffering a concussion last Saturday against JMU.

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UMass is #8 in The Sports Network Poll.

The Minutemen are also eighth in the NCAA Coaches Poll.

In both polls William & Mary is ahead of UMass despite the fact we beat the Tribe head-to-head.

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Good UMass CAA stats through Oct 4th, 2010.

TOTAL OFFENSE G Rush Pass Plays Yards Avg/P TD Yds/G
1. Massachusetts....... 5 1042 1187 398 2229 5.6 19 445.8

SCORING OFFENSE G TD XP 2XP DXP FG Saf Pts Avg
1. Villanova........... 5 20 18 0 0 2 2 148 29.6
Massachusetts....... 5 19 16 0 0 6 0 148 29.6

PASS EFFICIENCY G Att Cmp Pct Int Yds TD Effic
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1. Villanova........... 5 107 71 66.4 4 889 9 156.4
2. James Madison....... 4 57 31 54.4 3 510 4 142.2
3. Massachusetts....... 5 148 96 64.9 3 1187 6 141.6

SACKS AGAINST G Sacks Yards
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1. James Madison....... 4 2 15
2. Massachusetts....... 5 4 38

FIELD GOALS G Made Att Pct
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1. Massachusetts....... 5 6 6 1.000
Richmond............ 4 2 2 1.000

4TH-DN CONVERSIONS G Conv Att Pct
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1. Massachusetts....... 5 10 11 90.9
2. James Madison....... 4 3 4 75.0

TIME OF POSSESSION G Total Time Avg/G
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1. Massachusetts....... 5 178:06 35:37
2. Rhode Island........ 4 130:28 32:37

RUSHING Team Cl G Att Yds Avg TD Long Yds/G
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1. Andrew Pierce....... DELA FR 5 104 653 6.3 7 40 130.6
2. John Griffin........ UMAS SR 5 100 500 5.0 5 22 100.0
3. Jared Turcotte...... MAIN JR 4 81 361 4.5 3 51 90.2
4. Jonathan Hernandez.. UMAS JR 5 104 433 4.2 7 25 86.6

TOTAL OFFENSE Team Cl G Rush Pass Plays Total Yds/G
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1. R.J. Toman.......... UNH SR 5 124 1203 214 1327 265.4
2. Kyle Havens......... UMAS SR 5 17 1187 167 1204 240.8

TACKLES (All positions)
Player Team Cl G Pos Solo Ast Total Avg/G Sack
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1. Matt Evans.......... UNH SO 5 LB 30 24 54 10.8 1.0
2. Tyler Holmes........ UMAS JR 5 LB 25 26 51 10.2 2.0
3. Eric McBride........ RICH SR 4 LB 19 29 48 12.0 0.0
4. Jordan Dangerfield.. TOWS SO 5 DB 27 16 43 8.6 0.0
Alan Buzbee......... UNH SO 5 LB 21 22 43 8.6 0.0
6. Brian Thompson...... W&M SO 5 DB 23 18 41 8.2 0.0
7. Mike Mele........... UMAS SR 5 LB 18 20 38 7.6 1.

Monday--Dec 13th, 2010

Good morning from gloomy Jaffrey.

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The big News is Tyler Holmes has been named the New England Gold Helmet player-of-the-year. UMass' first award since Dennis Dent won in 1978. Congratulations Tyler!

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FCS football gets another prime time slot as Villanova will play Eastern Washington at 8:00 pm on Friday night. The Delaware-Southern Georgia game will be at noon on Saturday. Details from TSN here.

Sporting news has a report from FCS Senior Scout bowl.

Another report from CBS Sports here.

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Nice human interest story about William & Mary RB Jonathan Grimes.

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I was away Saturday and watched the Villanova-Appalachian State game on DVD Sunday morning.

For the second game in a row, I was impressed with the Wildcats defense. When they get ahead they rush three down linemen and drop their linebackers back. They are absolutely lethal when they do that. Despite rushing only three linemen, the Wildcats still developed pressure on many plays. Once they went into that formation, that was the end of Stephen F Austin and Appalachian State...