2006 Recruit DE Rob McLaughlin

No, the above image is of Rob McLaughlin's father, Joe McLaughlin sacking Dartmouth's QB Tom Randolph on 09/04/1976. Joe went on to be a UMass Captain and lead UMass to the its first trip to the I-AA Championship in 1978. He also earned a Superbowl ring with the NY Giants playing for Bill Parcells .

Rob McLaughlin is a 6-2 235 pd DE from Nauset Regional H.S. He prepped one year at The Hampton School in NH, where he was a teammate of UMass Recruit Sloan Russett.

Welcome to UMass Rob! Hope you have a great career with the UMass Defense.

2006 Recruit OLB/DB Sam Besong

Joining the Minutemen's 2006 recruiting class is Sam Besong a 6'0" 210 pd Outside Linebacker/Safety from Brockton H.S.

The image to the left is from the Berkshire School. Besong is #23.

In 2005 Besong was a Rivals two star player and was recruited by Boston College, Rutgers, Syracuse and Virginia. His 2005 Boston Globe All-Scholastic bio is here .

He ended up having a year at the Berkshire School were he led the Prep league with 80 tackles. The Berkshire School's press release about him signing with UMass is here.

One interesting side article is this Rivals 2005 list of the Top Ten players in MA. Note that UMass has signed two of the top ten.

Coach Brown and staff seem to be doing an outstanding job with recruiting!

Miller, Koegel named in top of I-AA for 2006

Matt Dougherty of The Sports Network has finished his take on I-AA position profiles for 2006.

Named as the #2 Center in I-AA for 2006 was Alex Miller. He was named All-A10 First Team, College Sporting News I-AA All Star 2nd team and Don Hansen's Gazette All Northeast 2nd team in 2005.

Named the #2 punter in I-AA was Christian Koegel . Koegel was named 1st team All I-AA by Lindy's. His post-2005 honors are too numerous to list here. Check his UMass Bio.

Have to disagree with Koegel's ranking. Dougherty ranks him behind David Simonhoff of Southeast Missouri State, seemingly on the strength of Simonhoff's 2004 performance ??!!

In 2005 Koegel was #1 in the nation in Net Punting and #3 in punting average.

In 2005 Simonhoff was #96 in the nation in Net Punting and #5 in punting average. You make the call...

Two Senior I-AA writers take a look at the East

Since the news that the Colonial Athletic Association will assume control of A10 Football in 2007, there has been an intense amount of gassing on the various football message boards that the CAA will eventually break up into two separate leagues.

Dave Coulson, Senior Columnist for I-AA .org and Matt Dougherty of SportsNetwork.com discuss the state of the I-AA East here .

My take is that the CAA will be stable for the foreseeable future.

UMass Legend Clarence Brooks coaches for the Ravens

UMass legend Clarence Brooks is coaching for the Baltimore Ravens.

Check out his 30-year coaching history here . Impressive!

Brooks lettered for UMass in 70,71 and 72. He was a UMass captain in 1972.

He was First-Team All Yankee Conference in 1972 and was also All-East.

OOC Scheduling Part III

In posts of 06/17 and 06/18 we discussed OOC (out-of-conference) scheduling. I noted that Maine was at a disadvantage because they were only were playing 10 games this year.

Well, Maine has added a 11th game. They are playing Shaw University (DII) on 09/23/06.

This adds more revenue on season tickets, but does nothing for making the playoffs. When I-A teams such as Navy play I-AA teams such as UMass, a Navy win counts towards Bowl eligibility.

The reverse is not true. When I-AA teams play DII teams the win does not count towards the playoffs (the minimum number of I-AA wins is seven).

The desirability of OOC schedules are as follows:

1. Three beatable I-AA teams (such as Townson playing Morgan State, Elon and Liberty). Towson needs only four wins in the A10 to be playoff eligible.
2. Two beatable I-AA team and big money game against a I-A team (such as William & Mary playing Maryland, VMI and Liberty). Two sure wins and $$$ for the athletic budget.
3. One beatable I-AA team, one good I-A team and a money I-A game. (such as UMass' playing Stony Brook, Colgate and Navy). Good for the fans to see a playoff caliber I-AA team, but UMass will see plenty of potential playoff teams in the A10*
4. Multiple DII teams, two I-A teams or multiple playoff caliber I-AA teams (see last year's Northeastern schedule)
   

*Contrast UMass' schedule with I-AA power Georgia Southern. The eagles play a two game schedule of Applachian State (12-3) and Furman (11-3). The Eagles outclass the rest of their schedule. Georgia Southern should go 9-2 and are a lock to get a home playoff game unless their recent coaching change messes them up. The road to the playoffs in the A10 is much tougher.

Doug Clark hits the Majors

Doug Clark was called the Majors by the Oakland A's yesterday. See the CSTV article on the three former Minutemen now playing in the Majors.

His Oakland A's bio page is here .

Clark played two sports during his time at UMass. Besides baseball, he was a premier WR for the UMass Football Team. He won letters in football in 95,96 and 97.

He tied for the team lead in receptions in '96 with 20 rec 279 yards 3TDs. He also led the team in '97 with 33 rec 433 yards 1 TD. He remains #9 all time at UMass with a 16.0 yards/catch average.

He's #7 in single season yards/catch with a 19.0 average in 1996.

The image to the right is a scan from the 1997 UMass Football press guide.

UMass History. Game Program from UMass-Toledo 09/11/1976

The following images are scans from my 09/11/1976 UMass-Toledo Game program. I was there.

UMass won 28-14. I do not have a box score as my UMass press guides only go back to 1980.

Right Click on the image for a larger view. If the roster is not readable (blogger limits the size of the enlargement), right click on the image and select "save image as" and move the image to your hard drive. Then right click on the image file and select "Open with" and then "Microsoft image viewer", which has a enlargement button. PhotoShop will also work, of course...

Game Program 09/11/1976 Front Page

Game Program 09/11/1976 UMass 1976 Team photo

UMass 1976 Football Roster

Game Program 09/11/1976 UMass Coaching Staff

From left to right: Jimmie Reid, Bob Pickett, Clarence Brooks, Billy Maxwell, Tom Mullen and Head Coach Dick MacPherson

Game Program 09/11/1976 UMass Captains

UMass 1976 Captains Brian McNally and John Toner.

Game Program 09/11/1976 UMass-Dartmouth Scrimmage

All-America UMass Guard Bruce Kimball blocks for John Romboli

Game Program 09/11/1976 UMass-Dartmouth Scrimmage

Game Program 09/11/1976 UMass-Dartmouth Scrimmage

The Scanning software decided to do two images on one scan here.

Game program 09/11/1976 UMass-Dartmouth Scrimmage photos

Ron Harris (#42) returns a punt 27 yards.

Game Program 09/11/1976 Back page

The 1976 price for a Chevette was $3,098------and 40 miles/gallon!

UMass and Wikipedia

Well, my expensive Epson scanner is still on the fritz. I had been intending to publish some historical material.While I install and re-install for the "nth" time, check out UMass Football's entry on Wikipedia.

In my spare time I'll have to do some work on UMass' article, but McGurik Stadium has a decent start.

Of course, if someone else wants to get started on the UMass Wikipedia entry I won't complain. Do I have to do everything? :)

A10 South OOC schedule strength

Yesterday we looked at the OOC (out-of conference) strength-of-schedule for the A10 North. Gaming the OOC is crucial to a team's chances for a playoff birth. Schedule too strong an OOC (a la Northeastern) and a season can be doomed before it's started. Schedule too weak an OOC, with two DII teams, for instance, and the necessary 7 I-AA wins may not be achievable.

In the opinion of the the UMass Football Blog, the A10 South plays a significantly weaker OOC than their northern brothers. Matt Dougherty awarded two A10 teams with his "softest schedule" designation in his article discussing OOC strength. Part of that stems from everybody in the A10 South playing Elon 3-8, Liberty 1-10 and VMI 3-8.

My take in order of OOC difficulty:

1. Villanova-- Central Florida, Lehigh,@Penn. A I-A team, a Patriot League Champion contender and rival Penn constitute the toughest OOC schedule in the A10 South. Prediction 0-3
   
2. William & Mary--@Maryland, VMI, @Liberty. Well, Maryland is better than Central Florida, but the Tribe has two sure wins in the other games. Prediction 2-1
3. James Madison--@Appalachian State, Bloomburg (DII), @VMI. Another A10 South team that traditionally plays a soft OOC. This year they do have a good game with National Champion Appy State, but Bloomburg and VMI are sure wins. Prediction 3-0.
4. Richmond-- @ Duke, VMI, Bucknell. The Spiders play I-A Duke (1-10), VMI (3-8) and Bucknell (1-10). That speaks for itself. Prediction 2-1 and the Spiders scare the hell out of Duke.
   
5. Delaware--West Chester (DII), Albany, Hofstra. Matt Dougherty awarded the Hens the "softest schedule in I-AA" award in his article, but I bumped them to #2 on the fact that Hofstra (7-4) last year should be a competitive game. Still, all three games are at home. Prediction 3-0
6. Towson--Morgan State (2-9), @Elon, Liberty. The Tigers have not lost an OOC game in two years. Towson makes it 9-0 in OOC games with this schedule...