UMass recruit Julian Talley excels Philly All-Star Game

UMass Freshman Jullian Talley had 5 catches for 127 yards in a Philadelphia All-Star game. Story here .

Talley is wearing #86 in the image. He will be wearing #88 for UMass. Talley could well be one of the top recruits for 2007.

This article was first brought to my attention by search engine Wizard "Rocks22" over on the UMass football message board.

Sixty-Three days until football and #63

Only sixty-three days until football returns to McGuirk.

Wearing #63 again this year will be Sean Calicchio a 6-5 300 pd RS Junior from Brooklyn, NY.

Calicchio was a starter at RT before breaking his arm in the first game. He did return to play some in the late playoffs. He will likely reclaim his stater's position.

Welcome back Sean! Hope you have an excellent junior year.

Sixty-four days until football and #64

Two months and change until the 2007 season opens.
Wearing #64 for UMass this year is Kyle Lightner a 6-2 290 pd RS Freshman from Naples, FL.

Coming of a redshirt year, Lightner should be a solid addition to the UMass OL.

Welcome to UMass Kyle! Hope you have a productive career with the Minutemen.

I-A football reviewed again

UMass will review for what seems to be the nth time a move to I-A football. The Springfield Republican has a short article here.

The UMass football blog cautions all UMass football fans not to get too caught up in this. The topic usually generates a tremendous amount of gassing on the various message boards. The less the posters know about football, the stronger the opinions.

Some thoughts about the move:

• It will not cost ninety-seven bazillion dollars for a new stadium. The NCAA removed that requirement years ago. Florida International went I-A with a 18,000 seat stadium
• UMass would have to fund 22 additional scholarships. I-A is not doable with reduced scholarships.
• UMass fans would have to hang in there for a couple of years. Whipple said "We'd take our lumps for a couple of years while we got up to speed"
• The Big Issue in the UMass Football Blog's mind is conference availability. We would need to join a conference.
• Current attendance is not an issue. Build it and they will come.

Can it be done? Sure, but it would need the support of the state legislature . Massachusetts has one of the most ineffective state governments in the nation. In the Byzantine world of agendas within agendas in the state legislature, UMass football is not on the list...

Article on former UMass coach Mark Whipple

The Springfield Republican has a nice article about former UMass head coach Mark Whipple here .

Sixty-Five days until Holy Cross and #65

Only sixty-five days until the 2007 season opens.

Wearing #65 for the Minutemen this year will be Michael Boyle a 6-2 285 pd RS Freshman from Grafton, MA.

Boyle can play both center and guard. He should be a valuable addition to the UMass offensive line.

Welcome to UMass Mike! Hope you have a great career here.

2007 Spring Roster part II

As per yesterday's post the revised Spring Roster has the 2007 recruits.

• Octavious Hawkins QB wearing #14
• Justin Halas LB wearing #23
  
• Emil Igwenagu LB/TB wearing #28
• Sloan Russett FB wearing #33
• Ryan Moreshead LB wearing #37
• Josh Samuda OL wearing #50
• Tim Nolan OL wearing #62
• Brian Ostaszewki OL wearing #67
• Justin Sawicki OL wearing #73
• Julian Talley WR wearing #88
• Courtney Jackson DE wearing #91
  

Sixty-Six days until the 2007 season opens and #66

Wow! only sisty-six days until the season opener.

Wearing #66 again this year for the Minutemen is Biff Gottehrer, a 6-3 315 pd offensive lineman from Bela Cynwyd, PA.

Gottehrer started two games in 2006 and played in four more. He can (and did) play both guard and tackle.

Biff, hope you have a great year in 2007!

Revised Football Roster up on UMass Website

The UMass website has a revised 2007 football roster up.

The 2007 recruits are added and there are some number changes.

• Josh Jennings switches from #9 to #2
• John Ihne switches from #92 to #61
• Jeromy Miles will wear #5 (his number at Navy)
• Brian Ellis is now wearing #9
• Aaron Fears switches to #89
• Andy Resende-Gomes changes to #55
  

The 2007 recruits have been assigned numbers too, but I'm under some time constraint this morning and that will have to wait for another day.

Sixty-Seven days until football and #67

Only sixty-seven day until we open the 2007 season.

Wearing #67 this year is Brian Ostaszewski a 6-5 300 pd Freshman from Stanford, CT.

Welcome to UMass Brian! Hope you have a great career with the Minutemen

This week's header image

This week's header image is from the Rhode Island game last year.

Seeing we are going through the offensive line in our countdown, it's appropriate that the image shows the UMass offensive line knocking the Rams three yards off the line of scrimmage.

And Tony Nelson is carrying the ball, something we hope to see a lot of in 2007.

Sixty Eight days until the 2007 season opens and #68

Only 68 days until we open with Holy Cross!

Wearing #68 again is preseason All-American Matt Austin . Matt is a 6-5 285 pd RS Senior from Reading, MA.

Austin helped UMass to ring up 5,757 yards of total offense in 2006. He's a UMass Captain for 2007 .

Matt, hope you have a senior season to remember! Good luck in 2007.

Bill DeFlavio and Rene Ingoglia inducted into the UMass Hall-of-Fame

UMass has inducted two former UMass football players into the UMass Hall-of-Fame.


The following is Bill Deflavio's bio from the article: "DeFlavio was a football player from 1969 to 1971, going from walk-on to first team All American. An undersized defensive lineman, DeFlavio earned first team All-Yankee Conference honors three times. He was named All-East as both a junior and senior in 1970 and 1971. As a senior, he became UMass' sixth first team All-American in 1971. DeFlavio led UMass to two Yankee Conference championships in 1969 and 1971. In his era, sacks and tackles for loss weren't kept, but accounts of the games indicate that he would have been a team leader in both categories. After his UMass playing days were over, DeFlavio went on to play professionally in the World Football League, with New York and Charlotte, and in the Canadian Football League, with Montreal. After a business career with Nike, he is now in real estate and development in Massachusetts. DeFlavio has stayed active with UMass Football, serving as President of The Friends of Football. He graduated from UMass with a degree in Physical Education in 1973."

DeFlavio was one of the UMass players that got me hooked on UMass football. I saw one of his games in either '70 or '71 against Holy Cross. He was in the Crusader backfield all game. It was one of the most dominent games I have ever seen a DT play.

Rene Ingoglia was one of the finest running backs in UMass history. His bio from the article: "Ingoglia was a football player from 1992-95, who was named first team All-America in 1995 and second team All-America in 1994. He was picked to the Yankee Conference's 50th Anniversary Team, after earning spots on the Yankee Conference's first team in 1994 and 1995, and second team in 1993. As a running back, he set the career school rushing record with 4,624 yards, which now stands third behind Marcel Shipp and Steve Baylark and is 24th all-time in NCAA 1-AA football. He also set the school record for rushing yards in a game with 313 against Rhode Island in 1994, which currently stands second. His 54 touchdowns is second best at UMass and eighth best in 1-AA football. A two-time captain, Ingoglia was the first UMass back to average over 100 yards a game for a career and had 21 games with 100 or more rushing yards. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards three times, with those single season totals standing sixth (1,505), seventh (1,285), and ninth (1,178). After his UMass career, he played in the 1996 Hula Bowl All-Star Game and played in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills and in NFL Europe with the Frankfort Galaxy, where he scored a touchdown in World Bowl '99. He is currently a member of the Orlando Police Department, where he has won two awards of commendation. He graduated from UMass in 1996 with a degree in Exercise Science."

I have the 1993 UMass Highlight film. In it Ingoglia performs one of the greatest runs ever at McGuirk. He runs through the whole Delaware defense for a TD. If you slow the tape down----NINE Delaware defenders get their hands on him.

Both players richly deserve to be in the UMass Hall-of-Fame. Congratulations Rene and Bill!

Seventy Days until 2007 season opens and #70

Only seventy days until we open the 2007 season.

Wearing #70 for UMass this year will be RS Freshman Kevin Macon a 6-5 325 pd OL from Pittsburgh, PA.

Macon did not see any game action in 2006, but could well be a starter this year.

Welcome to the Minutemen, Kevin! Hope 2007 is the start of a great career.

Seventy-One days until football and #71

Only seventy-one days until the 2007 season starts.

Wearing #71 for the Minutemen is Chris Hopkins, a 6-3 260 pd Junior OT from Beltsville, MD.

Hopkins started the final 14 games at RT after Sean Calicchio broke his arm in the opener.

Hopkins was one of a number of offensive linemen who sat out the Spring Game with a minor injury.

Chris, thanks for all your good work in '06 and hope you have a great season this year!

Seventy-Two days until football and #72

Only seventy-two days until we open with Holy Cross.

Wearing #72 again this year will be Vladimir Ducasse a 6-4 305 pd OL from Stamford CT.

Ducasse appeared in four games last year as a true freshman. Coach brown has stated that he will be a fixture in the offensive line this year and for some time to come.

Vladimir, good luck in your first year as a starter! Hope you have an excellent career with UMass.

Spring Academic Awards

One hundred two UMass athletes have been honored by the A10 for academic achievement this spring.

Among them five UMass football players: Brad Anderson, Tim Washington, Jonathan Ghio, Peter Chiaro and Brian Gallo.

Note the number of UMass athletes in the UMass Sports Management Program.

Many graduates of that program have gone on to success. UMass grad Chris Grier has just been appointed Director of College Scouting for the Miami Dolphins.

FCS/I-AA internet radio

Travis Liles has started work on a replacement edition for his FCS/I-AA team audio feed site. The orginal has a link in my side bar in the "Other Sites of Interest".

His Version 2.0 is here. I'll change the permanent link when he's finished.

As you may know Ralph Wallace, the publisher of the weekly FCS/I-AA internet radio show "I-AA Waves" is gravely ill. He is unable to do the show this year.

A replacement weekly internet radio is in the works. The newly formed "Sports Media Network" is supposed to be doing a weekly broadcast available here . The first broadcast is scheduled for August 29th.

Header image

As regular readers know I've been changing the Blog Header image Monday mornings.

Today's image is a photo shop version (water color filter) of an image I took at last year's UMass-Towson game.

Sam the Minuteman and UMass Cheerleading coach (I believe) Kelly Proctor wait for the UMass team to leave the dressing room.

New UMass All-Sports Blog opens

Well, we certainly live in the information age. For years UMass sports information was really tough to come by. Now with the excellent UMass Athletic Dept. site, it's a lot easier to keep in touch with UMass Sports.

My UMass Football Blog is two years old and counting.

Now there is a new UMass All-Sports Blog called "Between Mullins and McGuirk". The owner is Bob McGovern.

It appears a web-only sports site "Most Valuable Network".

Good luck Bob! I'm looking forward to your take on UMass Sports.