UMass Football News--December 1st, 2017

A quick look at the Florida International Panthers:

FIIU is having a breakout year. The Panthers went 4-8 in 2016 and a win over UMass will reverse that score and set a program record eight wins. FIU returned six starters on offense and nine on defense. The Panther are coming off perhaps their best win of the season a 41-17 destruction of WKU. The Panthers lost to common opponent Old Dominion 37-30. They are 96th in scoring offense with 24.3 points per game. The Panthers are 69th in scoring defense.

FIU QB Alex McGough is #50 in passing efficiency, but has been hot lately. He completed passes to ten different receivers in the win over WKU. FIU's other impressive win was a 41-30 win over Marshall in Huntington. The Panthers rushed for 224 yards against the C-USA's best rushing defense.

Both UMass and FIU have improved over the teams that met the last two times. I think UMass has improved more and has a good chance for its second road victory of 2017. Coming off a bye week the Minutemen should be healthy, and should score points against the Panthers. The UMass defense is coming off maybe its best performance ever against BYU. I think they can again get some turnovers.

Go UMass.

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FIU Sports has five questions for UMass beat writer Matty Vautour.

Speaking of Matty, he has a post on UMass' Camp Hill Trio.

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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews the Minutemen-Panthers game.

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KU Sports has a story on former UMass QB James Sosinski's journey to Kansas.

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A Bleacher Report writer predicts FIU 31 UMass 24.

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Get More Sports believes UMass will cover the spread.

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The Boston Herald goes out on a limb and predicts a close game.

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FIU won't play in the Bahamas Bowl, but there are six other bowls in play.

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Former UMass assistant coach Jerry Azzinaro will be named defensive coordinator at UCLA.

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