Friday, January 31, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Josh Green and Edward Vesterlin

Laney College image
 Josh Green, a 6-2 205 pound punter from Laney College will be visiting UMass this weekend. Punts rugby style.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Green is orginally from Adelaide, Australia. Has an FBS offer from Wyoming.

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Also visiting UMass this weekend is Edward Vesterinen, a 6-4 240 pound defensive end.

Brandon Collier thinks highly of Vesterinen.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

NCSA profile has some stats.

Also has an FBS offer from Coastal Carolina.

Defensive end has been a pet peeve of mine since we moved to FBS. No pass rush, no edge contain. Vesterinen and Hugo Klages would make a nice DE tandem for the Minutemen.

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Thursday, January 30, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Corey Yeoman

Yeoman also played QB/Craig Matthews image
Corey Yeoman, a 6-2 214 pound LB/Athlete from Atlantic City, NJ has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has Junior highlights.

Press of Atlantic City 2019 All-Star. 115 TT 14 TFL in 2019.

247Sports 2020 national combine All-Combine Team.

Took a recent visit to Penn State.

Besides UMass, Yeoman has an offer from Temple. Drawing interest from Penn State, Rutgers and BC. Linebacker is a position of need for the Minutemen and there is lots of playing time to be had in Amherst.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Billy Wiles

John McDonnell image
UMass has offered to Billy Wiles, a 6-3 200 pound pro-style QB from Stone Bridge HS in Ashburn, VA.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has Junior year highlights.

MaxPreps has stats.

Took a 10/26 unofficial visit to UMass. Unofficial visit to Penn State on Nov. 16th.

UMass is the first offer for Wiles.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Qualeem Charles


Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" reports Qualeem Charles, a 6-5 295 pound OL has taken an OV to UMass last weekend.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Charles gets a mention in this article from September 2019.

Sun-Chronicle All-Star.


UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Colby Christensen

Hudl.com image
Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" reports Colby Christensen, a 6-8 240 pound OL from West Des Moines Iowa took an OV to Amherst last weekend.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

Christensen has five offers with UMass as the only FBS team.

Monday, January 27, 2020

UMass Football News--January 27th, 2020

Former UMass player Mike Dawson has been hired as OLB's coach at Nebraska.

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UMass DT commit Josh Ashwood has been named to the Daily News All-star team.

I've blogged about Ashwood a couple of times in the past.

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Rutgers adds a PWO commit from Nasir Montgomery. Held a UMass offer last year.

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UConn is up to nearly two dozen players in the transfer portal.

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Two 2020 opponents Appalachian State and Liberty schedule each other in 2024 and 2025.

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Sunday, January 26, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Shakhi Carson

Matt Kipp image
Shakhi Carson, a 5-9 164 pound RB from West Orange, NJ has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

2019 All-Essex.

MaxPreps has stats.

Besides UMass, Carson also has an offer from Kentucky.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

UMass Football News --January 25th, 2020

UMass has released details on the 2020 signing show. It'll be live February 5th from 1-2 pm on NESN. There will also be free streaming video from UMass access. Fans can also submit a question by e-mail to Coach Bell or A.D. Bamford.

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Buffalo News has coaching changes with the Bulls plus the transfer of Ray Thomas-Ishman.

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TVRev looks TV options for college football Independents. Mentions UMass.

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UMass has three blue shirts decommit. Blue shirting is a stretch for any program. These things happen.

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The UMass Football Twitter feed has a video interview with UMass kicker Cooper Garcia.

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Friday, January 24, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Skyler Bell

247Sports image
Skyler Bell, a 6-1 185 pound WR from the Taft School in CT has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

2019 Honorable Mention All-NEPSAC

This article from May 2019 features Bell.

Besides UMass, Bell has offers from UConn, Iowa, Rutgers and Virginia.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

UMass Football News--January 23rd, 2020

NJ.com has the Top-50 New Jersey recruits as of January 2020. A number of them have UMass offers.

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Mike Traini reports former UMass OL Ray Thomas-Ishman has transferred to Buffalo. Thomas-Ishman racked up a number of suspensions while in Amherst including a season ending one in 2019.

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One area Coach Bell and staff have made an impact is academics and academic progress. The 2019 Summer term grades were the highest since UMass moved to FBS in 2012. That record has now been broken in the Fall semester. The 2018-2019 single year NCAA academic progress rate was 950---the highest ever in the football program's history.

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2020 opponent Army revamps their coaching staff.

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Wednesday, January 22, 2020

UMass Football News--January 22nd, 2020


UMass Football players are back on campus and back to work.

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The 247Sports UMass recruits page has six of the 2020 recruits as Spring enrollees.

Three of the Spring recruits are JUCO's and they will have Spring ball and Fall camp to integrate into the program.

Generally, JUCO's are brought in for immediate help. Offensive guard Reggie Marks 6-2 300 should compete for a starting spot on the offensive line. I did a blog post on the 2020 offensive line.

Taishan Holmes a 6-2 300 pound DT should also provide immediate help in the defensive line. The two-deep defensive line for the BYU game listed three true freshmen and three sophomores. This is a unit that needs all the help available.

Maybe the player that will be most helped by the early enroll is JUCO QB Kyle Lindquist. I've covered Lindquist in a number of blog posts.

Quarterback was a problem for UMass in 2019. We did not have one.

Lindquist was the conference offensive MVP averaging 234.1 passing yards/game and threw for 24 TD's. His offense led the conference in just about every offensive category. Who's the best QB? The answer is the guy who moves the offense. UMass QB's averaged 168.5 yards a game passing and 15 TD's over 12 games. That was #117 in passing offense and #125 in passing efficiency.

A functioning offense would make a big difference in 2020. The defense is going to need more than this year's recruiting cycle to fix, but a better offense would be a big moral boost for the battered egos of Minutemen fans.

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Mark LoMoglio image
Big Blue View takes an in-depth look at possible Giant's draft pick Jack Driscoll.

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Tuesday, January 21, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Sam Ofurie

Jared Channey image
Sam Ofurie, a 6-1 240 pound ILB from Lynne, MA has a UMass offer.

247Sports four-star recruit.

Hudl.com has video.

Mass Varsity has a Q &A with Ofurie.

This article from last summer features Ofurie.

Ofurie has offers from Michigan, Boston College and Syracuse. If Ofurie signed with the Minutemen he'd be our highest ever recruit and a certain four-year starter.

Monday, January 20, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Eni Falayi

Hudl.com image
Eni Falayi, a 6-5 215 pound WR from Williston-Northampton School has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has Junior highlights.

All-League in 2019.

UMass was Falayi's first offer. Drawing interest from UConn and FCS schools.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Saturday, January 18, 2020

UMass Football News--January 18th, 2020

Josh Walfish has a story on UMass QB Randall West's contribution to the Minutemen hoops program.

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Future College football Schedules has a post on Buffalo and Army scheduling some future games. Mentions Buffalo's series with UMass in 2026 and 2027.

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UMass Football will have a walk-on tryout on Tues, January 21st. Surprisingly, even Power Five programs develop players from walk-ons.

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The Minutemen will have a 2020 recruiting event at the UMass Club in Boston on February 12th.

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The UConn Blog (good name) looks at the Husky  offense for 2020.

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Appalachian State ended 2019 ranked 18 or 19th depending on the various polls and hope to do better in 2020.

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The Miami Herald looks at FIU's 2020 non-conference schedule.

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College and Magnolia previews Auburn's 2020 season.

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Friday, January 17, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Max Pierce

Twitter image
Max Pierce, a 6-3 230 pound TE from City College of San Francisco has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

CCSF bio here.

All-League in high school

Will take an OV to UMass on January 31st.

TE is a position of need for the Minutemen.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Gus McGee

Twitter image
Gus McGee, a 6-5 220 pound TE/DE from St. Johns Prep has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has Junior highlights.

This article from December has some quotes and history from McGee.

UMass is the first offer for McGee. Tight end and defensive end are both positions of need for the Minutemen.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Skyler Martin

Twitter image
Skyler Martin, a 6-3 225 pound OLB from Ashburn, VA has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has Junior highlights.

MaxPreps has stats.

2019 VHSL First Team All-Class 5.

Martin has Power Five offers from Virginia and Vanderbilt. UMass has lots of playing time available.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Dominick Giudice

Twitter image
Dominick Giudice, a 6-4 240 pound DE from Middleton, NJ has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has Junior highlights.

This article from November mentions Giudice and has some quotes from him

NJ.com Top-85 players in New Jersey.

Shore Sports has paragraph about him in their 2019 All-Shore Team

Dominick's father Anthony Giudice was a four year letter winner for UMass in 1987, '88, '89 and "90 (Captain). Second Team All-Yankee Conference in 1989 and First team All-Yankee in 1990. I sat with his grandparents a couple of times back in the day.

Giudice has offers from Central Michigan and William & Mary.

Monday, January 13, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2021--Nathan Roche

Twitter image
UMass has offered to Nathan Roche, a 6-3 275 pound OG from Cambridge, MA.

247Sports three-star player.

Hudl.com has junior highlights.

Rivals Two-Star.

Roche has offers from Ivies Brown and Dartmouth. Drawing interest from BC.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

UMass Football News--January 12th, 2020




One section of the UMass team that could also use a portal/transfer is the offensive line.

The two-deep for the BYU game was:

LT Larnel Coleman, Brian Abosi
LG Helber Fagundes, Xavier Graham
C   Mike Yerardi, Parker Ogle
RG Michael Sullivan, Xavier Graham
LT Bryce Wade, Brian Abosi

Note that beyond the starters, we only had three 2nd string guys.

We do have five OL coming in with 2020 class.

JUCO Reggie Marks 6-2 300 pounds from Lackawanna should be in the mix from the start.

In the true freshmen 2020 class four three-star recruits are coming to Amherst.  I've long advocated more athleticism in the OL instead of the really big guys Whipple liked.

Ethan Mottinger 6-4 296
Joe Horn 6-1 301
Dominik Bherens 6-5 310
Andrew Nee 6-4 282

Based on their social media comments the freshmen seem like an enthusiastic  bunch. I'm hoping they will lead us out of the bottom 10% in rushing offense. Teams usually like to redshirt OL if possible because of the difference a year on a college weight program makes. Given the state of the UMass roster it would not surprise me if more than one of the freshmen did not redshirt.

There are currently 67 FBS offensive linemen in the 2020 transfer portal. A fifth-year senior who would play every down of every game would be a big help for UMass.

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Saturday, January 11, 2020

UMass Football News--January 11th, 2020

One poistion UMass could use immediate help would be TE.

The two-deep for BYU at TE was Kyle Horn (RSSR) and Josiah Johnson (RSFR).

Other TE's on the roster are Taylor Evans, Jacob Orlando and Solomon Siskind.

Horn actually led the Minutemen in receiving TD's He went 11-11 GP-GS 15-197 13.1 AVE 3 TD's 56 LONG

Johnson went 12-0 GP-GS 12-129 2 TD's 34 LONG

Taylor went 7-2 GP-GS 2-13 1 TD 7 LONG.

The TE's accounted for 6 of the 15 receiving TD's in 2019.

The 247Sports Transfer Portal lists about 20 TE's seeking a new home.

One TE who might be interested in UMass is ex-UConn Donovan Williams 6-4 215. Williams was recruited as a QB by UConn and ended up as TE. The Hartford Courant has Williams' history with the Huskies.

Friday, January 10, 2020

UMass Football News--January 10th, 2020

NBC Sports reports Boston College has hired UMass DC Aazaar Abdul-Rahim as their defensive backs coach.

Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Coach Abdul-Rahim leaving.

Well, we want UMass to be a place where up-and-coming young coaches want come to. It certainly worked out well for him. Good luck to Coach Abdul-Rahim in his career. Maybe we'll see him back in Amherst some day.

That being said, recruiting is the only way out of our current depths. Coach Bell is certainly aware of this because that's the reason he brought in Coach Abdul-Rahim in the first place.

There were many FBS coaching staffs let go after the season. Recruiting prowess should be the #1 attribute for coaches applying for his job. The new coach would not necessarily have to be on defense. There are also other recruiting areas other than the DMV.

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I've been talking about potential transfer portal players for a while. A blog reader who's opinions I respect suggest ex-Georgia Tech QB Lucas Johnson might be a good fit for UMass.

Sports Illustrated has a review of Johnson's season with the Yellow Jackets.

I have no idea if he would be interested in the Minutemen, but UMass does not have a dual-threat guy on the roster. Probably the Minutemen would like to work in some reps for some of the incoming recruits, so Johnson would likely have to be OK with that also.

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Thursday, January 09, 2020

UMass Football News--January 9th, 2019


Assuming most or all of the remaining UMass verbals sign on February 5th, UMass probably will have a small number of scholarships still to give. Maybe in the two or three range. What should they do with the remaining scholarships?

Coach Bell pointed out in his interview with Adam Breneman bringing in a lot of JUCO's or one year grad transfers does not do anything for roster numbers. This approach did not work for Charlie Weis at Kansas. Note the article reports the Jayhawks roster bottomed out a 64 scholarship players. Now consider how thoroughly Whipple's last two years blew up the Minutemen roster as we went into 2019 in the 50's and eventually hit the high 40's.

Even so, UMass could use some immediate help.

One position could be quarterback. UMass does not have a senior QB or dual-threat guy on the roster.  An upper class QB could ease the transition to a freshman QB like Brady Martin. Getting a QB transfer is easier said than done. Adding a career third-string guy might not be worth spending a scholarship that could be used for a four-year player. Blake Frohnapfel, was a good player who happened to be stuck behind the C-USA Player-of-the-Year. That kind of situation does not happen often.

This article has a list of some of the Power Five QB's available. 247 Sports has a list of available transfer portal QB's. Not many are from the Northeast or DMV area where the UMass coaches might have recruited them originally.

BC quarterback Anthony Brown and UConn QB Michael Beaudry are two players from the Northeast on the list.

More quarterbacks may be available after Spring Ball when players usually know more about how they will appear in their 2020 depth chart.

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The State Medical Board of Ohio will consider if being a Browns or Bengals fan will qualify a person for medical marijuana.

If UMass fans made it through 2019 sane, we don't need no stinking chemical support...

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Wednesday, January 08, 2020

UMass Football recruiting 2020--Osei Dixon II

247Sports image
Osei Dixon, a 6-2 190 pound CB from Bowle, MD has committed to UMass.

I blogged about Dixon back in July.

Updating...

Hudl.com has senior season highlights.

2019 MIAA First Team All-Conference.

Had an INT in the MIAA Class B Championship game.

Dixon chose UMass over seven FBS offers including Power Five teams Pitt and Rutgers. He's an NFL-sized DB and we hope he and the other five DB's signed this cycle will lead us out of the current defensive wilderness.

Tuesday, January 07, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Julian Ganthier II

Hudl.com image
Julian Ganthier, a 6-1 175 pound CB from Laurel, MD has signed with UMass.

I blogged about Ganthier back in August.

Updating...

Hudl.com has senior highlights.

247Sports has Ganthier #47 in the top 69 recruits in Maryland. Note also UMass signed seven of the top 69 players in Maryland.

All MIAA 1st Team for Football.

The Minutemen signed six DB's in the 2020 class (all of them three-stars). Ganthier and the other 2020 DB's should be the core of the UMass defense backs in the future.

Monday, January 06, 2020

UMass Football News---January 6th, 2020

The Enterprise-Record has a story about six Butte College players signing with college teams.Lots of quotes from UMass QB recruit Kyle Lindquist.

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Big Blue blog has five OT's the Giants could be interested in. One of them is Jack Driscoll.

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If you missed it Boston college has a new head coach.

The Eagles played in the Birmingham Bowl and delivered the stinker of all bowl performances this season. Without A.J. Dillon, BC had 164 total yards of offense and were 0-11 on third down situations. I watched the game and BC played with total disinterest. UMass was totally outclassed in most games this year, but nobody mailed in their effort like the Eagles did in this game.

BTW, Boston College's leading receiver has entered the transfer portal.

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Against All Enemies review's Army's season and looks forward to 2020.

Coach Bell was pretty stoic on the sidelines during the beatings UMass took in 2019. However, he did not look happy with the Army coach during the post game handshake when the Black Knights up 56-7, scored with 55 seconds left.

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Sunday, January 05, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Joe Lusardi II

Andrew Mills image
Joe Lusardi, a 5-10 164 pound CB from Summit, NJ has committed to UMass.

I blogged about Lusardi back in June.

Updating...

Hudl.com has senior highlights.

This article from October mentions Lusardi.

First Team All-Division.

Second Team All-Group.

NJ Top-100 rushers. Lusardi rushed for 97-924 (9.5 yards/carry) and 13 TD's

Honorable Mention USA Today All-New Jersey as a defensive back.

UMass needs athletes and could contribute in several areas.

Saturday, January 04, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Jared Cole III

Jeff Scudder image
Jared Cole, a 5-9 180 pound all-purpose RB has signed with UMass.

I blogged about Cole back in June.

Updating...

Hudl.com has senior highlights.

Class Five First Team All-State.

Roanoke Times #62 ranked player in Virginia.

Ran 16 times for 118 yards and three TD's in a playoff game. Also ran back kicks and punts in the same game.

Cole’s the guy who really makes things happen for us when we get him the ball. To be honest, I don’t think we gave him the ball as much as we did last week, but he definitely makes things happen for us.”

Washington Post First-Team All-Met (article paywalled).

With feature back Bilal Ally leaving, there should be plenty of playing time available at the running back position in 2020.

Friday, January 03, 2020

UMass Football Recruiting 2020--Gerrell Johnson II


Gerrell Johnson, a 6-3 195 pound athlete from Owings Mills, MD has signed with UMass.

I blogged about Johnson back in June.

Updating...

Listed as an "athlete" by 247Sports Johnson was recruited by Aazaar Abdul-Rahim and Tommy Restivo, so linebacker is his likely position at UMass.

Hudl.com has senior highlights.

MaxPreps has senior stats.

Gets a mention as one of the the top performers at the 2019 Maryland Grab Bowl (requires 247Sports VIP level).

"Johnson made several tackles in the game and was hard to block coming off the edge for Team Baltimore."

Johnson has a big frame and good speed. Given the depleted numbers of UMass linebackers, he should have a chance to play early.

Thursday, January 02, 2020

UMass Football News ---January 2nd, 2020

Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle says 2020 won't be a make or break year for Coach Bell.

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Josh Walfish says except for hocky, 2019 was a frustrating year for UMass athletics.

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NESN reports the Patriots need to watch out for the Titans receivers (including Tajae Sharpe) vertical routs.

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Ex-UConn coach Bob Diaco is set to be Purdue's new defensive coordinator.

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After a coaching change, four New Mexico players could be leaving the program. The Minutemen play at New Mexico on October 3rd.

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Star Temple DE Quincy Roche enters the transfer portal. That name should be familiar to the UMass fans. In the Minutemen's  2017 loss to Temple, Roche personally kicked our asses with 8 total tackles, 4 tackles-for-loss, 3 sacks and 1 forced fumble.

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Despite an 0-12 season, Akron coach Tom Arth thinks the Zips will be improved in 2020.

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More complaints surface about New Mexico State HC Doug Martin.

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Auburn reacts to yesterday's loss to Minnesota in the Outback Bowl.

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Three resolutions for Army football in 2020.

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Wednesday, January 01, 2020

New Year's Day --2020


Happy New Year to all. Health and happiness to all UMass fans, players and coaches in the coming year.

I'm hoping the rebuild of UMass football will continue in 2020. Some better play and a few wins will improve everyone's enjoyment of the program.

I'm excited about this year's recruiting class and can't wait to see them on the field in 2020.

Keep the faith.

Meanwhile, I've got ten hours of college football to watch today. Life is good.