Monday, September 20, 2021

UMass Football News--September 20th, 2021

 UMass is a 35.5 point underdog in the Vegas odds.

Sports Illustrated looks at the stats behind the odds.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MassLive says UMass could not slow down the Eastern Michigan offense.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uh-Oh.

Did you see this post-game quote from Coach Bell about Kay'Ron Adams

"We’re down to one healthy scholarship running back and we don’t know if we’re going to get Kay’Ron Adams back." Does that mean for the season?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prior to the season I thought the wide receivers might be the shallowest unit on the team. The first game against Pitt seemed to bear that out.

However, since then I think the WR"s have performed really well. When Olson puts the ball on target, the WR's have made some nice catches.

Saturday, Olson connected with nine different receivers.

Melvin Hill caught 4 with a 45 yard TD. Hill's a good athlete; he had four special teams tackles in 2020.

Rico Arnold caught 6 for 58 yards. A good possession receiver really helps the offense.

Trey Pettway had 5 catches for 57 yards. He caught a couple over the middle in traffic that were Minutemen first downs.

Josiah Johnson had a nifty 29-yard TD contested catch. 

Besides an epic running effort Ellis Merriweather had two catches out of the backfield for 20 yards.

Eric Collins had two catches for 20 yards.

Onuma Dieke had one catch for 15 yards and a first down.

OC Johnson had one catch for 7 yards.

We also have high regarded Freshman WR Michael Fitzgerald who has two catches for the season.

The wide receiver room looks like it has a lot more talent than I thought going into the season. With UMass thin at RB, the Minutemen may have to rely more on the passing game.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------