Monday, February 28, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Samson Okunlola

Irish Sports Daily image

 Samson Okunlola, a 6-6 295 pound OT from Braintree, MA has a UMass offer.

247Sports four-star player.

Hudl.com has video.

This article from 247Sports features Okunlola.

This article covers his Big 10 recruiting visits.

Okunlola has 23 offers mostly from Power Five schools. He could play in front of family and friends in Amherst as well as experience the best food in college football.

Saturday, February 26, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Luke Fletcher

Hudl.com image

 Luke Fletcher, a 6-3 228 pound DE from Port Huron, Minnesota has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

This article covers his offer from Eastern Michigan. 

Hudl.com has video.

Besides UMass, Fletcher has an offer from Eastern Michigan. Drawing interest from a number of MAC schools as well as a couple of Power Five teams. Defensive end has been a Minutemen weak point for years. Fletcher could play early and often in Coach Brown's blitzing defense.

Friday, February 25, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Jermaine Mathews

247Sports image

 Jermaine Mathews, a 6-0 175 pound CB from Cincinnati, OH has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

This article features Mathews recruiting.

Hudl.com has video.

Mathews has 23 offers including BC, UConn and Pitt from the Northeast. Coach Brown is a CB guru and there is no better place for a cornerback that in Amherst.

Thursday, February 24, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Nigel Glover

 

News Kudo.com image

Nigel Glover, a 6-3 200 pound LB from Clayton, OH has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

This article from August of 2021 features Glover.

Hudl.com has video.

This article covers his recent recruiting.

Glover has over 20 offers including UConn, BC, West Virginia and Pitt from the Northeast. He would have a lot of fun in Coach Brown's attacking defense.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

UMass Football News--February 23rd, 2022

 UMass 2023 recruiting target Will Watson committed to Nebraska.

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Keith Dudzonski has a image of former Minutemen Shannon James.

James was a four-year letter winner (2002,'03,'04 and captain in 2005). He was third team All-A10 in 2003 and First Team All-A10 in 2004 and 2005. James was a First Team All-American in 2004 and was the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player-of-the-Year the same year. He is still #4 in UMass history in solo tackles (253) and #10 in total tackles (341). James is #1 in career INT's with 20.

He was a good man to build your defensive secondary around.

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Former UMass assistant coach Cato June joins the Indianapolis Colts.

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A Saturday Down South says the future of college football could be the SEC and the Big 10----and nobody else. 

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Tuesday, February 22, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Brady Drogosh

Twitter image

Brady Drogosh, a 6-5 200 pound QB from Warren, MI has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here

Hudl.com has video.

This article features Drogosh.

Drogosh has nine offers including Power Five teams Maryland and Indiana. Besides UMass, he has offers from several MAC schools. He would be a good fit in the revamped Minuteman offense.

Monday, February 21, 2022

UMass Football News--February 21st, 2022

 Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle reports with most of this year's recruiting behind him Coach Brown looks toward Spring ball.

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Saturday Down South image

Former UMass QB Liam Coen rumored to be the Rams next offensive coordinator. 

Saturday Down South reports Coen is in the mix. 

The Louisville Courier Journal has three things to know about Liam Coen. 

I attended Coen's first game at Colgate in 2005. After a scoreless first half, Coen came in during the third quarter and started a furious UMass comeback. He would start for the Minutemen for the rest of his career.

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The College Football Playoffs will not expand until at least 2025.

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Saturday, February 19, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Kole Osinubi

 

Osinubi #9/Boston Herald image

Kole Osinubi, a 6-1 170 pound WR from West Roxbury, MA has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

Hudl.com has video.

New England Football Journal 2021 First Team All-State.

Besides UMass, Osinubi has Power Five offers from B.C. and Michigan. He'd be a good fit in the Minutemen's new look offense.

Friday, February 18, 2022

UMass Football News--Febuary 18th, 2022

 Tulane announces its 2022 schedule including a home date with UMass. The Minutemen are 0-1 all time against the Green Wave.

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Temple announces its 2022 schedule including a home date with the Minutmen. UMass is 0-2 all time against the Owls. 

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UCLA adds former UMass coach Bill McGovern as defensive coordinator. McGovern cached DB's in Amherst 1987-'90 and again 1992-'93.

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Zionsville honors its college-bound seniors including A.J. Vinatieri.

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BYU RB Jackson McChesney has only played in eight games in his career with the Cougars, but one of them was a record-setting effort against UMass' defense.

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CBS Sports says defense is making a comeback in college football. We certainly hope so for the Minutemen.

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Thursday, February 17, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2022--Adebayo Adeyemo

Providence Journal image

 Adebayo Adeyemo, a 6-5 285 pound defensive lineman has a UMass offer.

Hudl.com has video.

Adeyemo has an offer from URI and several DII offers. On one link I cannot find again it was said he'd be visiting Amherst. He's a mobile defensive lineman who would shine in Brown's attacking defense.

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Josiah Griffin

Twitter image

 Josiah Griffin, a 6-4 230 pound defensive lineman from Springfield, MA has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

MaxPreps has some stats.

Griffin has offers from UMass, BC, UConn and West Virginia. Griffin could play in front of friends and family as well as the best defensive coach in the business with the Minutemen.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

UMass Football News--The Ides of February 2022

 

One nice thing about Coach Brown's return is practices will be open. When UMass use to practice on the quad in front of the stadium, I'd bring a lawn chair and watch Brown chew out his defensive backs.

The Spring game will be Saturday, April 30th.

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UMass also adds five analysts to the football staff.

Welcome back to Randall Jette. Also joining the staff are Matt Layman, Mike Livingston, Kenny Lucky and Matt Zanellato.

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A 247Sports writer has 2022 opponent Texas A&M with the 6th toughest schedule for this year.

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The Action Network predicts bowl games for 2022 opponents Toledo, Liberty, Army and Eastern Michigan. 

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Monday, February 14, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Dylan Edwards

Sports Illustrated image

 Dylan Edwards, a 5-9 165 pound RB from Derby, KS has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

2021-2022 Kansas Player-of-the-Year.

MaxPreps has stats.

This article talks about his offer from Oklahoma.

Edwards has 26 offers including Buffalo and UMass from the Northeast. He could be the featured RB in Amherst, instead of being part of a crowd at a Power Five school.

Saturday, February 12, 2022

UMass Football Blog news --February 12th, 2022

 After doing Blog posts seven days a week since August, I'm going to take Sundays off until college football starts to pick up in June.

See you Monday.

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Ronan Hanafin

Hudl.com inage

 Ronan Hanafin, a 6-3 205 pound WR from Buckingham, Brown & Nichols has a UMass offer.

247Sports four-star player.


The above YouTube interview covers his recruiting.

This article is about his offer from Michigan.

Hanafin has 17 offers including Notre Dame, Michigan and BC, Pitt, Penn State, Syaracuse, UMass and UConn from the Northeast. Hanafin could be the featured receiver in Amherst instead of being part of a crowd at Notre Dame or Michigan.

Friday, February 11, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Preston Zinter

Nicolaus Czarnnecki image

 Preston Zinter, a 6-3 215 pound athlete from Cambridge, MA has a UMass offer.

247Sports four-star player.

This article by the Boston Herald features Zinter. 

This article reports he was named All-State. The same article also mentions new Minuteman Gregory Desrosiers.

Zinter has 23 offers including Notre Dame, Penn State and BC. He will announce his decision today.

Thursday, February 10, 2022

UMass Football News--February 10th, 2022

 

Bill Connelly has the above post on his Twitter feed. The original ESPN article is paywalled.

 Will long-suffering Minutemen fans glimpse some daylight in 2022?

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Former UMass assistant coach Darrius Smith joins Southern Utah as running backs coach and recruiter.

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The Lumberjack has a story featuring UMass QB Gino Campiotti.

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 It would be really nice to be walking back to my truck after a victory and listening to the UMMB playing back in McGuirk.

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Wednesday, February 09, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--Jayden Keefner

Berkshire Eagle image

 Jaden Keefner, a 6-1 205 pound QB from Kingston, PA has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here.

This article by the Berkshire Eagle features Keefner and his offer from UMass.

YouTube has some video.

Keefner is originally from Pittsfield and knows western Mass. He'd be a good fit in the resurgent Minutemen. UMass is his first offer. Drawing interest from a number of FCS schools.

Tuesday, February 08, 2022

UMass Football News--February 8th, 2022

 Mike Traini, of "Fight Massachusetts" has what we learned from UMass' National Signing Day 2022.

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The latest iteration of the 2022 Spring roster has the signing day recruits plus the transfers.

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Former UMass center Dalton Tomlison is rated as one of the top available transfer portal players.

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Syracuse adds a Dartmouth transfer CB who had a UMass offer.

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UMass WR Eric Collins is out of college eligibility and is eligible for the NFL Draft

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Lots of college football coaching changes in 2022.

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Monday, February 07, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2023--William Watson III

 

MassLive image

William Watson, a 6-0 175 pound dual-threat QB from Springfield MA has a UMass offer.

247Sports three-star player.

Recently received a Nebraska offer via new Husker OC Mark Whipple.

MaxPreps has stats

This article covers his visit to Rutgers.

Watson has a dozen offers including UMass, UConn, BC, Rutgers and Pitt from the northeast. He could play in front of family and friends in Amherst.

Sunday, February 06, 2022

UMass Football News--February 6th, 2022

 

UMass 2022 recruit Tyler Leinberger, 6-4 310 looking seriously bad-ass in Minutemen road whites.

I've blogged a number of times about Leinberger.

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Former UMass assistant coach Ted Roof (1994-96) is now DC at Oklahoma. 

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Just like the NFL, you can now buy college football player jerseys. 

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Saturday, February 05, 2022

UMass Football News--February 5th, 2022

 

Very interesting "Plant the Flag" podcast with Coach Jeff Moore on UMass National Signing Day. Well worth your time. Lots of interesting recruiting background.

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The Boston Globe has a post on Don Brown's first recruiting class. Reported straight forward, which is unusual for the Globe.

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American Football International reports the Hamburg Sea Devils have signed former UMass OL Dominik Behrens.

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The Spectrum News has a post on UMass 2022 recruit Kofi Asare.

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A Virginia Tech site looks at the Group-of-Five leagues including independents UMass and UConn.

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Fight On State looks at the comings and goings from the Nitany Lions program including Tyler Rudolph who is joining the Minutemen

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Friday, February 04, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2022--Jalen Mackie joins UMass

 

Jalen Mackie, a 6-1 240 pound LB graduate transfer from Dartmouth has signed with the Minutemen.

I blogged about Mackie back on December 26th.

Mackie was First-Team All-Ivy and Third Team FCS All-American for the Big Green in 2021. He should be an outstanding addition to the UMass defense, which could use some senior leadership. Mackie will be able to show what he can do against an FBS schedule including Power Five Texas A &M.

Thursday, February 03, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2022--Aaron Alexander and Magnus von Saldern commit to UMass

 

Aaron Alexander, a 6-1 205 LB from Michigan signed with the Minutemen yesterday. Alexander had committed previously, but had not signed. I blogged about Alexander here and here.

Alexander is one of the highest ranked recruits of our FBS era. In addition, he's a straight up recruit not a bounce back that failed admissions standards at another school. In the UMass list of highest rated recruits Jean Sirfin and Andrew Ford stand out. Let's hope Alexander has the impact those two did.

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A signing day surprise was provided by Magnus von Saldern, 6-4 260 pound DL from Germany. 

His 247Sports page is here.

Von Saldren is a client of Brandon Collier's European football service. Collier comments on Von Saldren signing with UMass here.

Von Saldren chose the Minutemen over offers from UConn, Akron and Temple.

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Wednesday, February 02, 2022

UMass Football News--National Signing Day 2022


 Today is National Signing Day. Remember Coach Brown will be on NESN at noon to speak about the Minuteness's 2022 class.

Most of the signees have already been blogged about here. There could be a surprise or two.

UMass will probably leave a couple of slots open for Spring and Fall camps. Players often transfer after Spring ball.

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CBS Boston has a post on AJ. Vinatieri's commitment to UMass.

So does MassLive.com

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BC Interruption looks at the Eagles 2022 schedule.

 "-We are going to kick the crap out of UConn. That’s going to be fun, IMO."

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Neal Brown signs a JUCO WR with a UMass offer.

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Tuesday, February 01, 2022

UMass Football Recruiting 2022--AJ Vinatieri commits to UMass

 


AJ Vinatieri, a 6-0 178 pound kicker has committed to UMass.

This article from 247Sports talks about Vinatieri and his commitment to the Minutemen.

Kornblue kicking has a bio of Vinatieri.

Sporting News has eleven 2020 recruits who are NFL legacies

This article features Vinatieri.

Vinatieri can kick and punt. UMass fans can remember the Minutemen's struggles with kicking during the Whipple II era. He's a nice addition to the 2022 recruiting class.