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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Heath's signing with the Minutemen.
Besides his size, Heath brings that senior experience and leadership. He should be in the mix to start right away.
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Gayle has FBS offers from Colorado State and Kentucky. He could play for the best defensive coach in college football with Don Brown in Amherst.
Mrs Blog and I wish everyone a happy Memorial Day.
It's a beautiful day here in NH and we're going to have barbecue this afternoon.
That there is peace and civilization in my town is not an accident. Remember those who gave their lives to make that a reality.
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Quarterback Hit List has a post featuring Mendoza.
Mendoza has 10 offers including UMass, UConn, East Carolina, Appalachian State, Charlotte and several FCS offers. He could get a quality education and be a part of the resurgent Minutemen offense with Coach Brown in Amherst.
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Keinath has three years of eligibility. Besides UMass, Nevada, UC Davis, Jackson State and others have offered. The Minutemen offer an east coast education and lots of available playing time in Amherst.
Josh Schreiber of WMUA Sports has the second of his analysis of the 2023 UMass quarterback: this time looking at Ahmad Haston.
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The NY Post thinks UMass will hit the over with more than 1.5 wins.
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Radenka Maric (the president of UConn) was asked if the Huskies were invited to a Power Five conference, would they go?
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Will Colorado leave the Pac 12 for the Big Twelve?
BTW, an FBS leading 71 players have left the Buffs since Sanders was appointed coach.
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Gunnings has FBS offers from Air Force and Navy. The Minutemen are a team that wants to run the ball and he could find a good fit in Amherst.
Was awarded the #1 jersey number at Arizona.
Had a highly successful HS career in Bloomfield, CT.
UMass needs effective WR's and Simpson is listed as one in the spring roster. He also was a valuable kick returner for the Wildcats.
In 2022, Simpson went 19-342 with a 19.0 yards/return average. The Minutemen need all the offensive help they can get. This article discusses the offensive scoring rate vs starting field position.
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Cameron's Coastal Carolina bio.
Cameron could be a big addition to the UMass roster as the defensive backfield is one unit with a lot of seniors in 2023.
Stalwarts Noah Boykin and Josh Wallace will be redshirt seniors. UMass was 9th in college football in passing yards allowed in 2022.
The defensive backfield has been the strongest part of the Minutemen defense and Cameron can help keep that going.
CFN News previews the 2023 UMass Minutemen. CFN predicts three wins.
This is reasonable projecting off last year's stats. I am hoping for four wins given the revised UMass offense. The Minutemen now have six scholarship running backs, a big jump from one or two they have had in recent years. UMass wants to run the ball and now they have a running back room comparable with most other Group-of-Five teams.
In addition, It looks like they have made a big progress in depth and talent at quarterback. The last four years we just have not had any positive results from that position. QB is the one position on the roster you can't "scheme" around.
I expect the defense to be even better than last year. Jerry Roberts and several other transfer should give the Minutemen more experience, size and speed.
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Will the Big-12 offer UConn? Right now in the ebb-and-flow of college sports, the Huskies are on the upswing. The UConn athletic dept is well funded and enjoys substantial support from the Connecticut political establishment.
They're in a big media market, have dominate men's and women's basketball and are ranked in the top ten in baseball. College baseball enjoys a lot of fan support in the South and Midwest. I've been watching SEC baseball in the evenings this spring and weekday games draw 10,000+ fans. Joining the Big-12 would add about $30 million in media money to the UConn coffers right away.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoman says the demise of the ACC seem certain.
The break-up of the ACC would leave the northeast ACC schools Syracuse, BC and Pitt with a big problem. Of the three, Pitt would be the most attractive pickup for another Power Five conference. The Panthers are part of the well funded PA state system and they're in a big media market.
Syracuse is not in big market. Boston college is, but they're certainly not "New England's college football team". BC is not even Boston's college football team.
The Eagles have struggled in the ACC usually finishing around 3-5 in conference play and are usually at the bottom of ACC recruiting rankings.
BC Interruption discusses the possible fallout for the Eagles here and here.
College Football News predicts another 6-6 season for Boston College.
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Silvia has over 10 offers including Army and Charlotte in FBS. Multiple Ivies and New England FCS schools have offered. BC and Kentucky have shown interest. Offensive line is an are of need for UMass and Silvia could play in front of family and friends in Amherst.
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Penn Live has a short post on his offer from Stony Brook. Other Penn Live stories on his recruiting are pay walled, as usual these days.
Carter has FBS offers from Charlotte, UConn, Navy and UMass. He has the chance to play for the best defensive coach in college football in Amherst.
Brahim Wynn, Jr a 6-3 220 EDGE from Sicklerville, NJ has UMass in his top seven.
I blogged about Wynn back on May 4th.
Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" had a post on Wynn's visit on May 2nd.
They didn't nickname Coach Brown as "Dr. Blitz" for nothing. If Wynn joins UMass, he could count on being turned loose fairly frequently..
Ellis Merriweather signs with the New Orleans Saints. If Merriweather is healthy, I would not be surprised to see him stick with an NFL team.
Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Merriweather's signing.
MassLive has a story on Merriweather's contract. Not paywalled, amazingly.
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Penn State's running back duo ranked among the nation's best by 247Sports.
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2023 opponent Arkansas State adds a DL transfer from Princeton.
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The PAC-12 may be adding a team shortly.
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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post about recent 2024 commit Tanner Burlingame.
Coach Brown has made some impressive improvements to the Minutemen's talent and roster depth. Offensive line remains maybe the main on-going project. Burlingame is an athletic big man and hopefully he will have a rewarding career with UMass.
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UConn's head coach says the transfer portal "is a challenge for us".
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2023 opponent Penn State is planning a $700 million makeover for Beaver Stadium.
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Killer Frogs predicts 2023 MAC opponent Toledo to win the MAC championship.
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One of the many great things about college football---arguing about who should start at QB :)
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Outkick predicts 2023 opponent Auburn to have 6.5 wins this year.
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Yard Barker has Penn State as #5 in a 2023 preseason ranking.
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Miami Ohio (UMass' 2023 home opener opponent) adds a WR transfer from Michigan State.
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College Football News previews the 2023 Eastern Michigan Eagles and predicts seven wins.
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Williams has 14 offers including Power Five Pitt, Penn State and Rutgers. Several MAC schools have also offered. Williams has a pro-sized body as a DB and Coach Brown has an excellent record of putting DB's in the NFL. Williams could also play the "viper" position, which Brown pretty much invented.
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Out of St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, FL Cameron had Power Five offers from Texas A&M, Maryland, Old Miss and Wake Forest. He has four years of eligibility. Coach Brown has put a number of CB's in the NFL and I look forward to watching Cameron's career with the Minutemen.
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McLaughlin, an athletic big man, has 23 offers including the three service academies and Buffalo, UConn and Temple have offered from the northeast. UMass offers a top-quality education, the best food in college football and a chance to play for one of the most inspirational coaches in football.
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Rawls has six offers including Army, Temple and UMass from the Northeast. He could find a home and lots of playing time in Amherst.
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Has an offer from Kentucky.
Knaak has offers from Liberty, Kentucky, Hawaii, Buffalo, Appalachian State and more coming out of the portal. UMass can offer an east coast education and the availability of playing time early.
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This article covers his visit to Syracuse.
UMass was the first offer for Burlingame. He has a big frame and was first-team All-State. I will be interested in following his career with the Minutemen.
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Saturday out west has a post on his entering the transfer portal.
Had nine offers coming out of JUCO the year before.
The Minutemen need help at OL and Le Boucher could play early in Amherst.
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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on Wynn's recent visit to UMass.
The Juice recounts his visit to Syracuse.
Wynn has nine offers including UConn, Maryland, Temple and Toledo. Don Brown's attacking defense is the most fun in college football and Wynn would be able to use his skills in Amherst.
Mrs Blog and I are going up to Maine for a couple of days. As usual, I'll try to keep the blog going. If I'm not able to, I'll be back Saturday.
The Hampshire Gazette reports an invite to the Packers mini-camp is all Ellis Merriweather asked for.
Merriweather stuck with Minutemen football in a lackluster (to put it mildly) offense that did not give him a chance to build a lot statistics for his resume. If he stays healthy, he could surprise as a free-agent.
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Coach Brown said during his presser after the spring game that they were still looking for some transfers for the O-line. During the game, I thought the first team defensive line generally had the better of the play. Against the offensive line second team, the defense dominated.
The roster currently has 14 offensive linemen and several of those are walk-ons. Four O-linemen will join in July, but a couple junior or senior linemen would really help. Twelve of the current fourteen linemen are listed as freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores.
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2023 opponents Eastern Michigan, Toledo and Miami OH all get high ratings in this MAC conference preview.
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Episode five of the spring camp videos.
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Ellis Merriweather invited to Green Bay Packers mini-camp.
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UMass has a new NIL collective for football, UMMB and cheer-leading and the dance team.
I spoke with a member of the collective at the spring game. He said UMass cannot compete (obviously) with the likes of SEC or Bit Ten teams. The goal of the Minuteman collective is to see everyone is included.
The Hampshire Gazette has a post on Merriweather's invite and the collective.
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I liked it! There was a totally different vibe about the spring game. There were nice plays on both sides of the ball. In particular, the QB's looked like FBS players. All four had some nice zip on the ball and the three new QB's, Taisun Phommachanh, Carlos Davis and Ahmad Haston displayed some mobility. Haston looked amazingly polished for a really young guy. He's going to be a player for us in the future.
I would currently give the nod to Carlos Davis. We need some good QB production now. As a senior, he can compensate when the play goes bad.
Also Gino Campiotti made some nice catches playing TE. George Johnson and Mark Pope also looked good at WR.
On defense, Dorian Helm was around the ball all game. The first team DL was able to collapse the pocket when they were all in there.
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UMass Athletic dept write-up on the game.
The UMass Daily Collegian has takeaways from the spring game.
The Collegian reports the UMass defense looks to be even better this year.
The Hampshire Gazette says the Minutemen defense won on a blocked field goal.
The New England Football Journal recaps the Minutemen's spring ball.
The NEFJ reports the UMass defense beat the offense in the spring game.
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Marcus Bradley and Cole Garcia have been selected as the Michael Boland Inspirational Award recipients.
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