Bob Pickett passes away

Former UMass Head Coach Bob Pickett has passed away. Story from the UMass Athletic site.

Bulletin, Bulletin, Bulletin

From Matty Vautour's blog note on today's Sports Luncheon"

At today's sports luncheon, UMass athletic director John McCutcheon said that the Minutemen were in very early discussions about with a Bowl Subdivision Team about a game that would pay UMass near "a million dollars."

They were so early in the discussions that he hadn't discussed it with coach Don Brown yet. When Brown came to the stage for his own speech. He asked McCutcheon who the team was. McCutcheon's answer was inaudible, but Brown's response was "Oooh. I like the Big House."

The Big House, of course, is Michigan's stadium.

Afterward McCutcheon downplayed the exchange and wouldn't even confirm Michigan, but said he and Not-Necessarily-Michigan had spoken."

I'm so there whenever it is.

UMass Football History --- 1982 Game Program Scans

I've added 15 images from various 1982 UMass game programs to the UMass Historical Scans section of the blog. The link is here . Included are some featured scans of Garry Pearson.

In 1982 UMass went 5-6 and 3-2 in the Yankee Conference.

On 11/13/82 UMass defeated New Hampshire to win a piece of their 14th Yankee Conference Championship.

On 11/30/82 Garry Pearson rushed for a then-UMass single game record of 288 yards against AIC. He finished with 1,631 yards, 312 attempts, 5.2 yards/carry and 13 TDs.

All Yankee Conference were:

• Glen Holden CB
• Garry Pearson RB
• Todd Comeau DE
• Gary Frecker TE
• Grady Fuller S
• Scott LaFond LG

I found a number of 1982 game programs in the vast UMass Football Blog archives, that accounts for the larger number of scans than normal for 1982.

The historical scans section of the Blog now includes:

• 1971
• 1973
• 1976 through 1982

Check out George Parks' beard !
Enjoy!

UMass recruit Darren Thellen does well at Shriners Game

UMass bound DB Darren Thellen played well at the Shriners Football Classic last night.

More on the Shriners game here .

UMass recruit Julian Colarusso also played in the game. He's mentioned here .

UPDATE: Another Shriners game article here (also mentions Thellen).

UPDATE II : Another article from 06/25/08 here .

Recruiting 2010 --OL/DL Teddy Reed

Teddy Reed (6-4 260) a Boston Globe All-Scholastic has decided on a prep year at Deerfield Acadamy.

Has an offer from Northeastern and recruiting interest from Delaware, UNH and UMass.

Daily Collegian Sports Blog

Do you know that the Daily Collegian has a UMass Sports Blog ?

I spend a lot of time surfing the web for UMass football stories. Somehow, I just plain missed the Collegian's Blog. Looks like it's active and has a lot of UMass sports information.

I'll add it to the "UMass links" in the sidebar.

Two year UMass Football Captains

One of he nice things about running the UMass Football Blog is meeting former UMass players and coaches. Earlier this year I exchanged e-mails with former UMass player and Coach Jerry Gordon.

His 1981 Captain's image is in the UMass Historical section of this blog. Gordon walked on to the football team and was the last lineman chosen. He told me "I worked hard, and good things happened." Gordon ended up being one of the few two year UMass Captains.

This year, the UMass players elected Junior Brandon Collier one of 2008's captains. So he has a chance to join a select few UMass players who have been two-year captains. I went through the UMass historical roster twice and did not find a three year captain.

UMass Two-Year Captains:

• Bill Durkin '92,'93
• Jerry Gordon '81,'82
• Ed McAleny "74,"75
• Khari Samuel "97,'98
• Serge Tikum "04,"05
• Brandon Collier '08,?

Did I miss anyone?

McGuirk and the UMass Sunwheel

In the Easter blog post I talked about the astronomical connections with the date of Easter. The comments to the post started me thinking about the fact that the UMass Football stadium is perhaps the only stadium with a working stone astronomical calender on the grounds.

The calender is the famous UMass Sun wheel . Designed and constructed by UMass astronomy professor Judith Young , the Sun Wheel is the site of numerous presentations by Prof Young . It is a little smaller than Stonehedge as pictured to the right, but still great fun.

The Springfield Republican just ran two articles about the UMass/McGuirk Sun Wheel here and here .

Next time you visit, show it to your kids---- they'll love climbing on the rocks if nothing else :)

DVD's of UMass Football Games available

This was brought to my attention by "UMass'96" over on the UMass Message board. The NCAA has DVD's of former UMass Football games.

It's called "NCAA on Demand".

It's got UMass' 1998 Championship game as well as other playoff games. I'm going to order the 1998 Championship. I have a tape of that game, but you will remember they cut most of the first quarter to show some @%$#& stupid basketball game. It will be nice to have the entire broadcast.

Sunday Morning Stuff

New Hampshire is sticking with eleven games for 2008.

Brandon London's dad, Mike London was appointed Head Coach at Richmond yesterday. Another story about the hiring here .

Brad Listorti makes another "Top-75" small school NFL list over on Draft Daddy.

Three UMass Seniors make Draft Daddy's list

Matt Lawrence, Brad Listorti and J.J. Moore are all on the latest version of Draft Daddy's "Top 150 Small School Prospects" list.

UMass Football History

I've taken some time to edit and re-organize the scans of the various UMass Football Historical material in the "Scans of UMass Historical material" section of the blog. I've added date captions to all the images.

Also added were scans from 1976 that were in the main blog but never were placed in the historical folder.

The material covers:

• 1971 roster and team photo
  
• 1973 roster
  
• Scans from game programs including rosters, coaches and other material for 1976 to 1980 inclusive.
  

The permanent link is in the side bar.

A direct link in this blog post is here .

Recruiting 2008---DB/WR Darren Thellen

Looks like UMass will be getting its first verbal shortly. The Boston Herald reports that Darren Thellen a 6-2 195 DB/WR from Brockton, MA is interested in signing with UMass.

Thellen's MaxPreps page is here .

Image is by Marc Vasconcellos from a site called Wicked Local Photos.

Darren, you made the right choice!

Recruiting 2008 RB Keith Robinson

UMass is recruiting Keith Robinson a 5-9 175 pd RB from Winslow township HS NJ.

His Scout.com profile is here.

He also has a interview about his recruiting and talks about his visiting the UMass team during the William & Mary game .

Keith, UMass is a great place to play football!

2008 Recruiting --- OG/DT Reshannon Stanley

UMass is recruiting 6-2 285 pd OG/DT Reshannon Stanley from Weaver HS in Hartford, CT. He is the Hartford Courant State Defensive Player-of-the-Year.

As a defensive tackle, he had 78 tackles and 8 sacks in 2007.

His MaxPreps page is here .

Also being recruited by Hofstra and Central Connecticut .

Raheem, UMass has the best defense in the Northeast!

Recruiting 2008-----QB Tanner Boucher

UMass is interested in Tanner Boucher a 6-4 220 pd QB from Keene, NH. Boucher threw for 1,500 yards and 25 TD's in 2007. Runs a 4.56 40 and benches 275.

His Scout.com page is here .

Boucher also made the All-State team .

Also interested are Albany, Army, BC, Duke, UNH, and Syracuse.

Recruiting 2008-- WR/TE Richard Rossi

UMass is recruiting Richard Rossi, a 6-2 210 pd WR/TE from Milford Academy, NY.

Rossi is a Scout.com three star player. He is a Rivals Top-50 Prep player.

Other schools interested in Rossi are Eastern Michigan and Syracuse.

His Milford Academy page is here .

Rich, UMass has a better football program than either Eastern Michigan or Syracuse ! (just ask all the Orange players who transferred to UMass)

Recruiting 2008 -- QB Mike Pierce

UMass is interested in Mike Pierce a 6-0 203 pd QB from Andover, MA. Story here . Pierce went 146-260 for 2,179 YDS 20 TDs.

The Boston Globe has a page on him here .

Recruiting 2008-- Matt Coyne Part II

I've blogged before about UMass recruiting Bristol Ct QB Matt Coyne.

This article says we're still in the running with the likes of Columbia and Yale . Coyne just became the all-time leading passer in Bristol.

His MaxPreps page is here .

The image is, I believe, a year old.

Recruiting 2008-- OL/DL Marquis Hillery

UMass is recruiting Marquis Hillery a 6-3 320 pd OL/DL from Roxbury MA. Story here . This story also mentions him.

Hillery is only seventeen. He could well grow some more.

Marquis, UMass is the best!