UMass and Wikipedia

Well, my expensive Epson scanner is still on the fritz. I had been intending to publish some historical material.While I install and re-install for the "nth" time, check out UMass Football's entry on Wikipedia.

In my spare time I'll have to do some work on UMass' article, but McGurik Stadium has a decent start.

Of course, if someone else wants to get started on the UMass Wikipedia entry I won't complain. Do I have to do everything? :)

A10 South OOC schedule strength

Yesterday we looked at the OOC (out-of conference) strength-of-schedule for the A10 North. Gaming the OOC is crucial to a team's chances for a playoff birth. Schedule too strong an OOC (a la Northeastern) and a season can be doomed before it's started. Schedule too weak an OOC, with two DII teams, for instance, and the necessary 7 I-AA wins may not be achievable.

In the opinion of the the UMass Football Blog, the A10 South plays a significantly weaker OOC than their northern brothers. Matt Dougherty awarded two A10 teams with his "softest schedule" designation in his article discussing OOC strength. Part of that stems from everybody in the A10 South playing Elon 3-8, Liberty 1-10 and VMI 3-8.

My take in order of OOC difficulty:

1. Villanova-- Central Florida, Lehigh,@Penn. A I-A team, a Patriot League Champion contender and rival Penn constitute the toughest OOC schedule in the A10 South. Prediction 0-3
   
2. William & Mary--@Maryland, VMI, @Liberty. Well, Maryland is better than Central Florida, but the Tribe has two sure wins in the other games. Prediction 2-1
3. James Madison--@Appalachian State, Bloomburg (DII), @VMI. Another A10 South team that traditionally plays a soft OOC. This year they do have a good game with National Champion Appy State, but Bloomburg and VMI are sure wins. Prediction 3-0.
4. Richmond-- @ Duke, VMI, Bucknell. The Spiders play I-A Duke (1-10), VMI (3-8) and Bucknell (1-10). That speaks for itself. Prediction 2-1 and the Spiders scare the hell out of Duke.
   
5. Delaware--West Chester (DII), Albany, Hofstra. Matt Dougherty awarded the Hens the "softest schedule in I-AA" award in his article, but I bumped them to #2 on the fact that Hofstra (7-4) last year should be a competitive game. Still, all three games are at home. Prediction 3-0
6. Towson--Morgan State (2-9), @Elon, Liberty. The Tigers have not lost an OOC game in two years. Towson makes it 9-0 in OOC games with this schedule...
   

A look at the A10 North OOC

As all good UMass fans know, a team's OOC (out-of-conference schedule) is crucial to the goal of making the playoffs. The big attraction of I-AA football is the playoffs where a National Championship is decided on the field.

To that end, OOC scheduling is a chess game. Playing in the deep A10 means over scheduling the OOC leads to doom for the playoffs.

Here is my take on the A10 North (in order of difficulty).

1. Maine-- @Youngstown State, @ Boston College. Maine only plays 10 games this year. With likely losses to its two OOC games, Maine needs go 7-1 in the A10 (7 I-AA wins is the minimum number to be considered eligible for the playoffs). The Black Bears need to go 8-0 to get a home game. This is going to be tough to do. Prediction 0-2 and no playoff bid for the Black Bears in 2006...
   
2. Northeastern--@Virginia Tech, @Holy Cross, @North Dakota State. Not as suicidal as last years OOC, but tough enough. The Crusaders are no longer a patsy. The Huskies could go 1-2 and 0-3 is not out of the question.
   
3. UMass--Stony Brook, Colgate, @Navy. Colgate was a I-AA playoff team last year and has given UMass fits. Navy crushed Colorado State in a bowl game last year. UMass needs to beat to Raiders to jump start its season. 2-1 is possible, which means UMass would only have to go 6-2 in the A10 to get a playoff bid. Prediction 2-1.
   
4. Hofstra--@Stoney Brook, @ Marshall,@Delaware. The Thundering Herd are not the team UMass played when the Heard was ranked in the top 15. Winning at Delaware is tough but doable. Hofstra could come out with a 2-1 record.
5. URI--@UConn, Merrimack, Brown. Brown has been contending for the Ivy Championship the last couple of years. Still, UConn and Brown are beatable. The Rams should crush DII Merrimack. Prediction 2-1
   
6. UNH-- @Northwestern, Stony Brook, @Dartmouth. The Wildcats probably have the best offense in I-AA. They should crush Stony Brook and Dartmouth. They have a chance at Big 10 Northwestern if the Wildcats take them lightly. Prediction 3-0 (with UNH getting the uset over the Big 10 team)
   

The Sports Network picks UMass' Receiver Corps 5th in I-AA

Matt Dougherty in his latest article at The Sports Network has picked UMass wide receivers 5th out of the 100+ teams in I-AA.

Senior Brandon London 6-4 210 leads the group with 60 catches for 774 yards and 70.4 yards/game.

J.J. Moore 6-0 201 had 27 catches for 337 yards in only 5 games. If he had not been injured, he was on course for about 60 catches and 750 yards.

Rasheed Rancher 6-5 187 had 26 catches for 425 yards and a sterling 16.3 yards/catch.

This Blog feels that the UMass receivers will be even better than 5th nationally with the addition of UConn transfer TE Rob Getek at 6-6 250 he is a load. The UMass Football Blog has high hopes that he will be the best receiving TE at UMass since Kerry Taylor was second in team receptions in 1998 (the National Championship year).

In 2005 UMass was 5th in the A10 in passing offense and 8th in total offense. The Blog thinks that's going to improve in 2006!

2006 Recruit DB DeMarcus Robinson

Appearing on the UMass 2006 commitment list with no announcement that I could find, is 5-10 170 pd DB DeMarcus Robinson of Sunrise Fl.

Robinson had previously committed to Rutgers, but has switched to UMass.

He is a strong addition to UMass football:

• Was a Rivals two-Star recruit
• Also recruited by Kansas, Kansas State and UCF
• Ran a blistering 4.3 forty in the Nike Combine
• Played in two All-Star games
• 2nd Team all County in the talent rich South Florida
• 54 tackles in 8 games, 9 pass breakups, 1 INT, 3 TFL
• 3 TDs on returns.

Welcome to UMass DeMarcus!

New Field Turf Construction Images 06/09/06

These images were taken at 3:00 pm on Friday 06/09/06. Apparently, the construction crew had called it a week.

Right Click on any image for a larger view.

Things seem to be progressing. New England had been getting heavy rain for a week prior to these images (sound familiar?). Note that the water table was about 12 inches below the surface of the field. No wonder the field turned to mush when it rained.

I'll try to have more coverage of the installation later in the summer.

There is a UMass article and more images here .

View from the UMass Team Gate I

View from the UMass Team Gate II

View from the UMass Team Gate III

Something McGuirk has never had before--------Drainage!

Note that the water table is not far down

View from the Visiting Side

Home Side Drainage

Construction Equipment

Four UMass Football games to be televised

In another sign of UMass Football's growing national prestige, four UMass Football games will be televised in 2006

The UMass press release is here .

Update Sunday: The official CSTV press release is here .

There will be two national broadcasts on CSTV.

1. UMass @ Navy on 09/09
2. UMass @ New Hampshire on 11/04

There will be two regional broadcasts on CN8.

1. UMass @ Villanova 09/16
   
2. UMass @ Northeastern 10/28

And maybe more TV games coming!

A10 returning starters in 2006

One of the traditional measures to predict the success of a football team is the number of returning starters.

The A10 returns a surprising number of starters from 2005. No team was really gutted by graduation this year.

The following table shows how the respective teams finished in 2005. The number following shows the number of returning starters.

A10 NORTH

• New Hampshire (11)
• UMass (15*)
• Hofstra(14*)
• Maine (12)
• Northeastern (13)
• Rhode Island (13)

* Total includes for UMass former starter Charles Walker who previously started and was out on a medical redshirt last year. For Hofstra, total includes All-America LB Gian Villante, who was out with a medical redshirt last year.

A10 SOUTH

• Richmond (16)
• James Madison (13)
• Delaware (14)
• Towson (17)
• William & Mary (13)
• Villanova (16)
  

UMass Game Jerseys Part II

Regular readers will forgive a second post on UMass Game Jerseys. The UMass Yard sale was a success raising over $17,000 for the UMass Athletic Scholarship Fund.

The Athletic Dept is considering a second run in the fall. UMass football fans might want to E-mail Jaime Seguin to ask her to hold the second sale and perhaps provide some mechanism for non-Amherst area fans to purchase Football Game Jerseys.

1. These are real UMass Football Jerseys
2. These jerseys should be primo "collectables" after the CAA takes over from the A10 as the football league (all the jerseys have the A10 logo on the left shoulder)
3. The jerseys are wearable. I have Jeff Krohn's #7. See my previous post. Jeff was 6-3 213. I'm 5-9 180. Even Mrs. Blog-----who usually casts a jaundiced eye on anything I wear---- said " That doesn't fit you bad". Most adult males should be able to wear the lower numbered jerseys.
4. They are really, really cool.
   

If you really love UMass Football, the jerseys are worth the effort to try to get one.

Does UMass have a new QB recruit?

The Connecticut Post reports that David Chevansky a 6-1 195 PD QB from St. Joseph High in CT signed with UMass.

However, he is also listed as a QB recruit for Wagner College.

In the image, he is first on the left on the second row ---- next to UMass OL recruit Valdimir Ducasse 6-4 305 (#77 in image)

Guess we'll have to wait and see what UMass announces...

Matt Dougherty picks Baylark as one of I-AA's top backs

Well, we knew that already, didn't we. Matt Dougherty discusses the state of I-AA running backs here .

UMass' Steve Baylark is listed as #12 in I-AA.

Baylark has a number of statistical goals in sight for 2006. Not the least of which is if he has a 1,000 yard season, he will join Jerry Azumah and Adrian Peterson as the only backs in I-AA history to have four 1,000 yard seasons.

This blog believes that the loss of both starting UMass OTs in pre-season last year negatively affected Baylark's production last year. We lost UMass Captain Colin Stoetzel and O.J. McBride for the whole year. Those guys would have helped...

In addition, the Blog feels that Baylark was nicked up also.

He looked a step faster during the Spring Game. Here's hoping that he can lead the A10 in rushing -------- and lead UMass into the playoffs in 2006

UMass Football Blog One Year old today

One year ago on May 5, 2005 I posted my first entry on my UMass football Blog.

I started the blog because I loved UMass Football and there never seemed to be much press coverage of the program. I had over thirty years of UMass game programs and press guides. It seemed as if I could find enough material to have a fairly active blog. Figured I'd continue until I ran out of material or it wasn't fun anymore.

Well, that was 526 posts (counting today) ago. According to Sitemeter, the UMass Football fanzone has recorded:

• over 10,000 hits
• over 23,000 page views.

Technorati tracks over 19,400,000 blogs. The UMass Football Blog is ranked #1,040,549 (top 10% give or take a little). According to their stats, 45% of all blogs fold in three months and only 11% are updated weekly or more.

The UMass Football Blog is still one of only 10 or less blogs covering a I-AA football team. It might be one of 5 or less. There is no Delaware Blog. There is no Montana Blog. I find this fairly surprising...

Still having fun covering UMass football. Looks like the UMass Football Blog will be active for a 2nd year. I have tons of UMass historical material I havn't had time to publish yet. Still getting a kick out of blogging.

Go UMass! And thanks dear readers for visiting my blog.

Matt Dougherty names Liam Coen "Star in the Making"

Matt Dougherty in his recent Sports Network news column named UMass sophomore-to-be QB Liam Coen as a "Star in the making".

Coen had a stellar freshman season. Consider just a few of his stats:

• Three consecutive weeks named A10 Rookie-of-the-week
• achieved a pass efficiency rating of 137.48 (best ever by a UMass Freshman QB)

This blog is, of course, a homer but believes that a case can be made for Coen to have been chosen A10 Rookie-of-the-Year over Rhode Island's Joe Casey, who won the award.

Casey had an excellent season, but the featured back in a spread option offense, will ring up impressive numbers by reason of the system...

UMass ranked #14 by AGS Poll

While I was away, AGS released the first of their season polls. The important fact to remember about the AGS poll is that it is conducted by I-AA enthusiasts and tends to be considerably more accurate than the magazine polls.

The home article by Any Given Saturday is here. The UMass press release about the poll is here.

This article by the Bloomfield Journal (CT) gives UMass the lead focus and also mentions UMass players Darnel Delaire and Matt Lawrence.

IMHO, UMass is under rated. I'll blogging more on this later...

UMass Football Blog open for business

Well, we're back. Burned 3,000 miles in the rental car in 2.5 weeks. Survived our 20-hour return flight back to New Hampshire. Landed in a Wagnerian lighting storm at Manchester Airport.

As soon as I recover a little there is lots of UMass Football news to cover. We seem to have added a Quarter Back recruit. Construction has started on McGuirk's Field Turf and lots of other stuff.

Good to be back. Go UMass!

UMass Football Blog on Vacation until 06/02

The UMass Football Blog will be on vacation until 06/02/06.

As you read this, Mrs. Blog and I will be flying to Las Vegas. Then make our way to Utah to visit some of the National Parks.

We will be finishing up our vacation visiting relatives in Oregon.

I will be back blogging as soon as I recover from vacation :)

There will be lots to blog about. UMass has added a recruit I’ve not talked about. There is a rumor that UMass is in the running for a I-A transfer that will be an instant starter and lots of other UMass Football news.

See you in two and a half weeks. In the meantime, there are over 500 past posts and more than 1000 links in the blog achieves for you to re-explore...

Matt Dougherty looks at the 2006 I-AA schedule

Matt Dougherty of The Sports Network has an interesting article on the various strengths and weaknesss of I-AA schedules. It's here .

UMass is mentioned twice. Our Arch-foe Delaware is awarded the prize for the "weakest non-conference schedule"

If you want to do some figuring yourself, the A10 composite schedule is here. For example, JMU plays Bloomsburg, Appalachian State and VMI as its OOC. If the Dukes loose to last year's National Champions Appalachian State, and a win over Bloomsburg as a Div II win does not count towards playoff eligibility, then JMU needs to go 7-2 in the A10 just to get an at large bid....

Someone You Should Know---Photographer Karen Winger

The internet is a wonderful thing. I was Googling on UMass Football images and several layers deep in the Google page rank was the site of Photographer Karen Winger.

Her images have been used extensively on the UMass Sports site.

She has a vast portfolio of UMass Sports images including some amazin' UMass Football shots as well as the UMass Marching Band. Worth a look.

Construction Boom Hits I-AA Football

As UMass fans know, installation of Field Turf surface for McGuirk Stadium will start on May 29th. UMass will add permanent lights in 2007.

Actually, UMass is on the low end of football enhancements going on in A10 and the northeast, but I'm happy we're making progress.

James Madison is adding field turf to their stadium.

• An article on field turf installation is here
• A webcam to watch the installation is here . (use "demo" in the username in the popup. No password required.

Rhode Island is adding a $2,000,000 extension to Meade Stadium.

• An article on the construction is here .
• Images galleries of the construction are here and here.

William & Mary is adding an $11,000,000 rebuild to their football program.

• A story on the construction of the new 30,000 sq-foot football offices and locker room and field turf is here .
• A construction gallery is here .

Non-Scholarship Lafayette of the Patriot League is investing $23,000,000 in a totally new football stadium.

• An article on the construction is here .
• A live Webcam is here .
  

Minuteman Legend Steve Schubert Honored

Former UMass All-American Steve Schubert has been honored by the Joe Yukica Foundation as a Distinguished American.

Read my 09/01/05 Blog on Schubert first.

The articles on his award are here and here.

Shannon James & L.A.Love win UMass awards

UMass Senior's Shannon James and L.A. Love have won awards from UMass. James was named one of the top three UMass athletes during a ceremony this Monday.

L.A. Love was named UMass' Most Inspirational Athlete. He was hampered by a knee injury and played only a little in his senior season.

The UMass article is worth a read. I've heard L.A. Love speak and "Inspirational" is the word for him.

UMass Game Jerseys

Well, purchasing the game jersey was an adventure. When we arrived at the game no knew how to purchase the jerseys or had even heard about the sale.

Eventually we grabbed Mike Hodges who told us to go into the UMass Field House and ask UMass equipment manager Paul Bys. Paul hauls out a huge sack and says "Pick any you want. They're $50/each' He sold six right there.

According to the UMass Press Release, the remaining jerseys (maroon or road white) will be available on May 15th at Currey Hicks Cage.

Get one if you can. The jerseys are real football jerseys by Nike.

Mine is in excellent condition. There is a small rip on one shoulder. The "A10' logo patch is soiled. Any other imperfections are invisible from farther away than 12 inches.

Mine even fits! I've been wearing it around the house pretending I'm a QB and calling signals. Mrs. Blog sez that "Men are goofy".

Hey! Age is inevitable----maturity is optional.

Get one if you can. The jerseys are "collectible" because they have the soon to be history A10 Football patch.

But better than that---they are totally cool. You will be the envy of all the other kids UMass fans!

Report on Spring Game

The official UMass report is here . The Springfield Republican has a short article here . Matt Vautour will probably have an article later in the day. I'll post an update.

Update 1:44pm. Matty Vautour at the Hampshire Gazette (subscription required, but worth it) has his take here in an article about the scrimmage. One interesting bit of information is that UMass will be wearing Maroon Jerseys and White pants for home games and White Jerseys with Maroon pants for away games (same color combination as the National Championship year). I grew to like the all white road uni's but never warmed up to the all Maroon home outfits.

My take:

First, there has been some comment on the various message boards about the completion ratio of the passing game. In this scrimmage/exhibition, the main objective was to not get anyone injured. The UMass defense has a lot more than it showed.

Coach Brown said he only has seven Offensive Linemen and he definitely did not want any injuries from that group. Seven more OL recruits will join the UMass team in August.

The DNP list (unofficial and probably not complete):

• Patrick Powell--double knee surgery. Brown says he will be ready for August
• Matt Silver and John Hatchell
• Chris Koepplin---on crutches with his left knee wrapped

The best think UMass fans can take from the day was the play of the UMass wide receivers. J.J. Moore (broken foot) and Brandon London (broken bone in hand) seem totally recovered. Both them and Rasheed Rancher made acrobatic catches---causing the Minutemen fans in attendance to cheer. Those three wideouts are going to cause problems for a lot of teams this year.

Matt Lawrence seems totally recovered and Steve Baylark seemed a step faster than last year. UMass should be able to run a "thunder and lighting" ground attack in '06

On Defense, highly rated Sean Smalls was working as db in the first team defense. He was played out-of-position last year because of injuries to the WR corps.

UMass looks really deep at LB. Brown should have multiple packages to torment opposing offensives.

I nominate UMass Captain James Ihedigbo as the guy I'd most like to have on my side in a bar fight. He has a set of NFL muscles...

Images from the 2006 UMass Spring Game

Below are 20 images from the 2006 UMass Spring Game.

Right Click on any image for a larger View.

Note that Blogger may not display all 20 images. If not, click on the "Past Blogs by month-May 2006" to load them all.

I'll be doing a writeup on the game tomorrow.

End of Spring Drills 2006

Matt Silver and John Hatchell DNP

Last look at McGuirk's grass

2006 Captains Baylark-Ihedigbo-Miller

Kick Off 2006 Spring Game

Baylark leads the way for J.J. Moore

New UMass LB Tony Rouzier wears #52

UMass Defense

First Team Offense Vs First Team Defense

Coen was 9 for 9

UMass kicking Duo Koegel & Cuko

JUCO WR Mike Omar wears #15

Baylark Runs

Baylark Breaks Through

Scott Woodward went 3-3

New UMass TE Rob Getek wears #87

Red Shirt RB Tony Nelson

Good turnout of Fans

Starting LB's for 2006 Anderson-Walker-Hatchell

Coen looked Cool

Matt Dougherty on I-AA changes

On 4/26/06 I blogged on the possibility of various changes in I-AA.

The biggest difference would have been a change in the nomenclature for the various divisions. I-AA would have become the "Championship Division" for example.

That did not pass. Read Matt's take on the ins and outs here .

IMHO, this is just more evidence, as if we needed any, that College Football is run by and for the BCS schools...

UMass Football Banquet Friday May5,2006

UMass will hold its annual Football Banquet tomorrow. There will be a Guest Arrival/Social Hour starting at 5:30 pm. Buffet dinner is at 6:30 pm.

If any UMass fan has not attended the annual banquet, it's a great time. The food is excellent and the ticket price helps pay for the players meal.

The coaches give out awards for "most improved player" and the like. Coach Brown will thank his staff and the parents of the players. Various players will give a short speech.

The banquet is fun and has a family feel. Every UMass fan should try to attend.

Spring Game Saturday at Noon !

UMass finishes its Spring Football with a scrimmage/scripted play game this Saturday.

I called the Football Office and was told that the game would start at 12:00 Noon.

Weather for Saturday is warm (70 degrees) with 40% chance of showers. The UMass Football Blog will be there (Allah willing).

I hope to publish images of the game by Sunday or so. Out-of-towners who would like see some of the action should stop by the Blog.

Update:5:32 PM. The official UMass notice on the Spring Game is here .

Keron Williams invited to Tampa Bay Mini-Camp

UMass DE 6-1 254 Keron Williams has been invited to Tampa Bay Buccaneers Mini-Camp. See this article from the UMass website.

Williams was one UMass' top defenders and did not get the ink he deserved. During his career his stats were 43/20 GP 87 UT 53 AT 137 TT 12-81 SACKS 33 TFL.

In 2005 he was:

• First Team All-A10
• All-New England by New England Sports Writers

Good luck Keron! The UMass defense will miss you.

James signs with Ravens and Cobbs with Vikings

The UMass football site has details of UMass' Safety Shannon James signing a free agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens.

UMass WR /CB R.J. Cobbs signed a free agent contract with the Vikings. Cobbs was one for four I-AA players signed by the Vikings

Good luck to both Shannon and R.J. All UMass fans will be cheering for you to make the team.

Update: 12:39 pm Monday. Chris Kennedy of the Springfield Republican has an article with quotes from Cobbs and James here .

Update II: 12:49 pm Monday. Matt Dougherty of Sporting News has detailed coverage of I-AA players who were drafted over the weekend. Kevin McMahan WR from Maine was the last player chosen in the draft.

UMass Coaching Tree Expands-- Part IV

I've blogged in the past about UMass legend Jimmie Reid being appointed head coach at VMI.

Recently, Reid added two names that will be familiar to the UMass faithful. Already on the VMI staff was former UMass assistant coach Chris Malone who had left UMass in 2004 when the coaching staff changed due to Whipple leaving.

Reid announced that Ken Conaster has been added to the Kaydets staff. Conaster coached as an assistant UMass from 1971-1972 and then again from 1977-1979 under UMass legend Dick Macpherson.

In the images, Conaster is the top image and Malone is the lower.