Guest Blog-- Eagle in Altanta

Last year this Blog and and Navy Blog "Pitch Right" swapped guest blog posts.

This year I did a guest post on the excellent Boston College Blog "Eagle in Atlanta". Now that Blog answers some questions for us.

1. My first question concerns a matter in which I cheerfully admit
that I was wrong. I thought BC would struggle in the ACC. To what do you attribute Boston College's success?

-- I think there are a couple of factors. We've had a couple of our best teams at a time of great parity in the conference. FSU and Miami have both been down. Wake Forest has been up. NC State, Maryland and Virginia have been all over the place in our three years as ACC members. It has provided a great opportunity for BC. Unfortunately we've fallen short of the ultimate goal of winning it all, but I think we can get there.Even after the super powers revert to their old form there is no reason why BC cannot be a competitive bowl team every year in the ACC. We have the tradition, recruiting niche and facilities to do it.

2. UMass and BC recruit heavily in New England. UMass tried hard to
recruit Ron Brace, your outstanding DT from Worcester for example. Do
you think BC will have to do more national recruiting and less in this area?

We've always had a mix of New England kids and kids from Jersey and the midwest. I think with the ACC move, you'll see a mix of more southern kids, but BC will never abandon New England football. First because BC has a major advantage in our sales pitch over schools like UMass (no offense). BC is in a major conference and a great city.One reason to keep a foothold in New England is that the New England recruits tend to be underrated. Then there is the supposed Patriot effect. The theory is that participation in New England youth football has exploded over the past 10 years. If this is true, this whole area will become a much more fertile recruiting territory over the next few years. BC, UMass, and all other New England schools should see a benefit from that.


3. In 1998, UMass went into the playoffs ranked #11 nationally.
That's just about where BC is ranked this year. In the playoffs, UMass ended up meeting the #2 and #1 teams------and son-of-gun, those teams did not win. With Matt Ryan and your current team, if BCS/I-A had a playoff, how far would the 2007 Eagles go?

I wish we had a playoff. Not because of the talent this year...I just think it is the best format to determine a champion in football. I do think this BC team has enough talent to beat anyone on any night.Fortunately we have the ACC Championship game and BC can play our way into it. It is not a true playoff, but it enables BC to aim for something and win a championship on the field, not in the polls.But I am doing my best not to get ahead of myself...I've been a BC fan too long and know better. For now I just want to get by Umass avoid the embarrassment Michigan went through.

4. Who do you think will win Saturday and why?

I respect UMass and think you guys could beat plenty of DIA teams. I don't think you'll beat BC. Army did you guys no favors by scaring us last week. That got everyone's attention. Second, your style (running on offense, blitz on defense) plays to BC's strength. You're like a Georgia Tech with 20 less scholarships. I think BC controls and wins 42-20.

High quality fan blogs are rare. Remember to follow Boston College football news on "Eagle in Atlanta"

UPDATE: If you want to see the norm for BCS/I-A blogs consider next year's BCS/I-A fan blog from Texas Tech "Double-T Nation". In today's post he's stating that he's boycotting Saturday's game against FCS/I-AA team Northwestern State because they're I-AA. Guess I won't be swapping guest blogs next year...

Wednesday Morning Reading

UMass-Boston college preview from MSNBC no less.

The Springfield Republican muses on whether UMass can slow down BC quarterback Matt Ryan.

The Boston Globe has an article on UMass TB Matt Lawrence.

In the Hampshire Gazette, Matty (lots of Matts in this blog post) Vautour has an article on UMass rising to #2 in the polls (registration required).


I had blogged before about various FCS/I-AA teams upgrading their facilities. Albany has petitioned the NY legislature for a $60 Million Stadium . Old Dominion will be joining the CAA in a couple of years. They're in the process of a $24.8 million renovation of their sports complex to get ready for the move.

Tuesday morning articles

The Boston Herald continues it's excellent coverage of UMass Football with an article on Liam Coen's Boston College connection.

In the aftermath of Saturday's game, Maine tries to recover here and here .

The buzz generated by Boston College's athletics is helping BC with its national image .

Meanwhile Keeper has UMass rated as #2 in the FCS Division.

And he has the Eagles by 22+ over UMass.

UPDATE: UMass has its Boston College game notes up. Nothing yet from BC.

UMass-Maine Web Album

On Sunday, we stopped at Perkin's Cove to walk the Marginal Way. The weather was much improved from the cold and overcast game in Orono.

The Picassa Web album has 44 images from the game. I actually captured Matt Lawrence's spectular TD run, Chris Zardas' TD catch and Breyone Evans TD.

As usual, UMass fans and players can take images from the album, but crediting the UMass Football Blog would be nice.

Matt Ryan for Heisman

The NY Times ran a long interview with BC quarterback Matt Ryan.

A BC fan has also started a Matt Ryan for Heisman Blog.

The best Boston College Sports Blog is "Eagle in Atlanta".

More Maine game stuff

The image above is a scan of the Maine 2007 yearbook. They were selling them as game programs in Orono. Lot's of Black Bear info. That will go in the Blog's archives!

The Springfield Republican has a Monday article here .

The UMass Collegian has two articles here and here .

The Maine campus newspaper is here .

NOTES FROM THE BLOG:

My impressions from attending the game is that Maine is going to have a rough year. They do not seem to have much on offense (they're last in the league) and did not show anything Saturday. It was so bad that Maine kept their leading rusher Jhamal Fluellen out of the game in the second half to save him "bumps and bruises" (so said the Bangor newspaper).

The Black Bear kicking game is also poor. They are last in the CAA in field goals (1 for 4).

UMass linebacker and Captain Charles Walker was not happy about loosing the shutout. He chewed out the defense after the score. He was rapidly replaced by Coach Brown who also did some yelling.

Matty Vautour often comments on road dinning in his UMass Sports Blog. Mrs. Blog and I ate at Dysart's Truck Stop Restaurant . Had a great time.

No UMass cheerleaders made the trip to Orono.

Last year the Black Bears led the A10 in rushing defense giving up only 63.9 yards/game. Saturday, UMass had 289 rushing yards and averaged 6.9 yards a pop.

UPDATE: Matt Vautour has a Maine game article here (but he doesn't say where he ate), registration required.

Maine articles

Stayed in Bangor last night. Again, no operable Wi-Fi.

The Kennebec Journal is here .

The Globe amazingly has two articles one about the game and a shorter one here .

The Boston Herald is here , and the Worcester telegram is here .

Jeff Thomas is here .

The Black Bears Athletic Dept write-up is here . UMass' coverage is here .

The CAA recaps the league here .

The College Sporting News recaps the entire FCS here .

Road Trip part Deux!

In it's never ending quest to bring you up-to-date information about UMass football (and not coincidently see a lot of games in person), the UMass football blog will be on its way to Orono (motto: "Orono is not the end of the world, but you can see it from there), ME early tomorrow morning.

Go UMass!

UPDATE: Getting ready for the drive. Not much on the web so far this morning. One article about the Maine Defensive line here.

The Springfield Republican has a game day article here .

The Blog Poll closes at Midnight

The UMass-Maine results blog poll to the right closes at midnight on Friday. So far the record is 63 votes (Colgate game).

Right now, it looks like most fans are very respectful of the Black Bear defense, but think their offensive woes will lead to a moderate UMass win.

UPDATE: At 3:15 pm we are only three votes from the record!

UPDATE: We have a new record! Serenity has returned to the force.

UPDATE III: It's 7:47 pm and the countdown clock says there is seven hours to go??? Readers should know that Blogger is fairly weird sometimes. I just checked my settings and they had morphed into the Central time zone. I fixed that, but the clock has not changed. It's all on GMT, so DST will be one hour off. So one hour for CST and one hour for Daylight savings. We're four hours off. Where are the other two hours coming from?

Friday News

We have a couple of Maine-centric articles about the up-coming game between UMass and the Black Bears. Two articles from Maine Campus here and here .

In last week's game against Towson, UMass' stunting, blitzing defense knocked down Towson QB Sean Schaefer seventeen times. This article mentions the pounding he took.

David Coulson takes a look at back at the history of the FCS Division.

Charles Burton and Ralph Wallace take a look at this week's games here .

The College Sporting News also has a look at the games of the Division's Top 25 here.

The CAA previews the weekend's CAA games here .

UPDATE: Remenber when I did a post about our Syracuse transfers did the right thing. Well a Louisville newspaper is predicting Louisville 70-Syracuse 7.

UPDATE II: The Bangon Daily News has a story about Maine's OL Sean Demaray.

UPDATE III: Remember the game is viewable on live streaming video over the internet on CN8. It works great on my Verizon DSL.

UPDATE IV: Matty Vautour has an article about the Maine game here (registration required, but worth it)

Coach Brown's show tonight

Remember Coach Brown's show tonight at 7:00 pm. Live internet feed from WRNX here .

Thursday morning articles

There are a couple of Maine-centric articles concerning the upcomming game. The Maine Campus has one here.

The Kennebec Journal has one here .

The College Sporting News has Bruce Dowd's "CAA Today" column here .

The Sports Network has an article about the entire division here .

Wednesday morning reading

A couple of articles for Wednesday morning.

Matty Vautour has an article in the Hampshire Gazette (registration required).

Ron Chimelis has an article in the Springfield Republican with some interesting information about the UMass defensive line here .

UMass-Towson Web Album up

I've posted about 50 images of the UMass-Towson game in a Picassa web album. Some additional images courtesy of the Koepplin Family are included.

As usual, UMass fans and players are welcome to take any image for their own use, but crediting the UMass Football Blog would be polite.

An early look at Maine

UMass' next opponent is the Maine Black Bears. They are 1-2 for the season.

Maine was one on the CAA teams that lost a four year starter at QB this year. After four years of Ron Witcomb at the helm, they are breaking in a new QB.

It's not going well so far. Maine is last in the CAA in scoring offense, last in passing offense and last in total offense. CAA stats here .

The Black Bears have 218 yards passing -----for the season. No, really. They are averaging 3.1 yards per catch. Probable starter at QB is Adam Farkes a RFr QB from Boston, MA.

The Black Bears only offensive weapon so far this year has been Jamal Fluellan 5-9 180 pd transfer TB from Syracuse. He's rushed 59-316 5.4 yards/rush and 3 TDs.

The Black Bears have their UMass game notes up here .

The Bangor Daily News has a story about their loss to Villanova here .

UPDATE: Farkes will start according to the Bangor Daily News. Two more game articles about Maine's loss to Villanova here and here .

UPDATE II: Keeper has UMass by 11+ points. Just about what the wisdon on the poll says.

UPDATE III: UMass now has its Maine Game notes up. Also Matty Vautour says that Coen's status for Maine is uncertain. (registration required)

Demarcus Roberson playing well at Garden City

Former UMass DB Demarcus Roberson has been tearing it up at Garden City Community College in Kansas.

In his last game against Dodge City, Roberson (#7 in the above image) had a blocked punt, a 70 yard Kickoff return, 3 tackles and 1 BrUp.

In his previous game against Butler he had an INT and 3 BrUps.

He wants all UMass players and fans to know he will always be a UMass Football fan and keeps a close eye on the team and is happy that we are 3-0!

Towson follow-up Articles.

Monday morning post game articles. Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has one on the UMass Blitz.

Two Baltimore area newspapers have articles here and here .

The UMass Collegian is up and operating and has two articles here and here .

UMass-Colgate web album 09/08/07

I've set up a web album on Picassa of the UMass-Colgate game. There is now a permenant link in the sidebar also.

Also included are some images taken by the family of UMass kicker Chris Koepplin. The cheerleader images are by request of a cheerleader parent.

The image above is a scan of the game program.

As usual, UMass players and fans can grab images from the album, but crediting the UMass football blog would be nice.

Sunday Morning reading

The Boston Globe has a game article here .

So does the Boston Herald here .

From the Towson side, the Baltimore Sun covers the game here .

The CAA had a very good day OOC with UNH beating Marshall, JMU beat VMI, William & Mary beat Liberty and Hofstra beat Albany. Write up on league games here .

National games in the FCS division are covered here .

EXTRA CREDIT READING:

Speaking of Albany, they are upgrading their football program. Now they are pushing for a new $60M stadium.

UPDATE: Matty Vautour has a game article here (registration required)

The image above is a scan of the game program (somewhat the worse for being soaked in the rain in the first quarter)

My defense finally arrives!

The UMass defense finally got it together and looked like the defensive team we had last year.

Yes, we blew the coverage on the first series and then added a penalty to make things worse.

BUT THEN

• we held Towson to 22 net yards rushing
• Towson had 22 catches and only averaged 6.o yards/catch
• Three INT including a 90 yard return for a TD!
• Three straight times the offense turned the ball over in our territory and the defense held the Tigers to three points.
• we were flying to the ball and we out hit them all day.

UMass write up here .

Towson's write up here .

Image above is from UMass athletic dept.

The CAA has a game page too

Just realized that the CAA has a League game day page here . The page has audio and TV links for the whole league plus write-ups on the games.

Game Day Towson

Be sure to visit the UMass "Game Day" page here .

Towson's game notes are here .

Sean Schaefer makes the Tiger's go. His bio page is here .

UMass needs to play a complete game against Towson. Their passing game is far better than Holy Cross or Colgate's.

One defensive stat on the Tigers is interesting. They gave up 265 yards rushing (6.4 yards/carry) against Morgan State. No offense against Morgan State, but we should be better than that.

We need to play both halves against a CCA team. And squeeze the ball on this rainy day!

I have a question for the congregation.

First read this article from Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican.

My question: When was the last time UMass had a punt return AND a kickoff return for TDs in the same season?

I had the UMass press guide with me on my Amish vacation. While I was off-net, I tried to find anything in the press guide. No luck.

Does anyone know?

Why does it not surprise me that this did not work out?

UMass had been trying to set up a game with UConn for 2012. Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican says it did not work out.

Hey, read this Article!

When people give you negative comment about being a rabid college football fan, tell them about what UMass and a number of other CAA teams are doing by the instigation of Andy Talley.

Hey. the UMass Football blog is back in action!

Well, that was fun. Saw seven accidents and it took nine hours to drive back from New Holland, PA.

Looks like lots of stuff has been going on while I was away. It'll take me a couple of days to get caught up with all the articles and e-mail.

I have a bunch of images from the Colgate game and I hope to have them in a web-album in a day or so. I've got to turn around and drive back to Amherst for the Towson game tomorrow.

Can we top the 12,000 we had a the first game? Anybody note that that was about 3,000 more that the holiday game last year?

Amish Internet not working

Despite being assured that I would have Wi-Fi , thanks to some perfectly positioned trees, my cabin is in a Wi-Fi cold spot. I have zero connectivity. The nice ladies in the office are allowing me to take up desk space to make this post.

Obviously, this is not going to work for an extended period.

The UMass Football Blog will be off the air until late Friday evening. I will be back up and running on Sept. 14th.

Go UMass! Readers can use some of the links in the sidebar to keep up with the team while out of contact. Damm you, big beautiful Oak Trees! :)

UPDATE: I have a number of images, but I won't be able to post a web album until I get back.

Sunday Morning Articles

Some Sunday paper articles: The Boston Globe is here . Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican is here . Matt Vautour moonlights for the Worcester Telegram here . And Channel 9 in Syracuse rings in here.

UPDATE: Matt Vautour returns to his regular identity with an article for the Hampshire Gazette here (registration required)

UPDATE II: The CAA website has League summaries here. Rhody took Army to overtime. Hofstra had a big win over Top-Ten ranked Furman and JMU scored 24 straight points in the second half over New Hampshire in a big win at home

UPDATE III: The Boston Herald has an article here .

Just before Kickoff

The official game score said there were 3,211 attending. I think maybe 500 more came in later...

Right Click on image and Blogger gives a larger view.

Whew! For a while there I thought the Curse of Hamilton would continue

Just back from the game. The first half was major ugly. The offense went backward for most of the half. We had negative yards rushing late in the second quarter.

Things got much better in the second half. UMass Athletic Dept story here . Colgate write-up here .

Still, this Blog thinks UMass has great potential. We scored 40 and 35 points with two bad halves.

Certainly, the 2007 version of the UMass team has yet to gel.

I've got lots of images. It will take me a while to sort and then post to a web album from a remote site. Still, we're 2-0 and we don't have to go the Hamilton again :)

Game Day articles

Well, here we are in cloudy Utica. Yesterday was really hot and sticky. The game forecast is cloudy with chance of showers and thundershowers. High around 80 degrees.

The Boston Herald continues to cover UMass football here .

And the Springfield Republican has an article here .

Mrs. Blog and I will be leaving for Hamilton a little later in the morning.

Road Trip!

The UMass Football Blog is off to Colgate today. Two nights in scenic Utica NY and then we are off to New Holland PA for about five days to give Mrs. Blog some shopping time in Amish country.

The motel has internet and our cabin in New Holland supposedly has Wi-Fi so I should be able to continue blogging. However, nothing is ever certain (ask Michigan), so if this bog should fall silent next week you will know I'm having remote connection problems and the blog will continue as soon as I get back.

Friday morning stuff

Pete's Poll continues his highly idiosyncratic look at FCS/I-AA football (for example Coastal Carolina lost and is ranked in the top 15 and Nichols State who beat Rice last week is #43)

Keeper's College rankings looks a little more rational. He has UMass #2 in his rankings. He also has UMass by 25+ points over Colgate.

CSN takes a look a the week in the top 25 in FCS/I-AA.

Maine is not afraid of UConn. (Go Black Bears)

And a cold front passed through Hell this morning as the Globe has an article on the UMass-Colgate game.

UPDATE: Matt Vautour has an article on the Colgate game here . (registration required)

Last day for the blog-poll

The UMass-Colgate blog poll closes today at 11:59 pm. Looks like we will have an increase of about 20 votes this week.

Last week the poll wisdom was UMass would win big (and that prediction looked good in the first half). This week the poll is going with UMass by one or two TDs.

Brad Listorti injured

Matty Vautour reported in this article, (registration required) that UMass' All-American TE Brad Listorti is injured.

Relevant quote: "NO LISTORTI - Senior tight end Brad Listorti missed the game with a back injury and is not expected back soon.

Coach Don Brown said he hopes to have him back for the Minutemen's Oct. 13 game against Villanova"

More Colgate Articles

Colgate Coach Dick Biddle has changed quarterbacks for the UMass game. New starter is Alex Relph .

Matt Vautour looks back on the UMass-Colgate series (registration required).

Remember Coach Brown's show tonight!

Coach Brown's show is tonight at 7:00 pm by internet feed from WRNX Radio.

UMass hires former UMass player Tim Washington

UMass has hired former UMass RB Tim Washington Tim Washington to work in the compliance section of the Athletic Dept. Story here.

Washington was a grad student transfer from Syracuse last year. He impressed the coaching staff with his work ethic. Washington had a very good game against Montana in the semifinals.

J.J. Moore wins Gold Helmut Award

UMass WR and captain J.J. Moore won the New England Football Writers Gold Helmet Award for his 9 reception 163 yard and 1 TD performance against Holy Cross. Stories here and here .

Recruiting 2008 ---- WR Michael

UMass is interested in Michael Okayka a WR from Shrewsbury, MA. Story here.

Also interested are UNH and I-A Akron.

SME broadcast today at 5:00pm

The SME will broadcast the second internet weekly show about the FCS/I-AA universe here at 5:00pm. They did a good job on the first show after a nervous start.

Wednesday Morning articles

Both UMass and Colgate have their complete game notes up. UMass' are here . Colgate has its game notes up here .

Colgate also has an article about Eric Burke, who is one of their starting wide receivers. He's a molecular biology major.

Boston Herald on the McLaughlin family

The Boston Herald continues to turn out college football articles with a UMass connection. This on "The McLaughlin Connection" is worth reading.

Dan Mclaughlin's cousin Bob McLaughlin plays for UMass at defensive tackle. Mike McLaughlin lettered for UMass in 1976, '77 and "78. He was first-team All-Yankee conference in'77 & '78.

London and Baylark make NFL Practice Squads

Brandon London made the NY Giants practice squad.

Steve Baylark made the Arizona Cardinals practice squad.

More Colgate Stuff

UMass has some game notes up here . The complete pdf version is not yet available as I write this at 6:07am. Interesting factoid from the notes is that Charles Walker is the only player on the current UMass squad that played in the "Blizzard Bowl" in 2003. I was there as were a number of dedicated UMass fans.

Colgate does not have any game notes yet, but their RB Jordan Scott was the Patriot League Offensive player-of-the-Week.

UPDATE: CSN has its Nation Honors for week 1 out here . Delaware's Omar Cuff got it for leaving cleat marks all over the foreheads of William & Mary's front seven.

UPDATE II: The SME network has their FCS players-of-the-week here .

Courtney Robinson wins CAA Special Teams Award

UMass DB Courtney Robinson has won the CAA Special Teams Player-of-the-week award.

The CAA has the week's wrap-up here . Maine and Towson won. Richmond, JMU and Northeastern all lost their I-A games.

More UMass-Holy Cross articles

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has another post game article here .

And the Boston Herald continues to show that it is the only Boston paper that knows we exist.

UPDATE: Two more Holy Cross game articles from Matty Vautour here and here (registration required).

Looking at Colgate

The Colgate Raiders and Albany hooked up Saturday in a defensive struggle. The Raiders came out with a 13-11 win. Defensive is the word. Colgate had 183 total yards of offense. One Hundred eighty of those yards came from RB Jordan Scott who rushed 44-180.

The other Colgate score came from DB Cody Williams who returned a kickoff 87 yards. That's him in the image

The Colgate write up is here . Two game articles (Albany centric) are here and here .

Two Colgate centric articles here and here .

In the post below

Right click on the image for a larger view. Blogger won't let me add text.

Syracuse poster

UMass-Holy Cross Web Album up!

I've added a web album of 55 images from the UMass-Holy Cross game here . Click on the "Slide Show" for full size viewing.

Also added a link in the images section of the sidebar.

Hey! We're a little too negative about the game

On the drive back to New Hampshire I was was thinking mostly about our troubles in the second half and Holy Cross' gutsy comeback. After a night's sleep, things looked better in the morning.

GOOD THINGS:

• We scored 40 points, repeat 40 points. I'll take that any day.
• Matt Lawrence was a good as expected, 23-152 2 TDs 6.7 yds/carry (and remember he had a TD run called back)
• Tony Nelson 9-55 6.1 yards/carry
• Chris Koepplin was awesome. Two-for-two in FG with a 48 yard long. He averaged 62.9 yards on kickoffs!
• Courtney Robinson had the first kickoff return in 25 years (100 yards)
• The defense held the Crusaders to 43 net yards rushing.
• Brett Arnold had 44.3 average on his punts in his first game for us and smartly batted that over-the-head snap for a safety instead of trying to pick it up.
  
• 12,264 fans showed up for a Memorial Day weekend game. That's the best in memory!

THE BAD:

• Penalties 13-133 yards! That includes two unsportsmanlike 15 yarders. One TD was called back. This was very disappointing.
• Three fumbles and all impacted the game.
• Our vaunted secondary looked lost at times in the second half. We have three new starters and it looked it during Holy Cross' comeback.
• The DL was getting the pressure on the Crusader's QB, not the blitz.

CONCLUSION:

We showed some flashes of greatness and some deficiencies . Both the team and Coach Brown need to go some work on some aspects of our game.

However we're 1-0 and I'm still excited about the 2007 season!

UMass-Holy Cross Articles

The Worcester Telegram has articles here and here .

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has an article here .

The Boston Herald has two articles here and here .

And the Boston Globe (I guess they can't ignore us if we are actually playing games) has one here.

CSN covers the big games of FCS/I-AA here .

UMass Athletic Dept write-up here .

UPDATE: Matt Vautour of the Gazett has a post game article here (registration required)

UPDATE II: The Holy Cross athletic dept write-up is here .

Image of Matt Lawrence is an AP photo.

Cardinals cut Steve Baylark

The Arizona Cardinals have released Steve Baylark :(


He was one of 21 players cut including former William & Mary QB Lang Cambell.

Der Tag!

Finally the day has arrived. Go UMass!

The Jeff Thomas has a couple of articles here and here .

Under the for what it's worth category, Rhode Island thinks they're loaded .

Our Syracuse transfers receive more reinforcement that they did the right thing. Syracuse was hammered in it's opening game.

More Syracuse woe here .

A looks at tomorrow's game

Tomorrow’s game against of the Crusaders of Holy Cross should be a good test of the 2007 UMass team.

The Crusader have made a steady improvement under HC Tom Gilmore. They went 3-8 in his first season, 6-5 in 2005 and 7-4 in ‘06. They lost to Colgate 28-29 in the last game of the season. One more point and we would have been playing them in the first round of the playoffs last year.

Holy Cross returns seven starters on offense and six on defense.

QB Dominic Randolph led the Patriot League in total offense and passing ave w/ 248.6 yards/game. He had Liam Coen like completion average of 61.5%. The Crusaders also return their two top rushers Mike Kielt and Terrance Glass. Also returning is the top receiver Justin Maher .

That’s the good news. The bad news for Holy Cross is that they will have three new starters on the OL. Two of the three losses on the OL were All-Patriot League players.

The strength of the Crusaders on defense is their secondary. Holy Cross returns all four DBs led by all 1st Team All-Patriot league CB Casey Gough. More about the All-Patriot League corner back here .Holy Cross plays the 3-4 defense and will be starting two new DL and two of the four LBs. Holy Cross must also replace both kickers.

Summing up

Holy Cross is good enough to receive some top 25 votes in the preseason polls. However their graduation losses were severe enough to drop them to fourth in the Patriot League pre-season poll. The strength of the 2007 Holy Cross team will be its passing game. This Blog thinks the UMass Defense Line should be active enough to pressure Randolph.

UMass wants to show that it can run after loosing Steve Baylark. With four new starters in the the Crusader front seven, this would be a good time for the UMass OL and running backs to show what they can do.

Fast Fact: Holy Cross had seven wins in ‘06. They beat Georgetown, Marist, Fordham, Brown, Dartmouth, Layfayette and Bucknell. Those seven teams went a collective 26-49 (.346)...

If UMass brings its “A” game and not its press clippings, we should do fine.

UPDATE: Matt Vautour has a game article here .

Last day to vote in the UMass-Holy Cross results poll

The UMass-Holy Cross blog poll to the right closes at 11:59 pm tonight.

Hatchell on the Buck Bucanan Award List

UMass LB Jason Hatchell has been named to the Buck Buchanan Award watch list as best defensive player in FCS.

The only other player in the CAA named to the list is JMU's safety Tony Lazotte.

Friday Morning Articles

Dave Coulson (he of the pick that Holy Cross will upset UMass) has two articles over at the Sports Network. One about Quarterbacks in the FCS and another looking at the CAA (true to form he picks UNH to win the North Division).

Delaware and William & Mary played last night and Omar Cuff tied an all-time national scoring record by scoring seven TDs and setting a new league record. That's a record that will stand for a while. Story here .

The Worcester Telegram has a Holy Cross -UMass game article (Crusader centric) here .

One day top go and #1

Well, 98 days ago we started this countdown. Now it's one day until football starts. It's been a long wait since walking out of the stadium at Chattanooga.

Wearing #1 for UMass again this year is J.J. Moore a 6-0 201 pd WR from St. Petersburg, FL. Moore is a RS Senior and team captain this year.

In 2006 Moore played in all 15 games. As a WR he went 46-594 12.6 AVE 4 TD 44 LONG.

As UMass' punt returner he went 30-244 8.1 AVE 59 LONG

J.J., hope you have an All-American senior year.

Two day to go and #2

Only two days to go before the 2007 season starts.

Wearing #2 for UMass this year will be Josh Jennings a 6-0 220 pd LB from Windsor, CT. He will be a RS Sophomore this year.

Jennings is coming off a medical redshirt year. He played in one game in 2006.

Josh, hope you have an outstanding year in '07!

2007 College football TV

If you are a college football junkie, life is going to be good this fall. Dozens of game are available over the various traditional TV outlets such as the broadcast networks and the various flavors of ESPN. Now internet video feeds are adding even more choices.

This site has the most complete list of college football TV broadcasts that I've found. It has both web and traditional outlets.

CAA football starts tonight with Delaware-William & Mary

You can watch Delaware-W&M live on internet video from CN8 at 7:30 here .

This game will jump start the season of one of these teams and add a lot of pressure to the loosing squad. William & Mary has lost 12 of their last 15 games. The Hens are 11-11 over the last two years.

Both teams play a BCS/I-A team this year. A loss tonight and a loss to the I-A team means the loosing team would likely have to go 8-1 against the rest of their schedule to make the playoffs. That's going to be tough to do in the deep and talented CAA.

We should be interested because the NCAA matches teams in the playoffs by region, not by seeding. If UMass should make the playoffs and go on the second round, there is an excellent chance we will be meeting another CAA team.

Remember Coach Brown's radio show tonight

Remember that Coach Brown's radio show kicks off at 7:00 pm on WRNX today.

UPDATE: More information from the UMass Athletic Dept here .

Interesting to hear that UMass is going to try to broadcast the UMass feed locally at away games. That will be very cool if they can get it to work...

Thursday morning press

Several articles are available this morning.

The Sports Network has an article about the 2007 Pre-season Walter Payton candidates . Four of the seventeen players mentions are from the CAA.

• Liam Coen UMass QB
• Omar Cuff Delaware RB
• Ricky Santos New Hampshire QB
• Sean Schaefer Towson QB

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has an article "Minutemen enjoying every UMass minute ."

Remember first national FCS radio show at 5:00 pm

Remember SME will broadcast the first national internet radio of 2007 at 5:00 pm. Last year's show "I-AA waves" by Ralph Wallace has been discontinued.

Hopefully the FME show will be archived as many people will not be home from work at that time.

If you missed yesterday's Holy Cross Coach's show, it's archived here .

Two articles from Matt Vautour

Nobody covers UMass football like Matty Vautour. He has two articles in the Hampshire Gazette. The first covers the UMass Offensive Depth Chart and is a must read for UMass football fans.

The second covers the UMass Receiving Corps.

Registration is required for Gazette articles, but not for Matt's UMass Sports Blog .

UPDATE: Matt has two more articles in today's paper. He covers the Defensive Depth Chart and has some coverage of the UMass secondary.

Article on Former UMass DT Desmond Lymon

The New Haven Register has an article about former UMass DT Desmond Lymon who transfered to DII Southern Conn. State. He's co-captain of the Owls.

The "Power & Class of New England" gets ready for a new season.

The UMass football team is not the only group getting ready for the 2007 season. The UMass Marching Band is in camp and getting ready for their first performance of the season.

The UMass Blog spies report that the UMass Band will have 375 members this year with 20 more in the Color Guard and 20+ in the percussion pit.

I've been meaning to add the UMMB Parents site to my permanent links section in the side bar. It's there now. Check out all the information about the band's training camp.

The main UMass band site is here. When I'm feeling blue, I stop over to the UMass' Drumline site and crank up my speakers and play a couple of cadences.

UMass fans are excited about the 2007 Football season, but year in, year out, the UMass Band is the best band in the nation.

Three days to go and #3

Only three days to go until the 2007 season starts.

Wearing #3 for UMass again this year will be Rasheed Rancher a 6-5 200 pd WR from Goulds, FL. Rancher will be a RS Senior this year.

In 2006, Rancher played in all 15 games and started in 11. He went 22-362 YDS 16.5 AVE 4 TD 89 Long.

Rasheed, hope you have an All-American senior year!

Charles Burton returns

Charles Burton returns with his column "The CSN Way:Fearless Picks".

His first report is a doozy. Here is the comment on UMass-Holy Cross:"Holy Cross over #8 UMass
I have absolutely no idea why, but folks around the country seem to have absolutely zero confidence in Holy Cross, despite the fact that they return nearly every piece of their offense from last year and pose a matchup problem for UMass, especially in the secondary. I love this pick.
Crisp Crusaders 30, “Thirty-Minute-Men” 27"


I think our secondary will be interested to hear that they matchup poorly with the Holy Cross offense...

Pete's FCS Site

One of the oldest----if not the oldest FCS columist is Pete's FCS Weekly . He was covering FCS/I-AA football when very few media were interested.

Pete always has had his own spin on the Division. For example, he has Layfayette as #5 in the nation in his first FCS ranking.

He also has the Big Sky as the #1 ranked conference for 2007 (by a lot). FYI, if you subtract Montana from the Big Sky in 2006, the rest of the Big Sky went 34-54 ---.388!

Tuesday morning reading

The Boston Herald has two UMass articles here and here . Nice to know at least one of the Boston area papers covers UMass .

Bruce Dowd of the College Sports News prognosticates the CAA here.

Pay attention! Things are happening fast now.

OK, here we go.

The Holy Cross coach's show is today at 1:00 pm here . (No. I have no idea why either)

Coach Brown speaks at the UMass Sports Luncheons tomorrow at Noon. Information here .

The Sports Media Network has their first FCS Radio show at 5:00 PM tomorrow. Information here.

On Thursday, Coach Brown's weekly radio show kicks off at 7:00 pm Thursday .

Listen to coach until 8:00 pm then switch over to the first ever CAA football game between Delaware and William & Mary. Live streaming video from CN8 here .

Four days to go and #4

Only four days to go until football.

Wearing #4 again this year will be Courtney Robinson, a 6-0 195 pd DB from Delray Beach, FL. He will be a Junior this year.

Robinson played in all 15 games last year. As a DB he had 11 UT 7 AT 18 TT 1-3 TFL 2- (-2) INT and 2 PBU. As a kick returner he had 21-489 yards 23.3 AVE 57 Long.

Courtney, hope 2007 is an outstanding year for you!

Both UMass and Holy Cross have their game notes up!

UMass' game notes here . (includes 2007 opening depth chart)

Holy Cross' game notes here .

Monday morning articles

The Worcester Telegram has three articles worth reading.

This one is about UMass.

This article covers Holy Cross and their QB Dominic Randolph. He led the Patriot League in total offense in 2006. Passed for 2,237 yards.

Another article covers Crusader DL Will Collins .

The Sports Network covers the Big South conference here .

They also cover the Big Sky here .

Mark Coogan has a guest column over at Bob McGovern's Between Mullins & McGuirk

Five days until football and #5

Only five days until football!

Wearing #5 for UMass this year is Jeromy Miles a 6-2 207 pd DB from Sickleville, NY. He will be a sophomore this year.

Miles is a transfer from Navy. He started 11 games last year. His stats 28 UT 33 AT 61 TT 2.5-7 TFL 2-52 INT 1 PBU.

Jeromy, welcome to UMass. Hope you have an All-American career with the Minutemen!

Wearing #6

Wearing #6 again for the Minutemen will be Corey Davis a 5-11 192 pd DB from Baltimore, MD. He will be a RS Sophomore this year.

Davis appeared in 12 games in 2006. He had 1 UT 3 AT 4 TT.

Corey, hope you have a outstanding season this year!

Wearing #7

Wearing #7 for UMass will be Scott Woodard, a 6-3 200 pd QB from Wendell, MA. Woodward will be a RS Sophomore this year. He also changed numbers to seven.

Woodward appeared in 9 games in 2006. He had 6 Att 4 Cmp 49 yards 66.7 Ave 43 Long.

Scott, hope 2007 is a great year for you!

Wearing # 8

Wearing #8 for the Maroon & White this year will be Jeremy Horne a 6-2 190 pd WR from New Berlin, NY.

Horne is a RS Sophomore transfer from Syracuse.

Jeremy, welcome to UMass! Hope you have a great career with the Minutemen.

First game poll of the 2007 season

I've added a the first game poll of the 2007 season. Scroll down and vote on the results of UMass-Holy Cross.

I set the poll to expire on Friday at 11:59 pm.

More end-of-training camp articles

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has a long article here .

Matt Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette has one here .

Article about Holy Cross

An article about next Saturday's opener Holy Cross.

Matt Dowd covers CAA quarterbacks

Matt Dowd's latest column covers the impact of quarterbacks in the CAA.

He talks a lot about UMass' Liam Coen.

Mattt Vautour live blogs from UMass Practice

Be sure to check out Matt Vautour's UMass Blog. He's been live blogging from UMass practice and has injury updates, stadium news and states that the 2007 UMass depth chart will be out shortly.

Registration is required for all Gazette stuff, although you might want to try Bug-me-not .