Friday, November 24, 2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Turkey Day Reading
A Lafayette-Area news paper takes a look at UMass .The Springfield Republican reviews UMass' unhappy last playoff game .
Bruce Dowd looks at week one of the playoffs from an A10 perspective in his A10 Den (lots of UMass stuff)
Meanwhile, the Odds Guy Keeper has all three A10 teams favorites in their first round in the playoffs.
EXTRA CREDIT READING:
New Hampshire is confident .
David Ball says "It's just a matter of time" before UNH rolls .
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Blog Busy
I'm just Blogging my fingers to the bone for you guys.
Below are five blog posts in one day!
And I still haven't done the UMass -Hofstra images...
Below are five blog posts in one day!
And I still haven't done the UMass -Hofstra images...
More Lafayette Playoff game stuff
The UMass Game notes are up in html and pdf .The Leopards have their game notes up in html and pdf .
Lafayette RB Johnathan Hurt 6-0 220 has been named Patriot League Offensive Player-of-the-Year. Two articles about him here and here .
Steve Baylark named A10 Co-Offensive Player of the Year!
Senior Steve Baylark has been named A10 Offensive Player-of-the-Year . Congratulations Steve!From the A10 press release:
"One of four players in I-AA history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in four straight seasons, Baylark leads the A-10 in rushing yards (1,308) and ranks second with 10 rushing touchdowns. The Apopka, FL, native shares the league lead with six 100-yard rushing performances and has 13 receptions for 123 yards and three touchdowns. One of 16 candidates for the Walter Payton Award, which is presented to the most outstanding player in I-AA, Baylark led the Minutemen to the Atlantic 10 North Division title with an 8-0 record and an overall mark of 10-1. UMass is ranked third in The Sports Network top 25 poll and is the third overall seed in the 2006 NCAA Division I Football Championship. He joins Gary Wilkos (1990) as the lone players in program annals to be named the Conference's Offensive Player of the Year."
Record 20 UMass Players named All A10!
A record 20 UMass players have been named All A10. The A10 press release is here . The Springfield Republican has an article here .
A couple of things about the A10 Awards should jump out for UMass fans.
First, an amazin' 8 of 15 seniors were chosen to be All-A10. I have blogged a complete list of the seniors before. Scroll down.
The Award winning seniors are:
A couple of things about the A10 Awards should jump out for UMass fans.
First, an amazin' 8 of 15 seniors were chosen to be All-A10. I have blogged a complete list of the seniors before. Scroll down.
The Award winning seniors are:
- Steve Baylark
- Alex Miller
- Christian Koegel
- James Ihedigbo
- Tracy Belton
- Brandon London
- David Thompson
- John Hatchell
- Matt Austin- Junior
- Jason Hatchell - Junior
- Nick Dana - Junior
- Courtney Robinson - Sophomore
- Chris Koepplin - Junior
- Brad Anderson - Junior
- Charles Walker - Junior
- David Burris- Junior
- Liam Coen - Sophomore
- J.J. Moore - Junior
- Brad Listori- Junior
- Sean Smalls - Sophomore
Coach Brown A10 Coach of the Year!
Coach Brown has been named A10 Coach of the Year.From the A10 press release:
Brown earns his second Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year honor for leading Massachusetts to the North Division title with a mark of 8-0 in league play, the first undefeated season in Conference play since Villanova in 1997. Riding a program-record nine-game winning streak and boasting a 10-1 overall record, UMass is the third overall seed in the 2006 NCAA Division I Football Championship and hosts Lafayette on Saturday at 12:00pm. The Minutemen rank second nationally in scoring defense (11.3 ppg.) and 19th in scoring offense (28.9 ppg.) and currently hold the third spot in The Sports Network top 25 poll. Under Brown's direction, a league-record 20 student-athletes were named to the 2006 All-Conference team.
Now in his third season in Amherst, Brown owns a 75-36 overall record and 23-10 at Massachusetts. Named the 2002 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year while at Northeastern, Brown joins Jim Reid as the only coaches in league history to lead two different teams to Conference titles and earn Coach of the Year honors at two different schools. Brown guided the Huskies to the 2002 league crown.
A well deserved honor! Brown has assembled a terrific team and a family atmosphere at UMass.
Congratulations from the UMass Football Blog to Coach Brown and his staff!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Playoff Articles
To the left is the "Official" NCAA playoff graphic.The Richmond Times looks at teams that have the potential to be UMass opponents in later rounds (if we win).
Two articles about Lafayette here and here .
The Springfield Republican looks at the playoffs from a UMass perspective .
The Union Leader looks at the same thing from the UNH side .
And Mickey Matthews is pissed off . And probably with good reason in my estimation.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Recruiting 2007 Greg Meisner DE
Roumor has it that UMass has offered to Greg Meisner a 6-2 DE from Greensburg, PA.His Rivals page is here .
He is a Rivals two star DE.
Besides a host of I-A programs, UMass, UNH and Delaware from the A10 are interested.
Greg, UMass has the best defense and best defensive coaching in the northeast and we'd love to have you!
Chris Koepplin is A10 Special Teams Player-of-the-Week
Chris Koepplin is the A10 Special Teams Player of the Week .The UMass write-up is here . The A10's announcement is here (pdf).
Sometimes it is easy to overlook what a contribution kickers make to the team. Koepplin has been an excellent addition to the 2006 Minutemen.
On kickoffs Koepplin is:
62 kickoffs 3,717 yards 60 yards/kickoff w/13 Touchbacks.
On Field Goals:
13-18 for 72.2 %. Koepplin is tied with Steve Baylark for leading scorer for UMass with 78 points. Note three of his misses are from 40+ yards.
He is 13th nationally. Way to go Chris!
UMass Layfayette Articles
Minutemen-Leopards articles:The Boston Herald is here .
The Springfield Republican is here .
From the Lafayette side are articles here and here .
The Lafayette administration has just invested $23,000,000 in renovating Lafayette's stadium. There is an article about it here .
Matt Dougherty of the Sports Network looks at the playoffs in his Extra Point Column.
David Colson looks at the playoffs and predicts that UMass will loose to UNH in the second round .
UPDATE: Matt Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette has an article here .
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Round one 2006 Playoffs UMass-Lafayatte
It's the Leopards.
Their Athletic Dept 's Football Page .
UPDATE: UMass Athletic dept has info up .
Print your playoff bracket here .
I-AA Playoff Selection show moved to 1:30
I can't find any confirmation from ESPNEWS, but all the newspapers are reporting the ESPNEWS I-AA playoff selection show has been moved to 1:30 pm.
The I-AA.org Waves show is still listing the old time . The quality of the analysis will probably be better on I-AA.org internet radio show.
UPDATE: The time of the show is 1:30 EST. My original sources was giving the time in CST. Sorry!
The I-AA.org Waves show is still listing the old time . The quality of the analysis will probably be better on I-AA.org internet radio show.
UPDATE: The time of the show is 1:30 EST. My original sources was giving the time in CST. Sorry!
UMass-Hofstra Articles
The Boston Globe has an article here .
The Worcester Telegram has an article here .
The Springfield Republican has an article here .
The Hofstra Athletic Dept write-up is here .
EXTRA CREDIT READING: UNH beats Maine in overtime to make the playoffs .
EXTRA EXTRA CREDIT READING: James Madison crushes Towson to get a home game in the playoffs .
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Nine Straight Wins!
A tired-looking UMass team held off the Pride 22-16 for its ninth straight win. The most in UMass history! The UMass writeup is here .It was not an artistic win, but it was coming off two Tong-War A10 games against UNH and Maine.
Very, very few I-AA teams could run the table against the A10. UMass was the first team in nine years to have a perfect A10 season. The last team to do it was Villanova in 1997.
I have images. Will publish them tomorrow.
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