Woah! Major Offense!

Well, on a day that the defense struggled (but notice the defense did its job at the end) the UMass offense was all over the Rams.

Liam Coen added another significant record to his total----best passing yards in a single game with 419 yards. UMass had over 600 total yards. He went 24-37 for 419 and 4 TDs.

Matt Lawrence had a huge game with 167 yards and 3 TDs.

And Charles Walker proved you can beat 'em with brains as UMass took the blitz off and the
fordham QB threw the ball right into his arms.

The UMass write-up (with quotes and stats and stuff) is here .

The Fordham write-up is here .

ESPN game recap is here .

And a NY Times reporter totally screws up up this game story. Can you guess who we were booing? It wasn't the Minutemen.

UPDATE: We'll be off to Southern Illinois next week.

Game Day Fordham

Well, it's 12 degrees here in Jaffrey, NH. We're going to have to bundle up for the game. Let's Go UMass!

The Boston Herald has an article about Masella's Fordham Rams visiting UMass. The Herald also has another game day article here .

Matty Vautour has a game article here .

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has a Fordham game article here .

The CAA has a game-day page for all CAA teams in the playoffs with links to their audio feeds and the like here .

Some game notes: UMass, following a tradition set by Coach Whipple will switch to all-maroon uniforms for home games and all-white for road playoff games. This will be the first time we've seen them in this color combination with the new uniforms.

Also, teams are only allowed to dress 60 players in the playoffs.

AROUND THE PLAYOFFS:

This Winston-Salem sports writer likes the FCS playoffs, but does not know much about the teams.

If we win this week, we meet the winner of the Southern Illinois-Eastern Illinois game. The Southern Illinoisian has a game article here . Another SIU-EI game article here .

Meanwhile, the Hens destroyed the Hornets in their first ever meeting.

And New Hampshire plays #1 ranked UNI later today.

Friday Morning reading

A couple of articles feature senior UMass players this morning. The Boston Globe has an article about the friendship between J.J. Moore and Charles Walker and is worth your time.

Matty Vautour has an article about senior UMass kicker Chris Koepplin that is also worth reading.

Three articles about tomorrow's UMass-Fordham game: the Journal-News has one here , the Daily News has the Rams ready for UMass and the UMass Daily Collegian has a game article here.

AROUND THE PLAYOFFS:

The Union Leader has a UNH-UNI article here.

If UMass wins Saturday, they meet the winner of the Southern Illinois-Eastern Illinois game. TG-TC online has an extensive article on those two teams here .


UPDATE: Bruce Dowd has his weekly "CAA Today" column here . Worth reading.

FCS Playoffs start today with Delaware-Delaware State

Remember to set your VCR for the first game of the 2007 FCS Playoffs today. Delaware meets the team they have been trying to avoid for fifty years, Delaware State at 1:30 pm on ESPNU.

That's channel 148 on Dish network and Channel 609 on Direct TV.

UPDATE: The Hens-Hornets game will also be shown on ESPN and ESPN HD. A big thank-you to the Lawrence family for the update information.

UPDATE II: OK, just to mess with our heads, ESPNU is showing Toledo-Central Michigan. That's not what was shown on the listed schedule on their website.

Looks like the only broadcast of the Hens-Hornets is ESPN as the Lawrence family indicated. Start times seems to be 1:30 pm.

KAEO Shannon James

Coach Brown said in the his Chanel 40 TV show that former UMass All-American Shannon James has been named the defensive MVP of Calgary Stampeders.

Turkey Day reading

Some reading while you recover from your Thanksgiving Day Feast. The image above is from the UMass Athletic Web site.

In case you missed it, seventeen Minutemen were chosen to the CAA All-Conference teams. The UMass web site has an article here . Matty Vautour has an article on the All-conference selection here . I'm a little pressed for time today, so I don't have links to the individual players. The UMass article does.

The UMass Football Blog is in agreement with the picks. However, the Blog feels that UMass DE Michael Hansen belongs in the All-CAA list somewhere.

The PA Times-Tribune has an article about Fordham WR Asa Lucas.

AROUND THE PLAYOFFS:

Charles Burton reviews the first round of the playoffs in his "CSN Way" column.

David Coulson in his "Around FCS" column rails against the inclusion of UNH in the playoffs .

In his weekly "FCS Preview" (a small pdf download), Eric Gemunder praises the selection of UNH in the playoffs.

In the meantime, UNH is damm glad to be there.

Out in Northern Iowa, they're looking forward to the game.

And Appalachian State is feeling confident.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

More playoff stuff

If you haven't read CSN's "All about the Division I Championship", you should.

Ditto with CSN's "Division I Championship Notes and Facts".

The Boston Herald consistently does some of the finest articles about UMass football and this one about the aftermath of the Boston College game certainly keeps the average up.

The Herald also covers Liam Coen's playing through his knee injury.

The UMass Daily Collegian does a Fordham article here .

On the Fordham website there is an article on how Coach Mesalla and 12 Ram players were named All-Patriot League.

UPDATE: Matty Vautour has an article about Jeromy Miles and an update about Brad Listorti.

UMass-Hofstra Picassa Web Album

Right Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

I've set up a 27 image Picassa Web album here .

The images are courtesy of the Koepplin family.

More Fordham and playoff news

UMass has its Fordham game notes up here . Fordham has an article, but no game notes yet.

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has a UMass-Fordham article here .

AROUND THE PLAYOFFS:

Three UNH articles here and here and here .

Rhode Island's Head Coach Tim Stowers was fired yesterday.

If we win, we meet the winner of the Eastern Illinois-Southern Illinois game.

UPDATE: We finished the regular-season Gridiron Power Index at #5.

R.I.P. Lasalle

Sorry to bring you down but FCS program LaSalle has dropped their program .

J.J. Moore Co-CAA Offensive Player-of-the-Week

UMass Capitan J.J. Moore was the CAA Co-Offensive Player-of-the-Week against Hofstra. UMass press release here .

Moore had 11 catches for 155 yards (half UMass' passing total) to win the award.

Going into the playoffs, he has 65 catches 891 YDS 13.7 yds/catch 5 TD 54 LONG 81 YDS/Game.

UMass Football Blog News

I would just like to let the UMass Football Blog on-line community know that we had the biggest day in UMass Football Blog history yesterday.

There was more traffic in one day than I had during a couple of months in 2005. Overall daily visits have about doubled since 2006.

I've also had two e-mail recently about placing ads on the blog and of course, Blogger has Adsense.

But I'll never have ads here...

Go UMass and thanks to all the UMass Football Blog community.

More Playoff articles

The Boston Herald has a UMass-Fordham article here .

The Boston Globe has another here .

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

Over at UNH, theWildcats are amazed and happy about going to UNI.

The Sporting News has a playoff article here.

Did you know that there is an East Coast Bowl ? It's Saturday at noon and a couple of players we know are in it.

UPDATE: Keeper's latest ranking has us at #4 and a 24 point favorite over Fordham .

UPDATE II: Matty Vautour has an article about the Hofstra game and another about the upcoming game with Fordham .

It's Fordham!

UMass draws Fordham in the first round. The Rams finished 8-3 in regular season.

Fordham's Head Coach is Tom Masella , former a former UMass coach. Masella is a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award . Also on the Fordham coaching staff is former UMass coach Frank Forcucci.

Fordham's 2007 stats are here .

The Ram's roster is here .

Fordham's football media guide is here (a 34 Meg pdf download).

Fordham has a football message board here .

ESPN has a re-cap of Fordham's last game loss to Bucknell here . The Sporting news has a article about the Ram's turn around under Masella here .

Patriot League press release about UMass-Fordham here .

UPDATE: ESPNU has the filled in bracket here.

UPDATE II: A better printable bracket here .

UPDATE III: The VA Daily Press on the record five CAA teams in the playoffs. The Sports Network has a bracket article here .

Selection Show on ESPNU at 3:30 pm

The NCAA FCS playoff selection and bracket announcement show will be at 3:30 pm today.

The show will be televised on ESPNU. Thats channel 148 on Dish Network and channel 609 on Direct TV.

In addition, two internet FCS radio shows will be airing extensive commentary. SME will be broadcasting here starting at 12:00 noon. College Sports Network will be on from 3:00 to 5:00 pm here .

UPDATE: Print yourself a blank playoff bracket here (a pdf download)

Selection Sunday!

Liam Coen had food poisoning before the Hofstra game. Coach Brown's wife Deborah (who is a RN) to rescue. She hangs a IV for Coen and he goes 22-34 for 309 yards and 4 TDs. Story here .

Newsday has a story from the Hofstra side here .

The Hofstra athletic dept write-up is here .

The Worcester Telegram is here .

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

The Boston Herald has a article here .

The Sports Network recaps the results from the top of FCS here .

UPDATE: SME has been posting projected playoff brackets for the last three weeks. The latest and last effort is here . In a couple of hours, we'll see how things play out.

UMass wins CAA Auto-bid on a Coin Toss!

The CAA athletic directors met and concluded that UMass and Richmond were essentially tied in accomplishments.

The CAA director held a coin toss and UMass won the toss and thus the CAA Auto-bid.

Details here .

UPDATE: Woah! Things are going to be tough for the committee to pick the last CAA team in the playoffs.

UMass and Richmond as co-champs are in.

I would think that JMU at 8-3 and in clear third place in the CAA is in.

The question is---who, if anyone, gets a fourth bid from the CAA. Delaware lost. How do you parse the teams with three CAA losses? Final CAA standings here .

CAA Champions!

UMass wins the CAA Championship with a dominating Defensive performance against the Pride!

UMass is 22-2 against FCS competition the last two years.

Hofstra could not even score against the second team defense.

Links when they become available.

UPDATE: UMass' defense held Hofstra to eight first downs and 168 total yards. Five sacks and 8 TFL. UMass write-up and box score here .

UPDATE II: ESPN recaps the UMass-Hofstra game here .

Championship Saturday!

Well, UMass plays at Hofstra today at 12:00 Noon. Win and the Minutemen cannot do worse than a tie for the CAA Championship! Go UMass!

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

Matt Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette is here .

The UMass-Hofstra game will be televised on ESPNU. That's channel 148 on Dish network.

In other UMass news, Jason Hatchell is still a contender for the Buck Buchanan Award.

The CAA has game information for all of today's CAA games here .

The Delaware-Villanova game (Go Villanova!) will be on TV at 3:30 on SNY. That's channel 438 on Dish Network .

The Sports Network reviews today's FCS games in their weekly "Around FCS" Column.

The Sporting News does there weekly "Top 25 Who, When Where" article .

Charles Burton does his weekly FCS column here .

UPDATE: A kind reader reminded me in the comments section that the UHN-Maine game is also available on NESN at noon. NESN is carried by many cable/satellite networks.

UPDATE II: Another comment has been posted that ESPN has a UMass-Hofstra preview screen here . Nice catch by our reader.

Hofstra Game articles

The Boston Herald looks at the UMass-Hofstra game.

From the Hofstra side Newsday has an article here . The Hofstra Chronicle (student newspaper) has two articles here and here .

Hofstra finally has their game notes up here (pdf download).

The Sports Network has published its Eddie Robinson Award candidate (Award for top coach in FCS) list for 2007. It's here .

Two things wrong with the list:

1. Coach Brown (21-2 against FCS competition the last two years) is not on it.
2. The following quote from the article--"Dave Cohen, Hofstra-In just his second year as a head coach, Cohen overseen one of the biggest improvements in the country this season, as the Pride has gone from 2-9 last year to 7-3 in 2007. The Pride will likely earn an NCAA playoff berth with a win over Massachusetts on Saturday in their final regular season game. Cohen served as the defensive coordinator at Delaware before coming a head coach and helped the Hens win the 2003 national championship. His Delaware defense allowed only 23 points a game in four playoff games that year and shut out colgate in the title game.

Bruce Dowd has his weekly CAA column here . As usual, he can't resist talking a lot about Delaware and not so much about UMass.