FCS in the NFL Draft

The Sports Network's David Coulson rings in with an article about FCS players in this year's NFL draft.

Consensus Draft Services lists CAA players considered NFL prospects (including some from UMass) here .

NFL Draft Scout lists UMass' players here .

Perhaps the most entertaining draft site is the Draft Daddy Blog.

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Hope to see some of you at tonight's UMass Football Banquet! Hope the snow holds off until later in the evening.

More academic honors

UMass recently held its Fall Academic Honors Luncheon. Among the thirty student-athletes honored were Chris Cefalo (FB) and Breyone Evans (FB) from the UMass Football team.

Story here .

Evans was not mentioned in my previous blog post about eleven UMass players being named to the CAA All-Academic team. He's a graduate student so perhaps he's not eligible .

Congratulations, Chris and Breyone !

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.

2008 Opponent ---Bryant University

The UMass brain trust managed a slick bit of scheduling for 2008. UMass' schedule is loaded with strong teams next fall. We face four '07 playoff teams (UNH, JMU, Delaware and Richmond) as well as BCS power Texas Tech. Holy Cross was 7-4 and could well contend for the Patriot League title.

The goal of playing in the FCS division is to make the playoffs. So we did not need another strong team on the the 2008 schedule. Bryant fits the bill nicely as they are transitioning to FCS/I-AA and will count (I believe) as a FCS win towards playoff eligibility. Since they are a New England team, we will not have to pay a large guarantee.

Bryant just released their 2008 schedule.

They signed 18 recruits to begin their move to FCS/I-AA.

Former UMass player Lorenzo Perry transferred to Bryant an became a DII All-American. He's been drafted by the new All-American Football League.

I've blogged about Perry before .

Eleven UMass Players named Academic All-Conference

The UMass Football Blog is proud to announce that eleven UMass players made the 2007 Academic All-Conference Team. The UMass announcement is here . The original CAA conference article is here . Players have to have 3.0 or better average to be named to the team.

Congratulations to: David Burris, Matt Stolte, Sean Callicchio, Biff Gottehrer, Jason Grochowalski , Chis Cefalo, Armando Cuko, Kyle Harrington, Josh Jennings, Anthony Rouzier and Michael Boyle .

Parse the Academic All-Conference list this way:

1. Hofstra 15
2. URI 13
3. UNH 12
   
4. UMass 11
5. Villanova 11
6. Delaware 10
7. Maine 9
8. Towson 8
9. William & Mary 8
10. Northeastern 5
11. Richmond 5
12. JMU 3

CAA North 65, CAA South 45

Official notice that Kumar Davis signed with UMass

UMass has officially confirmed Saturday's blog post that Kumar Davis has signed with the Minutemen.

Worth reading as it adds a number of All-Star teams not previously reported.

Still some recruiting to go, I'll bet.

Monday Morning 02/25/08 Odds & Ends

Nice payout FCS/I-AA team Cal Poly is getting for playing Wisconsin.

Tanner Boucher a 6-4 QB we recruited from Keene, NH signed with Army.

I thought this article was interesting about 40 yard dash times. It follows my contention that most published 40 times are junk unless electronically timed.

Terrelle Pryor is still available. I guess we didn't text him enough last time.

Old Dominion, who will be starting football in 2009, and joining the CAA shortly after that, signed 21 players in their first recruiting class.

Bulletin! Bulletin! Kumar Davis signs with UMass

Whoa! UMass lands a two star RB/Safety from Patterson NJ. Story here . Link is now fixed.

See this previous post on Davis for an action shot and more links.

Davis turned down offers from Vanderbilt and Northwestern.

Another big signing for Coach Brown and the Minutemen!

UPDATE: Davis' Rivals page is here .

UPDATE II: An older Davis article here . His Scout.com page here . Key quote from his Scout.com bio: "I like to hit and I look to knock people out."

A couple of articles

This article in the Tribune-Star is kinda interesting. It goes along with my contention that the difference between I-A and I-AA has closed recently (for the FCS playoff teams anyway). In I-A, the BCS and the non-BCS teams seem to be separating somewhat.

Key Quote:"Well, I-AA [FCS teams] is a little bit different. The difference between I-AA and I-A, or whatever they call it these days, is not as great as the jump from [Divisions] II or III, for example, to the NFL. It’s just not. And you see more I-AA guys come in and play relatively soon,” he said."

In Matty Vautour's Hampshire Gazette Blog, he mentions this site, which is a rating site similar to Keeper's. It has some errors on the I-AA level.

Ted Roof hired as DC at Minnesota

Former UMass assistant coach Ted Roof has been hired as Defensive Coordinator at Minnesota.

There have been three previous posts on this blog mentioning Roof.

Drat, the link worked when I tried it. Now it doesn't. Try Bug-me-not for registration.

UPDATE: Some links that actually work on Roof's hiring here and here .

Brad Listorti gets NFL mention

The Sporting News has an article about the 2008 NFL draft that mentions Brad Listorti.

Many draft wizards have projected Listorti as a fullback in the NFL. If he is healthy and able to play special teams, I think he has a chance to stick with a NFL team.

Hope he gets the chance!

2008 UMass Football --- Offensive line

I've been doing a series of posts on the state of the 2008 UMass football team. This is the last post of the series and we take a look at the OL for 2008 and try to guess what the coaching staff has in store for us.

Remember I have no special inside information.

Freshman are green.
Sophomores are orange
Juniors are blue
Senior are red

I'm working out of the UMass depth chart for the Hofstra game. Teams are only allowed to dress 60 players for the playoffs, so the depth chart for the playoffs may have been different. Note that the class of the player is for fall of 2008 not their current status.

According to the last regular season depth chart:

LT Vladimir Ducasse Junior
----Ben Coblyn Senior

LG Open
-----Open

Center Open
-------John Ihne Sophomore

RG Open
---- Biff Gotteher Redshirt Senior

RT Sean Calicchio Redshirt Senior
----Biff Gottener Redshirt Senior

Other offensive linemen (not including this year's recruits) are Josh Samuda, Tim Nolan, Mike Binkoski, Michael Boyle, Justin Sawicki , Chauncey Incarnato and Brian Ostaszewski.

Discussion: The offensive line is the big (along with WR) rebuilding area for 2008. The offensive line was hit with injuries in training camp last year and depth was problem all year.

John Ihne and Ben Coblyn saw quite a bit of playing time. I read in one of last years reports that if UMass had to break a redshirt it would have been Tim Nolan. Which, presumably, means he was the most advanced of the true freshmen at that time.

I would think that Coach Brown would try to redshirt this year's OL recruits if at all possible. Generally, an eighteen-year-old is not physically ready to play in the line against twenty-three year old players who have been on a college weight program for five years.

Most OL can play more than one position. I would think that the center and both guard positions are open at this time. Until spring and fall training camps are finished, I don't think there is any clear leaders. We will have more depth this year and last year's freshman should be in the mix to start.

Vaughn Williams interviews for AD job at EIU

Former UMass Strong Safety Vaughn Williams interviewed at EIU for the position of Athletic Director.

Eastern Illinois' athletic page is here.

At UMass, Vaughn played at 5-10 185.

In this scan from the 1990 UMass Press Guide, Wiliams is wearing #24.

Good luck to Vaughn! Hope he gets the job.

Northeastern Survives

A recent review of athletics by Northeastern University led to rumors that Husky Football was on the chopping block.

Yesterday, the review commission recommended continuing football. Story by the Globe here and another by the Herald here.

Included in the announcement was a wish list to improve Parsons Field. Since I've been following New England football, Northeastern must have announced renovation plans for Parsons about a half-a-dozen times...

UPDATE: The Huskies are playing their traditional killer schedule in 2008. In addition to the CAA schedule they play Syracuse, Ball State and Georgia Southern.

Recruiting 2008--- Stephane Milhim OL

Joining UMass this August will be Stephane Milhim, a 6-4 300 pd OL from Charles Flanagan HS in Pembroke Pines, FL

He was Sun-Sentinel All-County Honorable Mention and played in the Broward County All-Star game.

This article talks about football talent rich Broward County. And this article show the number of Broward County players signing LOI's this year.

Welcome to UMass Stephane!

This is great news!

The UMass Marching Band will be getting a new facility. UMass has allotted $4.5 Million out of its last consrtuction budget for a new Band Building. Read the news on the Band Parents site here.

The Building will be located near the stadium and will enhance the football complex. I'm going to send the Band a donation. Hope they achieve their goal quickly!

Recruiting 2008--- Warren Wilson WR

Joining the Minutemen this spring will be Warren Wilson a 6-1 180 pd WR transfer from Boston College. He is a local kid from Lawrence, MA and spent a year at New Hampton Prep.

An article about his transferring is here .

His BC Eagles bio page is here .

Wilson was a Rivals three star player in prep school. His Rivals page (with video links) is here .

He was rated the seventh ranked player in New England ahead of some names you will recognize if you follow New England football. Wilson drew lots of BCS interest from Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, Perdue, Vandy and Wisconsin.

Welcome to UMass Warren! Hope you have a great career with the Maroon & White!

Recruiting 2008----- Raymond Jones DT

Joining the Minutemen this fall will be Raymond Jones a 6-4 275 pd strong side DE transfer from Delaware .

Jones' 2005 Rivals page is here . Before signing with Delaware in 2006 he had recruiting interest from Boston College, Syracuse, East Carolina and Maryland.

An article about his original signing with the Hens is here .

At Delaware in 2006, as a true freshman, he appeared in nine games and had six tackles.

As I understand it, he is in a Community College at this time, and will be eligible to play for UMass in the fall.

Welcome the the Minutemen, Ray! Glad you left the dark side and and joined the good guys.

Saturday Morning Odds & Ends

Coach Brown likes to use what ever recruiting stream that is available. One source is BCS transfers. A BCS players often decides to transfer after Spring Ball when he realizes that after three years with his team, he is buried in the depth chart and will likely get little playing time in his final two years. Here's a list of spring game dates for BCS leagues. In the past, we have taken transfers from northeast teams such as Syracuse, BC and UConn.

This article from Sports Illustrated states that a playoff for the BCS teams is not in the cards.

It's been a hard winter here in New Hampshire. While I was looking at the Sports Illustrated site, I hit their Swimsuit site. WARNING NOT WORK SAFE (Babes in bikinis)

BTW, Appalachian State has a fan site here . Atypically for blogs, they don't link to other FCS sites.

Recruiting 2008---Charles "Chaz" Thompson DL

Coming to UMass this August will be Chaz Johnson a 6-3 290 pd DL from Teaneck, NJ.

Thompson's Rival's page is here . This story is about his signing with UMass .

Thompson was one of thirty-three New Jersey athletes who signed with CAA teams this year.

Thompson was chosen to multiple All-Star teams including All-North Jersey, First Team All-County, Three time All-NNJIL and member of the NY Vs NJ All-Star Football Classic.

Besides UMass, Michigan State, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, BC, UConn and Maryland were interested.

Welcome to the Maroon & White Chaz! Hope you have a great career here.