Holmes, Talley wreck the Black Bears

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OK, now that was a day at McGuirk that would have made George N. Parks proud. The weird, sad atmosphere of Homecoming was totally gone. Lots of good things and lots of energy happening in Amherst today.

First, the UMass Police were directing traffic and access to the Yellow and Green lots were much improved. Thank you UMass Police.

The Announcer Guy, except for a tendency to have John Griffin making the tackle instead of running the ball, had a much better game.

The UMass Band Day was superb as usual. George would have been especially proud of that.

The UMass Media Dept should start beating the drums for Tyler Holmes as a Buchanan Award finalist. If there's another LB in FCS that has as much impact on a game as Tyler, I'd like to see him.

And Julian Talley, took a wicked pop on a pass reception and bounced up to tell the Maine defenders "You can't hurt me!" and then proved it a couple plays later with a circus catch.

UMass write-up with notes, video and photo gallery.

Maine writeup here.

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If you missed it, Rhode Island had the CAA upset of the season by topping Villanova 17-14.

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More tomorrow. Enjoy the day and the win everyone.

Game Day--Maine Nov 6th, 2010

If you can't get to the game, remember it's on Comcast Sports New England. Set your DVD.

Last week a Blog reader e-mailed me to remind everyone that Comcast games frequently appear on Channel Surfing.net. Check often as the schedule changes frequently.

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Matty Vautour previews today's game with the Black Bears and says gambles payoff for the Minutemen.

Ron Chimelis says UMass wants to return to the two-back set.

The Kennebec Journal states the Black Bears are wary of UMass. They say Maine will have the services of QB Warren Smith and WR Tyrell Jones; both players were hurt in the URI game. The Black Bears stud running back Jared Turcotte is listed as "questionable".

The Bangor Daily News says despite the return of several players, UMaine is still banged up. They also state UMaine is rested.

The same newspaper says Maine WR Desmond Randell thrives on pride and resilience.

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The CAA stite has today's Game Day Page with all the fact, links, and media relays from today's league games.

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CSN Chuck Burton prognosticates the 2010 FCS playoffs.

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The big CAA league game today is probably W&M at New Hampshire. The Sports Network says the Wildcats are eyeing their seventh straight playoff bid.

Towson QB Chris hart has been suspended indefinitely.

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The clouds are supposed to break by this afternoon. Let's all get to McGuirk and support the Minutemen!

Go UMass!!!

Friday before Maine--Nov 5th, 2010

Matty Vautour says UMass is looking to break a two game losing streak against the Black Bears. He also reports that UMass captain Emil Igwenagu may be available for the game. Two weeks ago Emil got his legs rolled up on for the second time this season.

He also mentions UMass senior Anthony Nelson is now eligible to be an Academic All-American.

The Gazette also has Matty V's and Matt G's week 10 football picks.

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Ron Chimelis has an article on the growth of UMass rookie DB's Antoine Tharpe and Mike Lee. Tharpe is a true freshman, which makes things even harder.

Last night's UMass football show had wide-receiver-turned-DB Ke'Mon Baily as one of the player guests. He sounded like very intelligent, thoughtful man.

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The big game in the CAA this weekend is William & Mary at UNH.

TSN's Andrew Gaddess previews this week's FCS games and predicts a UMass win over Maine.

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The Gridiron Power Index has UMass at #12. This poll is important as it is one of the inputs the NCAA selection committee considers for selection into the playoff tourney.

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Another article on Big East expansion. I picked this one because it mentions the huge decline in status of the Catholic basketball schools. The money is strongly flowing to football. Schools like Providence, Seton Hall and St. John's have nothing athletic programs compared to state schools like UConn or Central Florida. I predict a split in Big East basketball with the Catholic schools being forced into their own league.

A Boston Globe writer thinks the Big East should consider UMass.

Thursday before Maine--Nov 4th, 2010

The University of Maine has their game notes for UMass up.

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The Maine Campus previews the Black Bears game against UMass.

The same student newspaper looks at a day in the life of a Maine football player.

The UMass Daily Collegian says the Minutemen return to McGuirk for a matchup with Maine.

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NESN Blog says UMass deserves consideration for the Big East.

SI.com thinks there is another another good fit for the Big East---Notre Dame. Wouldn't that be a hoot. Annual UMass-Notre Dame games at Gillette.

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Craig Haley in his "In the FCS Huddle" column looks at the turnaround at Indiana State. The Sycamores won four of their first five games in 2004, then went 2-60 until this year.

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Another option for post HS football for players-----club football and it does not count against years of eligibility for college ball.

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AP reports that the NCAA will drop its investigation of Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez.

the Wolverine Blog Maize & Brew blog reports Michigan lost one of its starting CB's yesterday. The post has a nice image of Jonathan Hernandez.

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Recruiting 2011--Isaiah Jones

Springfield Republican file image.

UMass is interested in 6-0 170 pd Mahar RB Isaiah Jones.

Worcester Telegram article here.

MassLive.com says Jones is the most exciting player in Western Mass.

He's also a member of MassLive's Super Seven.

Jones holds an offer from UNH. Boston College and Maine are also interested.

Wednesday before Maine--Nov 3rd, 2010

UMass game notes for Maine: html here and pdf here.

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CBS3 TV has its Week #10 UMass preview.

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Football expansion for the Big East is official. This would be our chance if the state was not in the middle of a recession.

UMass would need someone the state legislature or power structure to champion the move.

The Virginia Pilot says expect some changes in CAA football.

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Speaking of the CAA: The CAA's weekly press release, seven CAA teams ranked in Top 25.

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Craig Haley of TSN interviews Damani Leech the NCAA's director of baseball and football about the revised 2010 FCS football playoffs.

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Florida Atlantic's play-by-play announcer Dave Lamont has the mother of all on-air meltdowns during last week's game against Arkansas State.

Tuesday before Maine -- Nov 2nd, 2010

Matty V talks about Tyler Holmes and Caleb Violette receiving the CAA Defensive and Special Teams Player-of-the-Week respectively.

The UMass website has an story on the awards.

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Matty Looks at the playoff possibilities, so I will too.

Delaware 6-2, had the easiest OOC in the CAA. They have three wins over DII West Chester, 4-3 Duquesne and 3-5 South Dakota State. With Towson, @UMass and Villanova at home remaining, the Hens should be favored in all three. Delaware wins the CAA title and a #2 seed with lots of home games in the playoffs. Delaware is coming out of an off week for the Towson game.

Villanova 6-2 has Rhode Island, UNH at home and @ Delaware. Playing without Matt Szczur most of the season, the Wildcats have looked solid. I think Villanova will win two of the three. The Wildcats should be the #2 CAA team.

Whitney makes it happen for Villanova.

William & Mary 6-2 has the toughest remaining slate with @ UNH, @JMU and Richmond at home. I'll say the Tribe loses to UNH and beats the other two and finishes 8-3. The Tribe will be the #3 CAA team.

UNH 5-3 has William & Mary at home and away @Towson and @Villanova. The northern Wildcats win the home game and Towson to finish 7-4

UMass 5-3 has home games against Delaware and Maine and @Rhode Island. the Minutemen rarely beat the Hens, but that is somewhat compensated by the game in McGuirk where UMass usually plays well. Rhode Island is a better team this year. I'll say the Minutemen go 2-1, but all three games will be close.

UMass and UNH could end up being tied at 7-4 and they beat us head-to-head...

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UMass is #15 in both the FCS Coachs Poll and The Sports Network poll.

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North Dakota and Southern Utah are joining the Big Sky conference. South Dakota is expected to also join.

That makes the Big Sky the largest FCS league in the nation.
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Monday before Maine--Nov 1st, 2010

Associated Press image of Mike Lee.

The UMass Daily Collegian covers the Minutemen's 21-14 win over the Dukes.

The Worcester Telegram said Hernandez and Kervis powered UMass.

The Boston Herald said UMass halted the skid.

Ron Chimelis said UMass passed their chemistry test.

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Craig Haley's "In the FCS Huddle" column says there are more title pretenders than contenders.

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Keepers College Football Ratings has UMass at #15.

He has UMass by 18.11 over Maine.

The Dunkle Sports Index has UMass at #8.

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The Philly Inquirer on Matt Szczur's choices.

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The Citizen-Times looks at Appalachian State's consideration of moving to FBS.

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In Massachusetts, the cops would have arrested everybody for not having the appropriate license.

New Hampshire store customer hits robber with squash, holds him until police arrive.

Sunday after JMU--Oct 31st, 2010

Matty V. stated the win boosts UMass' chances for post season. He also mentions 5-10 170 pd Antione Tharpe's big hit in the third quarter.

Matty's three stars from the James Madison game. He looks at UMass' post season chances after the big win at JMU.

The NewLeader.com said UMass sank struggling James Madison.

MassLive.com says UMass mounted a 2nd half comeback.

DNRonline stated UMass rallied.

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Strength-of-schedule update:

William & Mary threw a major scare into North Carolina.

Holy Cross had a bye.

Denard Robinson set a Big Ten rushing record in a 31-41 loss to Penn State. Watched that one. It was a pretty good game.

Stony Brook ran its Big South record to 3-0 with a 41-21 win over Charleston Southern.

Towson lost to Rhode Island, which is quietly have a pretty good season by Ram standards.

Richmond lost to Villanova 28-7.

UNH had a bye.

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Former UMass QB Spencer Whipple threw two INT's in six attempts in his first appearance for the Miami Hurricanes.

UMass Football Returns 21-14 over JMU

Our plans to travel to Harrisonburg, Va fell through, but UMass football didn't. After wandering in the wilderness for six quarters, UMass football returned.

Matty V will have a tough time picking three heroes in this game.

Kyle Havens was 15-19-163 yards and 2 TD's. If I'm reading the box score right, Kyle had one incompletion in the second half. Nice receiving games by Dan Sheeran, Julian Talley and Andrew Kervis.

The UMass running game returned with Jonathan Hernandez racking up 137 yards with a 4.9 yards/carry against the tough Duke defense.

Anthony Nelson had a scintillating 52 yard punt return.

The defense shut JMU out in the second half. Tyler Holmes had a big sack.

No mistakes on special teams. Caleb Violette was 2 for 2 on field goals.

Great effort by coaches and players. UMass write-up here.

The JMU website has video of the post game press conference as well as audio interviews from both the UMass and JMU sides.

Enjoy the win everyone!

Game Day--James Madison Oct 30, 2010

Matty Vautour says today's game between UMass and JMU is a CAA Showdown.

Matty V's Vs Matty G's Week #9 football picks.

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CSN's Terrance Thomas Jr. on the CAA's race for eight.

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"Bando", as in members --- currently and forever-- of the UMass Marching Band is now officially in the Webster on-line dictionary.

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The CAA's Game Day page is here.

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Big East schools thought UNH's Matt Evans was too small.

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A FCS fan loaded data from the division into this football simulation. You can run single games or a 25 game series. It is an excellent time waster.

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William & Mary's Greg Paulus returns to UNC today. The game is on ESPN3 BTW.

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All right, I'm sick of losing. Let's Go UMass!! Beat the Dukes!

Friday before JMU-- Oct 29th, 2010

JMU finally has its UMass game notes up.

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College Football performance has added UMass senior Anthony Nelson to its FCS Wide Receiver of the Year list.

I can't get the NCAA stats to load this morning, but Anthony leads the CAA in catches-per-game with 47-610 6.71 AVE. He also leads the league with 87.1 yards/game. Projecting those totals out to the end of the season would rank him 9th in single season total receiving yards and tie him with Kerry Taylor at 4th with 74 single season receptions.

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MassLive says UMass and JMU are in survival mode.

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Matty Vautour says the Minutemen are trying to recover the early season attitude.

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The Nova Blog ( I didn't know they had one), comments on UMass' looking into I-A Football.

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Georgia State is committed to the CAA for at least six years.

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FAn House says the CAA has become the SEC of FCS. Relevant quote:"If you go Maine all the way down to Virginia, if you're not a Big East player, regionally, the next-best conference is the CAA."

The CAA blogger has the weekly roundup. I think the facts got a little scrambled in the paragraph on the big TV audience for the Colonial Classic.
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Andrew Gaddess previews Week #9 in FCS and predicts, among other things, a 21-10 victory for the Dukes.

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Last week the Presbyterian Blue Hose snapped the longest losing streak in FCS football.

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Recruiting 2011-Camren Williams

UMass has offered to Camren Williams 6-1 198 pd WR/Athlete from Easton MA/Catholic Memorial.

ESPN article with news of UMass' offer here.

His Scout.com page here.

Williams also holds offers from Penn State, UConn and Wake Forest.

Thrusday before JMU---Oct 28th, 2010

The UMass Daily Collegian says Anthony Nelson is filling some big shoes.

The Collegian also looks at the Mintemen's preparation for James Madison.

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The Colonial Clash drew a record CAA TV audience.

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Newsday says former Minutemen James Ihedigbo is a player no one wants to play against.

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The Kansas City Chiefs have re-signed Jeremy Horne to their practice squad.

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TSN's Craig Haley says this week's UMass-JMU game is a playoff elimination game for one of the squads.

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UConn fans are unhappy with HC Randy Edsell.

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A Notre Dame student assistant was killed when a scissors lift he was using to film the Irish's practice toppled in a wind storm.

Wednesday before JMU --Oct 27th, 2010

UMass has its game notes for JMU up. Html version here and .pdf here.

CBS3.com has the Week #8 UMass preview here.

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The CAA has its weekly press release here.

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Andrew Gaddess of the Sports Network speculates on brain injury and wonders if it will be the end of football as we know it.

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A Michigan blogger and HS football coach looks at motivation. Link from the Maize & Brew blog.

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James Madison hopes there was growth in defeat.

Mickey Matthews says the mood at JMU is still good.

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Fan till the end:

Last words of Jeffery Landrigan before he was executed:"Boomer Sooner."

Recruiting 2011--Paul-Michael Barrows

UMass is interested in Paul-Michael Barrows a 6-3 245 pd TE from Cheshire Academy in CT.

Barrows is a rivals three-star player.

Relevant quote from Rivals:"Delaware has been involved, too, and the Blue Hens were the first team to offer Barrows in the last week or so. UMass is also starting to show increased interest, a welcome sign for Barrows. "Delaware offered me about (six) days ago and I've been talking heavily to UMass so from what it sounds like I think UMass will offer me," Barrows said. "So far, Delaware has offered me a full scholarship."

Barrows holds an offer from the Hens. Also drawing interest from UConn, Penn State and Tulane.

Special thanks to the blog reader who sent me the head's up on Barrows!

Tuesday before JMU--October 26th, 2010

MassLive.com says UMass needs to restore balance to the offense.

Matty Vautour states there are ways to make the "Classic" even classier.

The American Chronicle says last Saturday was a big miss for UMass.

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The UNH student newspaper says there were more UNH fans at the game than UMass.

They also say the victory went beyond the scoreboard and the Cats were razor sharp.

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The Loss moved UMass to #18 in the FCS Coaches poll. William & Mary, Villanova, Delaware and UNh were #5,#6,#7 and #9 respectively.

UMass was also #18 in The Sports Network Poll. William & Mary received two first place votes.

JMU fell to #15.

Appalachian State was an overwhelming #1, said TSN.

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New Hampshire, Land of Excitement: You'll be happy to know Scribbles the horse is feeling better.

Monday before JMU--Oct25th, 2010

Matty Vautour reports that the Colonial Clash organizer was very pleased with the results and the event could continue past the original two year contract. The Blog agrees. The Colonial Clash was clearly one of the top FCS events of 2010. It is highly likely that the Clash will outdraw the 2010 FCS National Championship game.

The only thing wrong with the game is we didn't win it.

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Matty looks at UMass' chances to make the playoffs after Saturday's whipping.

He has three stars from the UNH game. I thought Ke'Mon Bailey had an excellent game, same as Matty.

Matty also says the Minutemen are looking to avoid another collapse.

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The UMass Daily Collegian looks at the UNH game and the recent struggles of the offense.

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The Boston Globe looks at the different paths between UMass and UConn football. We've been over this a thousand times. You get what you pay for.

This might be a good place to mention a new blog by Big Dan. He's a UMass guy stuck in New York and he has an open letter to the UMass President.

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The Kansas City Chiefs have released Jeremy Horne.

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The Sports Network has a couple of CAA stories about William & Mary topping Delaware and Villanova is coping without Matt Szczur.

They also looks at various teams in FCS who have turned their seasons around.

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Keepers College football ratings drops UMass to #20 after the loss to UNH.

He has JMU by less than a point over UMass.

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Meanwhile, Boston College lost their fifth straight game.

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A blog reader was kind enough to send me some recruiting news, but I'm under some time constraints this morning and it will have to wait until tomorrow.

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Sunday after UNH--Oct 24th, 2010

Matty Vautour details UMass' mistakes.

The Boston Globe said the Wildcats were the class of the clash.

The Boston Herald said it was a big miss for UMass.

ESPN says UNH got a big win.

The Worcester Telegram said UMass was humbled.

WEEI.com said UNH ran away with the Clash.

Mass Live said UMass was overrun. They also said UMass' playoff hopes are sliding to the edge.

The Nashua Telegram said the Colonial Clash drew a record 32,848.

The Union leader said it was no close shave.

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Strength of schedule status:

William & Mary, who has been on a tear, extended their run with a win over #2 Delaware.

Holy Cross put themselves back in the Patriot League championship hunt with a win over Colgate.

Michigan had a bye.

Stony Brook beat Coastal Carolina 38-28.

Richmond dominated Towson 28-6.

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UMass drubbed by UNH 39-13

I didn't feel as bad about this one because we were never in it.

For the second game in a row, UMass just was flat and unfocused. We had a turnover and two penalties in the first four special teams situations. In fact, special teams were terrible all night, as we had a penalty on a field goal attempt that moved the ball out range as well as two bizarre on-side kick attempts.

On the on-side kicks, UNH nearly scored both times as they simply fielded the ball and ran untouched through the UMass kicking team for big gains.

I don't think we used a tactical timeout all game as we struggled to get plays in or set the defense. Despite using all those timeouts, we had two substitution penalties and at least two delay-of-game penalties.

The defense didn't play that badly. UMass forced UNH to punt six times, but the Wildcats were 6-for-6 in the red zone.

Everybody needs to tighten up the mental errors or this is going to be a long season,

UMass' writeup here.

New Hampshire's writeup here.

More tomorrow.