A few notes about some recent updates to the UMass Football Blog.
First, I've added an improved countdown clock in the sidebar column. Note that I set the time of UMass' game with Colgate to be a 6:00 pm kickoff. This is assuming the Athletic Dept will make this a night game.
The previous UMass-Colgate night game drew 16,405 for the 11th largest crowd in McGuirk history.
Also added some new links after a spurt in blogging about I-AA.
I-AA's only recruiting guru has posted his ratings on the 2006 TE class. The ranking is here .
Note the high ranking of UMass recruit John Ihne. Note also that John is the only UMass recruit that I have not done a blog on. Will get that taken care shortly.
UMass' other TE recruit, Rob Getek, is not ranked because he is a transfer and ShowingBlitz does not rank JUCO's or transfers. There is a blog about Getek directly below this one.
Joining UMass this year will be Rob Getek a 6-6 250 pd TE from Bishop Guertin HS HN.
Getek originally signed with UConn, where he was described as recruit of influence. He missed qualifying academically and spent one year at Milford academy.
No disrespect intended to the Yellow Jackets. This move helps UMass in its quest to make the I-AA playoffs. DII teams do not count towards the necessary seven I-AA wins to be eligible for the playoffs.
With a I-A game (Navy) and a DII game, UMass would have to go 8-1 against the rest of the 2006 schedule even to get an at large bid (unless we should win the A10 and get the auto bid). Playing 10 I-AA games does not require near perfection in order to get a playoff slot.
Kudos to the Athletic Dept for this astute move.
UPDATE 02/22/06: The Springfield Republican has an article on the switch here.
Joining the Minutemen this year will be James Carven DB 6-0 185 from Hanover High School.
This article states that UMass was interested in him as a QB as well as DB. Here is another article from the Boston Globe. His brother Bill Carven is Head Coach at Nichols College.
Carven's stats:
Named to Boston Globe's "Dandy Dozen" as one of the 12 top players in MA
All-League, All-Scholastic
15 career INTs
Welcome to UMass James! Hope you have an excellent career in the UMass secondary.
Joining UMass this fall will be Marcus Snow, 5-11 210 from South Dade HS in Homestead FL.
The Miami Herald has a story on South Florida signees here (last paragraph).
There is an excellent video of Snow's highlights here . NOTE: The video clips are indexed by FIRST (!?) NAME. Scroll down to "Marcus" and load 4 mb of highlights.
Some of Marcus' stats:
Runs a 4.5 40
averaged 21.5 yrds per catch as a kickoff return man
made 12 tackles in the Dade County All Star game
Welcome to UMass Marcus. Hope you have an outstanding career with UMass!
Rob McFadden, who runs ShowingBlitz.com, is I-AA's only recruiting guru. He's started ranking this year's I-AA recruiting classes.
He will rank by position and by total class.
His Quarterback rankings are here. Read the notes about the rankings here. Keep in mind several things when considering his rankings of the UMass recruits:
We did not sign a QB this year.
The rankings do not cover transfers or JUCOs
Since UMass had five JUCOs or transfers (six counting Tim Washington), our class will not rank high by his ratings.
My favorite Harry Chapin song of all time. Wish it was louder.
By Mike Gibson As a young man, I was into the music of Chapin. Not Chopin. Chapin. Harry Chapin. Saw him at a concert at the old Temple University Music Festival. He played there about six or seven times and I saw every Chapin concert. There was something about his music that touched a, pardon the expression, chord with me.
The old Temple Music Festival drew huge crowds. Temple University photo
All My Life's A Circle, Taxi, etc., great, great songs. A Chapin concert was an almost spiritual experience. No one put on a show like Harry. He'd do six, seven, eight encores. Plenty of good-looking women at these concerts, too. Just a fun, fun time. As long as the roadies and the crew were into it, Harry would play. The songs, to me, are timeless. There was one thing, though, I wondered about Harry, who died in an automobile accident on the Long Island Expressway on July 16, 1981. After every concert, there'd be a big gathering in the back of the tent, what is now the Ambler Campus parking lot. Chapin would sell T-Shirts and other memorabilia to combat "World Hunger." At first, I was really into it. "Yeah, let's eliminate world hunger," I'd say after the first year. Then the second year came. And the third. And the fourth. Harry collected all this money and world hunger was getting worse, not better. Billions and billions of dollars were collected for world hunger by well-meaning Harry Chapins of the world and it was not solving the problem. Heck, it wasn't even making a dent into the problem. I came to the conclusion that there are some things you could throw money at and not make a difference, like World Hunger. That there are other problems that money could solve. Like Temple Football. After that Epiphany, I came to the conclusion if I ever had millions I could throw half of what I had toward Temple football and I could solve much of what had ailed the Owls over these last 25 years. Think about it. Saturday's powerball is now $365 million. If I win, I promise right now to give Temple football, via the Xtra Point Drive, half. What could Temple football buy with a, say, $182 million donation?
Here are some ideas:
Half payment (about $90 million) on a 40K campus stadium, to be completed sometime after Temple's current 15-year lease runs out at Lincoln Financial Field;
10,000 season tickets to be given to the 10,000 students currently living on campus or players on high school football teams in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware in order to create a cadre of young fans;
Enough commercial minutes to sponsor live TV for every Temple road game (to also help build a following);
A weekly coaches show on Comcast with current coach Al Golden providing highlights and commentary on each Owl game;
A revolving contract that would reward Golden, and his staff, based on performance and guarantee that if the performance (i.e., wins) warrants it, Temple would have the financial resources to match whatever offer he'd get elsewhere.
Unlike its impact on world hunger, money would help Temple build a following and win and winning would solve Temple's football image problem. It bears repeating the powerball for Saturday is $365 million. I know there's not a snowball's chance in heck I'll win but, if I do, do I really need the $365 million to live a lifestyle that would make me happy? Heck no. All I need is a modest hurricane-proof house in the Tampa area for seven months a year, a new Subaru and a new place in the Poconos. The Florida house would be $500K, the Subaru $20K, the place in the Poconos $500K. Max. Throw in a couple million a year for spending money for the next 10 years and I'm good to go. What else would make me happy? A rampaging group of angry Owls kicking some serious college football butt, exacting their revenge for 15 years of humiliation with 15 years of glorious victories. I know it's selfish, but it's my money. I'd settle for half the lottery winnings, minus annuity and taxes and the like and give half to Temple football. Sorry, world hunger. Been there, done that.
The UMass website reports that UMass has added another recruit to its 2006 class. Signing with UMass is Aaron Fears 6-1, 180 pd WR/CB from North Attleboro MA.
Joining UMass this year will be Michael Thomas a 5-11 210 pd DB from Columbus, Ohio. Thomas prepped at Fork Union Military Academy .
Fork Union is one of the top prep schools for players hoping the get a college scholarship. This article tells how over 80 college coaches attended a Fork Union Media day.
At the time this Blog is written, 25 former Fork Union players have signed with a Who's Who of college football.
Thomas' stats:
Played RB at Bishop Hartley HS in Columbus, Ohio
Runs a 4.4 40
All-Ohio and All League
Chose UMass over I-A Ohio and Bowling Green
5.9 yards/carry at Fork Union
Welcome to UMass Mike! Hope you have a wonderful football career at UMass.
Matt Dougherty of The Sports Network has an article on the national I-AA recruiting scene.
Matt Starts out:
Philadelphia, PA - Get all worked up about last week�s recruiting classes if you wish.
Read the glowing press releases and salivate over the high school statistics. Just keep in mind that the hoopla and excitement will be as distant a memory as the Super Bowl XL officiating by the time the incoming true freshmen make their marks in I-AA...
Joining UMass is Shaun Allen a 6-3 250 DT from Dean College. He will be a junior with two years of football eligibility.
Allen's signing, along with teammate Josh Jennings (I'll do a separate blog on Jennings later) was big doin's at Dean College. Read the Dean College write up here.
Allen was the only Defensive lineman signed by UMass so far. Seeing that we only signed one down lineman in 2005 (Tony Cina), it would be likely that UMass is still looking for more players in this category.
Joining the 2006 Minutemen is Nick Dana a 6-3 300 pd OL from Nassau CC in NY. Dana is #60 in the above image. He was originally recruited by New Hampshire and ended up at Nassau CC.
Was First team All-Conference both years
Was Third team All-American in 2005
Welcome to UMass Dana! The east coast does not have extensive community college football leagues like California or the Midwest. Nassau CC is about the top school (in football) in the Northeast. They have a bulletin board showing the schools that have signed former players. It's here . At the time that I'm writing this blog, seven former Nassau players have signed with various colleges.
Joining the Minutemen is Chris Koepplin (#11 in the image above). Koepplin is a 6-3, 195 pd kicker/punter from Nassau CC. The Nassau Team Page is here. Koepplin has a personal page here.
Won the Northeastern Kicking Contest at Rutgers with an impressive 8-for-8 record
Koepplin should provide immediate competition for Armano Cuko who struggled with a 6-13 field goal percentage (46.2%) and provide a backup punter for Christian Koegel
UPDATE #3-2:30 pm 02/02/06. UMass beat writer Matt Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette has an article on the UMass recruits here (registration required, but worth it) UPDATE- 7:30 am, 02/02/06. Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Union has an article on the UMass recruits here. UPDATE- 9:00 pm, 02/01/06. The UMass website has added Coach Brown's comments on the recruiting class. Read it here .
UMass has released its 2006 recruit list . Welcome aboard to all the new UMass players!
Some points of interest:
6 JUCO's
DL 1
OL 2
DB 4
TE 2
LB 2
K/p 1
WR 3
RB 1
Some initial comments:
During the build-up to the recruiting season, it was speculated that UMass most needed help on the OL/DL. With only 1 defensive lineman and two OL in this recruiting class, it would be likely that UMass is not done with recruiting.
6 JUCO's are probably a UMass record.
The list does not count Tim Washington, the transfer from Syracuse.
Today's the day! All UMass fans should place their fingertips to their temples and try to send brainwaves to a fax machine somewhere in the UMass football offices so that it will spit out letters-of-intent for all the top recruits UMass has been recruiting.
The Boston Globe has an article here about some Mass players signing. None are listed as committing to UMass. The only name that might have been in play for UMass is Alex Dulski, who chose Northeastern.
I called the UMass football office and they said that there would not be a signing day press conference. They said UMass signings would appear over several days on the UMass website.
Coach Brown is scheduled to appear at the weekly UMass Sports Luncheon on 02/08/06. The luncheon will be held at the Massachusetts Room, 3rd floor, Mullins Center. Call 413-545-4290 for reservation...
Joining the Minutemen this summer will be John Ihne, a 6-4 255 pd TE from Wayne Hills HS in Wayne NJ.
Good News! The UMass Athletic Dept has just announced that UMass has been able to add I-AA Stony Brook to the 2006 schedule instead of DII AIC.
Signing with UMass is Torrey Esalomi a 6-1 175 pd WR from Gaither High School in Tampa, FL.
as linebackers coach. The Akron article is here. The Zips football page is here.
Joining UMass this year is Sloan Russett a 5-10 200 pd RB from Manchester Central HS in Manchester, NH.
This website counts the words in the blog of your choice and creates an t-shirt printable image of the result.
Matt Dougherty of The Sports Network has an article on the national I-AA recruiting scene.
Signing with the 2006 UMass recruiting class is Chris Pollard a 6-2 200 pd DB from Camden, NJ.
Joining UMass is Shaun Allen a 6-3 250 DT from Dean College. He will be a junior with two years of football eligibility.
Joining the 2006 Minutemen is Nick Dana a 6-3 300 pd OL from Nassau CC in NY. Dana is #60 in the above image. He was originally recruited by New Hampshire and ended up at Nassau CC.
Joining the Minutemen is Chris Koepplin (#11 in the image above). Koepplin is a 6-3, 195 pd kicker/punter from Nassau CC. The Nassau Team Page is here. Koepplin has a personal page here.
Today's the day! All UMass fans should place their fingertips to their temples and try to send brainwaves to a fax machine somewhere in the UMass football offices so that it will spit out letters-of-intent for all the top recruits UMass has been recruiting.