Day after articles

Screen Cap-- UMass sacks Ryan. Right Click for a larger view.

A lot of after action reports today. The Boston papers typically focus on the UMass penalties. They don't mention how much pressure the UMass defense developed on Ryan. We were collapsing the pocket all game long. I would like to see how many knockdowns we had on him.

For what it's worth here is the media take:

The Hartford Courant is here .

The Boston Globe praises BC receiver Callander. They also think the game was a complete effort by BC. The Boston Globe focuses on UMass penalties.

Matt Ryan give some grudging praise for the way we played .

The Boston Herald has stories here and here .

Matty Vautour covers the game here (and he says Coen is OK), no mention of Nick Diana. Registration required for Hampshire Gazette articles, but worth it.

And lastly, the CAA covers the rest of the games in our league .

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

No moral victories!

Coach Brown nearly took the head off Matt Goldstein in the post-game interviews. He said there were no moral victories at UMass. He was right. We had the horses to play with Boston College.

We did not make some plays we needed to make.

Never the less, I was happy with:

The defensive tenacity. We kept playing UMass defense and we knocked down Ryan multiple times. The defense was on the field the whole first half and did not fold. BC did not run against us and we had lots of hurries.

I liked the running of Matt Lawrence and Tony Nelson. Lawrence in particular had a good game in my option. In I-AA, you can juke and make someone wiff. In the pros, you have to hit the hole and run up field. I thought Lawrence and Nelson played very well against a top 15 defense.

Scott Woodard played well in relief of Liam Coen. He looked composed and mobile.

I don't usually complain about the officiating, but I don't know what the guy in the booth was thinking. The BC receiver started to loose control of that overturned fumble as soon as the UMass defender put his hat on the ball.

Jamie Silva needs to hit people from the front.

I would not trade injuries to Liam Coen and Nick Diana for a win over the Eagles. Hopefully, with a week off, they will be able to return for Villanova.

Go UMass!

UPDATE:

Boston College write-up here .

UMass write-up here .

Associate Press story here .

ESPN360 Coverage map

The UMass-BC is available only on ESPN360. Scroll down thursday's blog entry for more details.

Besides Verizon, ESPN360 is offered a a bunch of small providers.

The ACC has a coverage map here. If you have an off-brand DSL, you might be on page two of the map.

Lots of reading before the game

The Boston Herald has four articles this one and this one concerns today's game. These two come at it from a BC angle here and here .

The Sporting News covers the game here .

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican rings in here .

CSN covers the top 25 in FCS/I-AA games here .

The CSN also does a weekend games preview here .

Dave Coulson recounts his adventures last week when he went to three games in 24 hours.

The Sports Network also does a preview of this week's FCS/I-AA games.

Results poll closes at midnight

We've already set a season record for votes in the "results" poll to the right. We're up forty votes from the UMass-Maine poll, which was the previous record holder.

The poll closes at 11:59 tonight.

More BC game articles

The Boston Globe has an article about Coen's history with Boston College.

The Globe also covers BC's laudable practice of scheduling New England FCS/I-AA teams.

The internet allows everyone to be a sportswriter and this gentlemen expect Matt Lawrence to be "stopped in his tracks" by his Eagles.

A Seattle newspaper covers the game.

Matt Vautour has a game article here . He also has an article about BC transfer Reshaude Goodwin.

Boston Now has a game article here .

Matt Dowd of the College Sporting News has his weekly column covering the CAA here.

And it looks like there will be eighteen teams in the FCS/I-AA playoffs in 2008.

UPDATE: The UMass-Rhode Island game of 11/3/07 will now be shown on NESN.

Some bulletin board material for UMass Players

Somebody spent a lot of time on this .

If the mods pull it, e-mail me, I've got it on screen capture.

And a Boston College blogger goes off his meds. Be sure to read the "View my complete profile" section.

Watch the game live on ESPN360

Right click on the image for a larger view .

If you have Verizon DSL, you can watch the UMass-Boston College live over the internet. This CNN-Money story specifically mentions the UMass-BC game .

TECH NOTES:

• The ESPN360 feed works great with my setup. The video quality is much superior to the feed from CN8.
• The ESPN360 website is here .
• The feed only works with Internet Explorer :(
• The feed requires the latest version of Flash
• After viewing the game, download Firefox and set it as your default browser.
• Do not use Internet Explorer as it allows "active X" applets with deep hooks into your operating system.
• I did not follow the procedure listed in the CNN article. I went directly to the ESPN360 site and followed the prompts.
  

UMass-BC is creating a lot of buzz

The Daily Collegian looks at the long history of UMass-BC football.

The Collegian also looks at UMass QB Liam Coen's history with BC.

The Boston Herald covers BC Safety Jamie Silva's long friendship with Coen.

Another game article from the Collegian here .

Boston College's Matt Ryan is having a lot of people jump on his bandwagon as a Heisman Candidate.

Meanwhile, back in the FCS/I-A division, the Sports Network summarizes last week's results.

The Star-Telegram has a good college football column by Wendel Barnhouse. Key Quote:

"Boston college faces Division I-AA Massachusetts on Saturday. UMass is undefeated and ranked No. 2 in I-AA. The Eagles are 4-0 for the first time in going for their first 5-0 start since 1992. "They have 17 I-A players on their team," BC coach Jeff Jagodzinski said of UMass. "They were in the national championship game last season. A lot of those guys were recruited by BC or weren't recruited by BC. If I were their coach, you would play with a chip on your shoulder."

Guest Blog-- Eagle in Altanta

Last year this Blog and and Navy Blog "Pitch Right" swapped guest blog posts.

This year I did a guest post on the excellent Boston College Blog "Eagle in Atlanta". Now that Blog answers some questions for us.

1. My first question concerns a matter in which I cheerfully admit
that I was wrong. I thought BC would struggle in the ACC. To what do you attribute Boston College's success?

-- I think there are a couple of factors. We've had a couple of our best teams at a time of great parity in the conference. FSU and Miami have both been down. Wake Forest has been up. NC State, Maryland and Virginia have been all over the place in our three years as ACC members. It has provided a great opportunity for BC. Unfortunately we've fallen short of the ultimate goal of winning it all, but I think we can get there.Even after the super powers revert to their old form there is no reason why BC cannot be a competitive bowl team every year in the ACC. We have the tradition, recruiting niche and facilities to do it.

2. UMass and BC recruit heavily in New England. UMass tried hard to
recruit Ron Brace, your outstanding DT from Worcester for example. Do
you think BC will have to do more national recruiting and less in this area?

We've always had a mix of New England kids and kids from Jersey and the midwest. I think with the ACC move, you'll see a mix of more southern kids, but BC will never abandon New England football. First because BC has a major advantage in our sales pitch over schools like UMass (no offense). BC is in a major conference and a great city.One reason to keep a foothold in New England is that the New England recruits tend to be underrated. Then there is the supposed Patriot effect. The theory is that participation in New England youth football has exploded over the past 10 years. If this is true, this whole area will become a much more fertile recruiting territory over the next few years. BC, UMass, and all other New England schools should see a benefit from that.


3. In 1998, UMass went into the playoffs ranked #11 nationally.
That's just about where BC is ranked this year. In the playoffs, UMass ended up meeting the #2 and #1 teams------and son-of-gun, those teams did not win. With Matt Ryan and your current team, if BCS/I-A had a playoff, how far would the 2007 Eagles go?

I wish we had a playoff. Not because of the talent this year...I just think it is the best format to determine a champion in football. I do think this BC team has enough talent to beat anyone on any night.Fortunately we have the ACC Championship game and BC can play our way into it. It is not a true playoff, but it enables BC to aim for something and win a championship on the field, not in the polls.But I am doing my best not to get ahead of myself...I've been a BC fan too long and know better. For now I just want to get by Umass avoid the embarrassment Michigan went through.

4. Who do you think will win Saturday and why?

I respect UMass and think you guys could beat plenty of DIA teams. I don't think you'll beat BC. Army did you guys no favors by scaring us last week. That got everyone's attention. Second, your style (running on offense, blitz on defense) plays to BC's strength. You're like a Georgia Tech with 20 less scholarships. I think BC controls and wins 42-20.

High quality fan blogs are rare. Remember to follow Boston College football news on "Eagle in Atlanta"

UPDATE: If you want to see the norm for BCS/I-A blogs consider next year's BCS/I-A fan blog from Texas Tech "Double-T Nation". In today's post he's stating that he's boycotting Saturday's game against FCS/I-AA team Northwestern State because they're I-AA. Guess I won't be swapping guest blogs next year...

Wednesday Morning Reading

UMass-Boston college preview from MSNBC no less.

The Springfield Republican muses on whether UMass can slow down BC quarterback Matt Ryan.

The Boston Globe has an article on UMass TB Matt Lawrence.

In the Hampshire Gazette, Matty (lots of Matts in this blog post) Vautour has an article on UMass rising to #2 in the polls (registration required).


I had blogged before about various FCS/I-AA teams upgrading their facilities. Albany has petitioned the NY legislature for a $60 Million Stadium . Old Dominion will be joining the CAA in a couple of years. They're in the process of a $24.8 million renovation of their sports complex to get ready for the move.

Tuesday morning articles

The Boston Herald continues it's excellent coverage of UMass Football with an article on Liam Coen's Boston College connection.

In the aftermath of Saturday's game, Maine tries to recover here and here .

The buzz generated by Boston College's athletics is helping BC with its national image .

Meanwhile Keeper has UMass rated as #2 in the FCS Division.

And he has the Eagles by 22+ over UMass.

UPDATE: UMass has its Boston College game notes up. Nothing yet from BC.

Upon further review, Francis had possession and was in bounds

By Mike Gibson
File this under the letter N.
For no shit, Sherlock.
However, according to the New Haven Register, the Temple Owls have been told by MAC officials that, yes, Bruce Francis did have one foot inbounds and possession on the game-winning catch against UConn and that, yes, Temple should have won the game and that, yes, Big East replay official Jack Cramer was wrong in not overturning the call.
All of this was done in an official review of the play by the MAC, who had their officials view it from every possible angle, including a shot from the "other" side of the field that clearly showed Francis had possesion all the way.
Interesting, though, in that it puts the Big East in a bit of a quandry.
Now the people in charge of the crew on the field are saying they were wrong in not getting the call right.
That means that the replay guy got the call wrong.
Right?
Right.
Don't hold your breath waiting for the Big East Conference to admit that.

UMass-Maine Web Album

On Sunday, we stopped at Perkin's Cove to walk the Marginal Way. The weather was much improved from the cold and overcast game in Orono.

The Picassa Web album has 44 images from the game. I actually captured Matt Lawrence's spectular TD run, Chris Zardas' TD catch and Breyone Evans TD.

As usual, UMass fans and players can take images from the album, but crediting the UMass Football Blog would be nice.

Matt Ryan for Heisman

The NY Times ran a long interview with BC quarterback Matt Ryan.

A BC fan has also started a Matt Ryan for Heisman Blog.

The best Boston College Sports Blog is "Eagle in Atlanta".

More Maine game stuff

The image above is a scan of the Maine 2007 yearbook. They were selling them as game programs in Orono. Lot's of Black Bear info. That will go in the Blog's archives!

The Springfield Republican has a Monday article here .

The UMass Collegian has two articles here and here .

The Maine campus newspaper is here .

NOTES FROM THE BLOG:

My impressions from attending the game is that Maine is going to have a rough year. They do not seem to have much on offense (they're last in the league) and did not show anything Saturday. It was so bad that Maine kept their leading rusher Jhamal Fluellen out of the game in the second half to save him "bumps and bruises" (so said the Bangor newspaper).

The Black Bear kicking game is also poor. They are last in the CAA in field goals (1 for 4).

UMass linebacker and Captain Charles Walker was not happy about loosing the shutout. He chewed out the defense after the score. He was rapidly replaced by Coach Brown who also did some yelling.

Matty Vautour often comments on road dinning in his UMass Sports Blog. Mrs. Blog and I ate at Dysart's Truck Stop Restaurant . Had a great time.

No UMass cheerleaders made the trip to Orono.

Last year the Black Bears led the A10 in rushing defense giving up only 63.9 yards/game. Saturday, UMass had 289 rushing yards and averaged 6.9 yards a pop.

UPDATE: Matt Vautour has a Maine game article here (but he doesn't say where he ate), registration required.

Maine articles

Stayed in Bangor last night. Again, no operable Wi-Fi.

The Kennebec Journal is here .

The Globe amazingly has two articles one about the game and a shorter one here .

The Boston Herald is here , and the Worcester telegram is here .

Jeff Thomas is here .

The Black Bears Athletic Dept write-up is here . UMass' coverage is here .

The CAA recaps the league here .

The College Sporting News recaps the entire FCS here .

Road Trip part Deux!

In it's never ending quest to bring you up-to-date information about UMass football (and not coincidently see a lot of games in person), the UMass football blog will be on its way to Orono (motto: "Orono is not the end of the world, but you can see it from there), ME early tomorrow morning.

Go UMass!

UPDATE: Getting ready for the drive. Not much on the web so far this morning. One article about the Maine Defensive line here.

The Springfield Republican has a game day article here .

I can't let it go, but can the Owls?

"No, Jack, I said he was out of bounds by that much, not in ... no catch, capiche? ... comprende? ...understand?"


By Mike Gibson
It's been like a week-long hangover for this Owls' fan.
I know, some of my fellow Owl fans are saying things like, "Let it go, man. There's no point in rehashing the past."
Well, I can't let it go.
The injustice was so big, the history between Temple and the Big East so fowl, that the stench of The Call has remained with me for a week.
Jack Cramer, a Big East official was refusing the do the right thing, a thing that would have allowed Temple to beat UConn, 23-22. I'm not the only one who feels that way. Seventy percent of respondents to a recently closed poll on this website feel the injustice in Connecticut was "worse than the O.J. verdict."
The O.J. verdict was on TV night and day and this travesty rated just a passing mention on ESPN and hardly any mention on the local sports segments of newscasts.
Jack The Ripper.
I know I haven't felt this violated after a sporting event since the 1972 Olympics when the USSR officials stole the Gold Medal from Mike Bantom and Doug Collins and a bunch of game USA college kids.
This should have been the No. 1 story in sports last weekend, but because it didn't involve two powerhouse college teams, it was largely ignored.
I can't let it go, but I sure hope Temple's football team can before tomorrow's kickoff.
If the Owls can, they have a chance to win.
If they can't, they won't.
It's that simple and that difficult.

The Blog Poll closes at Midnight

The UMass-Maine results blog poll to the right closes at midnight on Friday. So far the record is 63 votes (Colgate game).

Right now, it looks like most fans are very respectful of the Black Bear defense, but think their offensive woes will lead to a moderate UMass win.

UPDATE: At 3:15 pm we are only three votes from the record!

UPDATE: We have a new record! Serenity has returned to the force.

UPDATE III: It's 7:47 pm and the countdown clock says there is seven hours to go??? Readers should know that Blogger is fairly weird sometimes. I just checked my settings and they had morphed into the Central time zone. I fixed that, but the clock has not changed. It's all on GMT, so DST will be one hour off. So one hour for CST and one hour for Daylight savings. We're four hours off. Where are the other two hours coming from?

Friday News

We have a couple of Maine-centric articles about the up-coming game between UMass and the Black Bears. Two articles from Maine Campus here and here .

In last week's game against Towson, UMass' stunting, blitzing defense knocked down Towson QB Sean Schaefer seventeen times. This article mentions the pounding he took.

David Coulson takes a look at back at the history of the FCS Division.

Charles Burton and Ralph Wallace take a look at this week's games here .

The College Sporting News also has a look at the games of the Division's Top 25 here.

The CAA previews the weekend's CAA games here .

UPDATE: Remenber when I did a post about our Syracuse transfers did the right thing. Well a Louisville newspaper is predicting Louisville 70-Syracuse 7.

UPDATE II: The Bangon Daily News has a story about Maine's OL Sean Demaray.

UPDATE III: Remember the game is viewable on live streaming video over the internet on CN8. It works great on my Verizon DSL.

UPDATE IV: Matty Vautour has an article about the Maine game here (registration required, but worth it)

Coach Brown's show tonight

Remember Coach Brown's show tonight at 7:00 pm. Live internet feed from WRNX here .

Thursday morning articles

There are a couple of Maine-centric articles concerning the upcomming game. The Maine Campus has one here.

The Kennebec Journal has one here .

The College Sporting News has Bruce Dowd's "CAA Today" column here .

The Sports Network has an article about the entire division here .

Wednesday morning reading

A couple of articles for Wednesday morning.

Matty Vautour has an article in the Hampshire Gazette (registration required).

Ron Chimelis has an article in the Springfield Republican with some interesting information about the UMass defensive line here .

UMass-Towson Web Album up

I've posted about 50 images of the UMass-Towson game in a Picassa web album. Some additional images courtesy of the Koepplin Family are included.

As usual, UMass fans and players are welcome to take any image for their own use, but crediting the UMass Football Blog would be polite.

An early look at Maine

UMass' next opponent is the Maine Black Bears. They are 1-2 for the season.

Maine was one on the CAA teams that lost a four year starter at QB this year. After four years of Ron Witcomb at the helm, they are breaking in a new QB.

It's not going well so far. Maine is last in the CAA in scoring offense, last in passing offense and last in total offense. CAA stats here .

The Black Bears have 218 yards passing -----for the season. No, really. They are averaging 3.1 yards per catch. Probable starter at QB is Adam Farkes a RFr QB from Boston, MA.

The Black Bears only offensive weapon so far this year has been Jamal Fluellan 5-9 180 pd transfer TB from Syracuse. He's rushed 59-316 5.4 yards/rush and 3 TDs.

The Black Bears have their UMass game notes up here .

The Bangor Daily News has a story about their loss to Villanova here .

UPDATE: Farkes will start according to the Bangor Daily News. Two more game articles about Maine's loss to Villanova here and here .

UPDATE II: Keeper has UMass by 11+ points. Just about what the wisdon on the poll says.

UPDATE III: UMass now has its Maine Game notes up. Also Matty Vautour says that Coen's status for Maine is uncertain. (registration required)

In this case, the headlines tell the story

By Mike Gibson
In this case, the case of Temple winning a game on the field that was given to the University of Connecticut by an old man with failing eyesight in the replay booth, the headlines told the story.
Headlines to real stories written about UConn's 22-17 win over Temple on Saturday.
Or should we say headlines written about TEMPLE's 23-22 (or 24-22 or 25-22) win over UConn on Saturday.
Because that's just what it was.

Here is a list of the headlines and the stories that were filed under those headlines, mostly by UConn-area media:

• From AOL: Replay officials rob Temple of victory
  
• From Delaware Online: Temple loses as apparent TD is taken away
  
  
• My personal favorite, from The Bristol (Conn.) Courier: Blown Call Favors Huskies in Win Over Temple
  
  
• Tigerdroppings.com: Temple Just Got Robbed
  
  
• Danbury (Conn.) News-Times: UConn Escapes With Win
  
  
• 
  

Demarcus Roberson playing well at Garden City

Former UMass DB Demarcus Roberson has been tearing it up at Garden City Community College in Kansas.

In his last game against Dodge City, Roberson (#7 in the above image) had a blocked punt, a 70 yard Kickoff return, 3 tackles and 1 BrUp.

In his previous game against Butler he had an INT and 3 BrUps.

He wants all UMass players and fans to know he will always be a UMass Football fan and keeps a close eye on the team and is happy that we are 3-0!

Towson follow-up Articles.

Monday morning post game articles. Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has one on the UMass Blitz.

Two Baltimore area newspapers have articles here and here .

The UMass Collegian is up and operating and has two articles here and here .

UMass-Colgate web album 09/08/07

I've set up a web album on Picassa of the UMass-Colgate game. There is now a permenant link in the sidebar also.

Also included are some images taken by the family of UMass kicker Chris Koepplin. The cheerleader images are by request of a cheerleader parent.

The image above is a scan of the game program.

As usual, UMass players and fans can grab images from the album, but crediting the UMass football blog would be nice.

Sunday Morning reading

The Boston Globe has a game article here .

So does the Boston Herald here .

From the Towson side, the Baltimore Sun covers the game here .

The CAA had a very good day OOC with UNH beating Marshall, JMU beat VMI, William & Mary beat Liberty and Hofstra beat Albany. Write up on league games here .

National games in the FCS division are covered here .

EXTRA CREDIT READING:

Speaking of Albany, they are upgrading their football program. Now they are pushing for a new $60M stadium.

UPDATE: Matty Vautour has a game article here (registration required)

The image above is a scan of the game program (somewhat the worse for being soaked in the rain in the first quarter)

My defense finally arrives!

The UMass defense finally got it together and looked like the defensive team we had last year.

Yes, we blew the coverage on the first series and then added a penalty to make things worse.

BUT THEN

• we held Towson to 22 net yards rushing
• Towson had 22 catches and only averaged 6.o yards/catch
• Three INT including a 90 yard return for a TD!
• Three straight times the offense turned the ball over in our territory and the defense held the Tigers to three points.
• we were flying to the ball and we out hit them all day.

UMass write up here .

Towson's write up here .

Image above is from UMass athletic dept.

Robbery in Storrs

Click ONCE on icon in center of image
By Mike Gibson
Why, in God's name, are former Big East refs allowed anywhere near a replay booth involving a Big East team against any other conference team?
Jack Cramer, a former Big East official, was the replay official in the booth who failed to overturn an obvious mistake in UConn's 22-17 win over Temple, a catch by Bruce Francis for the winning TD in the end zone that was ruled an incompletion.
Neutral replay officials should be the norm, not the exception, in cross-conference games.
Let's see here.
One of the major elements in any crime investigation is motivation.
Temple was kicked out of the Big East.
UConn is in the Big East.
UConn took Temple's spot in the Big East.
The Big East would look very bad if Temple handed one of its unbeaten schools its first loss.
The Big East would be completely impartial in any game involving Temple. ... yeah, right, and I also believe those 32 Heaven's Gate people who committed suicide in 1996 are riding on the Hale-Bopp Comet now instead of dead in their graves.
Not.
Morley Safer or Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes would love this story.
No further words necessary, just the words of fans from two big East schools, UConn and Rutgers.

The CAA has a game page too

Just realized that the CAA has a League game day page here . The page has audio and TV links for the whole league plus write-ups on the games.

Game Day Towson

Be sure to visit the UMass "Game Day" page here .

Towson's game notes are here .

Sean Schaefer makes the Tiger's go. His bio page is here .

UMass needs to play a complete game against Towson. Their passing game is far better than Holy Cross or Colgate's.

One defensive stat on the Tigers is interesting. They gave up 265 yards rushing (6.4 yards/carry) against Morgan State. No offense against Morgan State, but we should be better than that.

We need to play both halves against a CCA team. And squeeze the ball on this rainy day!

I have a question for the congregation.

First read this article from Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican.

My question: When was the last time UMass had a punt return AND a kickoff return for TDs in the same season?

I had the UMass press guide with me on my Amish vacation. While I was off-net, I tried to find anything in the press guide. No luck.

Does anyone know?

Why does it not surprise me that this did not work out?

UMass had been trying to set up a game with UConn for 2012. Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican says it did not work out.

Hey, read this Article!

When people give you negative comment about being a rabid college football fan, tell them about what UMass and a number of other CAA teams are doing by the instigation of Andy Talley.

Hey. the UMass Football blog is back in action!

Well, that was fun. Saw seven accidents and it took nine hours to drive back from New Holland, PA.

Looks like lots of stuff has been going on while I was away. It'll take me a couple of days to get caught up with all the articles and e-mail.

I have a bunch of images from the Colgate game and I hope to have them in a web-album in a day or so. I've got to turn around and drive back to Amherst for the Towson game tomorrow.

Can we top the 12,000 we had a the first game? Anybody note that that was about 3,000 more that the holiday game last year?

Amish Internet not working

Despite being assured that I would have Wi-Fi , thanks to some perfectly positioned trees, my cabin is in a Wi-Fi cold spot. I have zero connectivity. The nice ladies in the office are allowing me to take up desk space to make this post.

Obviously, this is not going to work for an extended period.

The UMass Football Blog will be off the air until late Friday evening. I will be back up and running on Sept. 14th.

Go UMass! Readers can use some of the links in the sidebar to keep up with the team while out of contact. Damm you, big beautiful Oak Trees! :)

UPDATE: I have a number of images, but I won't be able to post a web album until I get back.

Sunday Morning Articles

Some Sunday paper articles: The Boston Globe is here . Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican is here . Matt Vautour moonlights for the Worcester Telegram here . And Channel 9 in Syracuse rings in here.

UPDATE: Matt Vautour returns to his regular identity with an article for the Hampshire Gazette here (registration required)

UPDATE II: The CAA website has League summaries here. Rhody took Army to overtime. Hofstra had a big win over Top-Ten ranked Furman and JMU scored 24 straight points in the second half over New Hampshire in a big win at home

UPDATE III: The Boston Herald has an article here .

Just before Kickoff

The official game score said there were 3,211 attending. I think maybe 500 more came in later...

Right Click on image and Blogger gives a larger view.

Blame it on the Bobblehead

By Mike Gibson
The last time a university tried a Bobblehead Giveaway for a coach who won exactly one game, the coach came away a 55-25 loser.
Turner Gill walked off the field with a Bobbleahead likeness of himself in one hand, a clipboard in the other and a stat sheet with the bottom line: Ball State 55, Buffalo 25.
That was Oct. 7, 2006.
Buffalo learned the lesson.
No Bobbleheads for Turner Gill this season.
Temple learned the same lesson the hard way yesterday.
This time, it was Al Golden staring at a stat sheet with the bottom line: Buffalo 42, Temple 7. Somewhere, his Bobblehead was in the trash can.
Blame it on the Bobbleheads.
How else can you explain a 35-point loss to a team you are favored to beat by 3 1/2 points?
How else can you explain so many so-called betting experts saying to lay the wood on Temple, including one nationally syndicated radio show tabbing Temple the stone-cold lock of the week."
Blaming it on the Bobbleheads doesn't make any sense, but neither does the way Temple University's football team played its game on Saturday afternoon.
Poor blocking, poor tackling, a general malaise.
"We've got to change the culture of losing," Temple head coach Al Golden keeps saying over and over.
Screw the culture.
Just change the losing.
One way would be to get Travis Shelton the ball.
Often.
Here's a guy who singlehandedly beat Bowling Green last year and he gets maybe five touches a game.
It's obvious the coaching staff is trying to teach Travis Shelton a lesson for a real or perceived ill.
I'm sick of trying to teach guys lessons.
Teach the third-string right offensive guard lessons. Put Travis Shelton in the game and have him teach other teams a lesson the way only a guy with 4.27-40-yard dash speed can.
Culture, smuchler.
Just change the losing to winning.
Soon, like in the next two weeks.
Until then, no Bobbleheads for you.
Or anybody else.

Whew! For a while there I thought the Curse of Hamilton would continue

Just back from the game. The first half was major ugly. The offense went backward for most of the half. We had negative yards rushing late in the second quarter.

Things got much better in the second half. UMass Athletic Dept story here . Colgate write-up here .

Still, this Blog thinks UMass has great potential. We scored 40 and 35 points with two bad halves.

Certainly, the 2007 version of the UMass team has yet to gel.

I've got lots of images. It will take me a while to sort and then post to a web album from a remote site. Still, we're 2-0 and we don't have to go the Hamilton again :)

Game Day articles

Well, here we are in cloudy Utica. Yesterday was really hot and sticky. The game forecast is cloudy with chance of showers and thundershowers. High around 80 degrees.

The Boston Herald continues to cover UMass football here .

And the Springfield Republican has an article here .

Mrs. Blog and I will be leaving for Hamilton a little later in the morning.

Road Trip!

The UMass Football Blog is off to Colgate today. Two nights in scenic Utica NY and then we are off to New Holland PA for about five days to give Mrs. Blog some shopping time in Amish country.

The motel has internet and our cabin in New Holland supposedly has Wi-Fi so I should be able to continue blogging. However, nothing is ever certain (ask Michigan), so if this bog should fall silent next week you will know I'm having remote connection problems and the blog will continue as soon as I get back.

Friday morning stuff

Pete's Poll continues his highly idiosyncratic look at FCS/I-AA football (for example Coastal Carolina lost and is ranked in the top 15 and Nichols State who beat Rice last week is #43)

Keeper's College rankings looks a little more rational. He has UMass #2 in his rankings. He also has UMass by 25+ points over Colgate.

CSN takes a look a the week in the top 25 in FCS/I-AA.

Maine is not afraid of UConn. (Go Black Bears)

And a cold front passed through Hell this morning as the Globe has an article on the UMass-Colgate game.

UPDATE: Matt Vautour has an article on the Colgate game here . (registration required)

Last day for the blog-poll

The UMass-Colgate blog poll closes today at 11:59 pm. Looks like we will have an increase of about 20 votes this week.

Last week the poll wisdom was UMass would win big (and that prediction looked good in the first half). This week the poll is going with UMass by one or two TDs.

Brad Listorti injured

Matty Vautour reported in this article, (registration required) that UMass' All-American TE Brad Listorti is injured.

Relevant quote: "NO LISTORTI - Senior tight end Brad Listorti missed the game with a back injury and is not expected back soon.

Coach Don Brown said he hopes to have him back for the Minutemen's Oct. 13 game against Villanova"

More Colgate Articles

Colgate Coach Dick Biddle has changed quarterbacks for the UMass game. New starter is Alex Relph .

Matt Vautour looks back on the UMass-Colgate series (registration required).

Remember Coach Brown's show tonight!

Coach Brown's show is tonight at 7:00 pm by internet feed from WRNX Radio.

UMass hires former UMass player Tim Washington

UMass has hired former UMass RB Tim Washington Tim Washington to work in the compliance section of the Athletic Dept. Story here.

Washington was a grad student transfer from Syracuse last year. He impressed the coaching staff with his work ethic. Washington had a very good game against Montana in the semifinals.

J.J. Moore wins Gold Helmut Award

UMass WR and captain J.J. Moore won the New England Football Writers Gold Helmet Award for his 9 reception 163 yard and 1 TD performance against Holy Cross. Stories here and here .

Recruiting 2008 ---- WR Michael

UMass is interested in Michael Okayka a WR from Shrewsbury, MA. Story here.

Also interested are UNH and I-A Akron.

SME broadcast today at 5:00pm

The SME will broadcast the second internet weekly show about the FCS/I-AA universe here at 5:00pm. They did a good job on the first show after a nervous start.

Wednesday Morning articles

Both UMass and Colgate have their complete game notes up. UMass' are here . Colgate has its game notes up here .

Colgate also has an article about Eric Burke, who is one of their starting wide receivers. He's a molecular biology major.

Boston Herald on the McLaughlin family

The Boston Herald continues to turn out college football articles with a UMass connection. This on "The McLaughlin Connection" is worth reading.

Dan Mclaughlin's cousin Bob McLaughlin plays for UMass at defensive tackle. Mike McLaughlin lettered for UMass in 1976, '77 and "78. He was first-team All-Yankee conference in'77 & '78.

What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Great photo by Darryl Rule

By Mike Gibson
Prior to Wayne Hardin's "guarantee" of 66,000 for the Temple opener with Navy, he speculated about what makes a winning program.
"Is it the wins themselves or is it the support?" Hardin asked. "It's like the old question, 'What comes first, the chicken or the egg?"
Well, how about half a chicken and half an egg?
Hardin can be excused for being about half off in his guarantee.
I firmly believe Hardin could have put 60,000 in the stands for the Navy game had it been on a THURSDAY night, not Friday.
Having lived within the city limits of Philadelphia all of my life (with the exception of 10 years or so in beautiful downtown Doylestown), I know the town empties the Friday morning of Labor Day weekend.
Philadelphia is unlike any other town in that regard.
Geographically, it's situated 45 miles from the New Jersey shore towns of Atlantic City on south. Places like Atlantic City, Ventnor, Brigantine, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Margate, Avalon, Stone Harbor, The Wildwoods and Cape May are 80 percent Philadelphians most of the summer and about 90 percent Philadelphia Labor Day weekend.
That's just vacation life in the big city.
The Eagles screwed Temple royally by taking the Owls' Thursday night away.
We'll never know if Hardin could have gotten his 66K just 24 hours earlier, but look at it this way:
If you lived in Philadelphia and the Labor Day weekend was your last chance to get away for nine months that promised to be mostly cold and dark, wouldn't you jump at that chance?
I would have if Temple wasn't playing.
I like Temple football more than the shore. But I'm not most people.
I looked at the record crowd of 30,648 on Friday night with a glass half-filled mentality.
It was a remarkable achievement, mostly due to the pounding of doors and pavement by an 81-year-old ex-Temple coach who had a dream and a commitment to it.
We all owe him a debt of thanks for filling the stadium beyond what most reasonably thought would be there. He did it despite the fact that only 77 Midshipmen were cleared to make the trip. An independent Scout.com report estimated that "at least 80-85 percent were Temple fans." And Al Golden Bobbleheads (inset) weren't even being given away, like they are this week to the first few thousand fans at Saturday's game with Buffalo.
Back in April when Hardin made the guarantee, he had hoped Navy would bring 30K and Temple 30K.
Instead, Navy brought 77 and Temple brought 30,583.
Or thereabouts.
By all accounts, it was a huge Temple presence and a dominant home crowd.
I thought all of this while driving home on Columbus Blvd. (better known as Delaware Avenue), all while passing places like Dave and Busters and other major night spots along that thoroughfare at 11:30 p.m.
Then another thought occurred to me.
On any other Friday night, the traffic would be at a standstill all along that busy row.
Here I was among only two or three cars owning the road.
If you don't think a large chunk of the city's population was down the Jersey Shore, that's all of the evidence you needed.

London and Baylark make NFL Practice Squads

Brandon London made the NY Giants practice squad.

Steve Baylark made the Arizona Cardinals practice squad.

More Colgate Stuff

UMass has some game notes up here . The complete pdf version is not yet available as I write this at 6:07am. Interesting factoid from the notes is that Charles Walker is the only player on the current UMass squad that played in the "Blizzard Bowl" in 2003. I was there as were a number of dedicated UMass fans.

Colgate does not have any game notes yet, but their RB Jordan Scott was the Patriot League Offensive player-of-the-Week.

UPDATE: CSN has its Nation Honors for week 1 out here . Delaware's Omar Cuff got it for leaving cleat marks all over the foreheads of William & Mary's front seven.

UPDATE II: The SME network has their FCS players-of-the-week here .

Courtney Robinson wins CAA Special Teams Award

UMass DB Courtney Robinson has won the CAA Special Teams Player-of-the-week award.

The CAA has the week's wrap-up here . Maine and Towson won. Richmond, JMU and Northeastern all lost their I-A games.

More UMass-Holy Cross articles

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has another post game article here .

And the Boston Herald continues to show that it is the only Boston paper that knows we exist.

UPDATE: Two more Holy Cross game articles from Matty Vautour here and here (registration required).

Looking at Colgate

The Colgate Raiders and Albany hooked up Saturday in a defensive struggle. The Raiders came out with a 13-11 win. Defensive is the word. Colgate had 183 total yards of offense. One Hundred eighty of those yards came from RB Jordan Scott who rushed 44-180.

The other Colgate score came from DB Cody Williams who returned a kickoff 87 yards. That's him in the image

The Colgate write up is here . Two game articles (Albany centric) are here and here .

Two Colgate centric articles here and here .

In the post below

Right click on the image for a larger view. Blogger won't let me add text.

Syracuse poster

UMass-Holy Cross Web Album up!

I've added a web album of 55 images from the UMass-Holy Cross game here . Click on the "Slide Show" for full size viewing.

Also added a link in the images section of the sidebar.

Hey! We're a little too negative about the game

On the drive back to New Hampshire I was was thinking mostly about our troubles in the second half and Holy Cross' gutsy comeback. After a night's sleep, things looked better in the morning.

GOOD THINGS:

• We scored 40 points, repeat 40 points. I'll take that any day.
• Matt Lawrence was a good as expected, 23-152 2 TDs 6.7 yds/carry (and remember he had a TD run called back)
• Tony Nelson 9-55 6.1 yards/carry
• Chris Koepplin was awesome. Two-for-two in FG with a 48 yard long. He averaged 62.9 yards on kickoffs!
• Courtney Robinson had the first kickoff return in 25 years (100 yards)
• The defense held the Crusaders to 43 net yards rushing.
• Brett Arnold had 44.3 average on his punts in his first game for us and smartly batted that over-the-head snap for a safety instead of trying to pick it up.
  
• 12,264 fans showed up for a Memorial Day weekend game. That's the best in memory!

THE BAD:

• Penalties 13-133 yards! That includes two unsportsmanlike 15 yarders. One TD was called back. This was very disappointing.
• Three fumbles and all impacted the game.
• Our vaunted secondary looked lost at times in the second half. We have three new starters and it looked it during Holy Cross' comeback.
• The DL was getting the pressure on the Crusader's QB, not the blitz.

CONCLUSION:

We showed some flashes of greatness and some deficiencies . Both the team and Coach Brown need to go some work on some aspects of our game.

However we're 1-0 and I'm still excited about the 2007 season!

UMass-Holy Cross Articles

The Worcester Telegram has articles here and here .

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has an article here .

The Boston Herald has two articles here and here .

And the Boston Globe (I guess they can't ignore us if we are actually playing games) has one here.

CSN covers the big games of FCS/I-AA here .

UMass Athletic Dept write-up here .

UPDATE: Matt Vautour of the Gazett has a post game article here (registration required)

UPDATE II: The Holy Cross athletic dept write-up is here .

Image of Matt Lawrence is an AP photo.

Cardinals cut Steve Baylark

The Arizona Cardinals have released Steve Baylark :(


He was one of 21 players cut including former William & Mary QB Lang Cambell.

Der Tag!

Finally the day has arrived. Go UMass!

The Jeff Thomas has a couple of articles here and here .

Under the for what it's worth category, Rhode Island thinks they're loaded .

Our Syracuse transfers receive more reinforcement that they did the right thing. Syracuse was hammered in it's opening game.

More Syracuse woe here .