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.

Rachel Eschenbach has thrown down the gauntlet

By Mike Gibson
Fitting that a Temple University fencer has thrown down the gauntlet in response to Lewis Katz's challenge.
Tell the New Jersey Nets' majority owner and 1963 Temple grad how to increase fan support for Temple's athletic teams, specifically basketball and football, and win $5,000 of Katz's hard-earned cash.
Rachel Eschenbach (pictured, we think) is a Temple fencer and she won the prize for some excellent suggestions.
She formulated a point system, rewarding students for attendance at athletic events.
Excellent suggestions, but we're not really sure if they are the right ones to put football fans in the seats.
Surely, there are even some better football-specific ideas out there.
In the spirit of what Rachel does for fun and sport, we say:
ON GUARD!!
TOUCHE!!
You take the sword now and keep brainstorming.
Just because Katz's $5,000 is not available anymore doesn't mean each one of us can't make a meaningful contribution to put some fannies in the seats at Lincoln Financial Field this fall.
Football quarterback Colin Clancy won second place for suggesting a class and structuring it to brainstorm further ideas.
Another player, former football kicker Cap Poklemba, showed what just one man can do in drumming up both support and enthusiasm at football games by acting like a one-man raving lunatic. He single-handedly aroused a theretofore moribund fan base into a whooping, involved mob bent for blood in the final three home games of the season.
With apologies to Rachel Eschenbach, Poklemba demonstrated that one man can make a huge difference.
We are many men and, in Rachel's case, women.
I'm taking Rachel's sword and pointing it at you now.
"You da man."
At least when it comes to meaningful ideas to transform an empty stadium into a full one.
Our brain power and kicking around of ideas can make a difference, like Rachel's ideas undoubtedly will and like Cap's enthusiasm undoutedly did.
Now it's up to you.
Take a few hours or days and come back to this story and post your ideas in the comments section here. We'll publish them as quick as possible and won't pass any judgments, negative or positive.
Before football season tickets go on sale, we'll pass all the suggestions on to both athletic director Bill Bradshaw and the hard-working guys in the ticket office.
Remember, nothing too crazy like offering $1,000 cash bonuses for successful field goals (although Cap could use the extra dough).
Something that would not cost much, but entice enough students, grads and Temple people to make the Linc a house of horrors for Owl foes.
Rachel took pen to paper and came away with 5K.
Her's is a good idea, but just one.
This project needs many more.

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.

Recruiting, Playoff changes and Rules changes

David Coulson of the Sports Network discusses how FCS teams did in recruiting.

It appears that the NCAA is going to allow 20 teams in the FCS Playoffs shortly.

The NCAA also is working on rules changes for 2008, which includes banning the horse colllar tackle. Another article on the rules changes here .

Uh-Oh! One of the rules changes is that there will be a yardage penalty for sidelines control. Was there a game in 2007 that we did not get one of those flags?

The changes in the playoff numbers will probably help the CAA. With 20 teams, it would be highly unlikely that a 8-3 CAA team would be left out-----as happened to UMass in 1993.

UPDATE: Some comments by Rivals staff about the proposed rule changes.

Recruiting 2008------Tyler Holmes LB

I've blogged before about Tyler Holmes a 6-0 195 pd LB from Blacksburg HS in Blacksburg VA.

He was All-State, All-Group AA Second Team and All-Region in 2007. District Defensive Player-of-the-Year in 2006 and Defensive Back-of-the-Year in 2007.

This article shows his signing day.

Welcome to the Minutemen, Tyler!

Wednesday Morning Odds & Ends

Well, it look like I won't be driving down to Amherst to the weekly Sports Luncheon to see Coach Brown talk about the recruits. I'll be digging out from the lasted snowstorm.

A couple of interesting items on the wires:

Somebody named Sparky Woods got Jim Reid's job at VMI.

BTW, if you haven't visited Reid's page at the Miami Dolphins, it's here (more UMass references than anywhere else).

Somehow I don't think this is good news: CBS buys out CSTV. While there may be money in the deal for CSTV, I get the feeling there will be less coverage on non-BCS schools. With the MSM, college football begins and ends with Ohio State-Michigan...

Will Brandon London get a Super Bowl ring?

As we know, former UMass star Brandon London is on the practice squad for the NY Giants.

I blogged before about this article .

The Giant players are getting a killer Super Bowl Ring.

Anyone know if London is eligible to get one?

Recruiting 2008------- Terrance Farris LB

Signing a LOI to UMass on Feb 6th was Terrance Farris a 6-0 195 pd linebacker from Dean College.

This page shows his signing day.

A speed guy, Farris was Honorable Mention All-State at South Cobb HS in Mapleton, GA. County Defensive Player-of-the-Year and All-Region. 2006 SA 100 and 200 meter sprint champ.

Terrance, welcome to the Maroon & White!

Recruiting 2008---------- LB Chris Chamberlin

Joining UMass this August will be Chris Chamberlin a 6-2 230 pd LB from Oliver Ames HS in South Easton. He played a year of prep ball at Canterbury School in Ct.

This article shows his signing day (as well as fellow UMass recruit Gilbert Parson).

He was first team All-New England, First Team All-Colonial league and First Team All League at Oliver Ames.

Welcome to UMass Chris!

Temple signing day video

Recruiting 2008 ------ Kumar Davis S/TB

Kumar Davis a 5-10 203 pd DB/TB from Paterson NJ took a recruiting visit to UMass on 02/09/08. He's a Scout.com two star recruit.

He is also being recruited by Stanford. His Scout.com page is here . If he gets into to Stanford, he's going to accept.

Another article about him and Stanford here .

Stanford is not doing well in signing players they recruited .

Nice to be competing with PAC10 schools for players. Hope he chooses UMass.

UMass Football Banquet February 29th

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

In case the fine print is not large enough on your screen to read, send check payable to UMass Football by 02/22/08 to:

UMass football
8 Boyden Building
131 Commonwealth Ave
Amherst, MA 01003-9253

Phone is 413-545-2026 ext 0

The UMass football Blog is planning on attending. The Football banquets are great fun. The buffet dinner is excellent and it is a chance to mingle with the UMass players and coaches.

In the past there have been rousing speeches by players such as Serge Tikum and James Ihedigbo.

And this year, according to Matty Vautour, there is going to be announcement about lights for McGuirk Stadium.

Hope to see you there!

Going where the players are ....

By Mike Gibson
The old folks are fond of saying it.
Back in the day.
You know, back in the day we did this, back in the day we did that.
Well, back in the day the map of where the football players are was strikingly different than it appears now.
About 40 years or so ago, there was a heavy concentration of players in Pennsylvania and Texas and a smattering of players everywhere else.
The shift has occurred now.
Pennsylvania still has a lot of nice Division IA football players but even though the size of the state is roughly the same as Florida, that state has about three times as many players.
Why?
One reason is, duh, the weather.
Kids can do the kind of rigorous outdoor workouts there all season that maybe snow days or very cold days prohibit.
Another is spring ball.
Yes, Florida high schools have spring football.
They have another season perfecting their game while Pennsylvania football players are playing basketball, baseball or lacrosse.
It makes a difference. The latest charts available are from 2002, but the statewide patterns of NFL players and what state they played their high school ball in has been pretty much the same.
The warm-weather states of Florida and California are where the players are at.
In this class of 26 football players at Temple University, Al Golden has stayed true to his recruiting footprint of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while grabbing a couple of players from Florida.
Here's the breakdown:

• Pennsylvania (12);
  
• New Jersy (4);
  
• Florida, Maryland (2);
  
• New York, Georgia, Texas, D.C., Va., Conn. (6).
  

You've got to like the approach.
Golden is getting players the big schools want, like Vaughn Carraway, James Nixon and Tony Cornelius, just to name a few. Still, he's trusting his gut and film on players like Alex Jackson and Quentin White.
It's a gut based on years of watching film.
Back in the day, Wayne Hardin had the same kind of gut recruiting for Temple University.
That turned out pretty good.
I trusted Hardin then and I'm going to trust Golden now.

Some Recruiting week odds & Ends

The Springfield Republican had this article Tuesday about UMass Football recruiting.

UMass' 2008 BCS game Texas Tech will be playing two FCS/I-A opponents this year. Tulsa bought out a game with the Red Raiders. So Texas Tech has added Eastern Washington as their opening opponent.
Stories here and here .

This article states that the recruit ranking services (Rivals, Scout.com) are wrong as often as they are right.

Meanwhile, economists at the prestigious Stetson school of business have created a software model that is able to pick a recruit's school choice with a 75% accuracy.

BTW, the nation's top recruit, Terrelle Pryor is still available-----can we text him?

The next time you see UMass AD John McCutcheon, ask him why Coach Brown does not have a helicopter...

Recruiting 2008 --- DJ Adeoba

Joining UMass this August will be Adedaji (DJ) Adeoba a 6-0 205 pd OLB from Hollywood FL

His Rivals page is here . He's a Rivals two star recruit.

This Recruiting Planet post says he held multiple BCS/I-A offers.

Welcome to the Minutemen DJ!

LOI Day Articles

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has an article here .

The Mass Daily Collegian here .

The Eagle-Tribune has an article about Warren Wilson transferring here .

An article about Korrey Davis signing with the Minutemen here .

Two articles about Darren Thellen joining UMass here and here .

The Boston Herald covers the New England recruits here .

UPDATE I: Want to know about how the other CAA teams did ---- or other FCS teams? CSN has a national FCS recruiting site .

UPDATE II: Matty Vautour does his usual excellent job covering the UMass recruiting class here .

UPDATE III: Apparently we did sign highly rated safety Tyrone McBride. Read this story . We must not have all the paperwork. Whew!













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Bonus Coverage: Rhode Island signs 20 Recruits . New Hampshire signs 14 . Maine signs 18 .
How would you like to have been Northeastern's Coach Rocky Hager, with Northeastern considering dropping football? He signed 10 recruits . Hofstra added 20 .

And Big Sky team Montana added a big recruiting class of 33 recruits .

Bonus Coverage II: Villanova likes its 15 recruits .

Don't forget the other guys

By Mike Gibson
Inside of the Edberg-Olson Hall Football Complex, Al Golden was talking about the 26 guys who just signed to become football players at Temple University.
It's a great class, perhaps the best of three good ones Golden brought to North Broad Street.
In the middle of it all, Golden took time to look outside.
"I'm looking right now and there's 70-75 guys out there right now," he said. "This is their day off."
The calendar says spring ball begins in March.
Reality said it began the Monday after the Western Michigan game.
Go to the E-O on any day and you'll see plenty of Owls working out on their own.
The media came to learn about the new class, but mostly what they saw was the culture changing outside.
Joe Jones is part of that culture. He's a three-star running back who's rehabbing an injury.
Don't count him out of the competition for starting running back.
"Joey Jones is someone everyone in this room has a lot of respect for," Golden said. "He's a great kid. He's done a great job in the classroom. He wants to be here. You can't say enough about that."
Golden is slowly molding his team with 18 high school team captains among the current 26 on top of the 20-plus Golden signed in the first two classes.
"I really say this is our second recruiting class," Golden said. "It's hard to say that we had a first recruiting class. We had six weeks."
It's obvious that Golden is building a house of brick. It's becoming so nice he might want to live in it awhile once it's done.
"I am here," he said, when asked about speculation about him. "My heart's here. My family's here. This is where I want to be. Let's not put the carraige before the horse here. We won four games. Four and a half.
"I voted with my feet. What do you say to that?"
So, too, did the 70-75 guys practicing right outside.
This might have been a day to discuss the new guys but core guys were right outside on that field.
Don't forget those guys, too.

UMass 2008 Football Recruits Up

The UMass website has a list of 16 recruits for 2008 posted.

There are:

• four Linebackers
• two Wide Receivers
• one Tailback
• three Defensive linemen
• four Offensive linemen
• one Defensive back

More details later.

UPDATE I: Rivals has a partial list up of the UMass recruits here . Note that one of our top verbals Tyrone McBride did not appear on UMass list. That's not a good sign unless they did not get his LOI for some reason.

UPDATE II: Interesting. No fullbacks...

UPDATE III: The top page at the UMass Athletic site has video of Bob Behler interviewing Coach Brown. At the end, Brown infers recruiting is not done yet.

New York OL verbals to UMass

Sean O'Conner a 6-7 275 pd OL from Iona Prep in NY has verbaled to UMass.

This article has a lot of information about him.

He choose UMass over Maine, Northeastern and Sacred Heart.

Welcome to UMass Sean!

JUCO LB verbals to the Minutemen

The San Mateo Daily Journal has an article stating that Kurt Filler a 6-3 230 pd LB from College of San Mateo has verbaled to UMass.

Information about him in this article. His Scout.com page is here .

Welcome to the Maroon & White Kurt!

Brockton WR/DB verbals to UMass

The Boston globe has confirmed that Darren Thellen has verbaled to UMass. Story here (page two)

I've blogged about Thellen back on December 28th.

Welcome to UMass Darren!

West Roxbury WR verbals to UMass

The Boston Herald reports that Julian Colarusso a 6-4 WR from West Roxbury, MA has verbaled to UMass.

His Rivals page is here .

I've blogged about Colarusso back on December 17th.

He had interest from UConn, BC and Buffalo.

Welcome to the Minutemen, Julian!

While we're waiting....

As you know I live in the great Granite State. There are many reasons, but the quality of life is excellent.

One reason the quality of life is good ------ criminals do not last long in New Hampshire.

Recruiting 2008---- LB Cyprian Oyomba

Considering UMass is Cyprian Oyomba a 6-1 230 LB from Norwalk Ct. Story here .

He was First Team All-State .

Also considering Temple, Lafayette and Wesleyan.

UMass adds two verbals from Virginia

The Roanoak Times reports two Virginia players have committed to UMass (scroll to end).

Tyler Holmes a 5-11 188 pd LB from Blacksburg choose an offer from UMass over a chance to walk on at Virginia Tech. He was First Team All-State. Two time All-Timesland.

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Also choosing UMass was Korrey Davis a 5-9 175 pd RB from Lynchburg VA. His Rival.com page is here . Has video!

He drew recruiting interest from Maryland, Temple, Virginia, VA Tech and Liberty.

Meet the 2008 Owls

By Mike Gibson
It's this time of year that Al Golden checks the plug in fax machine at the Edberg-Olson Hall Football Complex and makes sure the tray is filled with paper.
Heck, if necessary, he'll bring in a backup fax machine or two just in case.
Fortunately, all the other work has been done and the fax machine should be humming on Wednesday with commitments in the form of signed letters-of-intents from your newest Temple Owls.
If there's a theme this season, it's that playmakers make plays and there is an abundance of playmakers in this current class.
These are the guys likely to fax their letter-of-intents Wednesday. The good news is that they are have a long history of making winning football plays. The better news that, with the exception of one or two players at the MOST, all of these guys will be in uniform by summer practice.
It is by OBJECTIVE accounts, especially the one published by Scout.com, the No. 1 class by a lot in the Mid-American Conference.
That's the third straight year Golden has pulled in a class rated No. 1 by either Scout.com, Rivals.com, collegefootballnews.com, all three (last year), just both or just one.
If you don't think that's going to translate into results on the field of play sooner than later, you are just not paying attention.
Or you are an Ostrich.
Many thanks to Scout.com, Rivals.com and informed fans like tchaump for helping us crosscheck this list with what's available off reliable internet sources.
It may not be exact, but it's darn close and in no particular order:
Adrian Robinson, LB, Harrisburg _ A three-star linebacker who the premier recruiting expert on the Scout.com network, Matt Alkare, says, "I've seen this kid play several times and he's a big-time stud." Has already academically qualified. Could become an immediate starter at either outside or inside linebacker.
Tony Cornelius, RB, Boca Raton, Fla. _ An Iowa de-commit who committed to Temple and a second-team All-State running back (large schools) in Florida. An immediate factor in the Owls' starting backfield.
Alex Jackson, DE, Dunnellon, Fla. _ A 6-foot-4, 225-pound end who one Palm Beach Post writer told us reminds him of "a young Reggie White." Nuff said.
Anthony Rapley, TE, Georgia _ Was a first-team all-state tight end in Georgia.
Ahkeem Smith, RB, Bethlehem Liberty _ Scored 15 touchdowns for Liberty and rushed for over 1,000 yards. A two-time Allentown Morning Call all-area first team selection.
Deven Baker, WR, Bound Brook, N.J. _ How this excellent wide receiver escaped the clutches of his hometown Rutgers' squad is RU's loss and Temple's gain.
Cedric Hammond, WR, Washington, D.C. _ One of the best wide receivers in Washington, D.C., Hammond developed a reputation for great hands.
Vaughn Carraway, WR, Laureldale, Pa. _ First three-star wide receiver ever to turn down Michigan to accept a Temple offer. Carraway will get a chance to show his considerable skills here. Will push for a starting job as a freshman. Already academically qualified.
Kevin Kroboth, athlete, Nazareth High _ Playing for a traditionally losing program, the coaches there had to use Kroboth at a variety of positions from safety to wide receiver to punt returner to quarterback, his most recent position. Temple coaches will use him the same way to fill an area of most need.
Shahid Pauhill, DE, North Catholic _ Think Michael Strahan and you get the kind of game this North Catholic Falcon has.
Josh Williams, DE, Arizona Western _ Is already a Temple student and ready to play spring ball. That gives him a leg, or two, up on the rest of the class.
James Nixon, RB, Connecticut (via North Bridgton, Maine) _ A Connecticut signee out of high school, was rated the top running back out of that state as a high school senior. He could be the sleeper of this class only because a lot of fans don't know how good he is. From our reports, he's every bit as explosive a running back as Smith and Cornelius are. Could end up a starter. Academically qualified already.
Malcolm Williams, RB, Reading _ Played the same type of "wing T" quarterback position at Reading High that Boston College recruit Eric Reynolds sometimes ran snaps out of at Central Bucks South. Didn't have the RB snaps Reynolds did, hence his less impressive stats. Don't let that fool you, though. Reports we get from the Reading Eagle guys are that he's every bit the RB Reynolds is.
Steve Caputo, OL, Unionville _ Big and strong with impressive speed and bench press numbers, Caputo is a beast with a brain. Turned down solid Syracuse offer to come to Temple and could probably start right now if the Owls played a game tomorrow.
Wayne Tribue, OL, Central York _ Comes from the same high school that produced former Owl quaterback Matty Baker and with Caputo-type street cred.
Muhammad Wilkerson, DE, Hargrave (Va.) _ Played his prep ball for Hargrave Military Academy, but was a top high school player at Linden. Tremendous explosiveness off the ball. Not only one of the best football players in the state of New Jersey as a senior, but one of the top basketball players as well. Big Mo should immediately become a part of the most fiercesome four-man DE rotation in the MAC. Think what the Giants did to Tom Brady and just times it by four.
Tahir Whitehead, S, West Side, Newark (N.J.) _ A fierce hitter at safety, he will fit right in with assistant head coach Mark D'Onofrio's attacking defensive schemes. West Side experienced a "mini-Temple" like rebirth, going from 1-9 to 7-3. Whitehead was a big part of that resurgence.
Jeffrey Legree, QB, Fort Hamilton, Bronx (N.Y.) _ A quarterback with an outstanding skill set, speed and elusiveness and a strong arm, Legree is working hard to get qualified. If he does, great. If he doesn't, there's a chance he'll go the prep route. Either way, he figures to be in the Owls' quarterback plans once he qualifies.
Ryan Murray, OL, Bok _ A 6-6, 335 lineman with great physical tools, played for former Owl quarterback, Tom DeFelice, in South Philly. Should provide depth on the line.
Marlin Terrell, DB, Coppell, Tex. _ High school football is a religion in Texas and Terrell made enough plays on film to wow the Temple coaches. Anyone who has seen the film on this kid, as I have, knows he's a very special player. If Daryl Robinson gets moved to lock-down left corner, this guy can easily lock down the other side.
Geoffrey Prather, LB, Archbishop Carroll _ A perennial all-league and all-Delco linebacker who has the speed to play safety, if needed, for the Owls.
Others (that we could not find film or enough written reports to make an informed evaluation) include Maurice Jones, athlete, Belleville, N.J.; and Sean and Pat Boyle (Calvert Hall brothers and offensive linemen), Quinten White, a linebacker from Cardinal Dougherty and Lawrence Turner, a linebacker from Newport News, Va.
If we left anyone out, we apologize.
There's about 24 hours left to sort this all out for good.

UMass Football 2008--- Receivers

I've been doing a series of posts on the state of the 2008 UMass football team. This is the fifth in the series as today we look at the UMass receivers for the coming year.

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:

WR Open
------Open

WR Open
------Jeromy Horn Redshirt Junior

TE Ian Jorgensen Redshirt Senior
-----Matt Silver Redshirt Junior

Other WR's on the roster include: Joe Sanford, Ryan Logan, Ke'Mon Bailey, Torrey Esalomi, Victor Cruz, Tom Gilson, Julian Talley, Arron Fears and Jonathan Emond.

Other TE's on the roster are: Rob Getek.

Discussion: Lots of new jobs open up as UMass lost the top three receives from the 2007 squad. Rancher, Moore and Omar combined for 173 catches. The fourth leading player in catches was Matt Lawrence with 17 more receptions.

TE Ian Jorgensen is the leading returning receiver with 15 catches and five TD's.

At WR, I think Jeromy Horn will be an instant starter. Joe Sanford only had four catches, but two of them were TD's. He could move into Omar's utility receiver slot.

Three of the UMass reserves in 2007 have some serious speed as Fears, Cruz and Esalomi are very fast. Julian Talley was highly rated in HS and will be in the mix for a starting position.

In 2008, UMass will be down to three TE's on the roster. All of them will play.

UMass seems to be fairly deep at WR. I could see Coach Brown bringing in at least one TE. I think UMass switches to a speed game at WR as opposed to the big wideouts we've had for the last four years.

Tyrone McBride verbals to UMass

UMass picked up another big recruit as three star safety Tyrone McBride from Winslow NJ verbaled to UMass.

His Rivals.com page is here .

His MassScout.com page is here .

McBride picked UMass over a bunch of BCS schools including UConn, Iowa, Minnesota, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee and Akron.

He joins two other Winslow grads, Jeromy Miles and Julian Talley at UMass.

Welcome to the Minutemen Tyrone! Hope you have a great career with the Maroon & White.

UMass Football 2009 ----- Running Backs

I've been doing a series of posts on the state of the 2008 UMass football team. This Friday I covered Quarterbacks. Today we finish the offensive backfield by considering the returning running backs and try to guess what the coaching staff has in store for us in 2008.

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:

TB Open
---- Tony Nelson Junior

FB Open
---- Chris Zardas (injured) Junior

According to the last roster list we will have only two fullbacks on the squad Chris Zardas and Chris Cefalo.

As tailbacks we will have in addition to Nelson are : Alphonsus Aquh, Emil Iqwenaqu and Jonathan Hernandez.

Discusssion: Tony Nelson will be an instant starter. The question is who will be his backup and next in line to be the featured back in one of the top FCS programs in the nation.

I have not seen either Hernandez or Iqwenaqu in action. It will be interesting to see them in the spring game. Chris Cefalo appeared in 10 games as a special teams player and had four tackles. I believe both Hernandez and Iqwenaqu had Redshirts.

This would appear to be a priority recruiting area for UMass this year. UMass does not have a lot of bodies at either position. We need fullbacks as Chris Zardas will be a Junior and will be coming off an injury. Nelson will be a Junior. I would not be surprised to see some BCS transfers at both TB and FB.

Super Sunday Odds & Ends

According to the UMass Sports Luncheons post card I just received, Coach Brown will be at the February 13th Sports Luncheon and will have film of this year's recruits. Also speaking will be Toot Cahoon , Travis Ford and Mens Skiing Coach Skip Fox. Should be a really full show.

Call 413-545-4290 to sign up.

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The Salem News has an update on Chris Zardas' rehab. Story here (scroll to end of article). Good to see that Chris is recovering and has a positive attitude. Hope he has a great year in 2008.

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Remember when UMass punter Christian Koegel did some modeling? Well, Spencer Ridenhour's mom may be doing some professional modeling of her own.

More Articles on Brandon London

The Boston Globe has another article on Brandon London's work with the NY Giants.

Chris Kennedy of the Springfield Republican has an article here about London.

Matty Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette also has an article about London here .

I blogged back on Monday about London's article in the NY papers .

Recruiting 2008----- DB Franklin Brown

Sources say UMass has offered to Franklin Brown a 6-2 185 pd DB from State Champion Booker T. Washington HS in Miami, FL.

His FlordiaVarsity.com page is here .

InsidetheU.com page here . This article also mentions him.

He's also being recruited by Florida Atlantic.

Franklin, hope you choose UMass!

Introducing Tony 'Soul Train' Cornelius

By Mike Gibson
Tony "Soul Train" Cornelius plans to major in business.
It looks like he already has the concept of risk/reward mastered.
If only Eric Reynolds were so smart.
Cornelius announced today that he has de-committed from his verbal to Iowa to attend Temple.
There are at least two reasons why this stands out Cornelius' first excellent business decision.
One, Temple has the top-ranked undergradute business school in the nation, The Fox School of Business.
You think of Penn and you think of Wharton, which is the top post-grad school.
You think of Temple and you think of Fox.
Second, risk/reward.
Temple wants to move one of last year's featured backs, Daryl Robinson, to lock-down corner.
That opens a spot.
If Cornelius is the player we think he is and the player he thinks he is, there's a good chance that he'll grab it. The position of tailback is essentially open, between two Florida guys, Boca Raton's Cornelius and South Broward's Joe Jones and Bethlehem Liberty's Ahkeem Smith. Maybe holdovers Jason Harper and Robinson.
That's it.
The risk is negative and the reward is positive.
Take a look at the video and judge for yourself.
We like the daytime clip that shows him on the left side outrunning two guys who have angles on him. It's hard enough to outrun a guy in a Florida high school game.
It's almost impossible to do it when one guy has an angle on you.
It is impossible when two of them do, but Cornelius proves the impossible is possible in the above clip.
If you don't believe me, look for yourself. Even if you do believe me, look for yourself.
The music isn't NFL films quality but the football is.
Now that Cornelius has the concept of risk reward mastered, we'll package him with a nickname: Soul Train.
The Iowa Hawkeye website reports that Soul Train creator Don Cornelius is Tony's grandfather, but we haven't been able to confirm that elsewhere.
Nevertheless, the nickname is good enough to stick.
Soul Train. It befits the way he transports the football.
I like that.
Hopefully, he will, too, in time.

2008----- Quarterbacks

I've been doing a series of posts on the state of the 2008 UMass football team. Last Wednesday I finished the defensive side of the ball with a look at the defensive line. Today we start considering the offense. Unlike the defense where we lost only four players out of the two-deep, the offense needs a major rebuild. Nine offensive players from the two-deep graduated this year.

We'll start with the UMass quarterbacks. 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:

QB -- Liam Coen Senior
------Scott Woodward Junior

There are two other QBs on the UMass roster, both will be redshirt Freshmen this year. Scott Wallace and Octavious Hawkins were recruited last year.

Discussion: Obviously, nothing except for injury could derail Liam Coen's march through the UMass record books in his senior year. One record he does not hold is playoff wins. Todd Bankhead leads all UMass quarterbacks with five. Coen has four post season wins going into this year.

Left handed QB Scott Woodward will be a senior in 2009. He wants to compete for a starting position. Woodward appeared in four games : Maine, BC, Towson and Northeastern. He went 13-25 52.0 Pct 143 yds 21 long 100.05 EFF.

Last year Scott Wallace made the traveling team as the third QB, but did not get any game time. I have the feeling that the UMass coaching staff is pleased with the recruitment of highly rated Octavious Hawkins and he will be strong candidate for a starting job in 2009.

The UMass football blog is looking forward to the Spring Game. It will be interesting to see who get the most reps at QB. The Blog also looks forward to seeing both the freshmen in action for the first time.

The conventional wisdom is that a team should recruit a QB each year. With lots of needs at WR , RB and OL, this Blog is not sure how Brown will spend the limited number of scholarships this year.