Texas Tech game settled

Matt Vautour reports that UMass has agreed to play Texas Tech in September 2008 (registration required).

I have previously blogged about this in October.

The Red Raiders are currently 9-2 and will play in the Cotton Bowl against Alabama.

The Texas Tech will be a load. The played two I-AA teams this year. The Red Raiders beat Sam Houston State 80-21 and Indiana State 63-7...

Recruiting #9 Michael Morante

Considering UMass is Michael Morante a 6-1, 245 pd OG from Peters Township in Venetia PA.

Morante runs a 4.84 40 and has a 3.0 GPA.

* Also recruited by Georgetown and Villanova
* Played LB as well as OG
* Team captain in 2005
* This article mentions him

Hope he chooses UMass!

Kervis commits to Eastern Michigan

Andrew Kervis, a 6-5 235 pd DE, who was being recruited by UMass and mentioned in this blog post committed to Eastern Michigan on 12/21/05.

Note that you can search the UMass Football Fanzone by using the "Search This Blog" button at the top.

Look what Santa brought!

Santa was good to the UMass Fanzone and brought a very cool UMass football. It will go in a place of honor in my den.

If anyone from the UMass Administration ever reads this blog: "Hey! How about marketing some UMass replica Football Jerseys!"

I would love one! UMass fans have not been able to buy football jerseys for years. I'd get one with Shipp's/Baylark's number 5, and another with a higher number when I was in a linebacker frame of mind.

Please!

Blogging around the Christmas Tree...

Have a happy holidays!

This blog would like to wish all its readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays!

For all UMass fans here's hoping that Santa has the following in this pack for 2006:

• A trip to Annapolis to see UMass play Navy
• Season ticket for six home games in '06
• A great year following UMass football

For the UMass team:

• A trip to the playoffs
  
• A year free from injury
• A 3.0 gradepoint average to all

For the UMass Coaching staff:

• Recognition for all they do for the team and the University
• Lots of big recruits who run real fast
  
• A chance to coach in the National Championship game.

Hope everybody has a safe and happy holiday.

Navy crushes Colorado State

UMass plays Navy on 09/09/06 as our I-A game. See previous blogs (scroll down) for other info.

Note that Navy blew out Colorado State in the PoinsettiaBowl last night.

Navy rang up 611 total yards of offense. Soph. Slotback Reggie Campbell had 290 total yards of offense with a 7.2 yards/carry. The other two Navy running backs averaged 8.6 and 11.4 yards/carry!

The UMass defense better eat their Wheaties!

UMass legend Jim Reid hired as head coach at VMI

UMass legend Jim Reid has been hired as the new Head Coach at VMI.

This is the official VMI article. The local press has another article here.

Congratulations to Jimmie Reid! VMI will get better quick!

Recruiting #8 Jesse Castillio

UMass is recruiting Jesse Castillio a 6-2 290 pd OG from Cambridge Rindge & Latin in Cambridge MA.

Castillio runs a 5.3 40. He was 2005 First Team Greater Boston League.

Also considering New Hampshire and Northeastern.

Hopefully he will choose UMass!

Recruiting #7 Stefan Stauber

UMass is recruiting Stefan Stauber a 6-3 190 pd WR from Holyoke MA. Stauber runs a 4.5 40 and benches 210.

Some of his stats are here. The Springfield Union has some of his exploits in the Holyoke-Chicopee game here .

Also being recruited by Boston College, UConn and Northeastern.

Looks like good size and speed. Hope he chooses UMass.

UMass Legend Jim Reid finalist for VMI Head Coach

Football Scoop has an article (scroll down) that former UMass head coach Jim Reid is a finalist for the open position of Head Coach at VMI.

Jimmie Reid is a great coach and an even better person. I have blogged before on his hiring as Defensive Line coach at Bucknell.

That Blog details some of Reid's accomplishments at UMass. Here's hoping that he gets the job at VMI!

Recruiting #6 Cedric Odita

Considering UMass is Cedric Odita a WR from Rochester NY. He is 6-3 180 and runs a 4.6 40.

Also being recruited by Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Syracuse and Temple.

This article has some information about him.

Cedric, we'd love to have you!

Partial UMass 2006 Football schedule

For those planning their 2006 vacation schedule (I assume a bunch of UMass folks are going to Annapolis for the Navy game), here is a partial UMass 2006 schedule (unofficial) .

9/2 vs. Colgate
9/9 at Navy
9/16 at Villanova
10/7 vs. William & Mary
10/14 at Towson
11/4 at New Hampshire
11/18 vs. Hofstra

I'll post more when I get it.

Brad Anderson named UMass Fall Scholar-Athlete

Brad Anderson LB (6-0 230 pds) has been named UMass' Fall Scholar-Athlete. Anderson achieved a 3.3 average in his major.

Anderson was the second-leading tackler on the defense with 62 total tackles, 17 solo, 45 ast, 2.5-14 TFL/yds.

The article article also clears up some confusion as to his status. He was listed as a senior on the UMass roster. However, the article states that he is a junior in football eligibility. It seems that he will be back for the 2006 season, which is good news for UMass.

The image above shows one of his eleven tackles against Army (Click to enlarge). He had an excellent season and his return will help the UMass defense in 2006!

Navy's Schedule in 2006

I have blogged about future UMass I-A opponents in this post.

UMass opens with Navy on 09/09/06.

The rest of Navy's 2006 schedule is here (unofficial) :

East Carolina
UMass
@ Stanford
Tulsa
@ Conn
@ USAFA
Rutgers
Notre Dame
@ Duke
@ Eastern Michigan
Temple
Army

More Awards for UMass Players

Awards continue to roll in for UMass football players for the 2005 season.

• Walter Camp All-Americans: Shannon James and Christian Koegel
• New England Coaches All New England:Shannon James, Keron Williams, Serge Tikum and Christian Koegel
• American Football Coaches All-American: Shannon James
  

KAEO Ben Albert

Minuteman legend Ben Albert has been hired by Delaware as their new linebackers coach.

This is a cut-and-past from the article: "Albert comes to Delaware with nine years of college coaching experience, most recently at Atlantic 10 rival University of Richmond where he was defensive line and special teams coach in 2004 under first-year head coach Dave Clawson. He began his coaching career in 1996 at Massachusetts, coached his first stint at Richmond in 1997-00, moved to Rutgers for the 2001 season, and went back to Massachusetts for two seasons in 2002-03 before returning to Richmond. He was a three-year starting defensive lineman at Massachusetts where he earned All-Yankee Conference honors in 1994 and posted career totals of 187 tackles and 14 sacks. He earned both his bachelor's degree (1995) and master�s degree (1997) from Massachusetts"

While at UMass Albert:

• Was a four year starter at DT.
• UMass Co-Captain in 1994
  
• First Team All-Yankee Conference
• Intercepted a pass and rumbled 17 yards to beat Holy Cross 7-3 in 1992. That win broke Holy Cross' longest home winning streak. I was there and the play was right in front of me.

The image above is a scan from the 1994 UMass Football press guide. The image is un-attributed. Click on the image to enlarge.

Delaware's linebackers just got better!

Yes, Virginia is a Santa Claus

Breaking news: Palmer, Bradshaw moving in the direction of a hug ... read below ...
By Mike Gibson
No, there is not a word missing in that headline.
The University of Virginia has been a Santa Claus to three fellow institutions of higher learning, giving a Prince to Kansas State, a Rocco to another smaller university in Robert E. Lee's state and a Golden to Temple.
Of the three, Santa saved his biggest and highest-quality gift for the Temple University Owls.
Al Golden is the present that won�t be falling apart a couple of weeks after its unwrapping.
Rocco will be working for Jerry Falwell. Enough said.
Prince was roundly criticized for his play calling, by Virginia fans and media, all season.
Golden, in addition to his ultra successful history as a recruiter, has guided the Virginia defense to five straight productive seasons.
He never came under the kind of scrutiny Prince did because he delivered the goods on defense.
Temple fans can only hope he delivers the same kind of goods with his hands behind the wheel of their program.
Palmer, Bradshaw make up
Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw is not making kissy-face with former Temple running back legend Paul Palmer just yet.
But at least the two are moving in the direction of a hug.
�Bill called me and asked me to come here and I appreciate that,� Palmer told me after the press conference..
Bradshaw made it a point to seek out Palmer and ask him to stand.
Palmer said the door is open, on his part, for a return to the Temple broadcasting team.
In a related development, Palmer admitted to saying �someone needs to grow some (balls)� in reference to former head coach Bobby Wallace�s play calling during the Virginia Tech game two years ago, despite repeated public denials by his engineer.
�I said it,� Paul said, laughing. �Pat (the engineer) was supposed to dump it, but didn�t. I guess that�s why (he denies Paul saying it). He�s just covering for me.�
Klecko lectures media
Another former Temple legend, tackle/nose guard/end Joe Klecko, lectured a group of reporters during the press conference.
The quote only made the Asbury Park Press.
"You talk about the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, you talk about Army's history. Temple has that, too," said Klecko. "It's hidden really because they haven't brought it out of the archive for so many years now. But from Pop Warner to the great teams I played on with Steve Joachim, and so on.
"I told Al in the back, I'll do anything for him. I can be a unique help to him because not only did I go here, my son Dan recently went here, and I played at the next level and Dan's playing in the NFL right now."

Recruiting #5 Alex Blucher

UMass has offered a scholarship to Alex Blucher, a 5-10 185 pd CB from Chaminade-Madonna in Hollywood, FL.

Blucher has also been offered by Iowa State. He has interest from Iowa, Purdue, Georgia State and Costal Carolina.

This article mentions him.

There are video highlights of his play here .

NCAA Football Recruiting Regulations

Interested in College Football Recruiting? Here are some links towards understanding the NCAA rules that coaches labor under.

First off is the recruiting calendar. It gives the dates that contacts can be made with the athlete.

Definitions of terms found in the calendar such as "quiet period" and the like can be found here.

If you're would really like to delve into NCAA regs, the 18-page coaches manual is available here (PDF).

Letter of intent day is coming in February!

UMass Football Desktop Wallpaper

Above is the image that I have been using on my personal computer as the desktop wallpaper. Click on the image to enlarge.

It is a scan of a post card sent to me by the UMass Alumni Association. All UMass grads should belong to the Alumni Association. They do numerous good works for the University and the Alumni Association has strongly supported UMass Athletics in the past.

There is no copywrite symbol on the postcard and I called the Alumni Association and asked if I could use the image on my blog. They did not seem to know what I was talking about...

Since they are giving away the postcards and no one seemed to care at the Alumni Association, we'll take it that it's ok to use the image.

The game is the UMass-Colgate game of 09/22/04. UMass won 30-20.

Note that I have some images of that same game on my blog archives. See them here (scroll down to last image).

If any one wants the full-rez version of the scan, email me. Have a fat pipe; it's large.

For Golden, it feels like home

By Mike Gibson
If there was any doubt that Al Golden knew Philadelphia, Temple University or the area, it was erased today.
�This is my son, A.J. and my wife, Kelly,� Golden told the assembled media, players and fans in attendance. �We were on the beach in Stone Harbor (N.J.) and he decided he didn�t want to stay in anymore. We ended up at Cooper Medical Center the next three weeks in Camden.�
It was a natural progression from Stone Harbor to Camden and now Philadephia for the 23d Temple University football coach in its history.
Golden was born and raised in Colts Neck, N.J., the same town Dan Klecko became a high school star in before coming to Temple University.
Dan Klecko�s father, Joe, a superstar of some note himself, was in attendance.
Speculation raged about possible assistants, but Golden was understandably playing it close to the vest.
�I can�t say anything about that now,� Golden said. �People have to go through human resources and all of that.�
Golden did say plenty Tuesday, actually his second day on the job.
Well, maybe his third.
�This whole thing went down on Sunday,� said the former Virginia defensive coordinator. �I�ve spent the last two days drawing up a recruiting chart and I�m pretty proud of that. We have guys we�ve targeted and we�re already working on that.�
Golden knows how to chart recruits pretty well, having done much of the recruiting for Tom O�Brien at Boston College, Joe Paterno at Penn State and Al Groh at Virginia.
Golden said that �I last saw the Temple campus some 18 years ago� while being recruited by then Temple head coach Bruce Arians and �that so much has changed. ...you can recruit here. We�re going to be able to recruit here.
�This is a beautiful place and a great campus. We stayed at Conwell Hall last night and we walked around campus and this place is alive at night. I talked to some of the students at the 7-11. They didn�t know who I was, but that was OK.
�Recruiting kids to this campus will be a big plus, one of our strengths. I did know what they did here in the past but, we�re going to recruit an area from Boston to D.C. and west of Pittsburgh. That will be our core area.�
To the players, Golden said: �I don�t know what�s happened before and I can�t apologize for it, but you are going to get the best I have and the best our staff has. I will never turn down a request to talk to a player.�

Raw Data: Atlantic 10 OOC Results

With the losses of Richmond and UNH in the second round of the National Championship tourney, the A10's season is over.

The A10 went 25-14 OOC overall.

• Four of those wins were against DII Schools (the A10 went 4-0)
• Five of the losses were against I-A schools (the A10 went 0-5)
• The A10's overall winning percent was 64.1% (25-39)
• The A10's winning percent against I-AA teams was 70% (21-9)
• Three of the nine A10 losses were from Northeastern, who went 0-3 OOC
  

Recruiting 2006 #4 Andrew Krevis

Interested in UMass is Andrew Krevis a 6-5 235 pd DE from Milford Academy in New Berlin NY. Krevis runs a 4.75 40.

Also recruiting him are Boston College, Duke, Iowa, Michigan State, Buffalo and UCF.

Hopefully, Andrew will consider UMass as his choice. One good thing about I-AA football is that because of less scholarships, recruits are looking at more playing time than at I-A schools.

Recruiting 2006 #3 Matt Flynn

UMass is also recruiting a teammate of WR Ryan Abdilla that we talked about in recruiting post #2.

Considering UMass is Matt Flynn a 5-11 175 pd pro-style QB from Mainland Regional in Linwood NJ

Flynn's stats were 121-210, 1818 yds, 21 TDs 4.8 40.

Also recruited by Delaware, Hofstra and DII

Newspaper articles here and here mention both Flynn and Abdilla

As of Saturday morning, it's official

Al Golden to become 23d head coach at Temple University in a press conference Tuesday, 2 p.m., at the Liacouras Center. ... Good luck, Al
By Mike Gibson
Put aside the fact that no one has ever seen what Al Golden can do running a team with a clipboard in his hand.
Every other indication points to Golden, the current Virginia defensive coordinator, having a terrific career as Temple University head coach.
Golden stocked the Boston College roster with outstanding talent that has perpetuated itself to this day.
As recruiting coordinator at his alma mater, Penn State, he did the same.
He comes to Temple with an insiders' knowledge of the East Coast, its players and the potential to win at Temple University. As an assistant coach to Tom O'Brien, in two trips to Philadelphia, he went home a loser to the Temple Owls.
O'Brien, after watching the $7 million Edberg-Olson Hall go up at Temple University, remarked to the Boston Globe in the ultimate backhanded compliment, "now even Temple has better facilities than us."
It should be interesting to see what level of talent Golden can attract to Edberg-Olson Hall to prepare to play in the greatest football stadium in America, Lincoln Financial Field.
The one question remains, as is the one question with any assistant coach, is how he'll do under the pressure of calling those plays and running that program.
Al Golden has prepared all of his life for this moment. Greg Schiano, a terrific recruiter at Rutgers, has been routinely criticized for his game-day coaching.
Maybe Temple will luck out and, in Golden, get superb recruiter and a great gameday coach.
Whatever, Golden will now have his chance.
Last year, he turned down Charlie Weis' offer to become Notre Dame defensive coordinator. That wasn't quite the right fit, in his mind.
This is.
This is his time.
With this hiring, Temple had a chance to both turn around the perception of its program in Philadelphia and beyond. They could have had the Joe Philadelphia fan say "wow" with this hiring, if it had been a big name like Rick Neuheisel, Mike Price or Dennis Erickson and, to a lesser extent, Jim Harbaugh and Bruce Arians _ recognizable names in this heavily pro football town.
Early, the rumors circulated that a big-time alumnus would deliver the money needed to attack a name like Neuheisel. The late rumor was that another alumnus agreed to pay the salary of Bruce Arians and was refused.
The administration could have had "Joe Philadelphia Fan" saying "wow, Temple hired him?"
Now the few Joe Philadephia fans who care will likely say: "Who?"
At this point, though, who cares?
With creative funding, Bill Bradshaw could have delivered both flash and substance.
Instead, he settled for substance.
Already, there is considerable consternation on the Rutgers' board over the rumor that Mark D'Onofrio will become Temple defensive coordinator and more over what Golden can do for Temple.
Al Golden has substance written all over his face and more importantly his resume.
With substance comes results and with results there will be enough flash to light up a Fourth of July party.
Thanks to Temple Football Forever's h-t-m-l consultant NJ Schmitty, good luck to someone who will be known for the forseeable future as "Owl" Golden.

Recruiting 2006 #2 Ryan Abdilla

Considering UMass in 2006 is Ryan Abdilla a 6-1, 185 pd WR/DB from Mainland Regional in Linwood NJ.

This year he had 32 rec, 536 yds, 12 TD, 16.7 yds/catch, 4.5 40.

Also recruited by Rutgers, Delaware and Hofstra.

Ryan, if you or your parents are googling your name, and end up here at the UMass Football Fanzone, we'd love to have you at UMass!

UMass Football recruiting 2006 post #1

What does Ashley Judd topless have to do with college football recruiting, you might ask?

Good question! I went to Google Image Search to see if I could find some images to go with posts on the recruiting season. Up came Ms. Judd. Try it yourself. Go to Google Images and type in "Football Recruiting". On the first page beginning of the third row is Ms. Judd. I have no idea what she is doing among all those football players, but who are we to argue with the awesome algorithms of the hottest company in cyberspace.

The only website dedicated to I-AA recruiting is ShowingBlitz.com. This site had been inactive for some time. Recently it has returned. If it stays up, it should be a good source of UMass recruiting news. Last year ShowingBlitz also kept track of I-A to I-AA transfers.

The UMass Football Fanzone does not expect as many I-A transfers as UMass had last year, but I think some activity is possible on the OL and DL.

Time will tell.

Update:

Just received an e-mail from the owner of ShowingBlitz.com stating that he intends to keep the site going.

An additional item of interest on this site is that he intends to publish a ranking of I-AA signings after the recruiting season is over. Last year, one source rated UMass as #2 in the I-AA universe for its 2005 recruits. Interesting to see how we will do this year.