Tuesday, 31 October 2006
Early UNH stuff
The Springfield Republican parses the playoffs here.
The Boston Herald has a UMass-UNH game article here .
The Odds Guy Keeper has UMass as a 13.5 point favorite (gasp!).
UPDATE:
UMass has its UNH game notes here .
New Hampshire has its UMass game notes here .
Alex Miller Dinn Bros. UMass Athlete-of-the-Week
This might be a good time to mention the terrific performance of the UMass offensive line this year. We are undefeated in I-AA and leading in most offensive stats in both the A10 and nationally. Our running game is hitting on all cylinders and Coen lead the nation in pass efficiency.
The O-line has only given up 8 sacks in 8 games and 190 pass attempts!
A lot of that is due to the O-line:
- #68 Matt Austin OT
- #60 Nick Dana OG
- #62 Alex Miller C
- #73 David Thompson OG
- #71 Chris Hopkins OT
Monday, 30 October 2006
The bleeding has stopped and the wounds are healing
Last night there was an interview with Vince Papale broadcast over the Bravo Network.
Papale, the former Philadelphia Eagles' walk-on, talked a little about the movie Invincible, made about his life.
The more I watched, the closer I listened.
"This isn't a movie about me or about the Eagles or even about pro football," Papale said. "It's about everybody who has been told they couldn't or that they can't or that they won't or that they should just stop trying and give up."
It's about Temple football, the movie Invincible is, in its own way.
How many of us in the Temple family have been told to give up, to stop trying, that they couldn't or wouldn't be able to succeed?
Just about everyone, I'd imagine.
"This is a story about underdogs," Papale said.
That's what made Saturday so great _ not that a 19-point underdog rose up and won by two touchdowns, but that the same program people said wouldn't or couldn't win a game did just that.
It's the first of many.
The pain of being a Temple football person has been a deep and cutting one, and writing about it while in this 16-year intensive care state has been catartic for me, as evidenced in this post about going to Heaven and this one about Lost in Space but the bleeding has stopped and the wounds are beginning to heal.
The losses aren't over, but this patient is no longer in critical condition.
In fact, the long-term prognosis is good.
Very good.
Steve Baylark runs to records!
His career totals as of Saturday are: GP 42/34 carries 913 yards 4,264 ave 4.7 36 TD longest 58 yards.
He joins former Georgia Southern RB Adrian Peterson and former UNH RB Jerry Azumah in the 1,000 yard/season club .
Baylark is currently 8th in rushing in I-AA this year (and with only one yard/game separating 6th through 8th positions).
Baylark is current 3rd all time in rushing in UMass history. He needs 360 yards to pass UMass legend Rene Ingoglia for second place.
Congratulations to Steve from all UMass fans!
UPDATE: Matty Vautour of the Hampshire Gazette adds two articles; the first on Steve Baylark and the second on the Northeastern game (registration required, but worth it)
More Northeastern game material
The Springfield Republican has another article here .
Despite the weather Liam Coen kept his position as the #1 rated passer in I-AA .
UMass is 3rd in I-AA total offense (and leads the A10).
Also you will remember UMass led I-AA in scoring defense last year. Guess what. We're up to #2 in I-AA in scoring defense in 2006.
Sunday, 29 October 2006
UMass wins in the rain 7-0 at Northeastern
Brad Anderson and James Ihedigbo's stop of Northeastern's Maurice Murray on the Huskies only offensive scoring threat was huge. Murray had been running through UMass tackles all day.
And again when UMass center Alex Miller somehow made a shoestring tackle on a Huskie DB who had the whole field ahead of him on Baylark's fumble.
The Boston Globe has a story here .
The Boston Herald has a story here . And the Herald has another story on Baylark and Miller's tackle here .
The Springfield Republican has a article here .
The UMass Athletic site's writeup is here . The Northeastern Athletic Dept's report is here .
Dave Coulson of I-AA.org has his I-AA recap the the events in I-AA (including UMass-Northeastern) here .
The image above is from the UMass Athletic dept site. I could not find who took it. If the photographer would e-mail me, I will attribute it.
Saturday, 28 October 2006
Temple 28, Bowling Green 14: This one's for you, Karl Smith
Watching Travis Shelton show his backside to the entire Bowling Green kickoff team, I thought about a lot of people.
Most of all, I thought about Karl Smith.
And all of the other small-minded narrow-thinkers like him.
Smith is the executive editor of PhillyBurbs.com.
You need only read a few excerpts from this piece of crap he wrote about Bowling Green putting up 70 on the Owls.
Things have changed a little since then, Karl.
"... how nice to have an extended scrimmage against an overmatched opponent every year that actually counts in the standings," Smith wrote.
Hmmm.
I guess he doesn't know collegefootballnews.com named the Owls 2006 freshman recruiting class at the top incoming class among MAC schools, current or future.
I guess he doesn't care many of those recruits, as many as 18, are seeing significant playing time for the Owls this season or that these same players pushed around Bowling Green's sophomore- and junior-dominated lineup.
He might not know that the 2007 recruiting class is ranked significantly higher than that one and that it might dwarf any recruiting class of any MAC team in recent memory.
Or maybe he doesn't care.
And, if he can count, he knows that this same Owls will be around for the next three years. Yes, the same Owls that beat his beloved Bowling Green by two touchdowns yesterday.
We won't assume that Bowling Green will be Temple's whipping boy for the next few years, as he assumed the other way.
The evidence is there.
Temple is getting better.
Bowling Green is getting worse.
Get used to watching Shelton's backside. You've got two more years of watching that 4.27-40 speed.
We have six players coming in with that kind of speed and the evidence suggests that Temple could literally leave Bowling Green looking permanently in its rear view mirror.
Al Golden is a young, charismatic, recruiter who kids identify with and will rally behind. He came to Temple with a deserved reputation of being a recruiter without peer and he has only enhanced that reputation so far in his year on the job.
Thank you, Karl Smith.
Thank you very much.
Whew! Great win for UMass
Maine looses and UMass is alone on top of the A10 North.
Blogger is having troubles and won't let me republish to change the game count-down clock to the New Hampshire game.
Will try again later.
Bad Weather for Northeastern
Bruce Dowd reviews last week's games (including Northeastern-UNH) and looks at this weeks games (including UMass-Northeastern) in his weekly column A10 Den .
The Boston Globe has an article about the game with the focus on Huskies TE Kendrick Ballantyne .
The Springfield Republican has a game day article here .
Matty Vautour has an inspiring article about Steve Baylark here . Be sure to read Matty's UMass Sports Blog for more Baylark stuff here (regestration required, but worth it)
Well, this game will be a test. Northeastern in Boston with horrible weather is a load. Winning or loosing this game will make a big impact on UMass' post-season chances.
Let's take care of the ball and get a big win in Brookline. Go UMass!
TV of the game is available here or through the UMass website .
Friday, 27 October 2006
KAEO Shannon James and Keron Williams
Shannon James' Stampeders bio is here .
Keron William's Stampeders bio is here .
James is staring at outside LB. Keron is inactive due to an injury.
Friday Northeastern game stuff
Recruiting 2007 DE Jason Foster
The Rutland Herald has an article here .
Also being recruited by Boston College, UNH, Maine, URI and San Diego.
Jason UMass' defense is the best outfit in New England!
Thursday, 26 October 2006
A look at the A10
The A10 football conference will be playing its eight week on saturday. With four games to go there is still plenty of drama left.
Three teams are undefeated in A10 play.
- Maine 4-0 and 5-2 overall
- UMass 4-0 and 6-1 overall
- James Madison 4-0 and 6-1 overall
- UNH 2-2 and 5-2 overall
- Delaware 2-2 and 4-3 overall
- Richmond 2-2 and 5-2 overall
- Towson 2-2 and 5-2 overall
All remaining UMass games are big. A loss at Northeastern would mean UMass HAS to beat Maine or UNH (and Hofstra) to make the playoffs. Finishing 10-1 means a home field all the way through the playoffs. 9-2 with wins over UNH and Maine and the loss coming against Northeastern or Hofstra still means a home playoff game.
Going 8-3 (loosing two of the final four) would mean a road playoff game if UMass beats Maine and UNH looses another game. If UMass would loose to BOTH Maine and UNH we would almost certainly be out of the playoffs.
In the South, the big game is JMU @ Richmond. The Spiders must win this game or they have a very good chance of being left out of the playoffs unless JMU should come apart in their last three games.
Matt Doughtery looks ahead to Saturday's games (including the A10 games) in his weekly column Extra Point here .
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
This week, anything less than a win is unacceptable
In about six weeks, Al Golden will be on the job as Temple University's head football coach for a year.
In the time since Dec. 6, Golden has said and done all the right things.
He's talked about changing the culture of losing, about pounding that rock until it cracks, about even coaching the pre-game warmups.
In less than two months, he's recruited the top incoming football class in the MAC.
All signs so far that this current class, which includes North Catholic superstar Daryl Robinson, will be off the charts as far as recent MAC recruiting classes go.
Now Robinson is recruiting fellow Philadelphia superstars for the Owls.
All good signs.
At some point, though, Al Golden is going to have to do what he's been brought in to do:
Win games.
This would be as good a week to start as any against a Bowling Green team that scored 70 points _ twice _ against recent Bobby Wallace teams.
If fact, anything less than a win against Bowling Green is unacceptable.
Consecutive 62-0 losses to Louisville and Minnesota were eye-openers, especially in light of North Dakota State's ability to take Minnesota into overtime.
North .... FREAKING ... Dakota ... FREAKING ... State.
Giving up 63 points to Clemson was another stomach-turner.
Yet a 28-17 loss to Kent seemed to show some progress because the Owls were toe-to-toe for the most part with one of the MAC's best teams.
Bowling Green, on the other hand, lost to Kent, 38-3.
The Owls, unlike Bowling Green, were short six key players in the loss at Buffalo, while Bowling Green did not have equivalent personnel shortages in an overtime win over Buffalo.
The Owls are back at full strength for the first time all season.
That SHOULD be bad news for Bowling Green.
It's up to Al Golden and his staff to deliver that news.
At some point, you've got to win.
At some point, you've got to stop dropping third-down passes.
At some point, you've got to put your best talent in position to win the game for you. One way would be using Tim Brown on punt returns, too, giving him the space to do what he does best.
At some point, you've got to stop receivers from running free through your secondary like roaches in a ghetto kitchen.
It's up to Al to formulate a game plan to win this week against Bowling Green.
A bold game plan, much like the one against Kent State.
Two tight ends, power-I, use Tim Brown's talents to move the chains and shorten the game. Use Brown's running ability to set up Adam DiMichele play-action passes to Travis Shelton and Mike Holley downfield.
On defense, Mark D'Onofrio has to come up with a gambling-style game plan that utilizes the Owls' strength _ their front seven _ and protects the weak back four.
Blitzes, particularly from the blind side, and up the middle to create protection problems for the Bowling Green quarterback.
The best defense is putting the other guy's quarterback on his ass _ or, as Jim Rome says, his ARSE _ and it's high time the Owls adopt that philosophy as the core of their defensive approach.
Use the speed of the young linebackers to smack the quarterback around and, hopefully, come up with the ball a time or two.
Philly-style football. Only a win would open eyes in a cynical and skeptical Philadelphia.
At some point, Al, you've got to win.
This week, in front of a Homecoming Day crowd, would be an acceptable place to start.
Wednesday Stats
Steve Baylark continues to lead the A10 and is #7 in I-AA with a 127.43 yards/game .
Liam Coen continues to be #1 in I-AA in passing efficiency .
UMass is 4th in Total Offense in I-AA .
And the UMass defense is now rated #2 in I-AA in scoring defense .
In the A10 UMass leads the league in Pass Efficiency Defense, Kickoff Returns, Net Punting, Pass Efficiency, Pass Defense and Scoring Defense .
More Northeastern articles
The Boston Globe has an article here about the surging Huskies .
Northeastern has a football booster group Friends of Northeastern Football . Their website has a coach's newsletter from Head Coach Rocky Hager. In the latest edition Hagar talks about the Huskies big win over New Hampshire.
Tuesday, 24 October 2006
Northeastern Game notes up
So does Northeastern. Their game notes are here .
Fact from the Northeastern game notes: So far, the Huskies have played the toughest schedule in I-AA with a combined opponent winning average of .651 (43-23). They have also played seven straight top-25 teams.
The Springfield Republican has a general UMass football article here .
Matt Dougherty recaps last week's action with his Extra Point column here .
The Odds Guy Keeper has UMass as a 20+ point favorite .
Monday, 23 October 2006
Baylark A10 Offensive Player-of-the-Week
The UMass press release is here .
The A10 notice is here (pdf format) .
UMass fans will note that UMass has played seven games and won seven A10 Player-of-the-Week awards...
Image is by J. Anthony Roberts. Link to the image gallery is in the previous Blog post.
UMass-Rams game articles
The Republican has a game article here .
The Boston Herald here .
The Providence Journal here .
The Boston Globe here .
The Worcester Telegram here .
This article in the Herald is mostly about Northeastern's overtime victory over New Hampshire, but it includes a quote from Coach Brown that the win got UMass' attention .
UPDATE:
Matty Vautour has two game articles in the Monday's Gazette. The game article is here . And an article about the O-line's plans to put a dent in Baylark's pocketbook here .
Sunday, 22 October 2006
Homecoming game images 10/21/06
A great homecoming day. Another huge crowd of 15,000+
UMass fumbled the opening kickoff and in Rhody's second series the UMass safety bit on the fake for a Ram gain to the UMass 2 yard line. After three offensive series it was 13-6 Rams.
The rest of the game was 41-3 UMass. Baylark a career game of 235 yards. Coen was near perfect--again.
Saturday, 21 October 2006
UMass-Rhode Island Homecoming
The Springfield Republican has a game day article here .
The UMass Alumni Association has a list of game day activities here .
Friends of Football to Meet at Homecoming
Since their formation by Coach Whipple, the Friends have been a driving force in UMass Football excellence.
If you enter Friends of Football in the "search this blog" button in the Blogger menu bar at the top you will find 14 blog posts about the Friends. The last one was here .
This Blog believes all UMass football fans should belong to the Friends. Please join. Please. Stop by and meet them. Be part of UMass football and help the team.
It's not just the $$$. Having a large and active membership in Friends of Football really, really helps the team in the Byzantine world of campus politics.
Friday, 20 October 2006
Friday morning odds & ends
That's fine with me. Let's stay under the radar until we hit the playoffs.
The Atlantic 10 is also rated 2nd in the GPI.
Matt Vautour has a UMass-Rhode Island game article here (registration required, but worth it).
Bruce Dowd has his week article A10 Den on the state of the A10 (including insights on UMass-Towson and UMass-Rhode Island) here .
KAEO former UMass coaches Eddy Morrissey and Dave Hoover
The image above is a scan from the 1998 UMass press guide.
I've Blogged before about former UMass Coach Eddy Morrissey. There is a new article about his move to the University of Oregon by the Nashua Telegram here .
Thursday, 19 October 2006
UMass-Rhode Island A10 TV Game
The 1:00 pm game UMass-Rhode Island game at McGuirk will be an A10 TV game .
From the A10 write-up "the series will be aired live on NESN and WSGR in Winston-Salem, NC. In addition, the contest will be aired on tape delay Saturday on Cox (4:30pm) and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia (7:00pm). The game will be aired on tape delay Sunday on College Sports Television (2:00pm) and Comcast SportsNet DC (3:30pm)."
The A10 Gameday Article is here .
More Rhode Island game stuff
Rhode Island lost to Richmond 31-6 last week.
The Rams Athletic Director resigned October 12th after a long dispute with the school administration.
Richmond has an excellent defense. As you know, Rhody runs the spread option. They were missing their starting QB Derek Cassidy (ankle injury) and their backup QB John Butler also left the game with a shoulder injury. That left them running a true freshman QB. Both may be available for the UMass game.
This article from the Providence Journal talks about the UMass-Rhody game and UMass QB Liam Coen who's from North Providence. Rhode Island's coach Tim Stowers son played on the same high school team as Liam.
Note the Providence Journal has registration. I use Bugmenot.com to get passwords.
Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Lambert Trophy History
"
The Lambert Trophy was established by brothers Victor and Henry Lambert in memory of their father, August. The Lambert�s were the principals in a distinguished Madison Avenue jewelry house and were prominent college football boosters.
The
To be eligible for the Lambert Award, a school must be located in the East or play half of its schedule against eligible Lambert teams. The territory includes
UMass-Rhode Island game notes up
Rhody has its game notes (pdf) here .
The Odds Guy Keeper has UMass as a 37 point favorite .
Recruiting 2007--- Jose Gumbs
UMass is recruiting Jose Gumbs a 5-8 160 pd RB/Athlete from Hebron in LewistonMe.
The Sun-Journal has an article here .
The image is Jose (on the right, with his brother Greg Gumbs who plays football for Bates).
Jose, UMass would be a great place for you!
UMass leads in Lambert Cup voting
UMass leads in the voting for the Lambert Cup the symbol of Eastern I-AA supremacy.
The ECAC press release is here (pdf). The ECAC home page is here .
The top five:
- UMass 50 points all 5 first place votes
- Tied JMU-New Hampshire 41 points
- Richmond 37 points
- Princeton 24 points.
Coen wins Gold Helmet Award
The UMass Athletic site has an article here.
Incidentally, there does not seem to be any webpage/site that has any material on this award.
Even Wikipedia does not have an article. The history of the award (famous recipients: Doug Flutie, etc) would be interesting.
Could some New England football fan with some time on their hands at least do a Wikipedia article?
Tuesday, 17 October 2006
Temple recruiting: The best is yet to come
The sign is on the wall at the Edberg-Olson Complex for all to see:
"HUNTING A MAC CHAMPIONSHIP WITH LOCAL TALENT."
If you know anything about Al Golden so far in his almost one year on the job, it's this:
Allie G. means what he says and says what he means.
It's evident in the verbals so far.
One, Daryl Robinson, might be the best player in North Catholic's long and sometimes glorious football history.
Another, Kit Anderson, scored three long touchdowns in a big Neshaminy win last week.
There is a school of thought that there isn't enough talent in the Philadelphia area and Eastern Pennsylvania to support a winning Division IA football team.
The Headmaster of that same school likes to say there's more talent in a five-mile square area of Florida than there is in Southeastern Pennsylvania or South Jersey.
Hogwash, Phooey and any two-syllable word you can think of that begins with a B and ends with a T.
Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians proved you could field WINNING football teams at TEMPLE with primarily local talent.
Take the 1979 team, which finished 10-2 and ranked No. 17 in both final polls.
Brian Broomell, the quarterback who led the nation in passing efficiency for most of that season, was from Sterling. Mark Bright, the fullback who was MVP of Temple's bowl win over California, was from William Tennent. Kevin Duckett, the slippery halfback, was from Northeast.
We could go on and on but won't.
The proof is in the history, past and present.
The sons of these great players, figuratively, did not forget how to play football.
The football is Southeastern Pennsylvania and nearby might not be Florida but it is good enough.
If you like what Golden has done so far, the best is yet to come if the recruiting of D.J. Lenehan is any indication.
I had the pleasure of watching Lenehan of Wilson Area near Easton compete in the Class AA championship game last year.
I saw a number of his games on Service Electric Cable TV and on WFMZ Channel 69 in Allentown.
This kid is the real deal.
Much like Adam DiMichele of the current Owls, this young man has the "it" factor.
"I like to say this about all great quarterbacks, they have IT," ESPN commentator Lee Corso said. "I can't put into words precisely what it is, but when you see a quarterback who has it, you'll know.
"I'm going to say it like this: IT is the sense of when to throw the ball and when not to, it's the ability to throw the ball deep on a dime while sitting in the pocket or running at full speed and IT is toughness and the sixth sense to stay in the pocket until the last split second in order to make a play."
If you don't believe me, look at the Lenehan highlight films on Rivals.com and judge for yourself.
This kid can play and he's perfect for the Temple offense. DiMichele's presence, and to an extent Vaughn Charlton's, gives Lenehan a chance to develop at a pace that will accelerate his production.
The first school to offer Lenehan was Temple.
If anything, that indicates Golden is paying attention to the films and his two eyes and not letting some recruiting service tell him who the players are.
Coen wins A10 player-of-the-week
As a side note, UMass has played six games and has won six A10 Player-of-the-week awards .
The A10 notes are here (pdf format) .
Coen is #1 in the A10 and #1 Nationally in passing efficiency with an incredible 188.5 rating (10 points higher than the runner-up).
Note that UMass is 3rd nationally in total offense (ahead of the highly touted UNH offense)
Not to forget the defense, we're up to 3rd in the nation in scoring defense .