My soft-pretzel depression

Great photo of Temple's terrific fans by Darryl Rule.

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been.' "
_ American poet and author John Greenleaf Whittier ...


By Mike Gibson
Like a lot of people, I eat when I'm depressed.
When Temple wins in football, and that's not nearly enough, I practically skip out of the stadium on a natural high and can't wait to talk about the win in the parking lot afterward.
I don't think about eating. I don't think about sleeping. I just think about winning.
That's the most fulfilling feeling of all.

You now about those
victory cigars
Red Auerbach used to have?
Well, I have my defeat pretzels

After Temple loses, and that's always too much, I saunter over to the concession stand and buy the biggest jumbo soft pretzel they have.
You know about those victory cigars Red Auerbach used to have?
Well, I have my defeat pretzels.
I've been walking out of Lincoln Financial Field eating too many soft pretzels lately, thinking so much about a lot of things that I never really noticed how the pretzel tasted.
Some soft-pretzel thoughts:
CHESTER STEWART _ I'm sure he's a good kid and a nice guy, but he's just not ready to lead a Division I football team to a win. After he overthrew a ton of guys in the Penn State game, I chalked it up to first-game jitters. After he mastered the art of overthrowing open guys by 10 feet in the Homecoming Game against Western Michigan, I said enough is enough. "I thought I did all right," Stewart said after the game. Sorry, Chester. Three points is not all right. Twenty-one points is all right. Fourteen points would have been acceptable but three points is abysmal. Ridiculously not all right.
AL GOLDEN _ If he didn't have the confidence to run a balanced offense with Chester Stewart, then he should have went with Colin Clancy or taken the redshirt off Vaughn Charlton. "I thought he did all right," Golden said of Stewart. With all due respect, Al, what have you been smoking? THREE POINTS IS NOT ALL RIGHT. It just isn't. It's the quarterback's job to put points on the board and that means touchdowns and not field goals out the wazzoo. If Chester Stewart isn't moving the team, it's Al Golden's job to get someone in there who can move the team. It's not Al Golden's job to keep running the same guy out, failed series after failed series.
VAUGHN CHARLTON _ Obviously, the redshirt was promised to this talented young man. But, as with everything in the Al Golden Era, the team comes first. It's the team, not the individual. Vaughn has to go into the office and volunteer to do what's best for the team. He just has to. Don't wait for the coach to ask.
THE FANS _ They've done a great job in the first two games, 17K and loud and strong in the two games. A lot of them, me included, left without being able to talk for the next two days due to cheering so loudly. The fans, like the players, left a lot on the field. There is a law of diminishing returns. Unless this team is able to string together three straight wins, don't expect a lot of them to return for the remaining three home games.
MARK D'ONOFRIO _ What can you say about the job Temple's defensive coordinator has done? Twelve points against UConn, seven against Western Michigan. He's a genius. Temple is very lucky to have him, but you have to wonder if the law of diminishing returns begins to erode the performance of this defense. They leave a lot on the field, too, and get little back.
THE REFS _ In three of the four Temple losses, a ridiculous call cost the Owls the chance of winning. This time it was sideline interference on a fourth-down call. Refs are human. They've been in the MAC for years. They take away Temple's only touchdown, a beautiful run by James Nixon. They don't want a team kicked out of another conference coming in and dominating their league. They make up ridiculous stuff like that, coming at a crucial time when Temple stopped Western Michigan on a fourth-quarter third down.
Thinking about all of those people and things got me to the bottom of the Lincoln Financial Field steps. By then, the soft pretzel was gone.
The depression, brought on by lingering thoughts of what might have been, was not.

UMass Football Blog News

The UMass Football Blog will not publish Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and it might not appear on Thursday (we have an early flight home on that day).

I'm doing a two night observing run at Kitt Peak National Observatory's advanced observer program. I'm sure the National Optical Observatory has a wireless network, but I'll up all night both dates and I'll need some recovery time.

In the meantime, every think positive thoughts about beating the evil Delaware Hens on Saturday and I'll be seeing you guys soon.

Go UMass!

Monday Morning Stuff

Matty Vautour has an article on the UMass recovery from the Texas Tech game.

He has some interesting news. Vautour mentions UMass true freshman Korrey Davis' move into the second RB slot. I should have mentioned in my report from Texas Tech how well he played in that game. He had 15 carries for 51 yards.

Reshaude Goodwin is back. His speed will help the secondary and give Coach Brown more options in defensive packages.

True freshman LB Tyler Holmes will probably get some playing time.

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Reinforcements on defense are needed. UMass is in territory we've not seen under Coach Brown.

UMass is:

• #100 in total defense
• #115 in scoring defense
• #97 in pass efficiency defense
• #74 in turnover margin

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The UMass and Delaware bands will perform together at Saturday's game. Now that will be a show!

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What they're saying about the Owls

... "They out-physicaled us up front. It's really the first time we've come out of a game feeling like we didn't control the line of scrimmage. Even Nebraska, we kind of thought was a wash." _ Western Michigan coach Bill Cubit talking about Temple...

... "I was told by a lot of people before the game that Temple is really good but, man, this team has all kinds of weapons." _ Ohio News Network sports director Andy Raskin during the telecast of Temple vs. Miami on ESPN360.com...

..."What my Owls have done this year--and I will call them 'my Owls' because I've been on this team since the beginning--is sensational considering they lost their starting quarterback. ... Maybe people are starting to realize that this is one of the top defenses in the country." _ Vegas handicapper Robert Ferringo...

..."They have high-caliber athletes all over the place. That's the hardest-hitting team we've played all year. I've never been this beat up after a game." _ Western Michigan offensive guard Phil Swanson...

..."It was just two great teams. Both Temple and us have made great strides and I don't think there are two better teams in our league than us and them." _ Buffalo tight end Jesse Rack, after a Hail Mary pass beat Temple, 30-28, at the buzzer...

Matt Lawrence signs with Seahawks

Thanks to the kind soul who sent me the e-mail heads up on this story.

Former UMass RB Matt Lawrence has been signed to the Seattle Seahawks practice squad.

Sunday Morning news

Good morning from Tucson, AZ. As you see, I do have an internet connection and I don't have to call tech support once a day to keep it going.

Not a lot of UMass specific news on the wires this morning, but the CAA website has re-caps for all the CAA teams.

The big news is that Villanova upset Richmond.

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From the Wizard of Odds college football blog's coverage of Louisville-UConn football game (scroll down to the 09/27/08 entry). UConn won anyway to go 5-0.

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Saturday news

Mrs. Blog and I are moving to the second stage of our Southwest vacation in Tucson, AZ today. That will be a drive of 500+ miles. Again, we are supposed to have high speed internet at our new place, but we shall see. If the blog falls silent, I'll be back as soon as I can find an internet connection.

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More on the Boston College-URI game from the Boston Herald. It mentions BC's 2007 game over UMass was one of the Eagles hardest wins.

Bruce Dowd has a long article on week four in the CAA and previews week five.

Chuck Burton has an article on how many FCS/I-AA teams are playing for the playoffs.

All of us UMass fans were impressed with QB Chris Whitney of Villanova during last year's four overtime thriller against the Wildcats. Looks like he will be taking over the starting QB job at Villanova earlier than expected.

Matty Vautour's picks for week five.

UPDATE: Buried in the UMass website was this notice:"Don't miss this: Despite there being no football radio show tonight, there will be a UMass Football Weekly on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on CBS3 and here on UMassAthletics.com. The show will feature an all-access behind the scenes look at the team's trip to Lubbock as well as a feature on defensive lineman Brandon Collier."

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Richmond Vs Villanova can be seen on CN8 and BC-Rhode Island is on ESPN360.

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This week's Stone Cold Mortal Locks

By Mike Gibson
I usually don't bring out the "stone-cold-mortal-lock" phrase made popular by a certain Philadelphia sports talk show host unless the degree of confidence is high.
I have one, but I'll save it for the end.
So far in SCML terms this season, I'm 1-0.
I advised people on the Owlscoop.com board to bet the under (39) against Uconn.
Well, I beat the under by 18 that day and the game went into overtime.
Here are just my regular locks:
WAKE FOREST (-16) against visiting Navy _ lay the 16. Navy is just not that good and Wake Forest is. No weather issues.
BUFFALO (+6 1/2) at Central Michigan _ Buffalo is a better team, even with a ocuple of what Joe Paterno would call "fat guys" on the offensive line. This game will be decided on a field goal either way. Take Buffalo and be glad you are getting 6 1/2.
FRESNO STATE (-6 1/2) at UCLA _ Bruins got smoked by BYU, 59-0. Fresno is better than BYU. Fresno State wins this game by two touchdowns.
BALL STATE (-17 1/2) hosting Kent State _ Ball State is the MAC's one big-time team. Kent State is a fraud. Ball State, 39-13.
TROY (+16 1/2) at Oklahoma _ Troy is pretty good and a good value with the 16 and change.

THIS WEEK'S STONE COLD MORTAL LOCK

The under (57) at the Temple vs. Western Michigan game. Huge weather issues will keep this score low.

Friday FCS Follies

First thing would be to check Bob McGovern's excellent "Between Mullins and McGuirk" blog for his comment on being a journalist and a UMass fan. His "No Doubt" post is a good read.

He touches on effort needed to get the students to go to athletic events. This is the core conundrum for UMass fans. People e-mail me and say they'll get involved in UMass football as soon as we join the Big East or beat UConn or some other thing. Getting involved now indicates to the school someone values UMass athletics. Joining the Court Club, Pond Club or Friends of Football is not just about the 33 cents per day, it shows that those sports have a constituency and that means a lot in the halls of academic administration.

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While we have an off week there are a number of interesting games in the CAA this week. The CAA gameday link is here .

Rhode Island gets Boston College this weekend.

Albany, which has played a strong game against three CAA opponents, plays at Delaware this weekend.

Delaware senator, and Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden said he thinks the Blue Hens would, in his words, "Kick Ohio State's ass". The national press spends a lot of time not covering Joe...

Dave Coulson has his weekly CAA column "Around the CAA" here .

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The CSN has this week's FCS predictions here .

UMass football is #11 in Keeper's college football power ratings . Then again, he has JMU at #12, which is ridiculous.

He also has BC by 41 over Rhode Island.

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It's time to let the Dogs out

By Mike Gibson
The Temple football season so many of us had waited so long for and looked forward to so much has reached a crossroads.
Many of us, me included, feel with any breaks at all or at least the breaks the Owls should have received, this team should be 3-1.
In reality, it's 1-3.
Prior to Penn State, a deserved loss, Temple trailed for a grand total of 1 minute, 49 seconds the entire season.
The refs took away the UConn game and even Penn State coach Joe Paterno said as much on his radio show last week.
"Temple threw a bubble screen on the first play of overtime and got down to the 3 an it was called back," Paterno said of the UConn game. "It was called back for a hold and it was a bad, bad, bad call. Temple should have won that game."
That's three bads from Paterno, who was obviously watching the film closely.
The Owls' own stupidity was responsible for the inexplicable Buffalo loss.
First, they allowed quarterback Drew Willy all the time in the world to throw the final dagger, a Hail Mary pass. Then they compounded that stupidity by going to tackle the wide receiver, rather than knock the ball down.
In my mind, if Al Golden really wants to beat Western Michigan this week, he will throw caution to the wind and turn his bend-but-don't-break defense into an attacking one.
Blitz.
That's this week's buzzword.
Sneak into the locker room down the Lincoln Financial Field tunnel and steal a chapter from Eagles' coordinator Jimmy Johnson's playbook.
It's a rather large chapter entitled "Blitz."
Utilize Temple's strength _ athletes on defense _ to make plays, force turnovers, dictate field position.
Help give first-time starter Chester Stewart a short field in his first start.
Play eight guys up on the line.
Get into Western Michigan quarterback Tim Hiller's head.
Take the play to them, not let them dictate to us.
Get that big Homecoming crowd involved.
Play to win, not avoid to lose.
Al Golden and Mark D'Onofrio, it's time to unleash the Dogs of War, Temple's Pit Bulls, and tell them to sick the quarterback.

Multi Media Thursday

Click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.

A forty+ image Picasa Web Album of the UMass Texas Tech game is here . All the images were taken by me or Mrs. Blog. As I said in another post, Texas Tech has a limit on how long a lens you can bring into the stadium. I was using a 35-125 Canon zoom.

A Texas Tech fan known only as "Mike" send me a video production on the Red Raider-UMass game. It's excellent.

The Texas-Tech-UMass video.

Both links have been added to the "2008 UMass images" section in sidebar.

Recruiting 2009--Niko Sierra & Alex Scyocurka

UMass is recruiting two players from the Longmeadow Lancers, Niko Sierra a 6-3 210 RB and Alex Scyocurka a 6-0 210 FS/RB. Story here .

Sierra had 19 TD's and 1,132 yards in 2007. His ESPN page is here . He's getting looks from UMass, BC and UNH in football. Also plays lacross and has interest from UMass and Bellarmine University.

Scyocurka racked up 28 TD's and 1,729 yards in 2007. His Rivals page is here . His Scout.com page is here . Scyocurka is getting interest from UMass and UNH from FCS and BC, Syracuse, Stanford, UConn, Penn State and UConn at the FBS level.

It would be nice to have more Western Mass players on the team. Hope they consider UMass.

Tuesday Morning in the Byeweek

UMass drops to #18 in the latest FCS Poll. I wonder how many FCS teams would do any better with back-to-back games @JMU and @Texas Tech.

The FCS Coach's poll has us at #10.

Coach Brown talks about, in the weekly CAA conference call, among other things, that reversal of the on-the-field call of Texas Tech fumbling the kickoff in the first half. As I said in my blog post, I thought he had fumbled. After watching the tape, Brown seems to think so too. That would have been huge for us.

Matty Vautour has some CAA notes here .

Delaware may be starting Kervin Michaud at RB. Story here . The Blue Hens official football site has not been updated since Aug 28th. Makes me appreciate Jason Yellin even more. He does a fine job with the UMass website.

The New Journal says that Delaware could not catch a break against Furman. They should have been playing in Lubbock.

Scotty McGee of JMU had another great day against Appalachian State.

David Coulson recaps the week-that-was in the FCS-I-AA universe.

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James Ihedigbo and Brad Listorti are still on the NY Jets practice squad.

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I bought a Hadrosaur rib at a rock shop yesterday. Never grew out of Dinosaurs.

The Post office still has not found all the hiking equipment Mrs. Blog and I mailed to ourselves at General Delivery Santa Fe...

UPDATE: This is your Hadrosaur news for today.

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Monday morning 09/22/08

Mrs. Blog and I will be staying a week in historic Santa Fe, now home to the artsy-craftsy and, like most towns in the Southwest, explosive growth. In the old days we camped in a KOA not far from the center of town. Now Rt 84 going north out of Santa Fe has six lanes.

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The Boston Herald reports that UMass is ready for some time off.

The UMass Daily Collegian has a story here .

Matty Vautour has a Texas Tech game article here. He has some comment here .

UMass took some injuries in the Texas Tech game.

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So far we've played four teams, three of them on the road. In case your missed it, JMU beat Appalachian State . They might be the #1 team in FCS/I-AA. Texas Tech is now a top ten team in most NCAA polls.


Albany played another strong game against a CAA team as they were leading UNH in the third quarter.

Holy Cross dropped a one point loss to Havard after leading most of the game.

We've played a pretty tough schedule so far. Next up is the Blue Hens. They had trouble on Saturday.

Delaware lost to Furman . K.C. Keeler was not happy.

Update: David Coulson has an article on the JMU-Appalachian game.


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Sunday Morning stuff

The Boston Globe has an article here. The Herald has an game article here .

The Sports Network here .

The Dallas News here .

This article about the Red Raiders shutting Down the UMass offense hits close to the mark.

RedRaiders.com has a article here .

This story from the Star-Telegram has a nice shot of Anthony Rouzier getting held.

The UMass athletic site has the story, quotes and notes.

News, notes and quotes from the Red Raiders side.

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I left my camera USB cable in New Hampshire. Mrs. Blog and I are headed for Santa Fe for about a week. I'll stop at a camera store and have them copy my images to a CD-ROM or my thumb drive so that I can do a web album.

Something I've never encountered before------Texas Tech has rule on how long a lens you can bring into the stadium. I had my 28-135 on my camera, but I almost brought my 70-300, which would not have passed. It would have been a bummer to come all that way and not have any images.

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There's Prairie Dogs in the lawn of my motel. A couple of women and some kids with a bunch of equipment were trying to capture the Dogs to relocate them. I shoulda brought my .243. I could have relocated them for free.

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High praise for the Lubbock road system. For $10 I parked on some lady's lawn across from the stadium. I took a left and a right and I was on University Road. That took me to a loop highway that circles Lubbock and I was on my way back to Plainview. All this took far less time than a trip from Amherst to Northampton on Rt 9. Remember there were 53,000+ fans and their cars getting out of the game....

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I need to get some chicken-fried steak while I'm out here in the West. Can't get any back home.

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Again, we played really, really hard. UMass made some mistakes that hurt us, but it was an effort to be proud of. I liked the hitting the defense brought. If we build on this, we could have a good year.

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Just back from the game

Hey UMass fans, we played really hard. The defense hit hard all night. I'm proud of how much effort the UMass players put in. You should be too.

I was surprised that we were not able to get anything going on offense. Every time we seemed to get something going we would get a couple of penalties and that would be it.

It seemed as if Texas Tech had the ball the entire first half.

That play review thing is interesting too. The first quarter took an hour. For a while it looked like the game was going to midnight.

I thought UMass had recovered that fumble in the first half. That happened right in front of me. The Texas Tech kick returner caught the kickoff, tried to make a move and tripped over his own feet. I though he lost control of the ball on the way down. After a review that lasted forever, the refs overturned the call on the field. That and Brian Ellis dropping an interception that hit him right on the number, did if for us in the first half. Both those plays would have given us some momentum.

Sean Smalls did an excellent job on Michael Crabtree. He had five receptions and one TD on a two yard slant. Whoopee.

Again, nobody quit and Texas Tech going it on fourth down while up big, seemed to keep everybody from UMass working hard.

Had a good time talking with the friendly Red Raider fans. Good luck to them with the rest of their season. They are a very, very good football team.

If UMass can take that effort forward for the rest of the season, good things will happen for us.

GO UMass!

That looks like a black cloud to me

This looks like a black cloud to me.
By Mike Gibson
Taking a somewhat gallows humor approach, Al Golden tried to lighten the mood at practice a week ago after a heartwrenching 30-28 loss to Buffalo.
"We checked the field; there were no locusts," Golden said.
You might want to check the sky this week.
Although it could be blue, that looks like a black cloud hanging over the Temple football program.
"Why us, God?"
Consider:

• A great job by Temple promotions and sales looked like it was going to put 35K in the stands for the opening game against UConn. Two weeks before the game, I said mininum 30K if no rain. We got a Hurricane and 17K. The next day, the Eagles, who can draw 70K in a Hurricane, got 86 and sunny.
  "Why us, God?"
  
• Three weeks ago, against UConn, three fourth-quarter Temple plays that gained over 30 yards each were called back by, you guessed it, Big East refs. I guess it was just a coincidence. Not.
  "Why us, God?"
  
• Two weeks ago, Temple decided to defend the pass in the end zone, rather than rush the quarterback. As a result, Drew Willy had all the time in the world to throw a Hail Mary for a touchdown. He did. Inexplicably, three Owls went to tackle a guy who was already in the end zone rather than knock the ball down.
  "Why us, God?"
  
• Yesterday, the game plan was to keep everyone healthy for the MAC season ahead. Everybody, meaning at the minimum 75 percent of the team's total offense. What happens? Seventy-five percent of the offense goes down on one play. For the second year in a row, no less.
  "Why us, God?"
  
• Our top high school quarterback recruit follows up an 8 for 24 start in his first three games with those same exact numbers, 8 for 24, in a Saturday loss. There could be extenuating circumstances, but 8 for 24 is 8 for 24.
  

"Why us, God?"
Why indeed?
In a season that could have easily been 3-1 right now with a world of momentum headed into the teeth of the MAC schedule, all that is certain is uncertainty.
On a day when my college alma mater lost its star quarterback for "a significant amount" of time, my high school alma mater lost its star quarterback for the rest of the season.
My college team lost, 45-3. My high school team lost, 51-7.
If that doesn't look like a Black Cloud, then I don't know what it is.
Maybe sunny days are ahead but it's hard to see through that ugly cloud.

Game Day Taxas Tech

Good Morning from Plainview Texas. Well, we----and our luggage, survived three plane changes on the way to West Texas.

Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day. Let's hope some of that carries over to the football field.
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The Dallas Morning News has an article here .

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican here.

The Boston Globe has a game day here . A columnist from Amarillo doesn't think much of us or our chances.

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The key to this game is our defense recovering its poise and execution. If we can recover some effectiveness on defense, we have enough talent to give Texas Tech a hard day on the practice field next week.

Mrs. Blog and I will be off (Hey, I heard that!), in a while to Lubbock to take in the campus and see the game. Hope all UMass fans will be listening and cheering for the Minutemen.

I may be back after the game depending on how wired or tired I am.

Go UMass!

One day before Texas Tech News

The Boston Herald has a UMass-Texas Tech article here .

The Daily Toreador has another here .

The Myrtle Beach has another game article here .

Jeff Thomas has an article about Victor Cruz.

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The CAA has its league College Football Gameday page up.

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While you are waiting for the Minutemen's 6:00 pm start, Villanova-Penn and Appalachian State-JMU are on CN8. Northeastern@ Syracuse will be on ESPN360 .

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Road Trip-----Texas Tech

Well, it's 38 degrees in the great Granite State this morning. Mrs. Blog and I will be flying out to Lubbock in a couple of hours. While loading up the truck for trip to the airport, I noticed all the neighborhood roofs are covered with frost.

As usual, I will try to publish the UMass Football Blog on the road. However, I've learned that accommodations having "high speed internet access" and having high speed internet access that actually works are two different things.

Should the Blog fall silent, be advised that I'll will be back as soon as I find a connection that works.

Hope to see some UMass fans at the game. I'll try to bring you UMass football news and a report from the game. Mrs. Blog and I are taking the opportunity to do some traveling in the Southwest, so I'll be road blogging for about a week and a half.

Go UMass!

Two days before Texas Tech

The UMass Daily Collegian has Texas Tech article here . Another Collegian article here .

Red Raiders coach Mike Leach is using "Extreme measures to motivate his team".

Texas Tech's OL tries to lighten the mood.

The Daily Toreador has an article about UMass QB Liam Coen.

RedRaiders.com has an article on the UMass secondary.

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Woah! Techicnal details on the new UMass Stadium audio system here .

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The Sprots Network has their weekly "Around FCS" article here .

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A list of this week's FCS TV games is here .

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Blue over Black Shoe Diaries

By Mike Gibson
One of my favorite blogs is Black Shoe Diaries.
It's got just the right mix of humor, irreverence and insight that so many other websites don't even come close to having.
There's no better place to check on the pulse of Penn State football fans.
Plus, Temple Football Forever gets plenty of mentions on it.
Last week, when BSD mentioned that we sacastically said "we can't wait to see how the refs" rob Temple against UConn next year, our site meter lit up.
I dashed off a quick note to Kevin at BSD thanking him for the plug and he mentioned that he might like to submit a few questions for us to answer prior to the Penn State game.
I've been waiting by the phone for a few days and, so far, no call.
No call. No email. No letter.
It's the same feeling I had when I left Jessica Simpson my cell number.
Empty.
And it's almost Thursday already.
We understand things are a little busy over there, so I've anticipated the list of their questions, borrowing a few themes from last week's list to Syracuse blogger Troy Nunes:
1) Temple? What the heck happened?
Well, we've become a pretty good football team in three years, thanks to a crash course by Penn State grad Al Golden. The guy is a tireless recruiter who any mom and dad would be proud to have in their homes. Hence, the top three recruiting classes in the MAC.
2) Adam DiMichele? How will he be different from the quarterback Penn State fans saw in State College two years ago?
Night and freaking day. Merrill Reese, during the Eagles' broadcast on Monday night, threw this line out to partner Mike Quick, "Mike, I've watched three Temple games and, pound-for-pound, there isn't a better quarterback in all of college football than Adam DiMichele." DiMichele (pronounced DEE-MIKE-EL) is the kind of kid who can take a team on his back and will them to a win, as he did three straight weeks last season before breaking his leg. If he's pressured, he'll run out and make yards. He can throw on the run. He can throw in the pocket.
3) What happened in the UConn game?
Very suspect officiating by, you guessed it, Big East refs. All three Temple plays covering over 30 yards in the fourth quarter were called back by flags. On the first play of overtime, DiMichele completed a bubble screen to Travis Shelton, he sprinted to the 3 and that was called back due to a hold on D'Oynne Crudup. Film showed Crudup not only didn't hold, he did not touch the guy he was supposed to be holding. The refs compounded that call by a bad spot, moving the ball back 6 yards further than it should have been spotted. "They apologized," Golden said, "but that's bad football. I have 112 kids in there. What am I going to tell them?" What should have been a first-and-4 was a 1st and 10. "First-and-4, that's house money," Golden said.
4) What happened on the Hail Mary pass?
Keystone Cops. Temple had three defenders, two positioned behind the receiver and one in front. All three go to tackle the guy in the end zone, instead of going to knock the ball down. Gotta wonder what good tackling the guy in the end zone does. "We didn't execute," Golden said.
5) What do Temple fans expect Saturday?
Most are pretty realistic. They want a team that competes and makes plays on Saturday and gets out of State College in good health. They basically tied a UConn team that laid a 45-10 number on Virginia so they know they have the talent to do some damage in State College.

Wednesday Morning stuff

The weekly CSN All-Stars include two players we've already had the pleasure of meeting.

The Sports Network also has Landers as its National Offensive player-of-the-week.

Matty Vautour has an article about Sean Calicchio's status for the Texas Tech game.

Now we know what happened to Mike Vaz.

UPDATE: Keepers has Texas Tech by 34+.

Texas Tech Guest Blogger Seth C.

Today we have the pleasure of meeting Seth C. who runs the top Texas Tech Blog "Double T Nation". Seth has agreed to answer some questions about his team and the Red Raiders meeting with UMass.

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First off, welcome to the UMass Football Blog! It seems as if UMass always hits FCS/I-A teams when they are on a roll. All the pundits are saying that this is the Red Raiders break through year in the Big 12. Is it?

DTN: Thanks for having me, I'm looking forward to the game.

There's actually quite a bit of debate about whether or not this is a true statement. One camp thinks that we're seeing signs of the same old Texas Tech (good offense, no defense) and then there's the camp that thinks there's been some improvement on defense (still giving up yards, but being stingy with points). Personally, I'm in the latter camp. I can see the improvement. However, this year, the offense has struggled a bit, despite returning almost the entire group from last year and a quarterback, Graham Harrell, who is in his 3rd year starting in this system, something hasn't happened under the Mike Leach era. I'm cautiously optimistic that this is the year that Texas Tech breaks through to grab a BCS bowl game, but I'm not holding my breath.

#2. Spread offenses are going viral all over college football. Texas Tech runs a passing version of the spread. Could you describe it to us?

DTN: Starting with the offensive line, the linemen split anywhere between 3' and 6' apart, and average 6'6" and 320 pounds, or so. Typically, the quarterback (Graham Harrell) is in the shotgun with a running back to the quarterback's left or right. The receivers are, in order from the quarterback position (left to right):

- X Receiver (Edward Britton)

- H Receiver (Eric Morris)

- Y Receiver (Detron Lewis)

- Z Reciever (Michael Crabtree)

The H and Y receivers are the inside receivers while the X and Z receivers are lined up outside.

The receivers will run general routes, but will adjust based on the coverage.

#3. It's always fun to see a really great player even if we are on the receiving end of his play. Everybody is saying Michael Crabtree is the best WR in college football. What makes him different? Speed? Hands?

DTN: I think the thing that separates Michael Crabtree from most receivers is his size (6'3"/215). He's just so much bigger than most cornerbacks in today's college game, and that is a decided advantage. I've also always thought that Crabtree, a quarterback in high school, sees the field so much better than most receivers, sort of like a good point guard, he sees the play develop and makes adjustments accordingly. The one flaw that I've seen thus far is when teams get physical with Crabtree at the line of scrimmage, making it difficult for him to stay on his route. Being that this is essentially his second year at receiver, he's still learning some of the nuances of the receiver position and I think he's gotten better as defenses have game-planned for him.

#4. What kind of defense does Texas Tech run? What players should UMass fans look for?

DTN: Texas Tech runs a base 4-3 defense and thus far, it's been pretty vanilla. Ruffin McNeill took over in the middle of the year last year and we thought that we might see more blitzes and stunts, but thus far, we just haven't seen it. As far as specific players are concerned, the defensive line rotates 9 players and they essentially see equal time. Defensive end McKinner Dixon has been coming on lately, while middle linebacker Brian Duncan may be the most steady linebacker at Texas Tech in quite some time. Daniel Charbonnet, 3 interceptions against SMU, has been pretty good at the strong safety position, while Jamar Wall, a preseason All-Big 12 pick, has improved after a shaking first 2 weeks.

#5. The largest crowd UMass ever played before was 51,221 in 2002 at North Carolina State. Will Texas Tech fans break that record for us?

DTN: Last week against SMU there was an announced crowd of 53,383 and all of the season tickets have been sold out. The Texas Tech fans are ready for a winner and they're showing up in droves. I think the UMass game is almost a sell out, if it isn't already, so yes, I think the record gets broken.

#6. Any final thoughts about the game? We appreciate your stopping in!

DTN: I'm interested to see how well UMass rebounds after a tough loss by James Madison (who if I recall is one of the better FCS teams). Texas Tech has been running the ball quite well over the last three weeks (shocking, I know) and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see both the two Texas Tech running backs, Baron Batch and Shannon Woods, continue to get 10 carries each, and Leach looks to continue to run the ball.

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Special thanks to Seth for sharing taking the time his thoughts with us. Mrs. Blog and I have camped a lot in Texas and we always liked the friendly Texans. Hope to meet a bunch of good folks at the game.

Texas Tech Preview

On Saturday UMass plays its annual BCS/I-A game. It's a challenge this year as we play Texas Tech----- currently ranked at or near the Top Ten in most ranking services

UMass game notes (html) and notes (pdf)

Texas Tech's official football page . Texas Tech's UMass game notes here (pdf)

The UMass game is sold out (at end of article).

The Red Raiders belong to the Big Twelve.

Texas Tech's head coach is Mike Leach. He's the Mickey Matthews of the Big Twelve. The Red Raiders are 3-0 and they beat their last opponent 42-7 and Leach says he's disappointed in their play.

Just to show what all that TV and Big Twelve league money will buy, check out the Red Raiders strength and conditioning center.

ESPN's Texas Tech page here . Scout.com's Red Raider page here.

The best of the Red Raider fan sites is "Double T Nation". That site has links to nine Texas Tech fan sites and a ton of Big Twelve links.

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When you talk Red Raiders, you're talking offense. Texas Tech has had fifteen straight non-losing season in the Big Twelve. Head Coach Mike Leach is 65-37 in one of the toughest leagues in BCS/I-A.

The Red Raiders spread the field and throw the ball. Last year they threw the ball 713 times with 512 completions for 5,705 yards and 48 TD's.

This year their QB Graham Harrell, in three games, is 159-99 62.3 average 1,346 yards and averages 448.7 yards/game. That's good enought to lead the Big Twelve in passing.

Their star receiver is Michael Crabtree. He set three NCAA receiving records as a freshman. Crabtree is leading the Big Twelve with 24 catches for 395 yards 5 TD's and 131.7 yards/game. He should be------but probably won't, with the bias towards QB's, a Heisman candidate.

The Red Raiders usually don't rush much, but his year they have done better averaging 135 yards/game and a 5.5 yards a carry average.

Defense has been the Red Raiders weak point in past years and they're 10th in total defense in the Big Twelve. And they have been playing the "soft' section of their schedule.

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Tomorrow Texas Tech Blogger Seth Jungman will have some detailed information about Texas Tech and share his thoughts about the game in a special pre-game "Question-and-answer' session here on our blog.

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My Thoughts on the Game:

Well, Eastern Washington gave the Red Raiders a pretty good game . They played the game that I hoped UMass would play when I was thinking about Texas Tech pre-season.

Well, we all know what has happened in 2008. Our rebuilt offense took one game to get in sync, but since then has been running on all cylinders despite injuries in the offensive line.

The UMass defense, the defense that held Matt Ryan and the BC Eagles to 323 total yards, has suddenly lost focus. Originally, I had hope for a Boston College result against Texas Tech.

Our lost focus is a bad omen for a game against a team like Texas Tech. Against Bryant later this year, UMass will run it between the tackles in the second half. The Red Raiders are not going to stop scoring.

I do think UMass' offense can move the ball against the Red Raiders. We have at least as much offensive talent as Eastern Washington. We can hope to score and burn some clock time to keep the score respectable.

If our defense, especially the secondary, a number of whom had NFL dreams before this season can recover, this would be an excellent time to do so.

Hopefully, we'll play really hard against a tough BCS team, use that to improve and make a good run in the CAA.

Anyway, I'm there win or lose. Go UMass!

Monday Morning Madness

The Boston Herald has an article about the passing game here .

The JMU student newspaper "The Breeze" has a game article here .

The Harrisonburg Daily Record has an article titled "JMU pounds UMass".

Matty Vautour has three stories" "Dukes run over Minutemen", "A rare whipping for UMass"and "A bittersweet day for Victor Cruz".

CSN has its weekly "FCS Recap" here .
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The CAA has the season statistics up.

The Good:

• Liam Coen is 1st in pass efficiency
• Tony Nelson leads the league with 120.7 yards/game
• Victor Cruz leads all CAA receivers with 117.0 yards/game
• Brett Arnold leads all CAA punters with 46.7 ave
• 1st in red zone scoring
• 1st in first downs
  

The Bad:

• 11th in rushing defense
• 11th in scoring defense
• 8th in total defense
• 12th in time of possession (are we scoring quickly or is the defense letting the opposition keep the ball?)
  
• 11th in kickoff returns
• 10th in turnover margin

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Keepers power rankings drop us to #10.

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Tomorrow I'll be doing a Texas Tech preview and the following day we'll have a "Guest Blog" from Texas Tech blogger Seth Jungman who writes the "Double T Nation".

The weather in Lubbock looks beautiful all week. Mrs. Blog and I fly out Friday from Manchester.

Go UMass!

Sunday morning articles

The Boston Globe here and the Boston Herald here .

Worcester Telegram here .

Richmond Times here .

Springfield Republican here .

Harrisonburg Daily News here . WHSV here .

Staunton News Leader here .

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Maybe, just maybe we've played three very good teams in a row.

Albany beat Hofstra.

The CAA news page has writeups on all the CAA teams here .

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Texas Tech scorched SMU 43-7.

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The Texas Tech stadium after hurricane Ike (stolen from the excellent Texas Tech fan blog Double-t Nation)

Prevent defense prevents only winning

By Mike Gibson
Go ahead.
Try it.
Type into Google "prevent defense prevents winning."
Then type: "prevent defense prevents losing."
The first search gets you 2,140,000 responses.
The second gets you 274,000.
There's a reason why there's such a discrepancy in search results because, maybe, it's true.
You'll come up with some interesting search results, too, like the fact that John Madden is widely credited with the origin of that phrase.
In all of my years watching football, I've never seen a team lose a game in the final seconds because they blitzed a quarterback and saw him catch them with something underneath the coverage.
Yet I've seen too many passes thrown into the end zone with three guys on the receiver where a tipped ball or a freak interference play can win it.
Last year, I saw Brian Griese... Brian FREAKING Griese ... take the anemic Bears' offense 97 yards against the Eagles because Andy Reid sat back in a stupid prevent defense and waited for the Bears beat him.
They did.
On Saturday, on my way to work, I saw Temple sit back in a three-man rush for the final series and wait for Buffalo to beat it.
It had to wait until the final play, but it was inevitable.
I'm not second-guessing now.
I said to everyone within earshot at Maxi's Bar on Liacouras Walk that the game was over when the Owls went to a three-man rush on the first defensive play of the final series.
"BLITZ!" I yelled at the screen. "BLITZ! BLITZ! BLITZ!"
"C'mon, the best pass defense is putting a quarterback on his ass!" I yelled.
Guess what?
No matter how much I yell, my voice doesn't carry through a television screen to Buffalo. Only in Poltergeist, but not in real life. This can't be happening, I said. A coach who has the guts to go for it on fourth-and-1 at his own 34 in a tie game surely has the guts to play just as aggressively on the other side of the ball.
All I could do is turn to the guy next to me and say, "if they don't blitz, they are going to lose."
And they did. Hopefully, they learned their lesson.
We'll see.

A coach who has the guts
to go for it on fourth-and-1
at his own 34 in a tie game
surely has the guts to play
just as aggressively
on the other side of the ball.

Thirty-eight seconds to go and every offensive play Buffalo ran was met with a three-man rush. Drew Willy had all the time in the world to throw.
All ... the ... time ... in ... the ... world.
Twenty years ago almost to the day, a Temple coach named Bruce Arians almost learned the same lesson Al Golden learned Saturday.
I said almost because he got his wits about him in time to avoid a Temple defeat.
Down 35-30, a Rutgers' quarterback of similar talent named Scott Erney drove the Scarlet Knights from his own 5-yard line to the Temple 20 in the game's final minute.
Arians called a timeout and yelled so hard at defensive coordinator Nick Rapone I thought Bruce's veins were going to burst. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but soon I found out.
Temple went from covering with eight to rushing with eight. Four straight plays, Erney was sacked. It was a jailbreak of Temple defenders and the Owls were loving every defensive call, coming at Erney on all sides. The game ended with a Temple player, appropriately named Swift Burch, on top of Erney at midfield. Four plays. Four sacks. Thirty yards of losses.

There is no doubt in my mind
if Mark D'Onofrio and Al Golden
decided to send more than Buffalo could block,
we'd be talking about how good
that grass stain looked on Drew Willy's ass
at the end of the game
and not a fluke catch

"If I was going to go down, I was going to go down with my guns blazing," Arians said, holding the game ball in the locker room afterward.
"That's what I'm talkin' about," I said then.
That's what I'm talking about now.
There is no doubt in my mind if Mark D'Onofrio and Al Golden decided to send more than Buffalo could block, we'd be talking about how good that grass stain looked on Drew Willy's ass at the end of the game and not a fluke catch.
If only my voice could have reached Buffalo. If only they had heard.

UMass run over by landers

Even Blogger is acting up on me. I only have partial functionality, so bear with me.

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Well, that was something. That was one of the most amazin' games I've seen.

The Bad:

Rodney Landers ran 26 times for 206 yards with nearly an 8 yards/carry average.

How many times did the offense bring us back to seven points down? Two, three? The defense continues to be the worst tackling unit in my memory. We are still throwing shoulders at opponents and they are just shrugging us off.

The Good:

The offense played well enough to win. We had more total yards and first downs than JMU did.

Victor Cruz had a historic day. He had the best single game receiving total in UMass history with 262 yards. He didn't just break the record he shattered it. He also tied Jimmy Moore and Brandon London for most catches in a single game.

His 20.15 yards/per catch for the game is not even in the record books. That also places him 6th in the CAA All-time single game yardage record, just behind Marques Coulson's 267 yards against Liberty in 2003.

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UMass athletic dept report here .

JMU story here .

UMass-JMU game Open Comment Thread

Today, I'll be here at UMass Football Blog Central Control watching the game (hopefully) on internet video.

College football quote for the day:

"At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money and we don't have any" - Erk Russell, Georgia Southern

Ahem, Go UMass!!! Beat the Dukes!

UPDATE: I cannot get the CN8 video feed to work. I can get UNH-Rhode Island video from www.channellsurfing.net with Internet Explorer. The link shows the UMass-JMU game available at 3:45. There is no audio however..

Game Day---James Madison

Man, I hate not going to the games. Mrs. Blog and I have a lot tradition of going to away games. Most of the CAA games are in places that allow me to go the game and incorporate some shopping or something for Mrs. Blog. But, since I'm going to Texas Tech, there was not really time for a trip to Harrisonburg. Still waiting for the game at home makes me hyper.

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

The Harrisonburg has something to talk about . WNSV has an article here .

Matty Vautour has a game day article here .

The Boston Globe has an article on New England College teams here .

The UMass website has a story on how WCAP 980 AM Lowell has rejoined the UMass Sports Network. They give a lot of additional coverage. Now, UMass needs a Berkshire station. There are a lot of UMass fans in the Pittsfield area.

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BTW, Northeastern continues its tradition of killer OOC schedules with a trip to Georgia
Southern.

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The CAA game day page covers today's games. TV coverage starts on CN8 at Noon with UNH at Rhode Island.

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UPDATE: One of the college football blogs I link to "Saturday Soundoffs", just went silent. If you want to check out anything in that blog, better do so now as I'll be taking the link down shortly.

The-Day-before-the-JMU-Game stuff

It's often said that the CAA South is better than the CAA North. The truth is James Madison is better than the CAA North.

From the CAA Press Guide:


North Vs South (from 2004)

UMass 9-3 .750
UNH 7-5 .583
Maine 6-6 .500
Hofsta 5-7 .417
Northeastern 4-8 .333
Rhode Island 3-9 .250

South Vs North (also from 2004)

JMU 11-1 .917
Richmond 8-4 .667
William & Mary 6-6 .500
Delaware 6-6 .500
Villanova 5-7 .417
Towson 2-10 .167

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WHSV.com has a story that Jamil Sullivan 5-9 205 will start for Eugene Holloman in Saturday's game against UMass. He's out with a bruised thigh. Sullivan will be playing with a torn ligament in his left thumb.

DRN online has a story about UMass Liam Coen from the JMu perspective.

Matty Vautour writes a story about the showdown between Coen and JMU QB Rodney Landers.

He has another story about UMass punter Brett Arnold's improved play this year. Vautour says that UMass freshman Allen Williams has drawn the assignment of being "Rodney Landers" on the scout team.

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has a story about Travis Trupica's taking over the long snapper position.

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ROFL! The National Championship Issue (via the Wizard of Odds) has a graphic on "How to argue about college football".

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CSN columnist Bruce Down has another excellent essay on the second week in the CAA.

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And things were not good at Army after their loss to UNH last week.

UPDATE: Things are getting uglier at Army. Two of their top players quit the team and the Academy after the UNH loss.

The Sporting News has their top 25 FCS predictions here .

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