More academic honors

UMass recently held its Fall Academic Honors Luncheon. Among the thirty student-athletes honored were Chris Cefalo (FB) and Breyone Evans (FB) from the UMass Football team.

Story here .

Evans was not mentioned in my previous blog post about eleven UMass players being named to the CAA All-Academic team. He's a graduate student so perhaps he's not eligible .

Congratulations, Chris and Breyone !

Eleven UMass Players named Academic All-Conference

The UMass Football Blog is proud to announce that eleven UMass players made the 2007 Academic All-Conference Team. The UMass announcement is here . The original CAA conference article is here . Players have to have 3.0 or better average to be named to the team.

Congratulations to: David Burris, Matt Stolte, Sean Callicchio, Biff Gottehrer, Jason Grochowalski , Chis Cefalo, Armando Cuko, Kyle Harrington, Josh Jennings, Anthony Rouzier and Michael Boyle .

Parse the Academic All-Conference list this way:

1. Hofstra 15
2. URI 13
3. UNH 12
   
4. UMass 11
5. Villanova 11
6. Delaware 10
7. Maine 9
8. Towson 8
9. William & Mary 8
10. Northeastern 5
11. Richmond 5
12. JMU 3

CAA North 65, CAA South 45

UMass Finishes third in Lambert Cup Voting

UMass finished third in the 2007 Lambert cup voting. Story here . The final votes were:

1. Delaware 80 votes
2. Richmond 71 votes
3. UMass 65 Votes

The UMass Football Blog is one of the few places on the web with information about the history of the Lambert Cup. Click and scroll to the 10/18/06 blog post (it's difficult to point Blogger to a specific post. It won't search by date).

Four UMass Players Named ECAC All-Stars

J.J. Moore, Jason Hatchell, David Burris and Matt Austin were named First Team ECAC in 2007.

Story here . It was the second award for Austin. It was nice to see David Burris get recognition for his great season. He had 27 UT 40 AT 67 TT (fourth on the team, which is really a lot of production for a DL) 13.0-62 TFL 9.5-55 Sacks and 1 FF.

Tuesday Morning Odds & Ends

A week ago last Sunday I blogged about former UMass WR Neal Brown being in line for the offensive coordinator post at Troy. He got it.

Two days ago I blogged about J.J. Moore and Jason Hatchell being Sporting News All-Americans. The UMass athletic web site now has an extensive article here .

The UMass Library has an extensive collection of UMass Football historical images here . Since the library charges $35/image each for use, you won't see any of them here .

J.J. Moore and Jason Hatchell make Sports Network's All-American Team

The Sports Network has announced its All-America team. J.J. Moore and Jason Hatchell made 2nd team All-American. UMass had seven players in the "Honorable Mention" section.

Merry Christmas to All!

The UMass Football Blog would like, on its third Christmas to extend to all the UMass Football community, on-line and off, a very merry Christmas.

"Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!

'What's to-day?' cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him.

'Eh?' returned the boy, with all his might of wonder.

'What's to-day, my fine fellow?' said Scrooge.

'To-day?' replied the boy. 'Why, Christmas Day.' "

Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"

Saturday Morning Odds & Ends

OK, that's quite enough snow, thank you. The UMass Football Blog has been marooned in Maine for the last two days. Then I had to shovel out after I got back.

Meanwhile, Jason Hatchell was named one of the "FCS Nifty Fifty". This is a nice honor for Hatchell who has put a lot of effort into UMass football. Of course, this blog thinks about five other UMass seniors could have been included.

UMass finished seventh in the final Sports Network poll.

Down in Rhode Island, new Rhody Head Coach Darren Rizzi says the Rams will win.

Joining Rizzi as Defensive Coordinator in Rhode Island is the former head coach of Millersville .

And Maine Head Coach Dave Cosgrove who, you will remember, used the Rhody job as leverage, has agreed to a contract extension in Maine.

UPDATE: I meant to publish a link to this story back before the National Championship game. It's about the CAA sticking together (and has some UMass quotes).

Final Polls

Keeper's College rankings had us ending up 5th in FCS.

The AGS, Coaches Poll and Sporting News Polls are here .

The UMass athletic dept article about the Coaches Poll is here .

UPDATE: Article about the Rhode Island coaching change here .

This year's redshirts

While watching Appalachian State pull the legs off Delaware last night, I spent some time looking at the UMass roster.

If I didn't miss anyone, and I'm sure someone will point it out if I did , it looks like UMass had 15 red-shirts in 2007.

1. Scott Wallace QB
2. Octavious Hawking QB
3. Shane Viveiros DB
4. Emil Igwenagu LB/RB
5. Jonathan Hernandez RB
6. Josh Samuda C
7. Johnny Evans LB
8. Tim Nolan OL
9. Michael Binkoski OL
10. Brian Ostaszewki OL
11. Justin Sawicki OL
12. Tom Gilson WR
13. Julian Talley WR
14. Courtney Jackson DE
15. Jonathan Emond WR

The players with no bio information are probably walk-ons. We also will have Chauncey Incarnato OL a transfer who was not eligible this year.

Barring any academic problems or players leaving the team, I looks like we are do not have heavy needs at OL and QB.

During later posts, we will look at what we do need in recruits this year.

UMass NFL Prospects

Draft Daddy has a list of "Juniors to watch" Sean Smalls is on it here .

They also have a list of "Sophmores to watch" Jeromy Miles is on this one.

NFL Draft Scout follows 17 UMass players (including this year's seniors).

I don't remember UMass ever having a sophomore on the Draft Daddy watch list before.

UMass-Southern Illinois Picassa Web Album

Courtesy of UMass kicker Chris Koepplin's family I have set up a 26 image Picassa Web Album here .

I've also added a sidebar link in the "2007 UMass Images" section.

A big thanks to the Koepplin family for sharing their images with us!

More UMass and Playoff articles

The Salem News has an article on UMass Fullback Chris Zardas' injury. It's a stark reminder of how much football players put their body on the line. Zardas certainly looked like he was becoming a real asset to UMass when he was injured.


The UMass football Blog wishes Chris and all the other Minutemen injured this season a quick and complete recovery.

Around the playoffs:

Delaware plays the Salukis in Carbondale at 4:00 pm today.

A Delaware writer looks at the playoffs .

A story from the Saluki side here .

Hens-Saluki matchups here .

If you missed last night's Richmond-Appalachian State game, you missed Amanti Edwards going off on the Spiders .

This article gives some the records set by Edwards and the Mountaineers .

Dave Coulson has a write-up on the Richmond-Appalachian State game here .

Coach Brown and AD John McCutcheon honored

Last night Coach Brown and UMass AD John McCutcheon were honored by the All-American Football Foundation. Coach Brown was awarded the Johnny Vaught Coach of the Year Award.

Coach Brown's wife Debe Brown also received an award.

AD John McCutcheon received the Robert R Neyland Outstanding AD Award.

Note that Coach Brown currently leads all UMass Football Coaches in winning percentage. The following lists UMass coaches in total games coached, then wins and then shows winning percentage

• Vic Fusia --93 games--59 wins--.645
• Mark Whipple--75 games--49 wins--.629
• Dick McPherson--73 games--45 wins--.623
• Jim Reid--67 games--36 wins--.552
• Bob Pickett-64 games--36 wins--.563
• Don Brown--50 games--36 wins--.720

Great work by Coach Brown. And kudos to Mrs. Brown for being a cool hand with an IV drip. As a person who has had more than my share of IVs, I appreciate good nursing.

Friday FCS articles

The UMass Daily Collegian looks at the SIU game .

David Coulson picks against the CAA again .

Bruce Dowd looks at the CAA's run in the playoffs .

Eric Gemunder looks at this week's games (a pdf download) .

And the Salukis finally think they have the attention of the Carbondale fans .

UMass Football Blog update

I've used my time up here in the Maine woods to to some housekeeping on the Blog now that the playoffs are over for UMass.

I've updated the links section and deleted all the dead ones. Several links have been added. I have a policy of linking to sites that link here. If you find any links that need to be worked on add a comment or e-mail me.

The auto-login feature is still a pain in the butt, but I've figured out how to get the image back in the header.

Thursday morning reading

Charles Burton of the College Sporting New looks at the latest round of FCS playoffs.

BTW, check out UMass' final stats.

Meanwhile, the Saluki's are the only seeded FCS playoff team still standing.

If the Hens win the National Championship, K.C. Keeler may be on the move .

Richmond and Applachian State play Friday.

It's a long way to the Spring Game and College Basketball has lost it's bounce for college students. I've noticed in the BB games I've watched on TV there are a lot of empty seats around the nation.

More playoff stuff

The Daily Collegian covers the players that made UMass football a success in 2007.

It's a Golden Era for the Salukis.

Keeper has both CAA teams as underdogs in the next round.

On the other hand, we're still rated higher than the Hens .

I always read Matty Vautour's Hampshire Gazette Sports Blog. There, I found a link to this story about Marcel Shipp and Steve Baylark helping underprivileged kids .

Kent Schmidt of the College Sporting News has a semi-final playoff article here.

Tuesday Morning reading

Jeff Thomas of the Springfield Republican has an article with Coach Brown discussing the SIU game and he also looks at UMass' recruiting needs in 2008.

Despite its strong showing so far, the Salukis are still searching for fans. Coach Kill was diplomatic about the showing. The student newspaper categorized the turnout as "pathetic".

Delaware gets SIU next. And the Hens are smiling.

Thoughts on SIU

Well, at first I was pretty disappointed. As evidenced by this Blog I pretty much bleed Maroon & White. However, after a day�s reflection, I have to be thankful for a great 2007 season. We won the CAA in its first ever season. Since 1998, UMass has won the league championship four times (99, 03, 06 and 07). Four championships in nine years. That�s pretty damm good. One flaw in the playoff system is that 15 of the top 16 teams in the nation end their season with loss. Undefeated McNeese State and Montana didn�t even make it out of the first round. The Pundits favorite team UNI, barely escaped New Hampshire ----- a team we dominated. Delaware put an end to them in next round. We are still one of the top eight teams in the nation and we went down swinging.

The roots of the SIU loss are complex. It just was not as easy this year. Different team, different players with different skills and personalities. Different coaches. While I believe this team was very talented, it just did not all fit together easily as it did in 2006. This year, it was a struggle.

One reason for the loss and the struggle was we were playing a pro schedule with a FCS team. If coach Brown was a pro coach he would have placed a number of players on the IR and the team would have been picking up players from the waver wire. Even in training camp, the O-line struggled with injuries. We rarely kept the same line intact for more than a game or two. We had injuries at TE with Brad Listorti essentially out for the season and both Matt Silver and Ian Jorgensen battled injuries. So did fullback E.J. Barthel.

I think Liam Coen�s knee was considerably more than �tweaked�. He did not look comfortable most of the season.

Losing Tony Nelson and Chris Zardas in the Fordham game really hurt. In the close SIU game, they could have made a difference. By December 1st , we were running out of bodies.

Defense:

I thought the defense looked gassed. Remember they had just come off three big efforts against Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Hofstra. To me, it looked like they just went to the well and it was dry. The proof of the effort they made was the hitting. The SIU game was one of the most physical games I�ve seen. We needed some turnovers and except for Sean Small�s interception, we did not get any.

Offense:

The offense�s trouble was more complex. Despite the personal losses, we were more than competitive. Our wide receivers Rasheed Rancher, J.J. Moore, Mike Omar and Jeremy Horne romped.

However, despite the 25 first downs, 7.5 yards/play and the record setting passing day, I doubt that the O-line were very happy with their play. We are a blitzing team and we struggled with SIU�s blitzes. When Liam had time, he was effective. I also doubt that despite his numbers, he was happy with the three interceptions.

Overall impression:

I feel that despite the UMass manta of taking it one game at a time, we sometimes felt that all that talent was going to prevail no matter what. It felt as if we lost concentration sometimes. The first half of Colgate, the first 40 minutes of William & Mary, the first quarter of SIU. The whole season it seemed as if we felt we could step on the gas and pull away from anyone. But against Rhody and SIU the spurt never came.

And we made some mistakes. That holding call in the first quarter that stopped a drive and we had to settle for a field goal. Liam�s interception in the end zone that cost us at least three points. That�s seven points and an overtime game right there.

To bring this to a full circle, it�s a pretty good year when we go 10-3, win the CAA Championship, advance to the quarterfinals, lose by seven points on the road and feel dissatisfied with the ending...

IMHO UMass still has tons of talent. I look forward to Coach Brown crafting a new team for 2008 and I can�t wait to see all our players play in the new year. I'm still proud of them. Wanna bet that we�ll have some terrific recruits on Feb 8th? When is the Spring Game this year? I�m ready..... :)