Looking ahead to UMass
What do we know about UMass? Some quick reading of a few articles shows they are 2-0 and put up some good yardage. Sr QB. Spreads the ball around. Oh Noes! I'm having trouble finding a depth chart, but I would hope that our O and D lines will dominate this one. Has anyone scouted them yet?
September 12th, 2010 at 5:48 PM ^
September 12th, 2010 at 5:51 PM ^
UMass is a pretty solid FCS club. They run the spread and have been known to throw in a little pistol too. They are certainly not a team to sleep on, but we should not have much of a problem as long as we're well prepared and hungry.
September 12th, 2010 at 6:05 PM ^
the fact they run spread/pistol excites me because it means we won't be prepping uselessly heading into the Indiana game. and by that i mean there will be an overlap of styles, unlike ND who had to practice against spread Denard and then plays MSU.
September 12th, 2010 at 5:54 PM ^
UMass was in the FCS championship game against Appy State in 2007, so they're not going to be another Baby Seal U (or even an EMU). Sadly, we've learned that we've got to take top FCS teams seriously.
September 12th, 2010 at 5:57 PM ^
that a couple/few schools in their conference dropped football and as a result they got some fresh bodies; I don't know who the guys were that they picked up but they went from rather poor last year to not to shabby so far this year, for FCS of course...
September 12th, 2010 at 7:44 PM ^
Yes - Northeastern dropped after the 2008 season and Hofstra after the 2009 season. These were both doormats in the league, but wouldn't be surprised if they scooped up a few, especially from NE because it's in Boston.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:17 PM ^
fire those questions....
first UMASS has a great website, most anything you wuld want to know is there
players we picked up....WR from Hofstra, Tony Nelson and RB John Griffin out of Northeastern as both ended football.
September 12th, 2010 at 5:58 PM ^
We will handle our business. No mercy.
September 12th, 2010 at 6:05 PM ^
They're ranked #18 in the Fathead FCS poll, and #20 in the FCS coaches poll. They beat #4-ranked William and Mary in their first game by a score of 27-23, then crushed in-state rival Holy Cross this weekend, 31-7. There's at least one blog dedicated to UMass football, though it appears to operate primarily in link-gathering mode. They won the I-AA championship in 1998, and played for it as recently as 2006, but they were 5-6 last year after going 7-5 the year before. Apparently they've been playing football since 1879, and there are currently 7 UMass alums on NFL rosters. There's lots more information on their official site.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:29 PM ^
like a prom date.
Here's hoping Tate and Devin get some PT.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:37 PM ^
Some of this may be a repeat, but I coached at an FCS program so I'm just going to purge my info.
They beat William and Mary in a close game to open, who was a FCS seminfinalist last year. Really nice win.
Yesterday they easily beat Holy Cross, who also qualified for the FCS playoffs last year. This is a tad misleading because the Patriot League HC plays in is the second worst conference in the FCS.
They play in the CAA, which is THE conference in FCS ball. Often 4 teams from that league are granted spots in the 16 team field. If you ever catch any of the FCS playoff, Richmond, Villanova, James Madison, William and Mary, New Hampshire, Delaware (not Delaware St.) and others play in that league. Obviously JMU is good again. Virginia's new coach was hired away from Richmond last year. I also think UMass's coach was a candidate for the Boston College job the last time it came open, though I am really fuzzy on the details of that right now.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:22 PM ^
55-43 over GA Southern was the best day ever until the ball came through against the rams in new orleans and i got to touch the lombardi trophy. (dam my Pats look good)
and that's right we lost to Ap State the game before you lost to Ap State. If we had that team I would be feeling good about a competitive match sat.
we are big upfront on the O Line. DBs are our biggest weakness. Linebacking is always a UMASS strength.
September 12th, 2010 at 8:15 PM ^
all iv read about them is that they are going to be victimized by the 3-peat walter camp player of the week...no i havent been hanging with the KNOWLEDGE, but i did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night
September 12th, 2010 at 9:03 PM ^
Cam Gordon can begin to get more comfortable out there during UMass.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:58 PM ^
If you ever catch any of the FCS playoff, Richmond, Villanova, James Madison, William and Mary, New Hampshire, Delaware (not Delaware St.) and others play in that league.
So I guess we aren't going to win based on awesome helmet intimidation then.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:23 PM ^
how intimidated was JMU againt VA Tech?