UMass Football VIDEO

They sure do play with a ridiculous amount of energy, hopefully we don't let them hang around too long.

what a great hit on the goaline by Holy Cross on the third UMass touchdown. its a shame he broke the plain because that would have been an EPIC goaline stop...

UMass has a better kicker than we do.......however, I would be willing to bet that Denard can score at will. Should be a nice game to see what everyone can do.

Sorry Minutemen on Saturday you are not playing holy cross.  Our offense will not be stopped.  UMass is well coached and is one of the better teams in the FCS but there is not stopping Denard and this offense. We should be up 3 scores in no time.

Our O-line should really dominat this game.

First highlight.  Empty backfield.  5 wide.  This will be a test for our secondary.  But, then again.  What isn't?

RR will remind Michigan about James Madison over VT, North Dakota(not sure but I know that it's one of the Dakota school) over Kansas.  There are players who were on the team that experienced THE HORROR, they won't let them become complacent.

The good thing is the team has "us against the world" mentality so concentrating on UMass shouldn't be a problem.  I expect a rout in favor of Michigan.

Looks like UMass has the edge in FG kicking.  It's kind of sad that a 37 yard field goal seems out of reach.  But obviously in a game like this, the majority of our points should be from TD's. 

It would be nice to see Gardner come in after getting a comfortable lead. 

But I was looking at the Sagarin ratings, and they have UMass at 69, and the third highest FCS team.  By comparison, Bowling Green is 108.  I thought it to be interesting anyway, and reflective of Coach Rod's assertion that this is one of the good FCS teams.  I'm sure that he'll hammer that home to the team this week.

http://www.kiva.net/~jsagarin/sports/cfsend.htm

No offense to UMass, but doesn't that video remind you of the local high school sports report on Friday nights?

It would be nice to see both Gardner and Forcier engineer at least one touchdown drive each on Saturday after Denard leads the Wolverines to a comfortable early lead.   I would like to see a smile back on Tate's face after throwing a successful touchdown completion on the field. 

On a side note, this will be my first visit back to Ann Arbor and the Big House since moving up to Toronto the weekend of THE HORROR.  I could only listen in shock that day as the infamous fieldgoal was blocked.  Never Forget!

Thanks for the video.  The energy and size reminded me of gremlins for some reason.

doesn't like Minutemen either.

Well played, Generic UMass Announcer

This will NOT be a shut out. UMass has quite the offense going there. That said, We should have 4 or 5 tenths of a second on them at every position, so long plays shouldn't happen.

also

Just win. There have been several FCS upsets this year already. Just winning is JUST fine. Especially against a really good FCS team like UMass.

finally

Does anyone else feel like The Horror is getting less horrible as time goes by? Yeah, yeah, we were supposed to "contend" in '07. We wouldn't have anyway, so that doesn't matter. But seriously, looking at that game through the lens of three years of FBS/FCS games, I think it becomes quite obvious that losing to Appy State was simply an indicator of things to come and an age of increased parity across all of football. It used to be true that you couldn't train speed and athleticism, but that's no longer the case. We have solved that issue to some extent through science, and it's going to happen more and more regularly as time goes by.

Their Dline looks like it could get pushed around and if we can get pressure on that QB, I bet he'll make some bad decisions.

I think the key to this game will be to slow the offense, hard to tell how effective they will be against a solid defense.

...is a gimme any more. Talent can be found in the most unlikely places. 

That's some pretty frumpy looking football. 

When I hear it said that we aren't yet good enough to play bad and win, I don't dispute it.  We definitely won't have that luxury against these guys judging from this video.  My eyeballs are impressed enough to be nerved up the first quarter or two Saturday to see if we are in full throttle butt kicking mode.