Looking ahead to UMass

Submitted by Knappster on

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?

bklein09

September 12th, 2010 at 5:48 PM ^

I've just been doing some reading or stats and box scores, and it seems like they have a decent team. They beat #4 1-aa ranked William and Mary and then stomped holy cross. They seem to have a lot of balance on offense with two good running backs and a solid QB.
All I know is that we will need to just put them away early and control the line of scrimmage. Honestly we absolutely have to stuff the run because although they have put up a lot of rushing yards, their ypc is pretty low. We can make them one dimensional and then just avoid the big play.
I just hope we dint have to leave denard in for too long. Tate and Gardner seeing some time would be excellent.

TheOracle6

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. 

Muttley

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.

victors2000

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...

WolverBean

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.

AAL

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.

rascalofearth

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.

FingerMustache

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

Lordfoul

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.