Saturday, July 20, 2013

Saturday--July 20, 2013

I was again traveling through Amherst yesterday, so I stopped and looked at the UMass stadium renovations. The construction guys were earning their pay as the temperature display in my truck read 99 degrees in stadium parking lot.

As usual, click on the image and Blogger displays a larger view.




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MassLive has a couple of articles on UMass football. They have a Friday "Daily Reader" with a number of links to various articles. In only 4,654 more "Daily" posts they'll catch up to the UMass Football Blog :)

 They praise Western Michigan for having 20 verbals while remarking UMass has signed "only five" so far. I've remarked before most of the Broncos verbals had either no other offers or only one from lower level MAC teams such as Central Michigan. The recruiting services also rank by the total number of recruits. You will remember, back in the CAA, Maine usually had the highest number of recruits, and you know how that usually worked out. IMHO, UMass is doing well in recruiting and we'll see how the classes rank in February and then again four years later...

They also have another article on the good year Boston College is having with Massachusetts recruits. Well, most recruiting gurus believe there are annually less than a dozen FBS caliber recruits in the whole of New England. The Eagles had a terrible recruiting year in 2012 under the hapless Spazani. UMass, in its second year in the big time, cannot be expected to dominate in recruiting at home. The Minutemen will get their share as the program improves, but most of the scholarship players will come from out of state.

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ESPN Boston has some Patriots staff changes including one with a UMass connection.

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Matt Slachetka formerly of Chicopee, MA and a walk-on with UMass football has joined the Eastern Michigan strength and conditioning staff.

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Bloguin Sports ranks Vanderbilt's schedule at the bottom of the SEC's difficulty.

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Meanwhile, 150 colleges, conferences and bowl games have re-uped with EA Sports.

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Patriots Insider says James Ihedigbo plays for winners.

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You have to sit through a commercial to see this video of Brandon London's TD catch against the Stamps, but it's worth it.

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