Thursday--August 20th, 2015

UMass adds Alan Pandiani as associate athletic director for sale and fan experience.

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Blake Frohnapfel and Tajae Sharpe have been named to the Senior Bowl Watch list.

Only eleven players from the MAC nominated and UMass has two of them. Have the Minutemen ever had two players in the Senior Bowl at the same time? Not that I can remember.

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Dan Malone has five questions with new UMass special teams coach Mark Michaels. His UMass bio. Michaels was special teams coordinator for the Seahawks and spent a total of eight years in the NFL.

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Dan also has a report from practice and some images, but without numbers, it's pretty hard to follow the action.

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Matty Vautour reports on the Minutemen running backs.  One line form the story may be significant: "On Wednesday’s first day in pads, Lindsay broke through the line and sprinted by defenders for a long touchdown run".

One thing UMass has not had out of the backfield the last two years is speed. Longest run from scrimmage last year:

Shadrach Abrokwah  --24 yards
Lorenzo Woodley--43 yards
Jamal Wilson--11 yards

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Hustle Belt expects UMass@Notre Dame to be a blowout.

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USA Today has a long preview of the MAC with multiple Minutemen mentions.

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Anthony Chiusano of the Daily Collegian has a report on former QB's A.J.Doyle and Andrew Verboys changing positions.

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A Bleacher Report writer has Frohnapfel-to-Sharpe as one of the top QB-WR combos in college football.

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Today's U has five bold predictions for the 2015 MAC including EMU will win four games including a  win over UMass.

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In a roster move I missed, former UMass star Emil Igwenagu is with the Detroit Lions.

The Detroit Free Press has a post that features Igwenagu.

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