You’re killing me Smalls

Sean Smalls is done for the season.

As reported my several media outlets yesterday, the Minutemen’s senior captain will see his college career end early with a cracked hip bone. Smalls reportedly hurt it on a punt return during the Bryant game.

From the Republican:

“That was disappointing, and disappointing for him as well,” UMass coach Don Brown said. “It doesn’t look good. Obviously it’s a crack in the hip bone so it doesn’t matter how big it is, it’s significant.”

The worst part: He got injured by a damn punter.

“On the punt return I was basically jogging in and the punter clipped my ankles and I just came down on [my hip] wrong,” Smalls said.

Oh, and not just any punter: this punter.

Damn you Brian Donnelly.

Honestly though, why the hell has Smalls been returning punts anyway? Smalls is only averaging about four yards a return and has a long of 14. Why couldn’t UMass have left this up to one of the offensive skills player – like say Victor Cruz.

Now we get to see some of the depth for the Maroon and White’s secondary.

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On other football news: Georgia State has purchased land for its practice facility. GSU is joining the Colonial Athletic Conference in 2010.

The foundation bought the land and a building on the site for about $6.6 million, officials said in a news release.

The athletic association plans to construct an artificial turf football field, a 50-yard grass football field and a coach’s office and locker room complex. An existing structure on the site will be incorporated into Georgia State’s plans, officials said.

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Marnie Dacko spoke at the Atlantic 10 media day, and I guess she has been working with men’s assistant Vance Walberg. It appears she might use his dribble-drive offense next season.

I’ve got to take advantage of his expertise, so I’ve been sitting in all of the men’s practices and learning from Vance. He’s made me a believer in the dribble-drive offense, so we’ll see what happens this year.

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La Salle coach John Giannini is comparing Mississippi transfer Vernon Goodridge to Stephane Lasme.

“He would rank with the best players that I’ve seen in the Atlantic 10. He reminds me of Stephane Lasme [Massachusetts] who was a great player or Pops Mensah-Bonsu [George Washington].”

Preseason players

The Atlantic 10 made its preseason picks, and UMass’ guards are getting the respect they deserve.

Chris Lowe is listed on the preseason First Team All-Atlantic 10 and Defensive teams. Ricky Harris was a Second Team All-Atlantic 10 pick.

The Minutemen are picked to finish sixth in the conference.

The scariest thing about this list is the All-Rookie team, which is essentially Xavier’s recruiting class. As if the Musketeers haven’t been good enough during the past five years, it appears our friends from Ohio are going to remain atop the A-10 for years to come.

The X-men are also picked to finish first in the A-10 this coming season.

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Speaking of UMass hoops, Jack Leaman is having his number retired at Boston University on Nov. 14.

Previously, only six men’s basketball jerseys – No. 4 (Kevin Thomas ‘56), No. 11 (Drederick Irving ‘88), No. 12 (Tunji Awojobi ‘97), No. 33 (Steve Wright ‘80), No. 44 (Arturo Brown ‘83) and No. 54 (Jim Hayes ‘70) – have been retired and placed up in the rafters of Case Gymnasium.

“I know that Jack would be so humbled to think that his college alma mater would feel that he was deserving of such a great honor,” said Rita Leaman. “I will be forever grateful to Boston University for this tribute to Jack.”

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According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the FCS National Championship game could be moved to the night before the BCS Championship.

That would be amazing exposure for the division. CAA Commish Tom Yeager thinks so, too.

“We think it’s going to present a fairly unique opportunity for us,” Yeager said. Athletic directors at schools that play CAA football and their coaches enthusiastically support the proposal, he added.

“This way, it’s going to replicate kind of a bowl experience,” Yeager said. The missing piece so far is a venue. Yeager said the NCAA would study warm-weather and indoor possibilities.

The Times-Dispatch is also reporting that VCU might add football in the future.

“I think it will be difficult for us not to have a serious discussion about it because of [the size of the university],” he said. “We’re not the VCU of 15 years ago, where you have a lot of commuters and a lot of people who are transient. This is a destination school.”

Bitter Sweet Symphony

That was ugly, unexpected – and awesome.

Courtney Robinson (Courtesy CAAsports.com)

UMass finally played some defense, and its offense virtually disappeared. Well, I guess putting up more than 400 yards isn’t terrible, but the turnovers we’re unacceptable.

Either way, it’s a win against Delaware, and I’ll take it ugly or not.

In all the articles written about this game, one quote seems to get lost. Coach Brown saying he essentially wants another shot at Texas Tech is just awesome coach-speak.

We responded well to the Texas Tech loss and I’d like another shot at them.

Coach, just between me and you, but I’d be just fine if UMass never played the Red Raiders again. I’m pretty sure Kansas State feels the same way after last weekend.

Speaking of excellent quotes, here’s one from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“We just lost to a better football team today,” Delaware coach K.C. Keeler said. “This was a huge game for both of us, but they showed they were better and came out on top.”

Now there’s Northeastern on the docket, and UMass may very well have its work cut out. The Huskies are actually ranked ahead of the Maroon and White in the CAA, but obviously the season is still very young.

Also, UMass’ Josh Jennings was named one of the conference’s Players of the Week.

As always, check out THE UMass Football Blog for more information on the Maroon and White. Frank has some images up from the Delaware game.

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The UMass hockey team beat down the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds.

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The Atlantic 10 baseball championships are going to be held at Fifth Third Field in Dayton.

Home again

A homegrown football player is coming back to haunt UMass.

DelawareOnline had a writeup on John Higginson, a Amherst Regional High School alumni that opted to go to Delaware instead of UMass to play football. Higginson is currently the starting defensive end for the Blue Hens.

The two-way high school football standout wanted to continue playing in college. But he preferred not to do so at familiar UMass, where both his parents, Joye Bowman and John Higginson, are history professors. The family had lived in Amherst since young John was 2.

Higginson has only started one game for Delaware this season but has two sacks, a forced fumble and a blocked kick – so he obviously has the ability to break through blocks.

Interesting part of the story: He will likely go against Ben Coblyn, a former high school teammate.

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The Concord Monitor had a CAA rundown and mentioned UMass – and of course its defense.

UMass may be giving up an ugly 41.5 points per game and 422.2 yards per game, but those numbers are a bit deceiving.

“The defensive numbers are unimpressive, but the defensive personnel is not unimpressive,” Delaware’s Keeler said.

Time for Turkey

There are some small bits and pieces of news on this bye week Friday.

First off, it appears Gery Forbes may very well be heading to Turkey – according to EuroBasket.

Gary Forbes (201-G/F-85, college: Virginia) has good market opportunities in Turkey.

EuroBasket is usually spot on about these things, so one has to wonder how the Web site missed the fact that Forbes spent a majority of his career wearing Maroon and White.

I did a couple of searches to see if I could find any other information on his potential career overseas but came up empty. Turkey – or Europe in general – would be a good fit for Gary. Perhaps he can use the experience to head back to the States.

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Daniel Charbonnet, a safety for Texas Tech, made a comment about how much “fun” special teams was against UMass last weekend.

That’s never a good thing.

“It was fun,” he said. “We had so many kickoffs, a lot of people had a chance to make tackles. The return just came to me quite a few times.”

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The Philadelphia Inquirer had an article about Villanova’s quarterback situation.

Coach Andy Talley said he probably would wait until today to name a starter between junior Antwon Young and sophomore Chris Whitney for Villanova’s Colonial Athletic Association opener.

… and then:

“I’d rather not say I have a quarterback controversy,” Talley said. “I’d rather say I have two quarterbacks that I think I can win with, and we’ll play whichever one has the hot hand. I’m trying to pick one that can play Saturday and see who can carry us.”

The Minutemen do not play Villanova during the regular season this year.

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The Providence Journal mentions Mark Whipple, the former UMass football coach, in an article about the Harvard/Brown rivalry.

Brown lost a 17-16 heartbreaker at Harvard Stadium in 1980 and won a 31-30 thriller there in 1978. Mark Whipple, who preceded Estes as head coach, was the quarterback of that ’78 team. Brown won by five points in 1977 and by two, 16-14, during the 1976 championship season.

Piglet who?

Liam Coen knows nothing of Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit or Piglet.

Nope, he steered clear of the 100 Acre Woods.

According to an article by The Daily Toreador, Coen told Christopher Robin to shove it en route to football practice.

“One day when we were practicing,” said Tim Coen, who was coaching at South Kingstown High School in Rhode Island at the time, “my assistant comes in and looks down at the chalkboard. Liam had a tight end with a split end, in a wishbone formation. He had it drawn out perfectly. He was four years old.“

The story goes on to say that Coen chose UMass because other FBS schools weren’t recruiting him that hard, and further confirms that he’s the best quarterback in the history of the program. (NOTE: To this day I wonder what Matt Guice could have done if Jeff Krohn never showed up.)

The newspaper also got an excellent quote from Liam about his late mother.

“We understand that we’ve both gone through something pretty difficult,” Liam Coen said. “Him and I aren’t the most emotional when it comes down to that kind of stuff, but we definitely know what we have, and what we had.”

It’s going to be tough when we lose Coen to graduation. I keep forgetting what a great kid we have leading the Minutemen. Hopefully he can showcase his ability against a great FBS team this Saturday.

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The Daily Orange had a story about the Northeastern football program.

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Big signing for LaSalle. The Explorers picked up Aaric Murray, a highly touted big man.

The 6-foot-10 center is the sixth ranked player at his position nationally. There hasn’t been a center ranked that high to commit to a school in the Atlantic 10 since Martin Iti, who committed to Charlotte in 2003.

The Virginia test

Sorry I was MIA yesterday – had all four wisdom teeth taken out.

Today’s post is dedicated to Vicodin.

UMass is heading south to take on an extremely talented James Madison team, and if the Minutemen want to flex their muscles early, they need to get it together on defense. JMU is going to test the defensive line with its impressive running attack, and quarterback Rodney Landers (who is 1-4 against UMass all time) can throw and use his legs.

Both he and Liam Coen have a great amount of respect for each other.

Coen’s “a great player, and he brings a great team with him,” said Landers, who passed and rushed for almost 3,000 yards last season. “Any time you get a chance to play the best, I think that’s when you want to show your stuff.

“I think it gives you a little more incentive, yeah, just because he was the preseason player of the year.”

Coen said:

“Knowing that you’re going up against one of the top players in the conference, if not the country, you have to have the mindset that you’re going to have to be more efficient and really focus on moving the ball and finishing drives,” Coen said. “No matter what defense is lining up against them, they’re going to have their big plays and successful drives, so you have to be ready yourself.”

James Madison’s body of work is too small to really get a good read. The Dukes got beat down by the Blue Devils, then turned around and slaughtered North Carolina Central. While Duke is not exactly a heavyweight, it must be taken into consideration that JMU played the FBS team on the road.

It also must be taken into consideration that UMass is NOT N.C. Central.

“UMass players are vastly superior to North Carolina Central’s, but in terms of philosophies very similar,” Matthews said Monday at his weekly press conference.

It looks like JMU, which has 464 rushing yards compared to UMass’ 288, is a little nervous about the size of the Maroon and White’s offensive line.

“Their offensive line is so big, the field tilts over when they run out on the field,” Matthews said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an offensive line as large as theirs.”

Tomorrow’s game will be a true test for the Minutemen, and could very well be an early season separator in the conference. The general consensus is this: UMass has to play better than it has the first two weeks – if not, it will roll into Lubbock at 2-1.

Prediction:

JMU: 24

UMass: 21

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Apparently UMass is courting Salem’s Melikke Van Alstyne.

Celtics come to UMass

Your NBA Champions will be playing some preseason hoops at the Mullins Center.

The Boston Celtics will start its New England tour on the UMass campus, according to ABC 6 News.

The Celtics play the first of eight preseason games on October 8th against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Mullins Center at UMass-Amherst.

I’m interested to see if the attendance for this game will rival – or beat – the attendance for a regular season Atlantic 10 match up for the Maroon and White.

Jeff Howe has the full preseason schedule – with times – on his Boston Metro blog, “In the Paint.”

(I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: How awesome is that picture of him?)

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APP.com had an article about Kristina Danella, the newest recruit for the UMass women’s basketball team.

There was arguably not a player in the Shore Conference under more scrutiny or under a brighter spotlight during the past four years, but Danella was never fazed. While helping the Caseys to an 86-26 record in her four years, including two Shore Conference titles and a trip to the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions in 2007 as a junior, Danella far exceeded the goals she set as a precocious freshman.

The two-time Asbury Park Press Player of the Year and four-time All-Shore first team selection finished her career at RBC with 26 single-game, single-season or career records including points in a career (1,773) and rebounds in a career (1,156).

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The Bangor Daily News had an article about Maine’s new field turf.

What if?

Marty Scarano, the athletic director for UNH, gives a big “what if?” in regards to UMass football making the leap to I-A.

He mentions this because it would directly affect New Hampshire in the new – bloated – CAA on the horizon.

“We want to be affiliated with the right group of people and a competitive group of people,” said Scarano. “We’re looking at this very carefully. (What if) we go into a league with Northeastern and UMass, (then) Northeastern drops football and UMass goes I-A? Then it’s us and Maine — and who?“

“What if?” is right. Even this week we started to hear coaches talking about Northeastern not being able to compete with the facilities in the CAA. Then there’s UMass, which almost has the facilities to compete in a low-level Division I-A conference.

As it stands, UMass’ McGuirk Alumni Stadium holds about 17,000 at capacity, while schools like Miami of Ohio (24,286), Ohio (24,000), Bowling Green (23,724) and Ball State (23,724) are not that far ahead, yet all play Division I football.

Of course the question has been and will always be: MONEY. Even adding lights to the stadium has been a long, drawn-out process, and adding around 7,000 seats (cap those endzones, fellas) will cost a pretty penny. There are also scholarships to deal with, marketing and dealing with the infrastructure of a small, Western Massachusetts town.

I hope UMass can eventually make the leap, but you have to feel for schools like UNH and Maine, who are competitive every year and may be forced into a conference that could very well dissolve into mediocrity if the power teams leave for greener pastures.

Programs like UMass and James Madison have publicly considered moving up to Division I-A. Others, like Northeastern and Rhode Island, have mulled dropping the sport. Scarano, who has no intention of doing either, wants to make sure UNH is sitting with the right partners as this conference shuffle plays out.

What if?

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DNRonline compares Liam Coen to James Madison’s Rodney Landers.

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Ron Villone, a former star pitcher for UMass, did a Q&A with bnd.com and mentions is former aspirations to play pro football:

Q: You were a star tight end in football at the University of Massachusetts. Did you ever have aspirations of a professional football career?

A: Years ago, sure, you have idea and dreams when you’re younger. But my first love was baseball. Football was something that I guess you could take your aggressions out on the field legally and have fun and punish somebody else once in a while. That was a great team sport to learn and put together. But I bring that with me onto the baseball field, a lot of the things I had in football –understanding the team game. If you can do it together out there, you can get a lot of things accomplished.

Preseason hype

UMass football is getting a lot of love.

The Minutemen are the preseason favorites to win the CAA, and Liam Coen was selected as the Preseason Offensive Players of the Year, via a CAA press release.

UMass’ defense looks to be nimble in the backfield as Sean Smalls and Courtney Robinson, cornerbacks, and Jeromy Miles, safety, were named to the Preseason All-Defensive Team. Sean Calicchio joins Coen on the CAA’s Preseason All-Offensive Team.

It’s good to see the Maroon and White get this much respect, but I always get scared when a UMass team is highlighted this much before the first snap of the season. It leaves room for error. However, I am way too superstitious when it comes to sports – so don’t pay me no mind.

While the Minutemen are poised to be a contender in the 12-team CAA, some are saying the league should get two automatic bids in the future … when the league grows to a belt-busting 14 teams.

From DNRonline:

“You have a six-team league that gets one automatic and we have 14 teams and get one automatic,” (James Madison coach Mickey Matthews) said. “Tell me what’s fair about that.

That’s part of the reason CAA coaches think an automatic playoff bid should be awarded to the champions of both the league’s North and South divisions.

Northeastern’s Rocky Hager said that, despite the league’s strong case, he’s doubtful the NCAA would agree.

“We’re deserving, absolutely,” Hager said. “Whether the NCAA would listen to what we have to say? Probably not. I’m not optimistic about it at all. I would say that there’s a chance, but not a very good one.”

The article mentions the possibility of cutting some teams – namely Northeastern – due to subpar facilities relative to other teams in the conference. It also sort of mentions other teams moving on.

Could that be UMass, perhaps not moving on, but moving up?

While this is still a pipedream for me and other UMass fans, it seems more and more obvious that this would be a good way to go for the program. UMass has had heaps of success at this level, and I believe it could compete on a yearly basis at the I-A level in a conference like the MAC, which has schools with similar and sometimes equal facilities.

For now we have to look at the present, however, and hope that UMass can continue to beef up its already impressive resume.

Oh, and I think a few Northeastern fans might be a bit upset with Coach Brown after this comment in relation to their program – where he used to coach:

“I’m very familiar with those facilities,” said Brown, Northeastern’s coach from 2000-03. “At some point, I just think you have to decide whether you’re committed or not committed. Let’s just put it this way, I think there should be a minimum standard that’s put in place for the conference.”

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By the speed of the Internet, this is already old news, but UMass has hired Josh Maurer to be its radio voice.

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Apparently Coach Kellogg is in Nevada at the Reebok Summer Championships.

Consequently, practically every college coach imaginable popped in at one time or another — including Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech), Sean Miller (Xavier), Derek Kellogg (UMass)…

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This was my 300th post… woop woop.