2016 Season

Get ready for some MACtion
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InnervisionsUMASS
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by InnervisionsUMASS » Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:13 pm

^

Thanks for the input. I hope you enjoy watching FBS UMass Football for many years to come because it ain't going anywhere.
Stop waiting for UMass to do something big and help UMass do something big. - Shades

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njumass08
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by njumass08 » Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:30 pm

It's been what, 4 days since the Hawaii game ended and we already have to hear this junk from the naysayers? Figures.

Some folks just don't like change and have a very shortsighted view of the future of UMass.

You have to think long term Georgia man. Too many mistakes in the past that got UMass working from behind while other peer schools left us in the dust. We can't afford to do that anymore.

UMass is going to compete at the highest level in everything, Academics and Athletics.
Looking forward to the 2022 UMass Football Season (Oh boy, just jinxed that one)

stevemaz
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by stevemaz » Thu Dec 01, 2016 8:05 am

BillGASox1 wrote:I believe that UMass football does not belong anywhere in FBS. Lack of success in MAC and as an Independent has solidified that notion;

The following are the basis for my thoughts:
* Lack of sustainable fan base (alumni)
* Apathy by student body
* Minimal stadium upgrades
* Lack of media coverage, other than the local western Mass media.
* Lack of strategic, long term coaching staff & inability to hire same.
* Not a recruiting mecca, by any means

I'm sure others could add to this list.

I believe we need to be competitive in the same vein as UNH, who would, most likely beat us this year. Look at the competition in the current FCS: JMU, The Dakotas (3), UNH, Villanova, EWU, Richmond, etc. I strongly believe all of them would be very competitive, and probably most would still beat us. Progress has not been made to the extent it was forecast.

Your analysis is classic chicken and egg. When the team starts to win the people will come. Umass Rising! in all facets so it is time for you to come aboard the bandwagon. Umass would handily defeat UNH this year and your nuts if you think otherwise.

eldonabe
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by eldonabe » Thu Dec 01, 2016 12:34 pm

Umass will have many more wins next year 4 or 5 maybe. They played a brutal schedule when you look back now, and while it looks bad, it served as a glorified [extended] training camp for the future.

Assuming my win prediction for next year comes true - this will be the springboard for better recruits and an actual "solid" base.

Stadium issues are a whole different thing and while it definitely needs to be addressed winning some games next year will validate more action on that too.

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Berkman
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by Berkman » Thu Dec 01, 2016 7:07 pm

I agree. Winning will solve a bunch of problems.

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Crank
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by Crank » Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:56 am

Perhaps some hope for a better future? My son goes to Temple so I've taken to following their football team a bit and saw this post on the Temple board this morning:

"In 2006, vs Louisville, was the first time I ever left a Temple game at Halftime. It was Game 2, we were trailing 42-0 and it looked like a college team playing Pop Warner. Although I had sat through a decade and a half of drubbings, I had finally surrendered. I felt like Golden was a good hire but at that point, I didn't think Bear Bryant working with Jesus could have saved Temple Football. I said to my seatmate, "It's over. Temple is too far gone. There is no coming back." a 62-0 defeat the following week did nothing to repair that sentiment and I really thought the white flag was on the horizon.
Rhule was on that staff. I have been told he was the junior guy. He did a lot of the grunt work which included travelling all over the east coast trying to find players who could help Temple and convincing their coaches and families the worst team in all of college football was a destination. He participated in the grueling, gloryless work of budget hotels, fast food rest stops and tireless coddling and test score monitoring of teenagers up and down the 13 colonies and the Florida purchase.
Later that season we avenged two consecutive 70 point demolitions at the hands of Bowling Green. We won and there was the slightest flicker of hope and really, it's been building ever since.
It was hard work but we have been enjoying those efforts as fans. As the leader and head coach, who was here at its worst and has brought us to first, thanks Matt Rhule. You have earned everything and we recognize how hard it must have been."

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njumass08
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by njumass08 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 10:56 am

Temple is absolutely a good example of how we can turn this around. A conference would really help too.
Looking forward to the 2022 UMass Football Season (Oh boy, just jinxed that one)

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Jackman
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by Jackman » Mon Dec 05, 2016 12:08 pm

Our offense and defense never both seem to play well on the same day, and our special teams is just plain never good, but you know what's always top class? Our video production team.

YouTube: Sights and Sounds of BYU and Hawaii

My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think BYU was a tie and we beat Hawaii by 50.

Seriously though, the big jump in quality that started a couple years ago may have gone mostly unmentioned, but it hasn't gone unnoticed. If we could just get some epic victories to go with these epic videos...

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InnervisionsUMASS
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by InnervisionsUMASS » Mon Dec 05, 2016 12:12 pm

^

The Florida game video is the one where I really first noticed the production quality, just amazingly well done.
Stop waiting for UMass to do something big and help UMass do something big. - Shades

BillGASox1
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by BillGASox1 » Sat Dec 10, 2016 8:53 am

Watching FCS playoffs last night, I do not see how UMass would out perform the likes of JMU, the Dakotas, etc. Time for the powers to be to re-adjust their focus on a class of football that matches the talent, coaching of UMass.

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m626t
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by m626t » Sat Dec 10, 2016 12:13 pm

/\

oh, boy... :roll:
All due respect, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart, I'm gonna pass.

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Re: 2016 Season

Post by minutefanjsf » Sat Dec 10, 2016 1:50 pm

BillGASox1 wrote:Watching FCS playoffs last night, I do not see how UMass would out perform the likes of JMU, the Dakotas, etc. Time for the powers to be to re-adjust their focus on a class of football that matches the talent, coaching of UMass.
You don't know what you are looking at then. For the most part FCS vs FBS is similar to Canadian football vs NFL. Very few FCS teams beat FBS teams. The highest level of FCS, which is not the same teams annually as it is in FBS, can compete with FBS teams in an all out one game super bowl type game. if they played a full season against the size, strength and speed of FBS they would not succeed. That is why the transition to FBS is at best a five year transition. We are in year five. Some schools have transitioned better than we have, for sure. And, it is our own doing, with conference affiliation and independence that we have played so many games a transitioning program has no shot at winning, but that is over. The win loss record is not what we'd like. The competitiveness is light years ahead of where it was.

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Re: 2016 Season

Post by cox'n » Sun Dec 11, 2016 12:47 pm

BillGASox1 wrote:Watching FCS playoffs last night, I do not see how UMass would out perform the likes of JMU, the Dakotas, etc. Time for the powers to be to re-adjust their focus on a class of football that matches the talent, coaching of UMass.
After all, playing Florida is pretty much equivalent to playing, say, Holy Cross.

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Jackman
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by Jackman » Sun Dec 11, 2016 8:29 pm

I went looking to see how JMU fared in other games this year, but I found out that ESPN no longer maintains clickable team pages for FCS teams. Think about that. The media source with the sole, exclusive right to broadcast FCS Playoff games doesn't think FCS teams are worth a single page of perfunctory coverage. India's cricket team has a dedicated ESPN page, but not James Madison FCS Football. CBS Sports has a very basic page for JMU, but no clickable box scores. I had to go to JMU's own website to get good information on them. That's like what I do to follow our field hockey team.

Now this stuff obviously isn't the most important thing in the world, but it's illustrative of the problems with being in that subdivision, and how things are getting worse rather than better.

Truth is, if we were still FCS, we'd be talking about whether SUNY-Albany should be our true overall sports rival, and having a harder than anticipated time talking ourselves out of it. Meanwhile the athletic prominence of UConn and BC is as vulnerable as it's ever been. UMass just has to rise up and seize it from them.

BillGASox1
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Re: 2016 Season

Post by BillGASox1 » Sun Dec 11, 2016 9:12 pm

Jackman, I was curious about your reporting of a lack of info re: FCS info on ESPN. Here's the solution I found:

-Click on ESPN NCAAF scoreboard
-At right, click on Top 25
-Scroll to FCS
"Bingo" scores and summaries of JMU and all other FCS scores. JMU and the Dakota teams played to packed houses.

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