2023 Season

[minutefanjsf]

Bottom line.. Don Brown wins. Outside of that you really have to like this team. We have seen team after team in college football go from crap to respectable. So why not us?? I though Casula showed well in the video.. not the cringy every one is great. I thought we had a chance last year until I realized the offense was so bad. With the amount of talent they brought in I think you see a jump like the D had last year.

That's a tall order. The Defense went from a bottom 5 defense in the country to top 50. If the offense does that and the D holds around that same level then we are going to a bowl game. If the offense simply makes a jump into the top 100 in the country we should win 4 games.

Excited for week 0. I don't think it's a stretch to say it's a top 3 most important game of the FBS era. ESPN primetime slot, 10s of thousands (if not more) alums will be watching, every football fan and analyst that has been starving for the sport to come back will be tweeting about it. I can't speak for what the TV ratings on the 1AA national championship games were like but it will easily be the most watched UMass Football game of the FBS era. We need to win that game.

The defense was not top 50. The passing defense, yes. Total defense was not. Total defense was 104. Still up almost 30 spots.

[minutefanjsf]

Bottom line.. Don Brown wins. Outside of that you really have to like this team. We have seen team after team in college football go from crap to respectable. So why not us?? I though Casula showed well in the video.. not the cringy every one is great. I thought we had a chance last year until I realized the offense was so bad. With the amount of talent they brought in I think you see a jump like the D had last year.

That's a tall order. The Defense went from a bottom 5 defense in the country to top 50. If the offense does that and the D holds around that same level then we are going to a bowl game. If the offense simply makes a jump into the top 100 in the country we should win 4 games.

Excited for week 0. I don't think it's a stretch to say it's a top 3 most important game of the FBS era. ESPN primetime slot, 10s of thousands (if not more) alums will be watching, every football fan and analyst that has been starving for the sport to come back will be tweeting about it. I can't speak for what the TV ratings on the 1AA national championship games were like but it will easily be the most watched UMass Football game of the FBS era. We need to win that game.

The defense was not top 50. The passing defense, yes. Total defense was not. Total defense was 104. Still up almost 30 spots.

Sorry, total defense was 55. Scoring defense is 104.

[Jack]

Defense was definitely improved last season and hopefully that improvement will continue. It feels good to be returning most of the OL which should result in improvement and consistency. Fingers crossed we can find the right QB who can move the chains and not make too many dumb mistakes. Im looking forward to seeing a more complete football team and hopefully some entertaining games. I almost didn't re-up my season tickets but I think we might surprise a few folks this season and take a few big steps.

[minutefanjsf]

Defense was definitely improved last season and hopefully that improvement will continue. It feels good to be returning most of the OL which should result in improvement and consistency. Fingers crossed we can find the right QB who can move the chains and not make too many dumb mistakes. Im looking forward to seeing a more complete football team and hopefully some entertaining games. I almost didn't re-up my season tickets but I think we might surprise a few folks this season and take a few big steps.

I agree the defense was vastly improved and am hopeful as well.

[stevemaz]

i think an improved offense and the running of clock after 1st downs will help the defense as well this year. I will say the passing defense ranking last year was fraudulent because we were behind in so many games so opponent ran the ball more than would have.

[ZooMass84]

i think an improved offense and the running of clock after 1st downs will help the defense as well this year. I will say the passing defense ranking last year was fraudulent because we were behind in so many games so opponent ran the ball more than would have.

you got that one right stevemaz. statistically we were only slightly better than 2021 with Gomer. Just wait in 2 weeks it all starts and we are going to have 2 wins at least. the days of the coach gomer and the defense gassed by halftime are long gone.

[Steve81]

We should see improved playing this year, being competitive and almost always in it for a win at home. Finallly at the 85 scholarship limit and looking more like a FBS plays than in past years.

Rivals 2023 composite rating comes in at #87
https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/2023 ... prehensive

247 Sports 2023 composite rating #82, and excellent job down by Coach Brown and staff!
https://247sports.com/college/massachus ... l/Commits/

[Quann]

Just ordered 4 tickets to the Army game. Anyone else going?

Also, never having been there, any suggestions on parking, etc.? I have no idea what to expect other than finally seeing West Point.

Never been to a game there but I visited the campus with my wife and kids last December. My wife’s great grandfather is buried there, he was a decorated colonel in the army rangers in WW2. Just a really neat place on the banks of the Hudson. We even snuck into the football stadium through an open gate. No one seemed to care at that point of the year. My kids ran to the 50 yard line! Beautiful stadium you’ll enjoy it.

[ZooMass84]

Just ordered 4 tickets to the Army game. Anyone else going?

Also, never having been there, any suggestions on parking, etc.? I have no idea what to expect other than finally seeing West Point.

Never been to a game there but I visited the campus with my wife and kids last December. My wife’s great grandfather is buried there, he was a decorated colonel in the army rangers in WW2. Just a really neat place on the banks of the Hudson. We even snuck into the football stadium through an open gate. No one seemed to care at that point of the year. My kids ran to the 50 yard line! Beautiful stadium you’ll enjoy it.

Played a rugby game there. Really cool stadium and we had to change outside.

[eldonabe]

The defense was not top 50. The passing defense, yes. Total defense was not. Total defense was 104. Still up almost 30 spots.

That is like saying Inflation went up less that it was expected to and claiming victory.

If your passing defense was "hat good" and you total defense was still worse than 100 - that is because nobody passed against you because they could just run at will.

[Steve81]

That is like saying Inflation went up less that it was expected to and claiming victory.

If your passing defense was "hat good" and you total defense was still worse than 100 - that is because nobody passed against you because they could just run at will.

Thank g-d the 2023 season starts in 2 weeks.

Eldonabe, What do you say about a basketball team that finished with a net rating outside 200, 203# for a team in the A10 conference and bottom dweller. The conference does not make the team. Cal had a formula to play anyone, any where. You can succeed in any conference.

[TheInsider]

The D numbers were really the function of or lack there of the offense. Teams knew if they got up say 17-7 they would just have to pound the rock and run the time out against a D that spends all its time on the field. So that meant the passing yards were down and the rush was up. Our offense never put any pressure on the other team. There were many games where the D really showed early and it would end up being a close first half..Then they wore down and games got out of hand.

[Old Cage]

Just ordered 4 tickets to the Army game. Anyone else going?

Also, never having been there, any suggestions on parking, etc.? I have no idea what to expect other than finally seeing West Point.

Go early! Traffic, cadets in formation, store, tailgate. And did I say traffic?

[minutefanjsf]

The defense was not top 50. The passing defense, yes. Total defense was not. Total defense was 104. Still up almost 30 spots.

That is like saying Inflation went up less that it was expected to and claiming victory.

If your passing defense was "hat good" and you total defense was still worse than 100 - that is because nobody passed against you because they could just run at will.

You missed the follow up, I guess. Total defense was ranked 55. I don’t put too much stock in that number for a myriad of reasons, nor being we lost 11 games. The defense was vastly improved when using this metric. The validity of the metric is definitely something to question. My initial point was that the defense was not as good as the numbers since the team lost 11 games and many included lots of points against.

[ZooMass84]

The defense was not top 50. The passing defense, yes. Total defense was not. Total defense was 104. Still up almost 30 spots.

That is like saying Inflation went up less that it was expected to and claiming victory.

If your passing defense was "hat good" and you total defense was still worse than 100 - that is because nobody passed against you because they could just run at will.

You missed the follow up, I guess. Total defense was ranked 55. I don’t put too much stock in that number for a myriad of reasons, nor being we lost 11 games. The defense was vastly improved when using this metric. The validity of the metric is definitely something to question. My initial point was that the defense was not as good as the numbers since the team lost 11 games and many included lots of points against.

Saw something online (forget where) but they analyzed every team and used metrics like you're talking about. There were stats on every category and our pass defense was pretty good but they thought that it was only because our run defense was so horrendous. Most predictors say we get 1 or 3 or no wins!!!! They thought Ark State was going to be a win but Merrimack a loss because we're going to be banged up after the Army game. For the first time since moving up to FBS we have a full 85 scholarship players plus walk ons.