KAUMASS
September 4th, 2008, 01:37 PM
Anyone know how Fitton Field holds up in the rain?
UMass-coming off a 28-16 win over Albany. UMass struggled in the first quarter and had their cage rattled, but woke up and played solid the remaining 3 quarters. Credit is due to Albany, who is an excellent football team. Albany beat Delaware convincingly 2 years ago at Delaware. Albany took on Montana last year at Montana and it was tied 7-7 at 8:40 in the second period. Halftime was 14-7, Montana. Montana jumped out to a 28-7 lead at 10 minutes remaining in the game. Albany pulled to 28-14 with 6:43 remaining in the game. Montana iced it and won 35-14.
Much kudos to Albany.
UMass may tweak it's o-line a bit this week, as rumors from practice have stated the O-line was chewed a new one and went through some hard drills and practices. We ran for good yardage and made the plays we had to make against a good Albany team and the coaches seemed pissed. That tells me we did not play to our full potential last week(we know), but a win is a win, especially an opener. We did shuffle our O-line the first few games last year as well. Most teams will tweak a few areas in the first games anyhow.
Holy Cross: Opener for them. Good solid football team. Excellent QB with a big offensive line avg. 6'4", 298. Good running back that can catch out of the backfield. TE is 6'4", 230 who caught 12 passes for 113 yds last year. Was named all league at TE, but only started 6 games. Stats for catching weren't great, maybe he is a good blocker. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as he was named all league..HC rushed for 128 yds/game and 335 passing/game.
Defense: play a 3-4. D' line avg 6'1", 245. One D line backup is a kid 6'1", 315 who started 3 games last year before an injury. I would imagine him getting some reps. LB's average 6'1", 219. DB's return two starters, and 2 reserves who had some expierence last year that round out the defense.
We played a sloppy game against URI on grass in hurricane remnants last year. Rain should favor UMass with its ground game and big O-line, with expierience in a wet game with 40-50 mph winds like URI last year(loss).(I'm not sure who HC played during that storm last year) IF HC can't pass due to conditions, can they run against UMass? This will be an interesting game as both teams go in with question marks as this is HC's first game of the year.
UMass-coming off a 28-16 win over Albany. UMass struggled in the first quarter and had their cage rattled, but woke up and played solid the remaining 3 quarters. Credit is due to Albany, who is an excellent football team. Albany beat Delaware convincingly 2 years ago at Delaware. Albany took on Montana last year at Montana and it was tied 7-7 at 8:40 in the second period. Halftime was 14-7, Montana. Montana jumped out to a 28-7 lead at 10 minutes remaining in the game. Albany pulled to 28-14 with 6:43 remaining in the game. Montana iced it and won 35-14.
Much kudos to Albany.
UMass may tweak it's o-line a bit this week, as rumors from practice have stated the O-line was chewed a new one and went through some hard drills and practices. We ran for good yardage and made the plays we had to make against a good Albany team and the coaches seemed pissed. That tells me we did not play to our full potential last week(we know), but a win is a win, especially an opener. We did shuffle our O-line the first few games last year as well. Most teams will tweak a few areas in the first games anyhow.
Holy Cross: Opener for them. Good solid football team. Excellent QB with a big offensive line avg. 6'4", 298. Good running back that can catch out of the backfield. TE is 6'4", 230 who caught 12 passes for 113 yds last year. Was named all league at TE, but only started 6 games. Stats for catching weren't great, maybe he is a good blocker. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as he was named all league..HC rushed for 128 yds/game and 335 passing/game.
Defense: play a 3-4. D' line avg 6'1", 245. One D line backup is a kid 6'1", 315 who started 3 games last year before an injury. I would imagine him getting some reps. LB's average 6'1", 219. DB's return two starters, and 2 reserves who had some expierence last year that round out the defense.
We played a sloppy game against URI on grass in hurricane remnants last year. Rain should favor UMass with its ground game and big O-line, with expierience in a wet game with 40-50 mph winds like URI last year(loss).(I'm not sure who HC played during that storm last year) IF HC can't pass due to conditions, can they run against UMass? This will be an interesting game as both teams go in with question marks as this is HC's first game of the year.