Time for a new thread and will link the old one to start this post.
UMass Football original thread-page66

We've discussed if this type of single team thread was appropriate here and the simple majority were ok with it, as we hope to be part of some type realignment and find a home. Best cases both basketball and football improve until we are a possible candidate for the AAC or in tandem with UConn an actual FB Only alliance somewhere.

UMass has been made fun of, kicked around, and abused ever since moving up after falling from an elite FCS team to a mediocre fcs team at best at the time of the move up. The administration made poor decisions as doing the minimum 36.5M investment, scheduling almost all body bag OOC games, poor coach hire, moving the games to Gillette and rebuffing a MAC all sports invite. After the first few games at Gillette the novelty was gone and opposing teams were more excited playing there then us. Being independent is a tough road. We've been able to schedule OK with the new AD, but have increasing competition with additional independent teams. Recruit has continued to be worrisome and lets see if Walt Bell and company can string together some solid recruiting class.

The last coach, who was very good on offensive did a terrible job recruiting on the defensive side and this year it's rock bottom.

Coach Walt Bell made this season about culture and even with a depleted 57 scholarship players practicing, suspended 6 players, including the starting QB and tight end.

Quote:By JOSH WALFISH
Staff Writer
Published: 9/28/2019 8:00:10 AM
AMHERST — UMass football coach Walt Bell has suspended six players for Saturday’s game against Akron for a violation of team rules, according to a source close to the program on Friday.

According to the source, redshirt senior kicker Mike Caggiano, redshirt junior wide receiver Will Connery, sophomore tight end Adam Deese, redshirt senior tight end Kyle Horn, redshirt senior quarterback Randall West and redshirt senior guard Mike Yerardi all missed curfew Thursday night. The suspensions will leave UMass without three offensive starters and a special teams starter for the contest against the winless Zips.

Several players left the team, including talented sophomore Joseph Norwood.

Felt the abyss was all around and we were still free falling.

Locker room post game twitter of AD and Walt Bell with the players.

Forgot how to do a twitter video, but here is the link:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1178136469376028677

I really like Walt, top-notch guy. We got worse when he left. If he had stayed one more year I think we don't lose but two games and Blake Anderson gets his dram job at Baylor instead of Matt Rhule.

Very hard season to deal with, being a dozen and half scholarships under the limit with many freshmen playing and new staff as well. The following news should help with recruitment.

Quote:In a move that improves the long-term viability of their status as an independent football program, UMass is expected to announce bowl tie-ins for the next six seasons.

Athletic director Ryan Bamford declined to reveal details of which or how many bowls would be included but said he expected to make an announcement, likely before the end of the year.

“We’re down the path with some relationships with some bowls that we’re going to be announcing in the next 30-45 days that we feel good about,” Bamford said. “We’re going to have a relationship that’s going to cover us through 2025. That will cover us so if we’re bowl eligible we feel very good about being placed in a bowl if we get to 6-6.

“It will have a number of iterations, a number of variables to it. We feel good about the relationships we’ve been able to build and our ability, when we become a bowl-eligible team for the first time, to have a place to go. That our fans will be able to travel there and support us and that will be a seminal moment for our program.”

Access to bowl invitations is one of the most attractive things about conference affiliation as bowl invitations are mostly tied to conferences.

Bamford said ESPN was involved.

“That’s a component of it,” he said.

Full article:
https://www.masslive.com/umassfootball/2...ement.html

Aslo adding the new IPF, which should also help.

Keep your chins up UMass fans. With Liberty, NMSU, Army, and UConn all out there and scheduling as independents you’re going to have late season scheduling dates filled and winnable games. You’re program can only get better at this point.

I think you’re AD should strongly consider getting NMSU on the schedule twice a year and maybe double up on weak NEC caliber FCS games to help build a winning culture. It seems to have worked for Liberty, they are a game away from bowl eligibility

Best of luck to UMass. Remain a fan of Walt and the former AState guys he has up there. Early recruiting period basically blows up a new coach's first class.

Interested to see what bowl tie-in they're working on. I'd say a bid to the ESPN bowl pool, but that's not what Liberty nor Army has done, so who knows.

I remember reading an article printed in the mid to late 90’s discussing UMass’ intentions to move up. It’s fun to speculate where they’d be today had that happened.

(11-22-2019 12:21 PM)esayem Wrote:  I remember reading an article printed in the mid to late 90’s discussing UMass’ intentions to move up. It’s fun to speculate where they’d be today had that happened.

They would be in the AAC with Temple.

FAMU was contemplating moving up about 15 years ago and I thought it was as good as done. Not sure why that changed, but they are not very good even at the FCS level any more.

(11-24-2019 06:57 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  FAMU was contemplating moving up about 15 years ago and I thought it was as good as done. Not sure why that changed, but they are not very good even at the FCS level any more.

Their finances were a total mess. We (Sun Belt) had done a site visit and everything was on track until the league reviewed their books and that was it. Few months later big scandalish type story and they reversed course.


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This is a very revealing, in depth interview with Coach Walt Bell. Just about every topic is covered from philosophy, history, transfer portal, challenges at UMass, facilities, being independent, and how it relates to the vision of UMass in the eyes of the recruits. Interesting he mentioned one conference by name, which means nothing, but he liked the idea competing and out recruiting against them.

UMass has a better package of facilities and academics to three please he's been at in the G5 level.
If you understandable don't have 50 minutes listen, listen to 10 minutes in the last 13 minutes of the interview.

Episode 17. Adam Breneman interview with UMASS head coach Walt Bell.

(12-30-2019 01:30 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  This is a very revealing, in depth interview with Coach Walt Bell. Just about every topic is covered from philosophy, history, transfer portal, challenges at UMass, facilities, being independent, and how it relates to the vision of UMass in the eyes of the recruits. Interesting he mentioned one conference by name, which means nothing, but he liked the idea competing and out recruiting against them.

UMass has a better package of facilities and academics to three please he's been at in the G5 level.
If you understandable don't have 50 minutes listen, listen to 10 minutes in the last 13 minutes of the interview.

Episode 17. Adam Breneman interview with UMASS head coach Walt Bell.

Re-romancing the MAC may be UMASS best strategy right now but you will have to be all-sports and facilitate a 14th member like JMU or Delaware to be offered an invitation.

Independence could work if they scheduled NMSU twice a year, along with Army & UCONN once every year. Then perhaps do 2 FCS games a year like Army until there's gains being made.

(12-31-2019 03:04 AM)Fishpro10987 Wrote:  

(12-30-2019 01:30 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  This is a very revealing, in depth interview with Coach Walt Bell. Just about every topic is covered from philosophy, history, transfer portal, challenges at UMass, facilities, being independent, and how it relates to the vision of UMass in the eyes of the recruits. Interesting he mentioned one conference by name, which means nothing, but he liked the idea competing and out recruiting against them.

UMass has a better package of facilities and academics to three please he's been at in the G5 level.
If you understandable don't have 50 minutes listen, listen to 10 minutes in the last 13 minutes of the interview.

Episode 17. Adam Breneman interview with UMASS head coach Walt Bell.

Re-romancing the MAC may be UMASS best strategy right now but you will have to be all-sports and facilitate a 14th member like JMU or Delaware to be offered an invitation.

Try FB only bringing UConn into the league with them. It will give UConn a FB home, and a conference title and bowls to play for again too.

(12-31-2019 03:04 AM)Fishpro10987 Wrote:  

(12-30-2019 01:30 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  This is a very revealing, in depth interview with Coach Walt Bell. Just about every topic is covered from philosophy, history, transfer portal, challenges at UMass, facilities, being independent, and how it relates to the vision of UMass in the eyes of the recruits. Interesting he mentioned one conference by name, which means nothing, but he liked the idea competing and out recruiting against them.

UMass has a better package of facilities and academics to three please he's been at in the G5 level.
If you understandable don't have 50 minutes listen, listen to 10 minutes in the last 13 minutes of the interview.

Episode 17. Adam Breneman interview with UMASS head coach Walt Bell.

Re-romancing the MAC may be UMASS best strategy right now but you will have to be all-sports and facilitate a 14th member like JMU or Delaware to be offered an invitation.

Try FB only bringing UConn into the league with them. It will give UConn a FB home, and a conference title and bowls to play for again too.

(12-31-2019 06:50 AM)panite Wrote:  

(12-31-2019 03:04 AM)Fishpro10987 Wrote:  

(12-30-2019 01:30 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  This is a very revealing, in depth interview with Coach Walt Bell. Just about every topic is covered from philosophy, history, transfer portal, challenges at UMass, facilities, being independent, and how it relates to the vision of UMass in the eyes of the recruits. Interesting he mentioned one conference by name, which means nothing, but he liked the idea competing and out recruiting against them.

UMass has a better package of facilities and academics to three please he's been at in the G5 level.
If you understandable don't have 50 minutes listen, listen to 10 minutes in the last 13 minutes of the interview.

Episode 17. Adam Breneman interview with UMASS head coach Walt Bell.

Re-romancing the MAC may be UMASS best strategy right now but you will have to be all-sports and facilitate a 14th member like JMU or Delaware to be offered an invitation.

Try FB only bringing UConn into the league with them. It will give UConn a FB home, and a conference title and bowls to play for again too.

That boat sailed a long time ago, when we said no to all sports. There is too much money involved and don't think we are willing to play and not get a cut.

Granted we were suppose to hear about some bowl arrangements around New Years. I could see a scheduling arrangement for bowl access as UMass and UConn each play 3 games against the MAC East and one crossover game. In basketball same 3 for the MAC East but 2 crossover games. The evenly distributing games accross the MAC does nothing to build something for the future.

That said why do anything now, the future looks like the Wild West in the next 3-4 years.

Also we are free to schedule each other anyhow.

http://zipsnation.org/forums/topic/38932...ss/page/3/

Walt Bell came to Carolina with Larry Fedora. When Bell left our recruiting momentum stalled and Larry could never get it back.

(12-31-2019 03:34 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  Independence could work if they scheduled NMSU twice a year

Um, why would this kind of travel be necessary? To public knowledge, UMass hasn't had any problems with finding teams to schedule. NMSU and other indies will likely continue to play a part in that model. But there are no indications that UMass will need to play NMSU twice a year.

(12-31-2019 03:34 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  along with Army & UCONN once every year

Already part of the plan. Long term contracts in place or in the works.

(12-31-2019 03:34 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  Then perhaps do 2 FCS games a year like Army until there's gains being made.

UMass will do this if they need to. They're currently scheduled to do so in 2021. This is subject to change of course. And these aren't just two random FCS teams, but rather former Yankee/CAA foes: Rhode Island & Maine.

(12-31-2019 03:04 AM)Fishpro10987 Wrote:  

(12-30-2019 01:30 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  This is a very revealing, in depth interview with Coach Walt Bell. Just about every topic is covered from philosophy, history, transfer portal, challenges at UMass, facilities, being independent, and how it relates to the vision of UMass in the eyes of the recruits. Interesting he mentioned one conference by name, which means nothing, but he liked the idea competing and out recruiting against them.

UMass has a better package of facilities and academics to three please he's been at in the G5 level.
If you understandable don't have 50 minutes listen, listen to 10 minutes in the last 13 minutes of the interview.

Episode 17. Adam Breneman interview with UMASS head coach Walt Bell.

Re-romancing the MAC may be UMASS best strategy right now but you will have to be all-sports and facilitate a 14th member like JMU or Delaware to be offered an invitation.

Delaware would be nice to get back into the Philly market.

Not really enough room in the conference though with 12 FB teams already.

I've always respected UMass (remember well the Final Four season with Johnny C. at the helm) — both the university in general and its athletics specifically.

Being a football indie is becoming a bit more manageable, and the Atlantic 10 Conference is a very solid hoops league.

Stay the course, UMass. You will be fine.