College Football

Yesterday I spent the first half of my day at the Holy Cross / UMass game in Amherst. It was a beautiful day for college football and the Crusader / Minuteman game turned out much closer than expected.

In the first half UMass outscored Holy Cross 30-9. The score was in large part because Crusader receivers seemed to drop every pass that hit them in their hands and because the kickoff coverage team for Holy Cross allowed the first UMass kickoff return for a TD since before I even went to college.

HC coach Tom Gilmore scheduled the game to teach to his players that they could play with anyone and with Holy Cross outscoring the 3rd ranked Minutemen 21-10 in the second half - the lesson was learned. The adjustments HC made at half also bode well for the rest of their season. As I said when he was hired - I'd look for a Division 1 school to gobble up coach Gilmore fairly soon (within 2 seasons).

The big news in college football yesterday was of course Appalachian State beating Michigan. That was also the big news as I sat in the stands at McGuirk Stadium. Every time a score was announced -a big cheer would go up in the stands.

In a couple of weeks UMass plays Boston College at Chestnut Hills and I'm sure a number of scribes will make comparisons to the Appalachian State game. Trust me when I say that there will be no repeat for BC of what happened to Michigan. UMass is very susceptible to the pass and BC has one of the best passing attacks in the country. HC had open receivers all day and their second half comeback is evidence of the Minutemen's weakness in the secondary. If I can find a line on that game - I will be taking BC big because they will put a drubbing on UMass (which is no slight to UMass but BC is just in a different weight class).