Tag: RaQuan Thomas

UMass Roundup: Football’s Junior Day and Coaching Vacancy, Hockey’s Friendship Four, and the Gorillas take on the Buckeyes

There’s been a bit of news over all the UMass programs in the last couple of weeks, and here at FireTheMusket we’re going to recap a few of the higher-profile announcements in the world of Minutemen sports.

At the top of the list is the departure of UMass’ offensive line coach Shane Waldron, who’s taken a position with the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

Waldron’s position is titled “Offensive Quality Control”, and he’s held a similar position in the NFL before with the Patriots. That position lends itself to a lot of hours studying and breaking down opposition film, providing the key details of the opponent’s game plan that can be exploited to help defeat them.

Waldron moving to the NFL is good for the UMass program, even though he is leaving right after working to recruit several athletes in the year’s cycle. UMass putting people in the NFL, both players and coaches, is a long-term benefit. The more connections you have in the NFL, the more you can sell that to incoming recruits.

Waldron was previously UMass’ recruiting coordinator under the last head coach, and he was the Philadelphia-area recruiter for Coach Whipple. That’s an important area for UMass’ recruiting base, so whoever is taking that over will be busy. Waldron ran point on getting Charly Timite, RaQuan Thomas, and Pat Amara Jr. to UMass this year and also helped with several other recruits. Perhaps we’ll see Matt Dawson take over that territory in the recruiting game.

Waldron was one of two remaining holdovers from the previous head coach’s staff after the earlier departure of Strength Coach Mike Golden. That leaves only Dave Sollazzo on staff as a coach who predates Mark Whipple’s arrival for his second tour of duty. Whip now has another chance to make an impact hire for the program, and while I haven’t seen or heard any names of who might be coming in, I look forward to seeing how the vacancy is filled.

Speaking of football recruiting, UMass should be holding a Junior Day this weekend, which is an important day for recruits to get an early look at the Minutemen program. The idea behind a Junior Day of course is that current juniors in high school are the focus (though you will see younger recruits like sophomores attending in some cases as well). UMass has already recruited its high school seniors for this year, so now they are looking to get in on next year’s seniors.

Junior Days tend to be events for more local recruits, as they are unofficial visits and thus cannot be paid for by the school. The focus is usually on the more local players UMass would be trying to make inroads with in New England, New York, New Jersey, etc. It is a one-day event but it’s very important; for example, Taylor Edwards attended UMass’ Junior Day last year.

You can have more than one Junior Day, although I have no indication how many UMass is planning on hosting. I am hoping to receive a list of prospects that will be coming to pass along to everyone in a separate post.

One local recruit that has posted they will be attending is ATH Kevin Mensah, who plays for Holy Name in Worcester.

https://twitter.com/ARTofKM/status/700762884192735233

Mensah has been on UMass’ radar for quite some time. In fact, he attended Junior Day in Amherst last year as a sophomore. He’s being recruited strongly by a lot of New England schools including Boston College and UConn, so the battle for his services figures to be a good one. He’s a running back in Holy Name’s Wing-T offense, and while that allows him to put up some big numbers and display his athleticism, he may be ticketed for another position at the next level, like safety.

He would be a great athlete to add to the mix at UMass on either side of the ball. Hopefully the Minutemen keep up a strong pursuit of Mensah throughout his senior season. He does not yet hold an offer from UMass but in my opinion it’s only a matter of time.

For readers, here’s a link to last year’s Junior Day attendee list that was compiled by Bob McGovern at the Maroon Musket.

UMass hockey was in the headlines recently for a positive reason for once, and that’s because they will be participating in next season’s Friendship Four tournament, an event started this season in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The inaugural tournament this year featured Northeastern, Brown, Colgate, and UMass-Lowell.

The plan is for this tournament to be an annual event with two teams from Hockey East and two from the ECAC. Next year the Minutemen will be joined by Vermont, Quinnipiac, and St. Lawrence. The first round matchups are conference games and then the final is for the Belpot Trophy, a not-so-subtle play on the Beanpot.

The exposure for the program and for the school is great with the event, and it’s an incredible travel opportunity for fans and alumni.

It’s held on American Thanksgiving weekend though, which if you plan on traveling is something to factor in. If you’re flying to Belfast you have to leave on Thanksgiving to arrive on Friday, which is the day of the first game.

This might just be one that I try and go to. I went to Notre Dame last year, and plan to go to Florida and South Carolina this year, but Belfast would be an unbelievable experience.

Keep an eye on Fear The Triangle for more on the Friendship Four and UMass Hockey in general, that’s the #1 source.

The final UMass note this weekend from FireTheMusket is that Garber’s Gorillas will be taking on THE Ohio State University at the new and improved Garber Field today, Saturday, and 12 noon. That’s just about 45 minutes from when I’m typing this, and it should be streamed free online.

The link in the above tweet does have the stream link to follow to see the game live for free online.

UMass lost their opener to Army on the road 9-5, and they are trying to work in some new faces this season at some key spots since they lost several important players to transfer in the off-season, including their best talent in Nick Mariano.

This is a big game for the program though as Ohio State comes in ranked #11 in the country. Also, the simple fact that they are coming to Garber is a huge deal. The renovations to Garber were long overdue, and while they were not cheap they will be invaluable to the future of both the men’s and women’s programs.

UMass will be able to host more teams now, teams that would have previously not agreed to play on Garber’s old, terrible turf. Just this season UMass is hosting both Ohio State and North Carolina in Amherst, two huge matchups for the Gorillas.

This will be a tough one for UMass today but they can absolutely pull off an upset. Tune in online if you can’t make it but if you can, get out to Garber and show support, especially students. Garber is one of the great places to watch lacrosse and probably the best home-field advantage that UMass has in any sport when it’s packed. I hope the lacrosse programs benefit from that this year, starting today.

Go U.

UMass Football Recruiting 2016: Minutemen adds pledges from RB Peytton Pickett and OG RaQuan Thomas

The UMass Minutemen added two more players to an already impressive haul for 2016 with the commitments of Peytton Pickett and RaQuan Thomas this week.

Pickett, a 2-star RB from Arlington, TX (Sam Houston HS) and Thomas, a 2/3-star OG from Philadelphia, PA (Simon Gratz HS) both bring talent to the Minutemen along with adding to depth on the roster that the 2016 class is greatly increasing.

Pickett goes 5’10” 194lbs and is the 3rd RB to commit to UMass this year, following Tyshaun Ingram and Tyler Thompson. He’s quick, decisive, and powerful despite being a smaller back. He makes his cuts aggressively and has shown some good improvement and growth from his junior to his senior year at Sam Houston. He’s a good looking runner that should fit in well for the Minutemen.

Seeing as how Lorenzo Woodley and Shadrach Abrokwah are no longer with the program (along with others, see the updated roster) and Jamal Wilson has graduated, the RB depth after last year’s true freshman Marquis Young and Sekai Lindsay was lacking. With Ingram, Thompson, Pickett, and potentially another RB recruit coming in, that issue has been addressed aggressively by the coaching staff.

There was some confusion about a month ago when it was reported that Pickett has signed with UTEP and would be enrolling early (he’s graduated high school) for the Miners. As it turns out he did not sign a National Letter of Intent, he signed a Financial Aid Agreement, which is not binding.

In fact, the school went so far as to publish an official announcement (which has since been taken down) and that could be trouble for UTEP as Pickett was technically an unsigned recruit.

As such he was able to receive an offer from UMass, officially visit the school and give his commitment. He won’t be enrolling at UMass until the fall semester. Pickett choose the Minutemen over offers from UTEP, Kansas, New Mexico, and others.

Check out Pickett’s most recent highlights here.

Thomas checks in at a massive 6’4″ 345lbs and he is every bit of that. He’s a big-time mauler on the line and would probably be a guard for UMass once he comes in. He’s got FBS size already, and one can only imagine the growth curve he could have once he’s involved in a D1 strength and conditioning program. His tape (which you can see here) is impressive, and with a little seasoning perhaps I think Thomas could be a great interior lineman for UMass going forward.

Thomas’ story is a lot more than football though, as in October of 2013 he was shot five times at a gathering after a football game in Philly. He almost didn’t make it but came through, and worked extremely hard to get back on the football field. make sure you check out these articles from MaxPreps and Philly.com on Thomas’ recovery and road back to the football field.

It’s an inspiring tale of perseverance and determination and I’m thrilled that he’s earned a scholarship from UMass, which is a great school on top of a D1 football program. He picked the Minutemen over an offer from Temple as well.

UMass has been doing exceedingly well on the recruiting trail so far this year, and starting tomorrow they will begin hosting prospects on official visit weekends for both the 22nd and the 29th. We could and should see even more commitments come out of those events where some of the top prospects UMass is after will be in Amherst experiencing UMass.

I’ll have a post on the first weekend hopefully Friday or Saturday, but before I do, make sure you give a click to my piece from Hustle Belt on these new commits as well.

Go U.