Two year UMass Football Captains

One of he nice things about running the UMass Football Blog is meeting former UMass players and coaches. Earlier this year I exchanged e-mails with former UMass player and Coach Jerry Gordon.

His 1981 Captain’s image is in the UMass Historical section of this blog. Gordon walked on to the football team and was the last lineman chosen. He told me “I worked hard, and good things happened.” Gordon ended up being one of the few two year UMass Captains.

This year, the UMass players elected Junior Brandon Collier one of 2008’s captains. So he has a chance to join a select few UMass players who have been two-year captains. I went through the UMass historical roster twice and did not find a three year captain.

UMass Two-Year Captains:

• Bill Durkin ’92,’93
• Jerry Gordon ’81,’82
• Ed McAleny “74,”75
• Khari Samuel “97,’98
• Serge Tikum “04,”05
• Brandon Collier ’08,?

Did I miss anyone?

Wednesday Odds & Ends

Nothing UMass-specific on the wires yesterday or today, so let’s look at some other stuff.

UMass opens with Albany on August 30th. The Great Danes just released their 2008 schedule and it’s a killer with four playoff teams: @UMass, Fordham, @UNH and @Delaware. Note that they list the UMass starting time as 6:00 pm. Lights at McGuirk!

Speaking of psycho schedules—- did you see UT Chattanooga’s? The Mocs are the host team for the national Championship game ever year. I went in 2006 and thought they had a nice facility. But UT Chattanooga never makes the playoffs. You can see why after looking at their schedule.

The Mocs first three games were supposed to be Oklahoma, NAIA Belhaven and Florida State. The Blazers just backed out. What a way to mess with your players heads…

Meanwhile, over on Draft Daddy’s Top 150 Small School Sleepers, Matt Lawrence has moved up a couple notches and J.J. Moore and Brad Listorti continue to be listed.

More academic honors

UMass recently held its Fall Academic Honors Luncheon. Among the thirty student-athletes honored were Chris Cefalo (FB) and Breyone Evans (FB) from the UMass Football team.

Story here .

Evans was not mentioned in my previous blog post about eleven UMass players being named to the CAA All-Academic team. He’s a graduate student so perhaps he’s not eligible .

Congratulations, Chris and Breyone !

Matt Lawrence and Brad Listorti mentioned as top "Small School Prospects"

Draft Daddy has an article by Josh Buchanan on the top small school prospects at quarterback and fullback.

Two of the top QBs are Delaware’s Joe Flacco and UNH’s Ricky Santos. BTW, several sources said Santos had an average outing at the Hula Bowl and hurt his chances in the draft. The scouts didn’t like his mechanics and his passes fluttered.

UMass gets two mentions with Matt Lawrence and Brad Listorti as Free Agent picks. At 6-4 255 Listorti is fullback size in the NFL. Several NFL draft wizards are projecting him as a fullback.