Media Predictions-UMass

[danefan]

A place for us to compile the media predictions and laugh (or cry)........

 

Chuck Burton - College Sporting News.com

Albany at #5 Massachusetts. Without an autobid, the Albany Great Danes find themselves every year in a suicide schedule in an effort to become playoff-worthy for an at-large by the end of the year. This year they can qualify for an autobid if they beat some of the tough autobid teams they face. Behind runningback David McCarty, they start with, oh, the #5 team in the country in UMass, with a quarterback in Liam Coen who has won playoff games two years running and what could be the best secondary in all of FCS. Albany is good - folks will see that - but maybe not against this juggernaut. ZooMass 28, “Killing Me Softly With This Schedule” 17.

 

http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com...p;tb=1&pb=1

[danefan]

The Sports Network:

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4175977

 

Albany at No. 5 Massachusetts (Saturday, 6:00)

 

Don Brown's UMass club is looking to continue its string of success in the CAA this fall, returning one of the nation's top signal-callers on offense, Liam Coen (3,091 yards, 30 TDs), and two of the nation's top pass defenders in Courtney Robinson (47 tackles, six pass break-ups and three interceptions) and Sean Smalls (49 tackles, 10 pass break-ups).

 

Albany enters the campaign coming off an impressive 8-4 record in 2007, to go along with a Northeast Conference title. The Great Danes welcome back 12 starters, including the talented offensive tandem of quarterback Vinny Esposito (1,810 yards, 12 TDs) and All-NEC running back David McCarty (1,503 yards, 13 TDs).

 

Defensively, the Danes lost top tackler Colin Disch, but return two of their top four linebackers in Justin Brancaccio (63 tackles, seven tackles-for-loss in 2007) and Emerson Kinsey at outside linebacker.

 

Though the Danes boast plenty of talent, this will be a tough game for them against a UMass squad that is a national-title contender.

 

Massachusetts 31, Albany 14

[UAalum72]

I'd accept Burton's result if we're down 21-17 and Mass scores a clincher late. Against #5 that's OK.

[Dane96]

Honestly...I would accept any result within 20 points. UMASS is going to be something special this year.

[danefan]

I'd like to see it within 2TDs. I think we need to go "all out" to keep this one close.

 

If we do it will help the confidence of the team when UMass rolls through FCS and is highly ranked all the way.