Good morning!
UMass football coach Walt Bell is a southerner, born and raised in Tennessee, and his staff is composed of coaches he’s met at coaching stops in Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas and Maryland.
The only coach with local ties is Jason Tudryn, although another recognizable name may join him on the practice field. Tudryn graduated from Northampton High School and played for his father, the late Frank Tudryn. He was recruited by Jim Reid to play at UMass, where he was a four-year letterman.
A UMass sports booster says Bell’s been making inquiries about Reid, a Medford native who coached the Minutemen to three Yankee Conference championships in five years.
Reid’s contract wasn’t renewed at BC after coach Steve Addazio was fired. A football lifer, the 69-year-old Reid played for coach Walter Abbott at Maine (with South Deerfield’s Ron Puchalski) and was a grad assistant for Dick MacPherson at UMass. He rose through the ranks and was named head coach when Bob Stull left for UTEP in 1986.
Five years later he resigned when athletic director Frank McInerney yanked scholarships that he’d already offered to his recruits. “They’ll forget about you the moment you walk out that door,” McInerney told him.
Reid’s bold stand was lauded by fans, former players and alumni, but caused a lingering grudge among the trustees.
Bell’s aware of this but likes the upside of having a popular and defensive-minded X’s and O’s guy helping to keep opponents off the scoreboard.
Reid has grid cred. He was a head coach at Richmond and VMI, and was an assistant coach at Syracuse, Virginia, Bucknell, Iowa and BC. After Iowa won the Big 10 championship in 2013, 247sports named him the Division I linebackers coach of the year. He also worked three seasons for the Miami Dolphins when Bill Parcells was head of football operations.
If Reid does return to where he got his start, it would establish a link to the program’s glory years and give it the credibility it has sought since its move to the FBS.
The Minutemen are seeking to replace their top recruiter, Aazaar Abdul-Rahim, who was lured to Boston College by coach Jeff Hafley for a reported $450,000.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Abdul-Rahim played at San Diego State. He met Bell while they were coaching at Maryland the year the Terps garnered a Top 30 recruiting class, as rated by 247sports.
This year’s UMass recruiting class has eight players from the DMV region (D.C., Maryland and Virginia) and it’s essential to keep that pipeline flowing, because Rutgers coach Greg Schiano is taking the New Jersey talent.
Reports from Washington say they have zeroed in on Cato June, the recruiting coordinator at Howard University since 2016.
The 40-year-old California native has the cache to attract recruits. He was an All-Pro for the Colts and led the team in tackles the year they beat the Bears in the Super Bowl.
Howard has had five winning seasons since 2005 and last season went 2-10, starting with a 79-0 loss to Maryland. Coach Ron Prince was one-and-done after an investigation proved he verbally abused his players. Wayland native and Springfield College grad Aaron Kelton was the interim coach until this week, when Larry Scott was hired away from Florida, where he’d been the Gators’ tight ends coach.
One sign that June might be Amherst-bound is that his name is no longer on Howard University’s team website.
Jimmy Garoppolo went into the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Super Bowl entrusted with a 10-point lead. He completed three of 10 passes for 36 yards, was sacked once, intercepted once, and overthrew a wide open Emmanuel Sanders for a sure touchdown that would’ve given the 49ers a 24-21 lead.
By contrast, Tom Brady’s finest moment of Super Bowl XXXVI was in the fourth quarter, when he completed seven of 11 passes for 55 yards, including a 23-yard lob to Troy Brown that set up Adam Vinatieri’s winning field goal as time expired.
If a quarterback’s first Super Bowl is a barometer of future performance, then Jimmy G is no Tom Brady, and Pats fans can breathe a sigh of relief.
SUPER NOTES: The N.H. Lottery reports that more than $2.3 million was wagered on the Super Bowl. Almost 35,000 users have downloaded the betting app since Dec. 30. … KC’s Pat Mahomes scored the game’s first touchdown. Oddsmakers listed him at 22-1 to get the first six points, but by kickoff those odds had dropped to 12-1 according to Yahoo Sports. … Just before kickoff children joined hands and danced on the gridiron. “What a great moment!” gushed Fox’s Joe Buck. “Absolute chills.” Anyone who’s heard Buck on Howard Stern or seen him on Brockmire knows he was full of it. … It never gets old, the Super Bowl clip of Hank Stram exhorting his Chiefs to “keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys!” … Fans were four deep around the gridiron, not a VIP location anymore. … Sirius-XM’s Chris Russo lamented: “I got the worst beat of all time. I had the over rushing yards for Mahomes at 32½ , and he lost 15 yards on kneel downs while Shanahan kept calling timeouts.”
Felipe Alou played 2,082 games, mostly with the Giants and Braves, batted a career .286 and hit 206 home runs. His brothers, Matty and Jesus, also played in the big leagues.
Mets manager Luis Rojas is Felipe’s son. According to calltothepen.com, the scout who signed the three siblings back in the 1950s mistakenly wrote down their mother’s maiden last name. It’s a Dominican thing, and it’s confusing, but Luis Rojas decidedly descends from baseball royalty.
TULSI TOWN: Hawaiian congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was in Keene on Wednesday, upbeat despite her cold polling numbers. A former self-employed martial arts instructor, Gabbard enlisted in the National Guard and did tours of duty in Iraq and Kuwait where she was an Army MP.
She told the bipartisan crowd of about 150 spectators how she became known by her peers after she was elected in 2012. “My mother makes incredible macadamia nut toffee, and I asked her to make 434 pans for my colleagues,” said Gabbard. “And when she was done, I asked her to make 434 more pans for all the chiefs of staff. My father was the official taste tester.”
It worked. Whenever Gabbard needed a favor or made a call, the person on the other end always answered.
SILENT MOVIES: UMass hockey coach Greg Carvel’s precision Tic-Tac-Toe passing attack is shooting blanks. One goal in three games and two goals in 44 power play chances is no way to defend a league title.
“I’m not happy,” Carvel said in this week’s newsletter. “Our level of play is unacceptable.”
Yeah, no kidding. What’s ominous is UNH holding UMass to one goal in two games and then giving up goals 14 against UConn, and BC blanking UMass and letting in five against BU. Is the offense really that bad? Scary thought.
SQUIBBERS: Last night’s Franklin County contingent that turned out for Peter Bergeron’s induction into the WMass Hall of Fame included Tom Suchanek, Mike Kuchieski, Phil Corrinet, Bobby Campbell and Tom Echeverria. … Ray Thomas-Ishman has found a home in Buffalo. Arguably the Minutemen’s best offensive lineman, the Buffalo News reported that Thomas-Ishman decided to redshirt and transfer after he was suspended last season. … Former Florida AG Pam Bondi detailed Hunter Biden’s financial activities in the Ukraine during the Trump impeachment hearings. In 2006, she prosecuted Dwight Gooden for violating the terms of his probation. … While we’re at it, the prosecutor who put Martha Stewart behind bars was former FBI director James Comey. What a tough guy, that Comey. … Onthesnow.com reports the three highest-priced lift tickets in New England are at Stratton ($125), Killington ($119) and Bromley ($92). … Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir played second base at Harvard in 2003. … Losses to Davidson and URI put the UMass basketball team at 9-14 and on the fast track to their fifth straight losing season. … Davidson scored 52 points in the first half during their 85-50 blowout at the Mullins Center. Former NMH star Kellan Grady had a game-high 19 points for the Wildcats. …. Apologies to the GHS hockey team for not noticing it’s become a western Mass. powerhouse, 14-2-0 at this writing with 72 goals for and 21 against. Kudos to coach Adam Bouchard and assistants Mike Duclus, Corey Lovett and Tim Petrin. … Hockey folks say Ryan Leonard of Pope Francis (formerly Cathedral) is a better hockey player than his older brother John, who’s merely the leading scorer at UMass.. … Nice get by WHMP’s Brock Hines to interview U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer Keith Tkachuk between periods of the BC game. … Last week it was Groundhog Day, this week the Westminster Dog Show. Sources say the fearless affenpinscher has the inside track.
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley.