By Bruce Dowd, CSN The CAA Today columnist

If you read last week’s column then you’re probably wondering what happened as I had announced I wasn’t going to see any games last week and instead was going to kick back and watch UNH at Northeastern and then Richmond at UMass on TV. Well, a few things happened.

First, I discovered that DirecTV was not showing the Richmond-UMass game so I was left to watch it through an Internet feed.

Then I received this e-mail from a Massachusetts fan, John B. Here is what he had to say: “I was disappointed reading your latest column on CSN to read that you won’t be making the trip to Amherst for No. 9 Richmond and No. 10 UMass. You have predicted a great game between the two, and considering the sort of games that these two (particularly UR) were involved in last weekend, why not?” When I read this, it was 2 p.m. Friday, and I said to myself, why not? I checked the weather, perfect! I called UMass SID Jason Yellin and asked for credentials, and he said, yes, and they would love to have me. So, now out of excuses and shamed into it by John B., I packed the car and was on the road by 3.

No big deal you might think, right? Well, please note that the drive to UMass from where I live is 8.5 hours one way. So now that you know the truth, that I am certifiably nuts, we can continue.

I have to start by talking about the drive to Amherst. I stayed overnight in the northern tip of New Jersey just so that I could enjoy the ride Saturday during the day. I must have picked one of the premier times for the fall foliage. People come from throughout the country and even the world just to see what I saw that day.

This is just a sample, but rather than bore those of you who just want to know about football, if you want to see more pics of the foliage, visit the UMass Trip Foliage Gallery we set up for your viewing pleasure. Now onto the game coverage;

THE GAME!

In last week’s column, I had predicted that UMass would win this game, even though I thought Richmond had the better team. I had my reasons, which seemed logical at the time, but after watching this game I realized how much better Richmond was than Massachusetts and how much better the South is this year overall. But I’ll have more about that in my regular column later this week.

PREGAME:

As usual, I walked the tailgate section and had a blast. There were many people tailgating so I hardly made a dent in seeing everybody. I did happen to be in the right spot though, when the UMass team bus arrived and coach Brown and I got a chance to chat for a few minutes as he welcomed me to their stadium.

He was quick to point out the recent chances they have made with the new Field Turf (2006) and also the new lights (2008). I learned later that those additions cost more than $3 million. Overall, I was impressed with the facilities and how I was treated by UMass staff and fans, but more on that later.

There seemed to be other pregame warmups going on, too, not that I was paying any attention to those kind of things.

1ST QUARTER:

Richmond received and started from its own 33. On the second play from scrimmage, Josh Vaughan broke one for 46 yards all the way to the UMass 20.

Eventually, the drive stalled at the Massachusetts’ 6 where Andrew Howard then drilled a 23-yard field goal for a quick opening lead: Richmond 3, UMass 0. On the next drive, Richmond’s Stonewall Defense made a statement. Even though UMass earned a first down, Tony Nelson had only six yards on three carries. There was a sack on Liam Coen for a nine-yard loss, too, that forced an early punt.

On this first defensive series, Richmond lost its starting outside linebacker, No. 45 Tyler Sullivan, with a knee injury that looked serious enough to maybe even be season ending.

However, as is the case with most outstanding teams, there always is someone to step in and fill the role. Richmond’s Stonewall Defense is so deep, that No. 15 Jordan Shoop stepped in and all he did was finish the game as Richmond’s Defensive Player of the Game with 14 tackles, 1.5 sacks and two tackles for losses and a pass breakup. All that from a nonstarter. That is depth!

On Richmond’s next possession, it went on an 11-play, 65-yard drive that ended in a 13-yard touchdown pass from Eric Ward to Joe Monteverde for an early statement that quieted the crowd. The PAT failed and the score was: Richmond 9, UMass 0.

An interesting sidebar on the missed extra point: Andrew Howard had made 121 straight until that miss and when coach London was asked about that during the weekly coaches’ conference call, he had this to say: “It’s ironic how things happen … it is almost like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. His mom talked to him about it that morning and darn if he didn’t go out and just miss one badly to the left. But the accomplishment is a great one if you think about it, 121 in row and given the fact that a snap may have been low or a holder may have dropped it and placed the ball at an awkward angle, and he still has had the concentration to get the ball up through the uprights. So that’s a tremendous accomplishment … and he is ready to start another streak.”

2ND QUARTER:

The second quarter started with UMass driving into Richmond territory. But the drive sputtered and ended with a Cuko 22-yard field goal that made the score: Richmond 9, UMass 3.

Eric Ward then led Richmond on a 12-play, 60-yard touchdown drive. Score: Richmond 16, UMass 3. One got the feeling that this one was starting to get away from UMass early. Coach London had this to say about Richmond’s start: “We were fortunate enough just to go in there and kind of start fast … I think we scored on the first three possessions, a field goal and then followed by two touchdowns. And that was able to take the crowd out of the game a little bit and then [we] just [played] football.”

But Massachusetts got back into the game on the next series as Coen started to click. Liam was 6-for-6 for 73 yards during this drive. It ended on a pretty pass and catch from Coen to Victor Cruz for a 22-yard touchdown. The PAT failed to make the score: Richmond 16, UMass 9.

I’m not sure whether that last picture happened in this next sequence, but I just liked the picture so let’s pretend it did. In that constant battle, as we have discussed in many of my previous articles, that involves the “do you kick it to him or not,” Justin Rogers got his hands on a short kick and returned it 34 yards to the Massachusetts’ 43. This gave the Spiders excellent field position with just 47 seconds remaining to try and get one more score before halftime. However, Ward misfired on a couple of passes and aided by a holding penalty on Richmond, UMass was able to force the Spiders into a failed 55-yard field goal attempt as time expired in the half.

HALFTIME:

Usually my game articles don’t have a halftime section, but I thought this one was necessary for a couple of reasons. First, Massachusetts was celebrating a reunion of the 1998 championship team and it had a nice ceremony at halftime.

You can see more pictures of this event in the photo gallery for this game. It was a nice event and you could see that there was a genuine love still for this team. Now, onto the second reason for halftime talk and a topic that is near and dear to me, food!

I have to mention that Jason Yellin and his staff at UMass went out of their way to make me feel welcome, especially considering the last-minute notice. They run a first-class operation there. I have been to just about every press box in the CAA and a few FBS ones, too, such as Virginia, Maryland and Navy. Never, and I mean NEVER have I seen a food spread like these guys put out. The above pictures were from halftime, after they had already fed us the main course before the game.

The main course was steak, potatoes and green beans. I mean real steak, too, not a steak sandwich. Rolls, butter, fruit bowl, brownies and too many things to mention. Anyway, thanks guys for the great food and hospitality. I will return. And now, after that brief commercial, back to the game and the pivotal and eventful third quarter.

3RD QUARTER:

The third quarter began with Richmond’s short kickoff being returned by UMass to the Spiders’ 49 that provided great opening field position. But the Stonewall Defense rose to the occasion again as two Coen incompletions around a seven-yard gain by Tony Nelson forced UMass to punt which went into the end zone for a touchback.

On the next series, the UMass defense stood up and stopped Richmond on a three and out. On the third-down play, there was a controversial call on an intentional grounding play. It appeared that Ward had thrown it directly at the feet of a runningback, but the officials saw it differently. London was not too happy as you can see from the following photo sequence.

But there wasn’t much sympathy from the men in stripes so Richmond was forced to punt from its 10, and Massachusetts ended up with excellent field position again, this time on the Richmond 39. Again, the Spiders’ defense held, but UMass did get enough yards to allow Armando Cuko to kick a 44-yard field goal, making the score: Richmond 16, UMass 12. The Minutemen had climbed back into the game, and it appeared they had momentum. The UMass defense was feeling it, too, as it held Richmond to another three and out. UMass got the ball back, first and 10 on its own 26, trailing by just four points and seemingly with all the momentum. But during the next few minutes is where the game went all bad for UMass and put it in a hole that it would never be able to recover from.

Coen threw three straight incompletions mostly due to strong defense by Richmond. Then on fourth down came the play of the game. Richmond’s Nick Battle got through and blocked Brett Arnold’s punt, giving Richmond a first down on UMass’ 13 as the following photo sequence shows.

The two coaches had slightly different slants on the play though and between the post-game news conference and the weekly coaches’ conference here is what they had to say.

I first asked London in the news conference after the game whether they saw something ahead of time in film or whether it was a game-day decision to try for the block. Here was his reply: “If you ever wonder what the coaches do before the game or during with all those stop watches and looking at things … you time the operation time from their snapper to their punter, and it looked like it was a little slow. It looked like if you really wanted to get after it, you might have an opportunity to block it. Just make sure you had a good get-off and you put your hand up in the block spot and be careful about roughing the punter. So we said if the opportunity presented itself, we would go after one, and we went after one and it worked.”

Coach Brown was sure it was a breakdown in protection and perhaps it was both of what these coaches had to say. In the weekly conference call he had this to say: “It’s hard to overcome a blocked punt … that really spelled the difference in the football game … overcoming a blocked punt is a difficult scenario.”

In the post-game news conference, an unhappy coach Brown had this to say: “We made a mistake in the protection and it really hurt us … and then you are just fighting uphill the rest of the day … the worst momentum killer in college football is a blocked punt.”

So, from the 13, on the second play from scrimmage, Josh Vaughan goes around the left side for a touchdown. The score: Richmond 23, UMass 12.

UMass’ woes continued as the ensuing kickoff was returned by UMass for minus two yards to its 13 and to top it off, it had an illegal block in the back that backed up the Minutemen to their 6. Then Tony Nelson just avoided a safety as he ran for minus five yards and goes down on the one.

Can’t get any worse, right? Wrong. UMass gets called for a false start and now the ball is on its half-yard line. UMass managed four yards on the next play before it had to execute a scary punt from deep in its own end zone.

This punt and the resulting return by Derek Hatcher gave the Spiders possession on the UMass 36. Richmond was unable to capitalize on this field position as it went four and out with Ward throwing three incompletions. The rest of the third quarter was quiet as both defenses played well.

Before we continue, let’s sum up what just happened in this stretch of the third quarter. UMass had momentum and climbed back in the game, down by only four points with possession on its own 26. Then in the span of 3:20, the following happened: It went three and out on three straight Coen incompletions. It had a punt blocked and two plays later Richmond scored. UMass botched a kickoff return with a block in the back penalty and a five-yard rushing loss that almost resulted in a safety.

Then a false start penalty put the ball on its own half-yard line. And finally, a punt from deep in its own end zone. How’s that for a bad three minutes of play? No wonder coach Brown called a blocked punt the “worst momentum killer in college football.” It is hard to argue with him after that sequence.

The rest of the game was kind of anti-climatic even though Massachusetts rallied to within eight late in the game. When the three minutes described above was over, you knew the game was over, too, but I’ll finish with my game summary.

I would like to say that the third quarter ended without more fanfare, but as I mentioned, this was an eventful quarter and the horror for UMass wasn’t finished. Near the end of the third quarter after Coen had completed two straight passes, he went down with an injury that looked like it could have been bad.

Scott Woodward finished the series for UMass as he threw an incomplete pass on third down forcing Massachusetts to punt. And, as if this nightmare of a third quarter would never end for the Minutemen, the punt was returned 45 yards by Justin Rogers to the UMass 45. Mercifully for UMass the quarter ended with Richmond on the UMass 39.

4TH QUARTER:

Finally a new quarter and new life for UMass as on the first play from scrimmage, Eric Ward fumbled and Massachusetts gained possession. With Coen still out and Woodward at the helm, Brown dug into his bag of tricks and ran Victor Cruz on an end around for 21 yards to the Richmond 22.

But with Liam on the bench, Woodward was unsuccessful moving the team, so the drive ended with another Cuko field goal, this one from 38 yards making the score: Richmond 23, UMass 15. Massachusetts had gained a little momentum and had climbed back to within eight points.

Richmond then goes conservative, rushes three times and has to punt on fourth and one. The Minutemen’s drives start on their own 20 and somehow, Coen musters up the courage to return. New hope now for UMass first and 10, down by just eight points, 10:27 remaining and its standout quarterback back under center. Maybe this quarter wasn’t as anti-climatic as I thought.

So behind the hard running of Tony Nelson,

and aided by a big fourth-down pass from Coen to Cruz for 17 yards, the Minutemen found themselves first and 10 on the Richmond 30 still just trailing by only one touchdown and a two-point conversion. This is when Brown had a big decision to make. UMass failed to get the first down and was faced with a fourth and six on Richmond’s 26 with a little more than six minutes remaining. So do you go for the first down and try to get a touchdown or kick the field goal and close to within one touchdown? Brown opted for the field goal as Cuko had been solid all game, but this time he missed wide left from 43 yards. Richmond had possession with 6:12 left and nursing an eight-point lead.

It was pretty much all Vaughan from here as Richmond’s offensive line started to pound away at UMass. The Spiders drove 74 yards in eight plays taking up almost five minutes of time and scored the clincher when Vaughan went the last five yards for a touchdown. That made the score: Richmond 30, UMass 15 and it held up as the final score as the rest of the game was just mop up stuff.

The picture above shows London headed over to shake hands with Brown. You will note that he is all wet from a “Gatorade Bath” given him by his players. This was a big victory for Richmond, a possible playoff appearance clincher. It snapped a 16-game home winning streak for Massachusetts.

IN CLOSING:

There were three keys to the Richmond victory. First was the fast start for the Spiders as London pointed out, a field goal and two touchdowns on their first three possessions. UMass dug itself a 16-3 early hole. This seems to be a trend for the Minutemen, and they need to start better.

The second key was the big punt block and that entire 3:20 of play surrounding it. As Brown said: “It’s hard to overcome a blocked punt.”

The third factor is what I saw as a physical dominance on both sides of the ball by Richmond. As Brown called it, they are “stout” there. That Stonewall Defense is a tough one to run on and Richmond’s offensive line allowed the Spiders to be effective running the ball as evidenced by Josh Vaughan’s numbers: 156 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns. That is 7.4 yards per carry. Even backup Garrett Wilkins averaged 5.4 yards per carry with 29 yards on five rushes.

When I asked Brown about the Minutemen’s inability to get their ground game going, he had this to say: “Yea, we have been able to run against everybody but they certainly did the best job of slowing us down … we didn’t execute quite as well as we would have liked to in a couple of areas, but you got to give credit to Richmond they are a very good front and they chase the ball pretty darn well, so you got to give credit to them as well. I think their front is very, very stout.”

Here was London’s comment on the game: “It was a hard-fought game. Both teams played well. It just comes down to being able to make those plays at the end of the game and during the game … we did this particular game but unfortunately we didn’t against James Madison. But what a tremendous league this is just to see the type of talent you have to play week in and week out. So we are very fortunate and happy to come out of there with a W.”

It seemed like everyone wanted to talk with Josh afterward as he was obviously one of the key players and earned the CAA Offensive Player of the Week honor. I had a chance to talk with Vaughan this week, too, and I mentioned to him that I had observed how successful they were running the ball. I pointed out that was a weakness of Massachusetts entering the game. So I wondered whether there was something they had noticed and whether it was a big part of the game plan. He had this interesting response that tells you a lot about this team: “Our offense always prides itself on being able to win in the trenches and that is just any game. Being able to dominate up front gives you an extra advantage during the game. We just felt like that if we dominated up front early that it would just carry on throughout the game, and I believe that we were successful in doing that.”

Another thing I couldn’t help but notice is how close the Richmond team is. I have been a little critical of London and his staff at times concerning some game decisions, especially during crunch time. But I have to give credit where credit is due. It is a tough job for a coach to come in to a new team, especially under these circumstances and even more especially as his first head coaching position. This team was loaded and was expected to win which creates a lot of pressure. I have watched this team up close now three times, and there is a unity and closeness here that is off the charts. They really care about one another. That was one huge, HUGE victory last week and the Spiders showed up with a purpose. They were not about to be denied.

When I interviewed Vaughan this week, I asked him about that and here was his reply: “I believe so, coach London has brought in a [coaching philosophy] of us being a family. These guys on our team, we are best of friends off the field as well. We do everything together whether it is laugh, joke or cry or go out or whatever. We are the best of friends, and we carry that on and off the football field. And just having each other out there and playing for each other. Coach London always asks us who do we play for, and we play for each other. We just feed off of each other during the course of the game. And I think that is what helps carry us through most of the time.”

Make no mistake about it. That is not just words. They love one another, and they love playing for London. He defines the meaning of the term “a player’s coach.” Congratulations to London and his staff and to the entire team on what was just an awesome victory.

There you go folks. It was just another outstanding game to watch. The entire atmosphere at UMass was superb, the homecoming, the honoring of the ‘98 championship team, the festive atmosphere and again FCS and CAA football at its best. I feel extremely lucky and blessed to be able to see games such as this almost weekly.

Look out Nova fans, I’m headed your way next week, and I might have two photographers in tow with me this time. For those who don’t want to see us, then hide the food and drinks and coeds. For those who do want to see us, e-mail me your tailgate location and/or cell phone numbers, and we’ll try and look you up.

I am always interested in hearing from you so please email me any comments.

Tailgating and the Fans:

I had a blast again cruising the tailgating and interacting with the fans. I feel sorry for those who don’t know what they are missing when they sit at home on their couches flipping channels. Nothing compares to the atmosphere and smells of a beautiful fall afternoon at a football game. Below you will find some of my favorites and those that tell a story. For a complete view of all my pictures for the day, please see the photo gallery for this game. So here we go, more of the “Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. You decide.

Like I said earlier, UMass really rolled out the Welcome Mat for me.

I think they have seen more than a few tailgates in their time.

Nice set-up here.

Tailgate open, people socializing, food and beverage being consumed, that’s what it is all about.

More of the same

In the upcoming photos, we now get to feature the “Tailgate of the Day”, the WRPT gang. That’s Wayne, Rick, Paul and Tom. How did they get to earn that award? It is simple. They fed me!

This is their head chef who is in insurance, but he missed his calling. He should have been in the culinary arts. They have a nickname for him “De Boino”. I asked about the spelling but they had no idea. It came from some spicy dish he made that was too spicy and all the tasting he did and the after effect. At this point I stopped my inquiry as it was already “too much information.”

Macaroni, Cheese and Lobster Dish.

I had the barbeque beef on a stick – it was great.

Barbeque Chicken – Yum!

Here is a picture of a meatball slider before it disappeared into my stomach. This concludes out tour through the “Tailgate of the Day”. Thanks to the WRPT gang for all the hospitality.

Oh yea, here is “Kettle Corn Guy” who was kind enough to give me a sample. Hope all of you are paying attention and catching on to the trick to get your picture in my articles.

If you are not feeding me, then it helps to look like this!

Or like this!

Group pictures are always nice too. Now for all you women out there that read my article each week (all three of you) below is a picture of a couple of Studs just for your viewing pleasure.

Well, perhaps this wasn’t the best choice as it looks like these guys stayed at the tailgate a little too long.

I let you insert you own caption here.

Lot of big tents for Alumni and Band Alumni and the 1998 Championships team as shown in the following pictures below.

Now it is time for some Family Fun . . . .

It the tailgate doesn’t work, why not try the roof? Now isn’t that cute?

There were a lot of Red Sox fans there too.

I took this one for obvious reasons. Also shows another Red Sox fan. However, after looking at this photo more closely, not sure what was going on behind her.

Here is a picture of one of three “Cannon Guys” whose entire job that day was to lie down behind the end zone and pull the trigger on the cannon whenever UMass scored. You would be surprised how much noise those little things made.

And finally . . . . .

While my photography is getting better, I still have a little work to do.

That’s all for now and I hope you enjoyed the photo tour of my day. See the rest of the pics at the photo gallery for this game. Next week I will be at Villanova for the JMU game.