University of Massachusets Athletics
Jason Hatchell's Spring Football Blog: Entry No. 1
March 29, 2007 | Football
March 29, 2007
UMass senior All-American linebacker Jason Hatchell is part of a new feature with the CAA Football Conference as he is filing regular blog entries. Check out his first installment as he writes about off-season training, the 2006 season's the run to the National Championship game and playing without his brother John in his final year at UMass.
Jason Hatchell - Massachusetts Senior - Linebacker
To get ready for next season we have been doing a lot of running and lifting, just a lot of working out as a team. We are lifting four days a week and running three days. We get up for five a.m. runs three days a week and then lift four days a week. It's intense training, but we still manage to squeeze in time for meetings. Everyone meets up usually for two meetings a week to go over plays and watch tape from last season to see our mistakes. We go over the little things. For us linebackers, we got a pretty experienced group coming back for next year; so, we are not worrying about the plays anymore with our group. We are concentrating more on perfecting the little things that we didn't touch on last year or things we could have done better than last year.
It was pretty cool going back home after the season we had this year; two of our games were on ESPN2. Everyone I talked said they saw the games. A bunch of the people I talked to went to bars to see the games and cheered on UMass with thirty other people. I have family in Oklahoma and North Carolina, all over the place so it was pretty cool, but it does get a little old when it's all people talk about and they only think of you as a football player.
Personally, I was a little upset with my success last year. I was expecting myself to perform at my best levels, my peak levels. I did make All-American in the Don Hansen poll. My goal was to win the Buck Buchanan as best defensive player in the country and be an All-American on all teams. I wanted to outplay every other linebacker in the whole nation. Those are the goals I set for myself: to be the best, keep working and keep working real hard.
As a team, we have a few holes because we lost the seniors. Last season we had a great corps of seniors. Still, we're looking very solid; our offense is real powerful--I don't think we lost a step there. Defensively, we have experienced guys and got some good transfers coming in. We are preparing the new guys to get them familiar with our system. We are going to have the talent on the field. As long we get back to last year's level: developing the camaraderie we had so we just clicked no matter what we did, we are going to have a good run at it. Everyone trusted that everyone else would do their job. If all that happens, we are going to have a good season.
My brother, John, just finished his last season so it's going to suck a little bit not playing with him. His importance is one thing I notice when watching last year's tape. Towards the end of this past season, he switched over from nose tackle to d-end so we were playing on the same side together. He would take a lot of double times, get a grip and hold the guys so I would be free to make the play. His presence opened me up a lot. It was fun having him out there so it is going to suck, but his time is over. We have great guys stepping up to fill in for him. I really don't feel that we are going to lose a step, except maybe in the strength area because he was the strongest player on the field.
