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Recently in Colonial Clash - Gillette Game Vs. UNH Category
- Daily Hampshire Gazette: Mistakes Doom UMass At Gillette
- Daily Hampshire Gazette: Clash Organizer Thrilled With Event
- Daily Hampshire Gazette: Amid bad patch, Minutemen seek to avoid another collapse
- Daily Collegian: UMass Loses Colonial Clash
- Daily Collegian: Offense Struggling Since Bye Week
- Boston Herald: Weekend Notebook.
- Portsmouth Herald: Win over UMass sets up exciting final month for UNH
- Boston Herald: UMass, UNH On Big Stage
- Daily Hampshire Gazette: Wide-eyed UMass hits Gillette for walk-through
- Springfield Republican: UMass-UNH crowd expected to approach 30,000
- Boston Globe: Preview, Evans Hitting Stride
- Worcester Telegram: Locals Play Big Time
- Enterprise News: Thellen Settles In At Safety For UMass
- Laconia Citizen: UMass-UNH Ready Fo Historic Clash
- NESN.com: Local Players Thrilled to Play in Colonial Clash at Gillette Stadium
- Keene Sentinel: Rivals ready for 'Clash'
- WEEI Radio: Jonathan Kraft on The Big Show: Talks About Colonial Clash
He got to play alongside Jeromy Miles, now a member of the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad, while starting seven of 11 games in 2009.
Read the full story in the Enterprise News.
The first college game at the stadium in Foxborough looks almost certain to draw more than 25,000 fans. UMass athletic director John McCutcheon deemed the project a success.
"If we got between 25,000 and 30,000, we'd be very pleased. That looks to be about where we'll be at.''
The largest crowd ever to watch UMass play another Football Championship Subdivision school is 23,454 for the 2006 NCAA semifinal at Montana. That seems sure to be surpassed.
Read the Springfield Republican.
He has sat in the stands at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on a number of occasions since the facility opened in 2002. "I've been to Gillette so many times watching the Patriots or going down to see a concert,'' said University of Massachusetts offensive lineman Greg Niland of East Bridgewater. "It's an awesome place.''
On Saturday afternoon, Niland will get the opportunity to play at the home of the Patriots on Route 1.
After his team faced its first true adversity of the season in Saturday's 11-10 loss to Richmond, University of Massachusetts football coach Kevin Morris was optimistic about how his team will bounce back this weekend.
"We've shown the maturity to be able to come back and win in the fourth quarter," said Morris, citing his team's three come-from-behind wins. "Now it's a whole different question. But with the same maturity in mind, can we bounce back from a game that we should have won and come back with a real strong contest and win the following week? It's another test."
Saturday's 3:30 p.m. game against New Hampshire at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough figures to be an easy game for both teams to get motivated for. Any game in the Patriots' stadium is a big one. As is any game against rival New Hampshire. Add in the fact that it can significantly impact the Colonial Athletic Association standings as well as both teams'
Darren Thellen has this matchup pegged. "They don't like us. We don't like them. It's a great rivalry,'' the University of Massachusetts safety said of his team's relationship with New Hampshire, which faces UMass Saturday at Gillette Stadium.
Dubbed "The Colonial Clash,'' this 73rd meeting of the onetime Yankee Conference teams will be the first college game played at the Patriots' stadium in Foxborough.
The Worcester Telegram has a nice feature story on Hudson native Scott Duggan, who will have his second chance to play a dream game this season -- Saturday at Gillette Stadium. Playing at the Big House earlier this season was a lifelong dream come true for Duggan.
The pre-game focus for this year's University of New Hampshire vs. Massachusetts football game has understandably been on the venue. For the first time ever, Gillette Stadium will host a college football game, and the Patriots' brass chose this long-standing New England rivalry.
But once 3:30 p.m. rolls around and all the alumni functions, tailgating and honorary coin-flipping is over, it will boil down to two Colonial Athletic Association teams that need a win and can ill afford another conference loss.The Minutemen will face rival New Hampshire Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in the Colonial Clash at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
"I didn't think of it during the game, but when I came down to practice and we started talking about it, I thought back to the game and thought, it's going to be pretty fun getting to play out there," said the Brewster native and lifelong fan of the Patriots. "We're really excited to get to step out on that field. It's going to be a good time."
Read this full story in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Players chatted familiarly with each other, cracking the usual jokes while sharing stories about their weekends. They awaited the arrival of their coach for what they assumed was a typical recap of their most recent game, a 33-27 win over Rhode Island in their season finale on Nov. 21 of last season.
Junior running back John Griffin arrived at the gym as he did in week's past, expecting an assessment of his own and the team's performances amidst analysis of game film. Yet, something about this meeting seemed a bit peculiar.
Read the full story in the Daily Collegian.
Read this preview in the Daily Collegian.
A crowd of at least 25,000 and maybe up to 30,000 is expected for the hugely important Colonial Athletic Association rivalry game, said Steve Metcalf, the UNH deputy athletics director who helped set the contest up.
The stakes are high for both 12th ranked UMass and 10th ranked New Hampshire. The winner will have an inside track at a playoff spot, the loser will likely have to win out the rest of the year to make the FCS tournament.
The University of Massachusetts football coach played a high school game at Giants Stadium more than 25 years ago.
"The place holds 75,000 people. There were about 25,000 there. There might as well have been 10,'' Kevin Morris said. "But for a high school kid, it was fantastic. The thrill is in the experience.''
On Saturday, UMass plays New Hampshire at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. A great rivalry is about to be taken to another level.
You'll have to excuse Viveiros if he isn't awed playing this game in Gillette. Last month, the Minutemen's starting rover (strong safety) played the University of Michigan before 100,000-plus fans in Ann Arbor. UMass lost that wild one 42-37.
When the time came it seemed like everyone in Massachusetts knew where Walpole's Ryan Izzo, the state's all-time football scoring leader, was going to college.
When his time came, only Izzo's Super Bowl champion teammate, Ryan Collins knew where he was going.
Ironically, they both ended up in the same place, UMass-Amherst, where Izzo is playing lacrosse and Collins football. And that makes Collins the benefactor of an exciting new concept that will be kicking off this Saturday at Gillette Stadium: The Colonial Classic.
The bus carrying the University of Massachusetts football team to its opening game on Sept. 4 was getting close to McGuirk Stadium. Greg Niland of East Bridgewater, who was about to make his debut as a left guard for the Minutemen, began thinking about the strange journey that brought him to Amherst.
The Coyle-Cassidy High School graduate was supposed to be starting his final season at Northeastern University that weekend, not suiting up for a new team to face William & Mary.
When NU dropped its football program last Nov. 22, though, it left Niland and his Huskies' teammates scrambling to find new homes, and UMass is where he landed.
New Hampshire Athletic Director Marty Scarano was skeptical at first when Associate Athletic Director Steve Metcalf first informed him of Gillette Stadium's interest in having the UNH football team play a game there. "I wasn't sure we'd want to give up a home game," Scarano said. "The more we talked, the more it made a lot of sense. I thought it was a great opportunity for UNH." Phil Buttafuoco had been making a similar pitch to University of Massachusetts Athletic Director John McCutcheon. "It came together simultaneously for both of us," McCutcheon said. "When they were interested and we were interested it made sense for us to do a two-year deal and work on it together."
It's the "Colonial Clash." Not the "Colonial Shootout."
Fans heading to the game between the University of New Hampshire football team and UMass at Gillette Stadium Saturday would do well to file away those Yankee Conference images from a generation ago, high-flying battles that gave us scores like 64-42. There's a good chance defense could rule this day.
And that's just one storyline for a game that's been highly-anticipated across two states since last winter, when New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft agreed to open the doors to his 68,000-seat modern marvel to one of New England's best rivalries. The teams will also play there in 2011.
• The last time the UMass football team played a game at an NFL stadium come on Nov. 2, 1991, as the Minutemen beat Northeastern as Foxboro Stadium, 27-12. That game was a home game for Northeastern and drew a crowd of 4,620.
• The last UMass team in any sport to play at an NFL Stadium came in 2006 as the men's lacrosse team played in the NCAA Championship and Semifinals at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The Minutemen played in front of a then-lacrosse record crowd of 49,562 on May 27, 2006 in a Final Four win over Maryland. Two days later 47,062 watched UMass fall in the championship game to Virginia.
Largest Crowds For FCS Games
• Saturday's game at Gillette Stadium is sure to be a new record for a crowd to watch a UMass football game against an FCS team. The largest crowd to watch UMass play an FCS opponent came in the 2006 NCAA Semifinals at Montana. A crowd of 23,454 watched UMass upset the Grizzlies, 19-17 and advance to the National Championship Game.
• The largest regular-season crowds to watch UMass in FCS action have all come at Delaware, which has one of the largest seating capacities in FCS. The most to see the Minutemen in the regular season came on Oct. 22, 1988, when 22,301 watch them lose at Delaware, 10-7. There have been several other crowds at Delaware of more than 22,000 to watch UMass.
• Overall, the largest crowd to ever watch UMass came earlier this season at Michigan, when 110,187 watch UMass narrowly fall at Michigan Stadium on Sept. 18, 2010.
There are five pages of photo galleries from Sam The Minuteman's visit to Gillette Stadium.
Also, Facebook.com/ColonialClash.com has been set up. Become a fan today!
Get all the latest info on the Alumni Association Pep Rally at the CBS Scene before the game.
- Don't forget to buy your tickets online or by calling 1-866-UMASS-TIX.
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