Coyne's Clippings

A little hiatius in the aftermath of the Red Sox... Did watch half the Jets and half the Pats games yesterday. Really have to tip your cap to the Patriots for overcoming some injuries this week, and the Jets, well with Chadworth out (Chad Pennington), it looks like we'll see if Quincy Carter can fill in. Too bad Gang Green isn't playing the Cowboys this week... Onto the clipping while enjoying the last week of quiet before jumping head first into basketball season next week.

Dan Shaughnessy is sooooooooooooooooooooo positive this ranks as the most optimistic thing I've ever read by him. Wait until a year or so, most likely six-nine months, before he reverts to form, but this is VERY uncharastic. I chalk it up to Red Sox euphoria of course... Shaughnessy doesn't know what to do with himself.

And here's something I missed from Saturday as Jackie MacMullen of all people has a preview column on Brown Bowl I between UMass head football coach Don Brown and Northeastern.

A pretty good, long (for a newspaper), well-researched article that has some great sources. Good job Jackie Mac, I think its her best article since returning to the Globe. As far as UMass Football goes, You really have to give the Minutemen credit for fighting back to (in my mind) a respectable 5-5. 3-4 in the Atlantic 10, with bad losses at URI (who cares what their record is, its a bad loss) and at home against Richmond (3-6, 2-4 A-10). But James Madison (another home loss) is legit with a 8-1 record (6-0 A-10) and UMass posted a big win at upstart New Hampshire recently. So a win next week in the season-finale at Hofstra (5-4, 3-3 A-10) would be the perfect topper to a half-way decent season. It would give UM three straight to end the year, and four of its last five. Pretty good if you asked me. They weren't expected to compete for the A-10 title this year, and they were respectable at Boston College so... The returns on Don Brown are good, next year Ocean State superstar Liam Coen will be at the QB position, and UMass will be back contending for a national championship!