UMass shares links with NU

There are some connections between the football teams from Massachusetts and Northeastern. Some may have come through controversy, but regardless, UMass may have got the best of them: Don Brown. Brown was the head coach at Northeastern after spending the 1998 and 1999 seasons as the defensive coordinator for UMass - helping the Minutemen win the 1998 National Championship. After four successful seasons coaching the Huskies from 2000-03, Brown left Northeastern, in controversy, to return to UMass and take over the reins as head coach. In Brown's time at Northeastern he led the team to a 27-20 mark, including two winning seasons of 8-4 in 2003 and 10-3 in 2002. The Huskies' 2002 record was their most wins in a single season and earned Northeastern a share of the Atlantic 10 title for the first time. Since Brown has taken over the Minutemen, he has posted a 4-0 record against his former team. UMass has won 21 of its last 22 games against Northeastern. The streak extends back to 1985 and the one loss the Maroon and White have to Northeastern came in 2002 when Brown was coaching the Huskies. Because of the history between the teams, a rivalry has clearly grown. "Obviously there is some history there and we just got to keep our emotions in check and just go out and play another game," senior quarterback Liam Coen said. Coen also added that the bitterness between the teams has died down in the past few years, and that to him it's just another game. "It's another business trip, and we've got to go out and try to take care of business and play a good football team," Coen said. When Brown came to UMass from Northeastern, he also brought members of his coaching staff with him: offensive coordinator Kevin Morris, defensive coordinator Keith Dudzinski and offensive line coach-run-game coordinator Brian Picucci. A final connection between the two teams comes between two players. The Minutemen's true freshman defensive back Darren Thellen is the brother of Northeastern's star defensive back, sophomore Nate Thellen, who leads the CAA in interceptions with four. Climbing the ladder After starting out the season strong in the national polls, getting as high as No. 3 in the Sports Network Poll, the Minutemen fell sharply with their back-to-back losses to James Madison and Texas Tech. James Madison is now No. 1 in the Football Championship Subdivision and Texas Tech is No. 7 in the Football Bowl Subdivision. After the massacre in Lubbock, the Minutemen fell to No. 18 in the polls. It was a drop of nine spots after being No. 9 following the loss to JMU. With UMass' most recent win over Delaware, the Minutemen started their climb back to the top of the polls. The win helped the Maroon and White jump five spots to No. 13. Despite the wide range of rankings the Minutemen have had over the season in the Sports Network Poll, the team's rankings have stayed pretty steady in the FCS Coaches Poll. The Minutemen fell to No. 9 with the loss to JMU and only to No. 10 after the loss to the Red Raiders. Even though they did not play during the bye week, UMass dropped two spots to No. 12 before rising to No. 11 with the win over Delaware. Watching tape Saturday's game against Delaware may have been a coming out party for the Minutemen's defense, but the offense did struggle at times. Coen and the rest of the offense did move the ball down the field on many of their drives, but many of them ended abruptly. Coen had three interceptions in the game, the same amount he had through the first four games of the season combined, Tony Nelson fumbled after a 37-yard reception and the offense had another turnover on downs. To improve the offense for the game against the Huskies, Coen and his wide receivers are doing something they usually don't have time to do. "A lot of times you don't have too much time to watch tape with your receivers because most of the time you're watching film with your position coach," Coen said. "We're going to get the tape rolling and watch the film together and just try and be on the same page a little bit more." Double your pleasure Linebacker Josh Jennings has been a staple for the Minutemen defense so far this year. With his 16 tackles (three and a half for a loss) against the Blue Hens, Jennings earned the Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Week. The award is the junior's second of the season. Jennings is the leading tackler in the CAA with 53 tackles (10.6 per game) and also has five tackles for losses, a sack and an interception through five games this season. Jeffrey R. Larnard can be reached at jlarnard@dailycollegian.com.

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