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2013 college football: 17 odds and ends you might have missed

6. UMass Minutemen: Can they go local?

DAVID MOLNAR/THE REPUBLICAN/AP
Quarterback Mike Wegzyn passes down field during a University of Massachusetts spring football game, April 20, 2013, in Amherst, Mass.

  • By Ross Atkin Staff writer

Charley Molnar of the University of Massachusetts may be the only coach in the country to publicly announce a goal for playing in-state players. The second-year UMass head coach aims to eventually field a team with 50 percent of the starters from Massachusetts, which does not have a reputation as a particularly fertile recruiting area.

Molnar’s "Made in Mass.” campaign is clearly intended to build the local fan base for a program that moved into college football’s top division ranks last season, when the Minutemen were 1-11. The Bay State’s only other major college team, Boston College, draws only 20 percent of its current roster from Massachusetts, compared with 33 percent for UMass.

Meanwhile, the University of Connecticut, which is New England’s other regional competition, draws only 21 percent of its players from the Nutmeg State. So how does, Alabama, the defending national champion, do in this regard? The Crimson Tide draws 32 percent of its roster from within Alabama.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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