MINUTEMEN VS. 60-MINUTE MEN:

Winter blunderland: It's no joy ride as UMass can't weather Colgate (Joe Burris, 11/30/2003, Boston Globe)

Complaints about the venue had long since subsided. By Friday, the fifth-ranked University of Massachusetts team had arrived in upstate New York primed for the first round of the Division 1-AA football playoffs. The Minutemen clung to a positive mind-set yesterday during the two hours it took to drive through a snowstorm from their hotel in downtown Syracuse to Colgate University -- a trip that usually takes 50 minutes.

Their offense never arrived.

Save for James Ihedigbo's punt return for a touchdown with 6:43 left in the first quarter, the UMass team that entered the contest averaging 30.1 points per game couldn't score. Amid 29-degree temperatures, a 14-degree windchill, and snow that covered the field at Andy Kerr Stadium, the Minutemen sputtered, hampered by slips and dropped passes.

Sixth-ranked Colgate, meanwhile, played much better, scoring two touchdowns in the second quarter, then adding one in the fourth for a 19-7 triumph before 4,197 that ended the Atlantic 10 cochampion's season at 10-3.

Quarterback Chris Brown completed 17 of 37 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns -- both to wide receiver J.B. Gerald -- as Colgate (13-0) became the first Patriot League team to win 13 games in a season and extended the longest winning streak in 1-A/1-AA to 19 games.

It also marked the third straight season that a Patriot League champion knocked out an Atlantic 10 champion in the first round. Last season, Fordham bounced Northeastern, and in 2001, Lehigh ousted Hofstra.

UMass's offense was held without a touchdown for the first time since a 31-6 loss to Hofstra Sept. 29, 2001. It was also the first time in coach Mark Whipple's six seasons that UMass held an opponent to fewer than 20 points and lost. And it marked only the third time UMass has scored fewer than 10 points against a 1-AA opponent under Whipple.

Credit Colgate, a team that came in 10th in the nation in rushing offense and averaging just 13.8 completions per game, for its effectiveness passing in adverse conditions.

Adverse? It's like that from October to April in Hamilton. What kind of momo's would even think to stay in Syracuse and drive down?

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 30, 2003 3:19 PM