CMU is not Nova | Syracusefan.com

CMU is not Nova

Crusty

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Five years ago, Central Michigan beat both Michigan State and Michigan [EDIT: make that only Michigan State at East Lansing] and finished in the top 25. However, since Butch Jones left in January 2010 to replace Brain Kelly at Cincy, CMU has fallen off the charts. The Chippewas were a terrible football team under head coach Dan Enos’s first two seasons, but in the last two years improved to mediocre. In 2012, (7-6) they won the Little Caesar’s Bowl (Pizza, Pizza) beating Western Kentucky 24-21. They are coming off of a 6-6 season including a 59-9 opening game crushing at Michigan. They finished 4th in the West Division behind Northern Illinois, Ball State and Toledo.

The good news for CMU is that they return more starters than any team in college football, including an O Line with 2 RS SRs and 2 RS JRs who have stated a combined 91 games. The bad news is they were not very good as indicated by a 48-14 shellacking by NC State at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh last September. (A couple of weeks later we knocked off NCS 24-10 at carter-Finley.)

The Chippewas play a pro-style offense that will be run by true sophomore starter Cooper Rush (6 3” 216 ***) who was plunged into the starting role in CMU’s second game last year. He completed 57% of his passes for 2,349 yards, a fairly impressive 7.5 ypa. Rush had a freshman-like TD-INT ratio of 1:1 (15-15). His main target will be WR SR Titus Davis (6-2” 190) who had 61 catches (2nd in the MAC) for 1,109 yards – an impressive 18 yards per catch.

On defense CMU plays a 4-2-5 base. They have a monster at nose tackle in Leterrius Watson at 6’5” 323. While not a good pass rusher he had a dozen TFL.

The bottom line is this is not a very good football team and, while we never want to take any foe lightly (ahem), we should not see a repeat of the Nova game. I venture to say that we will not get outcoached this time and the players will probably be out to prove something. Even if Hunt gets suspended I think Austin Wilson will be just fine and a healthy O Line will be psyched and ready to play.

I look for us to see a different team in two weeks.

Head Coach: Dan Enos – former 2-year starter at Michigan State where he won two bowl games and a share of the 1990 Big Ten Championship. He has a .621 career completion percentage.

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It's simple: if we play like we did against Nova, CMU can and may beat us. If we fix just some of the issues from Nova, we will win. I expect a much better SU team in this game. Of course, I expected a much better SU team against Nova too.
 
It's simple: if we play like we did against Nova, CMU can and may beat us. If we fix just some of the issues from Nova, we will win. I expect a much better SU team in this game. Of course, I expected a much better SU team against Nova too.
Nova would beat CMU like a drum. This game is not comparable IMO.
 
Nice report. I knew nothing about the Chips--this helps a lot.
 
Heading up to game from Chicago and looking forward to some nice central MI hospitality and craft brew.
 
djorange1989 said:
It's simple: if we play like we did against Nova, CMU can and may beat us. If we fix just some of the issues from Nova, we will win. I expect a much better SU team in this game. Of course, I expected a much better SU team against Nova too.

I think that 80% of our problems were scheme, oline/2nd QB, and Robertson. I think we'll see us look like we thought they'd look like last week.
 
Nova would beat CMU like a drum. This game is not comparable IMO.
You think so Crusty? By no means is CMU impressive but I figured a middle of the road MAC team would be better than Nova. I like that their QB isn't dual threat, that much I can say. Forgot to thank you for the scouting report earlier too!
 
You think so Crusty? By no means is CMU impressive but I figured a middle of the road MAC team would be better than Nova. I like that their QB isn't dual threat, that much I can say. Forgot to thank you for the scouting report earlier too!
Maybe I am just trying to convince myself! I am hoping that Nova was a perfect storm for us. They schemed us perfectly and then executed. We were not ready to play, Hunt, O Line injuries etc. CMU doesn't have the QB Nova has - I think we can handle them.
 
I think that 80% of our problems were scheme, oline/2nd QB, and Robertson. I think we'll see us look like we thought they'd look like last week.

We will definitely have a better chance against a pro-style offense, and a qb with limited mobility.

CMU also struggled greatly at home vs FCS Chattanooga in week 1. Let's hope for a convincing victory.
 
Thanks for the info on CMU. I see where Tenn-Chatt jumped out to a 16-0 lead, and then never scored again. In the third quarter CMU went ahead 20-16 and that ended up being the final score. The Tenn-Chatt QB threw 4 pics- 2 of his pics came in the 4th quarter while trailing. Should be interesting to see how CMU performs Saturday against Purdue.
 
Crusty, sorry but Central Michigan has never beat Michigan. They didn't even play 5 years ago.
 
Crusty, sorry but Central Michigan has never beat Michigan. They didn't even play 5 years ago.
Sorry, Michigan State at East Lansing.
 
I'd guess only around 3-400. Hope I'm wrong...I'd be overjoyed to see 500+
Rats. Thought we would have more. We travelled extremely well as a fan base last year. NC state and Maryland come to mind
 
CanadianSU said:
Rats. Thought we would have more. We travelled extremely well as a fan base last year. NC state and Maryland come to mind

NC and Maryland are places people actually want to go with a quality conference opponent. Michigan? Yuck.
 
Rats. Thought we would have more. We travelled extremely well as a fan base last year. NC state and Maryland come to mind
those are on the east coast, where SU alums and New Yorkers all move - nobody from NY moves to Michigan
 
those are on the east coast, where SU alums and New Yorkers all move - nobody from NY moves to Michigan

Yeah, outside of the ND and Michigan games (as many as we were allowed to fit in there), SU doesn't typically show well at the midwest games. I went to both recent Northwestern games, modest showing, but nothing like the game at Maryland last year or at North Carolina or a few years back (actually 11, sigh).
 
Yeah, outside of the ND and Michigan games (as many as we were allowed to fit in there), SU doesn't typically show well at the midwest games. I went to both recent Northwestern games, modest showing, but nothing like the game at Maryland last year or at North Carolina or a few years back (actually 11, sigh).


That UNC tilt was the greatest game no one has ever seen (well except us).
 

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