Semi-OT: MAC coaches poll
Toledo (go Rockets!) and Ohio (NTOSU) are favored in the West and East divisions respectively, Eastern Michigan pegged for second in the West -- I think Chris Creighton is hugely underrated. Looks like a down year for Central and Western.
New coach at Western so too hard to gauge.
I’m just glad Tim “Howdy Doody” Lester is gone. Fleck left him plenty to work with. Couldn’t stand his rosy post-game conferences with all the bright spots after underachieving losses. That guy should have been a HC at FCS or probably D2/D3 levels. Time to move forward.
FIRE JASON CANDLE
Why? He has 2-9 win seasons and an 11 win season. Has never had a losing record. Is 5-2 vs BG. And is coming off a MAC championship.
I think this is the preemptive for chant, ala Bakich, not the whycantherecruit5stars fire Beilein
His defenses are usually pretty pitiful, and they had no business losing to BGSU at home last year. BGSU had lost 40-6 to Kent State the week before. BGSU has been one of the worst teams in the country the whole time he's been here.
Creighton is the most underrated coach in the country. I think because no one pays attention to EMU and his record there is sub .500 he is just written off. What he has done at EMU is miraculous. It's amazing that no other programs have poached him over the past few years.
He might need to win a conference title like Fleck to get serious attention.
Fun fact: Creighton was a player coach for a team in Sweden. You’d be hard pressed to find a D1 coach that has coached at more levels than him.
Creighton's won collegiate games on 3 continents. One of his early 2010s Drake teams, after a 6-day trip hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro, beat a team of Mexican All-Stars in Tanzania!
Counterpoint, I don't hate Creighton, but:
- EMU has finished in the top half of the West (e.g., Top 3) 2 times in 9 years. And only 1 time in the last 4 years.
- Only one season of 7+ wins (over 9 seasons).
Gary Pinkel, Brian Kelly, Dave Clawson and Lance Leopold are MAC success stories, but there have been a bunch of folks like Tim Beckhams, Dino Babers (yes it's fair to put him here, he's stalled out at Syracuse), Turner Gills, Darrell Hazell, Butch Jones and Rod Carey too.
I can see why bigger programs are a bit wary on him .......
None of those guys coached at Eastern.
I hope he gets a chance at a bigger program before he retires
If the OU defense can get it together they will be a pretty damn good team.that offense is going to get deadly. I think they could possibly run the table
Cannot wait until the 2023 season - or at least practice - starts.
OT season is really fucking painful...
Yeah just a month. When the NBA/NHL playoffs are over, and sometimes even before that, it is blah AF.
McElwain needs a bounce-back year for CMU. QB situation seems shaky. One guy can run but has completed four passes. The other guy threw 5 INT to 1 TD. Both are young.
Bert Emanuel Jr could be fantastic for CMU. Played in 3 1/2 games and rushed for 7 touchdowns and 7.4 yards per carry (including sacks). 24 carries for 293 yards and 3 TDs against Buffalo alone. He only threw 8 passes all season. If he can show the ability to throw a bit more he is going to be amazing and a huge weapon at QB for the Chips.
I think he’s busy this time of year fucking sharks in Florida.
It may be a down year for central and Western, but this announcement makes for much excitement for both fan bases (and probably a sense of dread for the public safety departments in Kalamazoo and Mt Pleasant):
https://twitter.com/TonyPaul1984/status/1682097761557118976?t=B9Tmifem8_TW4Qujlf1Dmw&s=19
BREAKING: After years of frustration for the schools and the fans, the WMU-CMU football rivalry is set to return to Saturday — and out of the midweek slot — within a few years. The MAC and ESPN recently came to an agreement to rotate the midweek rivalries.https://t.co/U1tKCfjWKp
— Tony Paul (@TonyPaul1984) July 20, 2023
Western Weekend is back, baby!
It was pretty much quashed by the time I was an undergrad at CMU, but I grew up about 15 miles outside Mt. Pleasant and heard all sorts of stories about it during its heyday.
The early 1990s were fun. I recall there being near riots. The game was played earlier in the year, and at least half of the Central student body was in the parking lot before the games.
Ohio you say
