Football Notebook: Chippewas Wait-and-See

Nov. 23, 2014

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Now, it's wait-and-see for the Central Michigan football team.

At 7-5 after Saturday's 32-20 loss to Western Michigan, the Chippewas are one of five bowl-eligible Mid-American Conference tams and the league has tie-ins to five bowls. Bowl bids and pairings won't be announced until early December.

Two more MAC teams, Akron and Ohio, would become bowl eligible if they win their regular-season finales against Kent State and Miami (Ohio), respectively. The Zips and Bobcats are both 5-6, and a team must have at least six wins to be considered for a bowl.

CMU is bowl eligible for the third straight year and for the seventh time in the last nine. The Chippewas did not receive a bid last season.

"I think we are certainly deserving of that honor and we will just hope things work out and we get to go because I know our team wants to keep playing," CMU coach Dan Enos said.

The schedule

Saturday's loss ended a three-game CMU win streak. The Chippewas had won five of six entering the Western game.

Enos made the case in his post-game press conference that CMU played as difficult a schedule as any MAC team.

"I thought we had a very good season," he said. "The schedule we played, nobody had a tougher schedule than us in the whole league.

"We had to play Tennessee Chattanooga, who is 8 or 9 and 3 right now, we had to play a Big Ten team (Purdue), an ACC team (Syracuse), a Big 12 team (Kansas), and then our first five opponents from the MAC were all teams that went to bowls last year."

Among the highlights and details Enos pointed out was a win at Northern Illinois which snapped the Huskies' 28-game home win streak, and the fact that two of the Chippewas' three league losses came down to a play or two.

CMU lost at home to Ball State when the Cardinals made a 55-yard field goal with under 20 seconds remaining, and their loss to the Broncos hinged on two critical plays.

That, he said, is "the difference of (potentially) being a 7-1 in this league. There were times this year where I thought we were outstanding. ... I thought we had a very good season and accomplished a lot of very good things."

Defense remains No. 1

The Chippewas are still tops in the MAC in total defense (331.2 yards per game), pass defense (211.4), and rushing defense (119.8). They are second in scoring defense (23.2).

CMU also leads the MAC with 14 interceptions.

Western Michigan finished with 362 yards in total offense against the Chippewas on Saturday, including 129 on the ground. That rushing total was the most the Chippewas had allowed since they surrendered 204 in a 42-28 loss at Toledo two months ago.

"No doubt it's been the best defense, it's been the best defense we have had by far," said Enos when asked where the 2014 unit ranked against the other four he has had during his tenure at CMU. "Really the only thing that I was upset with (today) was when we gave them the ball at the 1-yard line before half and we let them go down and score.

"But today we held them to 4-of-11 on third down and 17 first downs. Our defense as a whole has had a really good year and we have a lot of good young players that we are redshirting this year, especially on defense, that we feel really good about moving forward.

"That's been the plan. We have been trying to build to get better on that side of the ball because when you're good on that side of the ball you have a chance to win every week."

Defensive leaders

Senior cornerback Jason Wilson led CMU's defense on Saturday with eight tackles and an interception, which he returned 35 yards. It was his second pick of the season and brought his career total to seven.

Defensive end Blake Serpa finished with six tackles including a sack. It was Serpa's fourth sack of the season and he shares the team lead with linebacker Justin Cherocci. That sack brought Serpa's tackles-for-loss season total to 11 ½, which leads the team.

Cherocci and defensive tackle Jabari Dean added five tackles apiece, while redshirt freshman defensive back Tyree Waller recorded an interception, the first of his career.

Defensive end Joe Ostman recovered a fumble and defensive back Kavon Frazier was credited with a pass breakup.

Well-armed

CMU sophomore quarterback Cooper Rush completed 24-of-44 pass attempts for 248 yards and two touchdowns against the Broncos.

The number of attempts was a season-high and his 24 completions matched his season-high, which he set against Toledo. His 248 passing yards was his third-highest total of the season. He was also intercepted three times.

On the season, Rush has completed 63.8 percent of his passes (215-for-337) for 2,664 yards and 20 TDs against 12 interceptions.

Pass catchers

CMU senior tight end Deon Butler made his final game at Kelly/Shorts Stadium a memorable one, finishing with a career-high seven catches for 83 yards and a touchdown, his first of the season.

Another senior playing in his final game at Kelly/Shorts, Titus Davis, had five receptions for 88 yards. Davis' brother, sophomore wideout Corey Davis finished with nine catches for 104 yards and two touchdowns for the Broncos.

Climbing the ladder

The 248-yard passing day pushed Rush past the 5,000-yard plateau in career yards passing. He now stands at 5,013, good for seventh all-time at CMU.

Rush's two TD passes upped his career total to 35, moving him into a fourth-place tie with Joe Youngblood (1990-93) for fourth in school history.

Tough sledding

The Chippewas finished with 70 yards rushing, their second-lowest total of the season behind the 34 they had against Syracuse in their third game of the year.

The Chippewas came into the game averaging 166.7 yards per game on the ground.

Tailback Thomas Rawls finished with 76 yards on 19 attempts. The Chippewas' net total is lower because lost yardage (sacks, etc.) is subtracted from the total.

A strong run game has been the Chippewas' bread-and-butter all season.

"We couldn't establish the running game like we had been," Enos said. "I've got to be honest with you, we really thought going into the game that we could run the football and we didn't do it very effectively and I'm going to have to go back and look at why.

"But I really thought that was the key to the game. Our formula is running the ball, second (down) and medium, second and short, explosive runs. We weren't generating them today and then you have to start throwing the ball and that's really not our formula to win."

The series
Western Michigan leads the series with the Chippewas, 47-37 and there have been two ties. The Broncos have won three of the last four meetings after CMU had won five in a row from 2006-10.