Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
7-6
Western Kentucky
8-5
Chippewas Comeback Comes Up Short
12/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
NASSAU, Bahamas - It just may go down as the greatest comeback that, well, might have been.
Cooper Rush threw a Football Bowl Subdivision-record seven touchdowns passes including five in the fourth quarter Wednesday as Central Michigan came nearly all the way back from a 35-point deficit before falling to Western Kentucky, 49-48, in the inaugural Popeyes Bahamas Bowl at Thomas A. Robinson Stadium.
The game wasn't decided until Rush's two-point conversion pass to Jesse Kroll fell incomplete, one play after the Chippewas drew to 49-48 on a dazzling 75-yard pass play - triggered with just 1 second remaining - during which four CMU receivers touched the ball and Titus Davis won a footrace to the pylon against several Western Kentucky defenders.
"It's the Nassau City Miracle, almost," CMU coach Dan Enos said, relating the wildly breathtaking finish to the famous Music City Miracle pulled off by the Tennessee Titans in 2000 in Memphis.
"But hey, Dan Enos don't quit. Our team is never going to quit while I'm the head football coach. We've got blue collar guys. They work. They've got great character. Football mirrors life. There's adversity. There's ups and downs. You get your butt kicked and you got to bounce back. That's what these guys did. The battled back."
Indeed they did and they nearly completed one of those where-were-you-when-it-happened moments that make athletics what they are. As it was, CMU's fourth quarter was remarkable in and of itself, and the playground-touchdown play will most certainly become a highlight favorite.
Western Kentucky dominated and scored at will behind quarterback Brandon Doughty and a bevy of talented receivers. The Hilltoppers were in front, 42-14, at halftime, and 49-14 after three quarters.
"Not only were they beating us, but they had had a handle on the game," Enos said. "I challenged the players a little bit, but the players themselves challenged each other more at (halftime).
"We've got great senior leadership -- great senior leadership. And I just said a couple things. The players were really embarrassed about how they'd performed as well. I didn't need to say much, they know that.
"Nobody was really yelling at each other or anything. It was more of a calm: 'Hey we're a family. We believe in one another. Let's keep playing for each other. Let's have some pride in ourselves and this program. We are too good of a team to be here and allow this to happen to us. Let's start over here and take it one play at a time.' That was basically the message from one player to another."
Rush started CMU's thrilling fourth quarter with a 12-yard TD pass to Davis with 11:37 to play. Just over four minutes later, the same duo delivered again, this time on a 23-yard TD pass, cutting it to 49-28.
With 3:06 left, Rush found Courtney Williams for a 10-yard TD pass, shrinking the Chippewa deficit to 49-35. Less than two minutes later, Anthony Garland scored on a short pass, making it 49-42, setting the stage for Ron Coluzzi's onside kick, which the Hilltoppers covered at the CMU 43.
With just 1:09 left, all WKU had to do was gain a first down and run out the clock. The Chippewas burned their remaining two timeouts and senior defensive tackle Leterrius stuffed Leon Allen for no gain on third-and-10, forcing a punt.
The punt went for a touchback and WKU was penalized on the play, putting the ball on the CMU 25 with 1 second remaining and setting the stage for all the fireworks.
Rush dropped to pass and heaved the ball 50 yards to a leaping Kroll at the WKU 30-yard line. Kroll then lateraled to Deon Butler. A falling Butler fumbled the ball in the direction of the trailing Williams, who scopped it up, took a few frantic steps, then lateraled to Davis who did the rest.
"That's something that we do just about every Friday," said Williams, adding that the play is called 'hurricane.' "And it's something that coach Enos tells us to keep in the back of our heads. We don't actually practice it all the time, but we just make sure we know our routes and things like that. Then we just leave it up to fate and hope for something like that.
"Whatever you can to get the ball into the end zone, that's what we are trying to do."
Enos said he thought of going for two "about three seconds before it happened. We sent the PAT field goal team out and then somebody said something about going for two and it clicked. I went 'Whoa. Good.'
"And then I looked at the players and said 'What do you got?' And they said 'Let's do it. Let's win the game.' We had Courtney Williams on one side and Jesse Kroll on the other side, and we've got little read routes that we run. Both of those guys are great fade runners and slant runners. Cooper had thrown seven touchdown passes already so he was pretty hot. We didn't want to go overtime because we had trouble stopping them all day. … We just thought we had momentum and we were going to try and win the game."
Rush completed 28 of 45 pass attempts for 485 yards. His attempts, completions, yardage and TD passes were all career highs, and his seven TD passes is a school record and ties a Mid-American Conference record, and the 485 passing yards ties the school mark set by Brian Brunner against Indiana in 2008.
"We just kept grinding away, taking it one play at a time," Rush said. "From the huddle we just kept saying one play at a time. And next thing you know we look up and the score's getting closer and closer and that's when you know you've got a chance to win it.
"We just needed one more completion."
Team Stats
CMU 0, WKU 7
WKU - DANGERFIELD, J. 14 yd pass from DOUGHTY, B. (SCHWETTMAN, G. kick) 11 plays, 75 yards, TOP 3:37
CMU 7, WKU 7
CMU - DAVIS, Titus 21 yd pass from RUSH, Cooper (EAVEY, Brian kick) 3 plays, 75 yards, TOP 1:23
CMU 7, WKU 14
WKU - GERMAN, Joel 12 yd pass from DOUGHTY, B. (SCHWETTMAN, G. kick) 6 plays, 75 yards, TOP 1:53
CMU 7, WKU 21
WKU - GRANT, Antwane 19 yd pass from DOUGHTY, B. (SCHWETTMAN, G. kick) 9 plays, 84 yards, TOP 3:28
CMU 7, WKU 28
WKU - HENRY, Mitchell 16 yd pass from DOUGHTY, B. (SCHWETTMAN, G. kick) 10 plays, 81 yards, TOP 3:23
CMU 14, WKU 28
CMU - WILLIAMS, C. 30 yd pass from RUSH, Cooper (EAVEY, Brian kick) 12 plays, 79 yards, TOP 6:59
CMU 14, WKU 35
WKU - MCNEAL, Willie 55 yd pass from DOUGHTY, B. (SCHWETTMAN, G. kick) 3 plays, 69 yards, TOP 1:14
CMU 14, WKU 42
WKU - ALLEN, Leon 1 yd run (SCHWETTMAN, G. kick), 6 plays, 62 yards, TOP 0:42
CMU 14, WKU 49
WKU - WALES, Anthony 21 yd run (SCHWETTMAN, G. kick), 1 plays, 21 yards, TOP 0:10
CMU 21, WKU 49
CMU - DAVIS, Titus 12 yd pass from RUSH, Cooper (EAVEY, Brian kick) 10 plays, 80 yards, TOP 4:42
CMU 28, WKU 49
CMU - DAVIS, Titus 23 yd pass from RUSH, Cooper (EAVEY, Brian kick) 5 plays, 50 yards, TOP 2:04
CMU 35, WKU 49
CMU - WILLIAMS, C. 10 yd pass from RUSH, Cooper (EAVEY, Brian kick) 7 plays, 64 yards, TOP 3:10
CMU 42, WKU 49
CMU - GARLAND, A. 7 yd pass from RUSH, Cooper (EAVEY, Brian kick) 4 plays, 55 yards, TOP 0:51
CMU 48, WKU 49
CMU - DAVIS, Titus 15 yd pass from RUSH, Cooper (RUSH, Cooper passfailed) 1 plays, 80 yards, TOP 0:01
