Central Michigan University Athletics
Chippewas Get to Work in Detroit
12/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
DETROIT - The Central Michigan football team hit the Ford Field turf Thursday for the first time in preparation for its Quick Lane Bowl showdown with Minnesota on Dec. 28.
"Great to be finally down here,"said first-year CMU coach John Bonamego, who arrive with his players, coaching and support staffs at the plush MGM Grand in Detroit on Wednesday night. "Feels like we've been preparing for this for a long time, so it feels good to finally get the team on the busses, get down here, and put the final touches on the preparation for what we expect to be a great game."
The Chippewas (7-5) won five of their last six regular-season games. Minnesota (5-7), which plays in the Big Ten, lost five of its last six.
"I think it's a great matchup," Bonamego said. "I think Minnensota's a fine football team. They're well-coached. When you look at them they're a big, strong, physical football team. They can run the football. They play good defense. They're very sound in the kicking game.
"They played a very, very difficult schedule and I think they're probably better than their record (indicates)."
Bonamego announced that senior safety Kavon Frazier, CMU's leading tackler and a Second Team All-Mid-American Conference selection, will wear the No. 21 jersey in Monday's game, which kicks off at 5 p.m. and will be carried live on ESPN2.
Wearing the No. 21 is to honor the late Derrick Nash, a former Chippewa defensive back who succumbed to cancer last summer, shortly before Bonamego announced that he himself had been diagnosed with cancer. A different CMU player has been selected to wear the jersey in each game.
Frazier is the first Chippewa to wear the No. 21 for a second time. He first wore it in the second game of the season, a 31-10 victory over Monmouth.
Bonamego said he approached Frazier about wearing the No. 21 before making the news public.
"Numbers are pretty special to players," Bonamego said. "Usually they find a number and they keep it or they work their way to try and get a certain number.
"Kavon's worn No. 5 and before I announced it and said he's going to wear 21, I wanted to see if he had a preference. I wasn't going to make it public, but if he wanted to wear 5 for his last game I certainly wanted to respect that. But he was pretty steadfast. It's a big honor to wear No. 21."
The Chippewas held a 90-minute workout in shoulder pads and helmets on Wednesday morning. The players and coaches will be given Christmas Day off, and they will return to practice on Saturday morning at Ford Field.
On Sunday, CMU will practice at the Detroit Lions' Allen Park training facility and then will attend the Lions' game on Sunday afternoon against the San Francisco 49ers.
By the time they kick off on Monday against Minnesota, the Chippewas will have not played a game in a month.
The NCAA allows bowl teams 15 practices leading up to their respective bowl games.
"We used a lot of those (practices) to work the young guys and we spaced them out so as not get too rusty," said Bonamego, who spent the 16 seasons before coming to CMU in 2015 as an NFL assistant. "It's new to me. I haven't done this in a long time as far as having this much time to prepare. You don't get that luxury in the NFL.
"I do feel that it's important at the end of the year, after a long season, that you do give them ample time to rest and take a break and I think the health of our football team is really good right now."
