Central Michigan University Athletics
Bonamego: Playing For A Title Always The Top Goal
7/24/2018 12:00:00 AM | Football
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
DETROIT - Players change, coaching staffs change.
Expectations do not. For Central Michigan football, it's about competing for a Mid-American Conference championship.
"There's nothing else to play for," coach John Bonamego said on Tuesday at Ford Field during the MAC's annual Media Day. "To talk about anything less I think does a disservice to our staff, our players and our fans."
The Chippewas, who open the 2018 season at Kentucky on Sept. 1, are coming off their most successful season of Bonaemgo's three at the helm of his alma mater. They finished 8-5, 6-2 in the MAC (tied for second in the West Division) and earned a fourth consecutive bowl berth in 2017.
Bonamego and the Chippewas face question marks aplenty as they look to replace several standouts who graduated after the '17 season. Among the position groups most affected by graduation losses are receiver and the secondary.
Gone are top pass catchers Corey Willis, Mark Chapman and Tyler Conklin, as are secondary mainstays Amari Coleman and Josh Cox along with Darwyn Kelly, who made a major impact as a graduate transfer in his one and only season as a Chippewa.
"Every team I think experiences that to some degree every couple of years," Bonamego said in addressing the need for younger players to step up in 2018.
THE QUARTERBACK
The most prominent questions, and ones that were raised immediately after the Chippewas fell to Wyoming in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in December, surround redshirt sophomore Tony Poljan, the heir apparent at quarterback.
Highly touted when he signed with CMU in 2016 out of Lansing Catholic - the same high school that produced former Chippewa great Cooper Rush - Poljan redshirted during Rush's senior year in '16 and then backed up Shane Morris a year ago.
It's Poljan's offense now, and, according to Bonamego, the 6-foot-7, 225-pounder has progressed to the point the coaching staff had envisioned.
"I think he's everything we thought he would be at this point," Bonamego said. "Tony is a very gifted athlete, there isn't a harder worker on the team, there isn't a tougher kid on the team."
Poljan appeared in all 13 games last season, both throwing passes and catching them. Bonamego said he and second-year offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Chris Ostrowsky will tweak the offense to better suit Poljan.
"It's really incumbent upon us to make sure we feature the things that suit his skill set," Bonamego said. "It might not look exactly the way it did with (Morris at quarterback). It's going to be the same offense, the same system, but there'll be things that Shane did that Tony won't do as much, and there'll be things that Tony will do and do well that maybe you didn't see Shane do at all.
"You put the puzzle together, figure out what guys can do. I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to try to ask people to do too much too soon. I'll be monitoring that closely as we go through camp and gain momentum towards the season."
UP FRONT
The Chippewas return several experienced players to the offensive line, a critical element in any year, but particularly important in 2018 considering the youth of the quarterback and receiving corps.
Among the mainstays on the line are returning starter Shakir Carr along with the likes of Alex Neering, Steve Eipper, Clayton Walderzak, Derek Smith and Joe Komel.
"We're finally healthy," Bonamego said. "We had a lot of guys who weren't able to go in spring practice for one reason or another. We should have good numbers and be at full strength when we start camp."
NEXT MEN UP
Some of the most-recognizable names among the 2017 Chippewas were in the receiving corps and the secondary - think Tyler Conklin, Corey Willis and Amari Coleman, among others.
The names that will become familiar to Chippewa fans before long, on the offensive side, are veterans Brandon Childress, Damon Terry and Jamil Sabbagh. In the secondary, Bonamego is looking to the likes of Sean Bunting, Brandon Brown, Da'Quan Jamison, Devonni Reed and Xavier Crawford, a transfer from Oregon State, to step up.
Childress and Bunting are the most experienced and, as therefore, the leaders, among their respective groups.
Childress, a junior, has 34 career receptions for 464 yards. He suffered a season-ending injury in CMU's second game last season. Bunting was part of a standout secondary that ranked seventh in the nation with 19 interceptions last season. Bunting ranked second on the squad with five picks.
"They're not finished products yet," Bonamego said of the younger players on the whole. "One of the challenges is to get better every single day - all of us. That's where we're at right now."
DEFENSIVE LEADER
Middle linebacker Malik Fountain is the veteran at the core of the Chippewa defense. It's a position with which he is quite familiar, having started at linebacker since his redshirt freshman season in 2015.
Fountain was a Second Team All-MAC selection in 2017, leading the Chippewas with 89 tackles. He said stepping into the leadership role is critical this season, particularly in light of the fact that the Chippewas graduated mainstays Joe Ostman, Cox and Coleman after last season.
"I'm the quarterback of the defense, I always was supposed to have been (as the middle linebacker), but this year I definitely have to be that guy," he said. "I have to make sure that I'm doing the right thing all the time, to make sure that they're looking at a leader. That I'm there on time, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing on and off the field."
TOP TALENTS
MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, during his annual speech at Media Day, pointed out that former MAC players Antonio Brown (CMU) and Kareem Hunt (Toledo) led the NFL in 2017 in receiving yardage and rushing yardage, respectively.
