Kentucky Notebook: Plenty To Work On

9/2/2018 10:24:00 AM | Football

Poljan productive in first start, but he and Chippewas know they need to get better

By: Andy Sneddon

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – More than any other game in a given football season, the opener draws scrutiny.

All eyes in Central Michigan's case, naturally, were on the quarterback.

Redshirt sophomore Tony Poljan made his first career start under center on Saturday, and he performed efficiently with his arm and he gave the Chippewas exactly what they expected from his legs: production.

"I thought he did well," fourth-year CMU coach John Bonamego said after CMU's 35-20 loss at Kentucky. "He didn't turn the ball over and that's a positive. He made some big plays with his legs.

"He needs some people around him to step up. It can't just be (Jonathan) Ward and (Kumehnnu) Gwilly. We made a couple nice catches out there for him and we've got to firm up our pass protection a little bit. We're all going to look at this and know there's a lot to improve on across the board, not just with Tony."

Poljan, who stands 6-foot-7, completed 17 of his 27 pass attempts for 137 yards. His longest pass completion went for 37 yards. Most of his passes were of the short, underneath catch-and-run variety.

The Chippewa defense forced four turnovers, all in the first half. One of those turnovers, a fumble, was returned by Devonni Reed for a touchdown. The Chippewa offense turned the other three takeaways into 13 points -- two field goals and a touchdown.

Those led to a 20-14 Chippewa lead late in the first half. Kentucky then reeled off 21 unanswered points.

"A little nervous but not too bad," Poljan said of making his first start. "Going form a role player last season to a starter this season is pretty special."

Poljan, who played in all 13 games last season at quarterback or at wide receiver, appeared to grow more confident, particularly in his running, as the game progressed. He led CMU with 47 rushing yards on 16 carries. That total included two sacks.

YOUNG RECEIVERS
To say Poljan's receiving corps is young and inexperienced would be understating it.

Saturday's main targets at the wideout position had just three combined career starts, two by Brandon Childress and one by Cameron Cole.

Cole led the Chippewas with four catches for 51 yards, while Childress was one of five receivers to catch two passes. That group included tight ends Bernhard Raimann, a true freshman, and Keegan Cossou, a redshirt freshman.

BIG TURN
The Chippewas scored 17 points in the second quarter to take a 20-14 lead and seize the momentum on the road against a Power-5 team.

Gwilly capped a 14-play, 80-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to put CMU up, 10-7. Two plays later, defensive lineman Mike Danna locked up a Kentucky ball carrier and Nate Brisson-Fast knocked the ball loose. Reed scooped it up and raced 20 yards for the end zone to make it 17-7.

After a Benny Snell 52-yard TD run cut CMU's lead to 17-14, Chippewa safety Gage Kreski made his first career interception and returned it 36 yards to the Kentucky 10-yard line. Michael Armstrong hit a 22-yard field goal to make it 20-14.

Backup quarterback Gunnar Hoak, subbing for injured starter Terry Wilson, marched the Wildcats 71 yards in six plays -- in just 41 seconds – and capped it with a 24-yard touchdown pass to put Kentucky in front for good with 14 seconds to play in the half.

"We had pressure on the play and we didn't quite get home on it," Bonamego said. "We were singled up in man coverage and we had a young DB get beat and their quarterback found him. It was a great play by them."

Wilson, making his first start, had proven himself an effective runner until leaving the game with an injury. He would later return.

"It really didn't matter with the quarterback," said CMU junior cornerback Xavier Crawford, who had an interception in his first game as a Chippewa. "It wasn't going to change the game plan. We knew that with the starter they were going to run the quarterback a little bit more and when the backup came in, he was more of a pocket passer. But as far as the calls, we didn't really change the calls up. We just knew what we had to be aware of."

Bonamego downplayed any momentum shift that may have resulted from the Wildcats taking the lead so late in the half.

"Our whole thing is we're going to keep playing," he said. "I challenge (our players), 'Don't worry about the scoreboard, just keep playing, and play every play as hard as you can.' I thought we did that for the most part (Saturday)."

RUN GAME
The Chippewas finished with 118 yards on the ground, averaging 3.0 yards per carry.

Jonathan Ward, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season, finished with 36 yards and Gwilly had 26. Romello Ross, CMU's third running back in the rotation, did not make the trip because of an injury.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Chippewa punter Jack Sheldon averaged 46.7 yards on nine punts and three of his punts were downed inside the Kentucky 20-yard line.

As of Sunday morning, Sheldon's average was the second best in the nation on the opening weekend of the season.

THE DEFENSE
Though CMU surrendered 35 points, Bonamego said his defense played well outside of a few plays. Two of Kentucky's touchdowns came on runs of more than 50 yards.

"Overall defensively I thought we tackled well today," he said. "You take out a handful of plays and I was pleased with the defense. We expect to play really good defense and offensively we've got to find our legs a little bit."

Reed, a redshirt freshman making his first career start, led the Chippewas with 14 tackles, 11 of them solos. Outside linebacker Trevor Apsey made seven stops. Michael Oliver, the other outside linebacker, had a sack.

SUMMING IT UP
Crawford on the game, which was essentially a tale of two halves: "We came out good. The second half they did what they do better than we did what we do. We had a lot of mistakes that we can correct, a lot of missed assignments. We can go back and correct that for next week.

"We know the game could have gone either way. We beat ourselves. We're just looking forward to next week now."

NEXT
The Chippewas play host to another team from a Power-5 conference, Kansas (Big 12), on Saturday, Sept. 8 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.

CMU beat Kansas, 45-27, last season in Lawrence. The Jayhawks fell to Nicholls State, 26-23, in overtime in their season opener on Saturday. Nicholls State is a Football Championship Subdivision team that finished 8-4 a year ago.

"You go back to work," Bonamego said, when asked about the mood and morale of his team after its loss to Kentucky. "You commit yourself to the process no matter what the result is. We're a process-driven team.

"We'll work to get better every single day, whatever we're doing. We're looking to get better, we're looking to improve ourselves. If we're watching film, we're learning from mistakes. Everybody, not just the players, are getting corrected. Everybody just wants to get better and better and better and typically we see a jump somewhere between week one and week three with teams.

"We're just going to go back to work. We've all got to do better. It's not just players, it's everybody in the building. It's my job. I've got to coach better. There's never any time or place in this industry to stand pat and relax. You've just got to look at the facts, be critical of every little detail, and then make corrections."