Dandy debut for D-Rich, Chippewas

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – It wasn't easy. Not that anybody expected it to be.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Daniel Richardson threw for 243 yards and a touchdown and the Central Michigan defense pitched a second-half shutout on Wednesday as the Chippewas won their long-delayed season opener, 30-27, over Ohio at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

"When you get a win like that, there's a lot we can learn from and we're going to do nothing but get better," second-year CMU coach Jim McElwain said. "Proud of our guys, the way they hung in, getting that stop at the end (and) getting some stops in the second half when we needed them."

Richardson, who threw three passes as a true freshman in 2019, completed 23 of his 41 attempts and his TD pass, the first of his career, was a 50-yard dart to Kalil Pimpleton.

"D-Rich, for his first start, really handled it well, really proud of him, the way he played," McElwain said. "He did a great job of taking care of the football."

"There was nothing in the playbook that we had to pare down or anything like that. The game certainly wasn't too big for him and that's what I knew, that he would thrive in that. Really what happens now is, How much better is he going to get next week? … I'm really proud of him and this football team's really proud of him. That means something when your team believes in you."

Ohio returned the second-half kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown to seize a 27-20 lead. The Chippewas answered with an 8-yard Kobe Lewis touchdown run with under 11 minutes remaining in the third quarter, tying it at 27-all.

Freshman Marshall Meeder's first career field goal, a 20-yarder, with 9:05 to play put CMU up, 30-27, and proved to be the difference as the Chippewa defense buckled down in the second half, forced two turnovers, and slammed the door.

"We started off the game kind of rough and kind of internalized it and everybody came back and did their part," said CMU defensive end Troy Hairston, who made a career-high three sacks. "Everybody was talking about the whole time, 'Do your job, do your job, do your job.' I think we displayed some heart out there.

"I guess the biggest (second-half) adjustment was our mentality and telling everybody to forget about what happened in the first half. It's done, it's over with and you can't go back and change it."

Kobe Lewis ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries to lead the Chippewa ground game. He and Darius Bracy recorded a number of carries out of the wildcat formation.

"With D-Rich, this being his first start, we didn't want to put him in too many awkward situations," said Lewis, a junior, who said he had not run the ball out of the wildcat formation since high school. "We took a load off for him. It really helped him out today."

Not that D-Rich, who posted video-game-like numbers as a high school phenom in Miami, Fla., necessarily needed it. But it certainly helped as the Chippewas held a nine-plus-minute advantage in possession time.

"He played well," Lewis said. "I was so proud of him. He stepped up and played like a veteran today; he didn't play like a rookie at all. He played like he was comfortable; he played like he had been here before."

Richardson and the Chippewa offense was impressive right off the bat, marching 75 yards in 16 plays on the game's opening drive and taking a 7-0 lead on Richardson's 1-yard TD sneak.

That touched off an entertaining first half that was filled with big plays and ended in a 20-20 tie. De'Montre Tuggle broke the tie by returning the second-half kickoff 93 yards for a score to put Ohio up 27-20.

But after that, the CMU defense took center stage and the Chippewa run game did enough to get the job done.

"I've said from the get-go, I really like this football team," McElwain said. "These guys play together, they care for each other. I thought we did a pretty good job of picking each other up both offensively and defensively. I thought we played pretty good as a team.

"All in all let's just be really happy about the win. Let's look at it tonight and tomorrow and make the proper corrections and get ready to go on the road and play next week (at Northern Illinois)."

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Darius Bracy

Kobe Lewis

Marshall Meeder

Kalil Pimpleton

Daniel Richardson