Central Michigan University Athletics
Photo by: Steve Jessmore
McElwain: 'Really Excited For Our Players'
9/28/2020 5:01:00 PM | Football
Chippewas hit the gridiron
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Clarity, focus and, thankfully, a chance to play some football.
Coach Jim McElwain's Central Michigan football team began its training camp today after the Mid-American Conference's decision on Friday to play a 2020 schedule.
MAC teams will begin playing in the first week in November. The schedule is expected to be released soon with the Chippewas playing all five of their MAC West brethren – Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo and Ball State – plus one crossover game. Each MAC team will play a six-game schedule with the league championship game set for either Dec. 18 or 19.
"Really excited for our players," McElwain said on Monday during a conference call with the media. "I will commend our conference, our (university) presidents, the commissioner, the medical team. I thought we did a fantastic job as a conference making sure that we covered all the things that we needed to. My hat's off to the Mid-American Conference in deciding to play this schedule and how they went about it. The conference did a great job of having their (the players') health, welfare and well-being at the forefront.
Condensed Schedule
The six-game regular-season slate is exactly half what the Chippewas would play in any given year.
Clearly, it's a major departure from the norm, and it makes each game take on that much more importance. The Chippewas won the MAC West in 2019, making their first appearance in the MAC title game in a decade.
"This is going to be a great life-lesson: there are no do-overs," said McElwain, who earned the MAC Coach of the Year Award in 2019, his first season at the helm. "Everything is magnified from the standpoint that we don't get a chance to mess up is a good way to say it.
"You've got an abbreviated schedule that says we've got to go right now and how do we do that and how do we get our best players on the field to do that."
Numbers
The Chippewas, perhaps like every team in the MAC and most likely teams across the country, will have to deal with the shortened season with smaller roster numbers. In the Chippewas' case, that is up to 20 players less than in a typical year, McElwain said.
Fourteen individuals are taking a greyshirt, meaning they won't be a part of the program until January, and a handful of eligible veterans chose not to return to campus because of COVID-19.
"Everything we've done is to try and inform the players and let them make the best decisions as far as their health and how their feelings go," McElwain said, adding that in a number of cases, players are crosstraining at several positions – wide receiver and defensive back, for example – to alleviate potential personnel shortfalls that may occur.
Staying Sharp
Because of university-wide social-distancing requirements and athletic-department protocols, the Chippewas have been limited in workouts. But they have adapted and shown a great deal of resiliency, McElwain said.
"What we focused on is the strength and conditioning," he said, adding that the Chippewas have also employed NFL-combine-like drills (i.e. 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump, shuttle run). "We used those combine drills to work on body movement and I thought our strength staff did a fantastic job with that."
The time away from full-team activities has allowed the position-group coaches plenty of teaching time with the players.
"It really broke down the individual teaching of skill development at each position," McElwain said. "Time will tell, but I really thought it was effective."
Stepping Up
The Chippewas return a number of standouts from last season. Among those are defensive tackles Robi Stuart and LaQuan Johnson, linebacker Troy Brown, running back Kobe Lewis, and wide receivers Kalil Pimpleton and JaCorey Sullivan.
Each of those players can legitimately be considered among the best in the MAC at their respective positions.
Brown, a junior from Flint, became an All-MAC First Team selection and was named the Herb Deromedi Team Most Valuable Player in 2019. He came to CMU as a safety and then moved to outside linebacker, where he blossomed.
"He's taken huge strides," McElwain said. "The way he adapted to the move, from safety to linebacker, I don't think any of (the coaches) knew the impact. I think sometimes you've got to listen to your own team. I think the team knew what kind of player he was. I'm not sure (coaches) did until he moved down there and started making so many impact plays.
"We've had a lot of guys, him being one, that I'm really excited to see their growth and development. Now we've got to go out and do some true football stuff."
Coach Jim McElwain's Central Michigan football team began its training camp today after the Mid-American Conference's decision on Friday to play a 2020 schedule.
MAC teams will begin playing in the first week in November. The schedule is expected to be released soon with the Chippewas playing all five of their MAC West brethren – Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo and Ball State – plus one crossover game. Each MAC team will play a six-game schedule with the league championship game set for either Dec. 18 or 19.
"Really excited for our players," McElwain said on Monday during a conference call with the media. "I will commend our conference, our (university) presidents, the commissioner, the medical team. I thought we did a fantastic job as a conference making sure that we covered all the things that we needed to. My hat's off to the Mid-American Conference in deciding to play this schedule and how they went about it. The conference did a great job of having their (the players') health, welfare and well-being at the forefront.
Condensed Schedule
The six-game regular-season slate is exactly half what the Chippewas would play in any given year.
Clearly, it's a major departure from the norm, and it makes each game take on that much more importance. The Chippewas won the MAC West in 2019, making their first appearance in the MAC title game in a decade.
"This is going to be a great life-lesson: there are no do-overs," said McElwain, who earned the MAC Coach of the Year Award in 2019, his first season at the helm. "Everything is magnified from the standpoint that we don't get a chance to mess up is a good way to say it.
"You've got an abbreviated schedule that says we've got to go right now and how do we do that and how do we get our best players on the field to do that."
Numbers
The Chippewas, perhaps like every team in the MAC and most likely teams across the country, will have to deal with the shortened season with smaller roster numbers. In the Chippewas' case, that is up to 20 players less than in a typical year, McElwain said.
Fourteen individuals are taking a greyshirt, meaning they won't be a part of the program until January, and a handful of eligible veterans chose not to return to campus because of COVID-19.
"Everything we've done is to try and inform the players and let them make the best decisions as far as their health and how their feelings go," McElwain said, adding that in a number of cases, players are crosstraining at several positions – wide receiver and defensive back, for example – to alleviate potential personnel shortfalls that may occur.
Staying Sharp
Because of university-wide social-distancing requirements and athletic-department protocols, the Chippewas have been limited in workouts. But they have adapted and shown a great deal of resiliency, McElwain said.
"What we focused on is the strength and conditioning," he said, adding that the Chippewas have also employed NFL-combine-like drills (i.e. 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump, shuttle run). "We used those combine drills to work on body movement and I thought our strength staff did a fantastic job with that."
The time away from full-team activities has allowed the position-group coaches plenty of teaching time with the players.
"It really broke down the individual teaching of skill development at each position," McElwain said. "Time will tell, but I really thought it was effective."
Stepping Up
The Chippewas return a number of standouts from last season. Among those are defensive tackles Robi Stuart and LaQuan Johnson, linebacker Troy Brown, running back Kobe Lewis, and wide receivers Kalil Pimpleton and JaCorey Sullivan.
Each of those players can legitimately be considered among the best in the MAC at their respective positions.
Brown, a junior from Flint, became an All-MAC First Team selection and was named the Herb Deromedi Team Most Valuable Player in 2019. He came to CMU as a safety and then moved to outside linebacker, where he blossomed.
"He's taken huge strides," McElwain said. "The way he adapted to the move, from safety to linebacker, I don't think any of (the coaches) knew the impact. I think sometimes you've got to listen to your own team. I think the team knew what kind of player he was. I'm not sure (coaches) did until he moved down there and started making so many impact plays.
"We've had a lot of guys, him being one, that I'm really excited to see their growth and development. Now we've got to go out and do some true football stuff."
Players Mentioned
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RB
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DL
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WR
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