Wednesday, November 15
Athens, Ohio/Peden Stadium
7 p.m.
Central Michigan University
at
Ohio
Coach Jim McElwain sends his CMU football team into Athens, Ohio on Wednesday (7 p.m.) to take on Ohio in a Mid-American Conference game.
Photo by: Jasper Warner '25 - @jasperwarnermedia
Football Preview: Road to Bowl Eligibility Runs Through Athens
11/14/2023 11:36:00 AM | Football
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At 5-5 and with two regular season games remaining, Central Michigan needs one more win to become bowl eligible.
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Bowl eligibility is the bone.
A pair of pitbulls stand in the way.
The Central Michigan football team goes to Ohio on Wednesday (7 p.m.) and then plays host to Toledo in its regular-season finale on Friday, Nov. 24.
The Chippewas are 5-5, 3-3 Mid-American Conference, and need to win one of their final two games to become bowl eligible.
Ohio is 7-3, 4-2 and still in the hunt for the MAC East title. Toledo is 9-1, 6-0 and already punched its ticket to the MAC Championship Game as the champion of the West.
"We've got to play two really good ball games here in the last two games and it starts with Ohio," CMU coach Jim McElwain said. "You've got to take care of today to give yourself an opportunity. You can't look in the past, you can't look in the future. All you've got for us is winning the now in today's meetings, in today's practice – let's focus on the now which will then put us to the next day. That's really how you segment it."
The Chippewas are looking to pick up the pieces and salvage something after a 38-28 loss last week at Western Michigan. That ended the Chippewas' hopes – as slim as they may have been – of winning the MAC West, and it came at the hands of their archrivals when they squandered a 28-21 third-quarter lead.
"It starts with the (coaching) staff," McElwain said. "These are times that you earn the word coach by your name. You learn to be a great father, a great dad, when you get knocked down how do you do it? How do you go about picking your guys back up?
"I love these guys. This is a team that I'll always have a soft spot for. We've got a lot of great kids. It's part of what happens. No matter how hard you want something, you don't always get what you want. With anything in athletics, you don't get too high with the highs and you don't get too low with the lows.
"Obviously it hurts but so does falling down and scraping your knee. You've just got to get back up and go. I remember how miserable it was learning to ride a bike. Man I took some hits. But you want to go ride that son-of-a-gun. So let's go do it. No flinch; no blink. We've got a lot still to play for and let's go play for it."
And the Chippewas will have to do it on the road, at Ohio's Peden Stadium, where CMU has won four straight dating to 2011. The Chippewas are 27-5-2 all time against Ohio, but there are no guarantees in what has unfolded as the ultimate roller-coaster season.
"At times we've played pretty good on the road," said McElwain, whose team is 1-5 away from Kelly/Shorts Stadium. "That consistency is going to be what it's really all about it. … As a program we put everything out there and it's let's go fix it and we'll see where it goes this week.
"'Got our work cut out for us. We've got to pick ourselves up, move forward."
They'll have to do it against one of the MAC's better teams. The Bobcats, who were picked to win their division in the preseason coaches poll, have plenty to play for in their home finale as they trail Miami (Ohio) by one game in the East.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke, a four-year starter and the reigning MAC Offensive Player of the Year, has completed 63.4 percent of his pass attempts for 1,777 yards and 10 touchdowns against five interceptions.
The Bobcats are efficient on offense, as efficient as they need to be with a highly complementary standout defense. They rank first in the MAC in total defense, scoring defense, and rush defense. In fact, they are fifth in the country in total defense and scoring defense.
The Chippewas are going into their final two regular season games fighting the injury bug, but few have been ruled out for Wednesday's game, including quarterback Bert Emanuel Jr., running backs Marion Lukes and Myles Bailey, and linebacker Kyle Moretti.
Emanuel, the starter at the beginning of the season, returned last week after missing four games and carried three times for 20 yards as he spelled starter Jase Bower; Lukes was injured against the Broncos after collecting a combined 497 yards and two touchdowns in rushing, receiving and returns in the Chippewas' past two games; Bailey gained 11 yards on his one carry last week against the Broncos after missing two games; Moretti, a linebacker, is the Chippewas' second-leading tackler despite missing the last three games.
A pair of pitbulls stand in the way.
The Central Michigan football team goes to Ohio on Wednesday (7 p.m.) and then plays host to Toledo in its regular-season finale on Friday, Nov. 24.
The Chippewas are 5-5, 3-3 Mid-American Conference, and need to win one of their final two games to become bowl eligible.
Ohio is 7-3, 4-2 and still in the hunt for the MAC East title. Toledo is 9-1, 6-0 and already punched its ticket to the MAC Championship Game as the champion of the West.
"We've got to play two really good ball games here in the last two games and it starts with Ohio," CMU coach Jim McElwain said. "You've got to take care of today to give yourself an opportunity. You can't look in the past, you can't look in the future. All you've got for us is winning the now in today's meetings, in today's practice – let's focus on the now which will then put us to the next day. That's really how you segment it."
The Chippewas are looking to pick up the pieces and salvage something after a 38-28 loss last week at Western Michigan. That ended the Chippewas' hopes – as slim as they may have been – of winning the MAC West, and it came at the hands of their archrivals when they squandered a 28-21 third-quarter lead.
"It starts with the (coaching) staff," McElwain said. "These are times that you earn the word coach by your name. You learn to be a great father, a great dad, when you get knocked down how do you do it? How do you go about picking your guys back up?
"I love these guys. This is a team that I'll always have a soft spot for. We've got a lot of great kids. It's part of what happens. No matter how hard you want something, you don't always get what you want. With anything in athletics, you don't get too high with the highs and you don't get too low with the lows.
"Obviously it hurts but so does falling down and scraping your knee. You've just got to get back up and go. I remember how miserable it was learning to ride a bike. Man I took some hits. But you want to go ride that son-of-a-gun. So let's go do it. No flinch; no blink. We've got a lot still to play for and let's go play for it."
And the Chippewas will have to do it on the road, at Ohio's Peden Stadium, where CMU has won four straight dating to 2011. The Chippewas are 27-5-2 all time against Ohio, but there are no guarantees in what has unfolded as the ultimate roller-coaster season.
"At times we've played pretty good on the road," said McElwain, whose team is 1-5 away from Kelly/Shorts Stadium. "That consistency is going to be what it's really all about it. … As a program we put everything out there and it's let's go fix it and we'll see where it goes this week.
"'Got our work cut out for us. We've got to pick ourselves up, move forward."
They'll have to do it against one of the MAC's better teams. The Bobcats, who were picked to win their division in the preseason coaches poll, have plenty to play for in their home finale as they trail Miami (Ohio) by one game in the East.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke, a four-year starter and the reigning MAC Offensive Player of the Year, has completed 63.4 percent of his pass attempts for 1,777 yards and 10 touchdowns against five interceptions.
The Bobcats are efficient on offense, as efficient as they need to be with a highly complementary standout defense. They rank first in the MAC in total defense, scoring defense, and rush defense. In fact, they are fifth in the country in total defense and scoring defense.
The Chippewas are going into their final two regular season games fighting the injury bug, but few have been ruled out for Wednesday's game, including quarterback Bert Emanuel Jr., running backs Marion Lukes and Myles Bailey, and linebacker Kyle Moretti.
Emanuel, the starter at the beginning of the season, returned last week after missing four games and carried three times for 20 yards as he spelled starter Jase Bower; Lukes was injured against the Broncos after collecting a combined 497 yards and two touchdowns in rushing, receiving and returns in the Chippewas' past two games; Bailey gained 11 yards on his one carry last week against the Broncos after missing two games; Moretti, a linebacker, is the Chippewas' second-leading tackler despite missing the last three games.
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