Football Preview: Pride, Bowl Eligibility Motivate Chippewas

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Sure, there's bowl eligibility out there for the Central Michigan football team.

But right now, it's more about pride, more about competitiveness, and more about showing something as the Chippewas face their final three games of the season beginning on Tuesday (7 p.m.) when they go to Toledo for a Mid-American Conference contest at the Glass Bowl.

"It starts with coach (Jim McElwain)," redshirt sophomore tight end DeCorion Temple said. "He always tells us to keep our heads high. We play the game we love for a reason; it comes with good and bad and obviously the bad is losing games.

"We've lost a couple games that we felt we could have won, but it's about keeping our head high and our character, how we approach each week."

The Chippewas are 3-6, 1-4 MAC and have lost four consecutive games. They need to win their final three – Western Michigan is next, followed by Northern Illinois – to become bowl eligible.

It won't be easy. Toledo is 6-3, 3-2 and tied for fifth in the MAC. The Rockets, who finished second in the preseason coaches poll, are one game behind the four-team logjam atop the conference standings. CMU has lost seven consecutive games at the Glass Bowl dating to 2008.

To the good, the Chippewa defense played well last week in CMU's 23-13 loss to Bowling Green, one of those four teams tied for first place (along with Western Michigan). CMU held the Falcons to field goals which gave the Chippewas a fighting chance.

"We've played good enough on defense, there's no doubt about it," McElwain said. "It's a team game. All three phases have to contribute, and we've got to get more out of our offense as far as putting the ball in the end zone."

The Chippewas scored two touchdowns against Bowling Green. The first came in the second quarter, snapping a streak of 10 consecutive scoreless quarters. CMU's second touchdown of that game came in the fourth quarter and it ended a drive led by freshman quarterback Jadyn Glasser.

Glasser made his collegiate debut in the game, spelling starter Tyler Jefferson, a redshirt freshman. Jefferson and Glasser started the season third and fourth, respectively, on the depth chart but have been pressed into duty due to injuries to starter Joe Labas and to Bert Emanuel Jr., who had seen ample playing time, when healthy, throughout the season.

Glasser finished with 57 yards on 5-of-7 passing against the Falcons and clearly brought some juice when he entered the game in the second half.

"I felt like when he went in, the moment wasn't too big," McElwain said of Glasser. "He played with some confidence and that's a really good thing. In general I liked that he threw the ball on time and got it to some people."

Jefferson has appeared in seven games this season, drawing the start against Bowling Green and in the previous week at Miami (Ohio). He has completed 46.6 percent of his passes and proven himself a capable runner, rushing for 286 yards including a career-long 44-yarder that set up the Chippewas' first touchdown against Bowling Green.

Both will likely play against Toledo, McElwain said, and then added that the plan coming into the season was allow both Jefferson and Glasser time to develop and mature while Labas and Emanuel ran things. But then, the injury bug – and inevitability in football – struck ending the season for both of the Chippewas' top two signal callers, thrusting Jefferson and then Glasser onto center stage.

"Both those guys, you've got to let the game come to you a little bit," McElwain said. "By all means, they don't have to go out and be superman. They just have to go out and do their job, do the things they've been taught, and the guys around them are going to pick it up and make some plays for them. It's important for us as a (coaching) staff to make sure that we're doing the things that they're comfortable with.

"I don't think either one probably expected that they'd be in that situation. None of us did and yet at the same time, that's why they came here. They came to play the game, the game they love. And it's our responsibility to get them ready to go it well."

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Players Mentioned

Jadyn Glasser

Tyler Jefferson

Joe Labas

DeCorion Temple