Central looks to avenge Homecoming curse

“I wasn’t aware of it. I don’t pay very much attention to it
either,” Kelly said. “I can’t control it, I work on the things that I
can control.”

CMU has lost its last five homecoming games.

But new coach Brian Kelly wasn’t around for those.

“I wasn’t aware of it. I don’t pay very much attention to it
either,” Kelly said. “I can’t control it, I work on the things that I
can control.”

The hard truth is that CMU’s homecoming games have been nothing to
celebrate the past five years.

Tomorrow’s game against Bowling Green gives Kelly a chance to end
the streak and start a new one. But it will not be easy, as the Falcons
are one of the MAC’s best teams.

“Generally (Homecoming) means that you’re supposed to schedule an
easy opponent,” Kelly said. “ We won’t win on Saturday if we don’t play
a good football game.”

CMU has not scheduled easy opponents for its Homecoming game as of
late.

CMU hosted No. 16 Northern Illinois on Homecoming last year. The
Chippewas came out strong building a 17-0 lead, but the Huskies
overpowered them in the second half en route to a 40-24 victory.

Two years ago CMU hosted Bowling Green for Homecoming. The Falcons
came into the game undefeated and left with a 45-35 win.

When asked why he thought the homecoming opponents had been so tough
as of late, sophomore guard Drew Mormino responded:

“I don’t know.”

Athletic Director Herb Deromedi had the answer. Deromedi said that
CMU does not receive its MAC schedule for the next year until January.
The school sends the MAC a window of dates, usually ranging in the
middle weeks of October, and the MAC assures the university that they
will have a home game during that window.

This year the Bowling Green game worked best because the other
choices were Western Michigan, which Deromedi said stands out on its
own, and Kent State, which was too early in the season.

Deromedi also said they used the Kent State game to “get people
excited about the way the team was playing,” and they also wanted to do
something early in the season with the Hall of Fame.

“We don’t plan homecoming with the idea of an easy opponent,”
Deromedi said. “We plan it to fit best into our schedule.”

Despite the tough opposition, Mormino is optimistic that this year’s
team can change CMU’s homecoming fortunes.

“Before we just weren’t getting it done,” he said. “This year’s team
is different though.”

The string of tough games has not fazed sophomore defensive end Dan
Bazuin.

“I’m not sure exactly why (the opponents are tough), but I think
that we should embrace the challenge,” he said. “Because that’s exactly
what it is for us, a challenge. Its going to tell us where we’re at as
a team in the conference.”

Both Bazuin and Mormino said that they didn’t feel extra pressure
from the larger homecoming crowd.

“There’s no pressure, the bigger the crowd the better,” Mormino said.