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What could have been: Season of injuries, struggles ends for CMU

By John Evans on November 29, 2010 4:45 am in Football / 5 comments

 

It was a season full of disappointment, adversity and injuries.

After a 12-2 record and finishing in the Top 25 for the first time in school history last season, lofty expectations were placed on the CMU football team this season.

Faced with a changing of the guard — a new head coach, a new quarterback, new running back and a lot of fans still riding a high from — the team was picked to finish second in the Mid-American Conference West Division.

And while the season started just how everyone thought it would, it did not end the way many wanted it to.

“We found out a lot about ourselves,” said head coach Dan Enos. “We had 19 guys make their first collegiate start this year. There are some positives, but we have a lot of work to do.”

In week one, the Chippewas were at home facing the Hampton Pirates. It was a good game to start the season and an opportunity to get off on the right foot and that is exactly what it was.

CMU defeated Hampton 33-0, marking Enos’ first win as head coach.

Only one problem was found after the first game, and it was that the team was going to have some trouble kicking the ball.

Andrew Aguila was lost to graduation and Enos was scrambling to find a kicker. Freshman kicker Paul Mudgett was 1-for-3 in field goal attempts against Hampton, and the kicking woes continued into the next week and proved to be very costly.

In week two, CMU was headed to Philadelphia, Pa. to take on Temple, the preseason favorite to win the MAC. Both teams struggled offensively and the kicking situation continued to be a problem for CMU as they lost a heartbreaker in overtime, 13-10. This was a game that may have changed the entire season for the Chippewas.

“One thing I know is that you have to work for everything you get,” Enos said. “The teams in this league are very close and the margin of error is very small and you have got to have guys that will make plays in key parts of the game.”

Mudgett missed a fourth quarter field goal against Temple. Later in the quarter, following a change, freshman David Harman came through with a field goal to send the game to overtime.

In the last game of a three-game road trip, the Chippewas found themselves in Evanston, Ill., facing the Northwestern Wildcats. CMU was able to keep it close but could not pull off the upset losing the Northwestern 30-25.

So the overall record stood at 2-2 with both losses coming by a combined eight points. Things took a turn for the worst after that.

Two of the next four losses for the Chippewas came with less than a minute to go in the game. Because of multiple injuries to the secondary, some young guys were going to have to step up.

Not only was the team losing players in the secondary, but three starting offensive linemen were lost throughout the year, including sophomore left tackle Jake Olson, who left a big void to fill.

Injuries proved to be detrimental against Miami as a 71-yard touchdown pass with just seconds to go deflated the Chippewas season in what was a major setback for Enos and the team. In front of a homecoming crowd, it was not only a disappointing loss but a loss that really hurt the team’s chances at going to a bowl game.

“We have gone through so much adversity this year and a lot of people learned a lot about themselves,” said senior linebacker Nick Bellore. “Things were not handed to us and we struggled. Things that went our way in the past didn’t.”

The free fall continued in week eight when CMU was on the road facing the eventual MAC West champions Northern Illinois. NIU dominated the game on the ground with a potent rushing attack, defeating the Chippewas 33-7.

CMU was hoping for a home field advantage the following week against a struggling Bowling Green team, but could not find it as they fell to the Falcons 17-14 in what was the most disappointing loss of the season. The Falcons scored with just 21 seconds remaining to put the nail in the coffin on the Chippewas season.

The Bowling Green game was the breaking point for the team, but Enos was not going to let his players give up and neither were the seniors on the team.

The following week provided a chance for the team to start over and a chance for the seniors to make history. On a cold, snowy Friday night in Mount Pleasant, the Chippewas defeated Western Michigan, 26-22. The win left the senior class with a 4-0 record against WMU and gave the team something to look back on and be proud of.

A one-point loss to Navy the following week and an 11-point loss to Toledo to finish the season summed things up for CMU.

All season long the team was close, but could not finish the game on top.

“This is not how we wanted to go out,” Bellore said. “They don’t want to have this feeling again. I think they (the younger players) are in good hands and will be very successful in the future.”

 

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  • Florenceschneider

    To Dan Enos:

    If the margin of error is so small in the MAC, as you say, why did you impose a completely different offensive scheme on your team this year? Considering that ALL your returning offensive players were recruited for, and trained under, the spread-option, why did you completely abandon it for an offense that clearly did not fit their skill sets or experience?

    You are the one to blame for this 3-win season, Mr. Enos. Had you kept the spread, you'd be preparing for a bowl game right now. Hopefully, you'll learn from your MSU-style arrogance.

  • Kevin Garret

    The Temple game was not to blame… Although it was a loss. How are you gonna blame that game they bounced back and killed eastern the very next game. The 9 losses do not reflect the Temple game. And if your going to blame mudgett the 18 year old kicker that had been with the team for only 2 months before given the role of starting kicker. You might want to think about the last drive of the game where they fumbled on the winning drive and the interception thrown in overtime. You gotta get your facts straight man. This team will bounce back this whole year was a very young team and 1st year coaches

  • Anonymous

    We hired Enos knowing that he was going to implement a pro-style offensive scheme. Don't blame him for running the system he knows how to run. It's the job of the players to adapt to the coach rather than the other way around. If you should be blaming anybody, it's Dave Heeke for hiring a coach who was going to do something completely different from recent CMU coaches.

    The only part where I feel Enos really failed was in his team's inability to play well late in games. 3-9 could've easily been 6-6 or 7-5 had we been able to finish strongly.

  • Florenceschneider

    Wrong! It is the coach's responsibility to win with the PLAYERS HE/SHE HAS. Dan Enos had a strong opportunity for a winning season at CMU had he been smart enough to continue the spread-option. He was an offensive coach at MSU under John L. Smith when the Spartans ran the spread (quite successfully, too), so he is familiar with it.

    Trying to ram & jam an outdated pro-style offense down the throats of sophisticated athletes recruited and trained for the spread-option demonstrated disdain and lack of respect for what OUR football program has accomplished since 2004! The reason CMU wasn't able to complete games, particularly early in the season, is because they were running an offensive scheme they were completely unfamiliar with! Run the spread, and we win several of those games!

    Seems like Enos hasn't gotten over the FACT that CMU's 2009 team was more talented, more disciplined and better coached then the Spartan team they soundly beat (that he was part of).

    Maybe it is time for Dan Enos to go home to the Green & White? We need someone who repects CMU tradition and understands how to use the talent he has to win.

    Keep in mind, I'm not talking MAC Championships because we did not have the talent for that this year, even with the spread-option. I'm simply talking about a winning season! Dan Enos deliberately sacrificed that, and our senior class, to impose an out-dated, philosophically inferior, offensive scheme on players without the skill-sets or experience to execute it.

  • CMU grad

    Offensively, this was a team that went from a spread to something that forced the Chippewas to have a ground game. Minus LeFevour, the Chips haven't had much of a ground game for awhile now. Some injuries also hurt the offensive line in the process, but the running game was inconsistent, at best, already going into the season. Cotton fumbled too many times, and for almost every fumble he had, he had another close call. That forced a rookie QB to have to carry the load, and carry it minus any real game changing receivers. And Radcliff himself had fumble issues. The Chippewas were forced to have extended drives for scores, and weren't equipped to do that. And the kicking game didn't help at all. There were too many times the offense did drive and couldn't even get three points out of it. Other times they were forced to go for fourth down plays in less-than-ideal scenarios. The defense regressed as the year went on and rarely made a play to turn field position against opponent's passing games. It started out well and eventually couldn't stop the run or create turnovers.
    Radcliff – the jury is out on him. He's tentative and frequently looked a bit lost out there. Again, it's hard to say how much of it was him though since there was so little surrounding him that helped his cause. Plus, we are looking at his performances after the LeFevour era. But he also hurt himself with turnovers and his inability to occasionally feel pressure. He's got a ways to go before he proves himself to be an adequate QB in the MAC.
    And the fourth quarter almost always was miserable for CMU.
    It wasn't a good season. I expected at least 6-6 this year.