MAC West football preview

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West Division

Ball State Cardinals
Last season record: 4-8 (3-5 in MAC)
Head coach: Pete Lembo, first year
Intriguing matchups: At No. 1 Oklahoma Oct. 1, Tuesday Nov. 15 at Northern Illinois
This weekend matchup: Saturday, 7 p.m., against Indiana at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Coach quote for week one: “This matchup has history with it. The players know each other from playing high school. We’re real excited to play.”

Overview: New Cardinals coach won’t be able to break in his first college football game as head coach at the Indianapolis Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium facing inter-state rival Indiana.

Last year quarterback Keith Wenning started ten games as a true freshman throwing for 1,373 yards and 13 touchdowns. The sophomore looks to cut down on his 13 interceptions, if not backup Kelly Page has plenty of experience behind him.

“Keith will start, but I’ve been pleased with the play from Kelly Page,” Lembo said. “They’re team orientated guys. Kelly has gotten a lot of reps with the first team because he’s one play away from starting.”

Central Michigan Chippewas
Last season record: 3-9 (2-6 MAC)
Head coach: Dan Enos, second year
Intriguing matchups: Sept. 17 at Western Michigan, Sept. 24 at Michigan State
Week one matchup: Tomorrow at 7 p.m. against South Carolina State.
Coach quote for week one: “South Carolina State is a football team that finished 9-3 last year. They’re very well coached and very athletic.”

Overview: After week one, the Chippewas face the meaty part of their schedule. September includes traveling to Kentucky, Western Michigan and Michigan State. Then October kicks off with Northern Illinois and North Carolina State.

“It’s going to be very important that we run the ball the entire year,” Enos said. “We need to do a better job of running the ball, and that includes calling running plays. We think that can be one of the strengths of our team.”
Senior running back Paris Cotton looks to get the majority of the carries. He’s coming off of 651 rushing yards last season with six touchdowns at 4.6 yards per carry.

Eastern Michigan Eagles
Last season record: 2-10 (2-6 MAC)
Head coach: Ron English, third year
Intriguing matchups: Sept. 17 at Michigan, Sept. 24 at Penn State
Week one matchup: Saturday at 7 p.m. against Howard
Coach quote for week one: “You’re not as comfortable because you don’t know exactly what you’re going to see from them.”

Overview: The Eagles look to keep running the ball, just as they did so well last year. They finished with the league’s second best rushing offense at 173.3 yards per game.

“Last year we did run the ball well, we had a senior running back and Alex Gillett presented a problem for defenses,” English said. “We do expect to run the ball here. Excited to show we can run the ball again this year.”

Gillett, starting his junior year, led the Eagles on the ground rushing for 766 yards and five touchdowns as the quarterback.

Northern Illinois Huskies
Last season record: 11-3 (8-0 MAC)
Head coach: Dave Doeren, first year
Intriguing matchups: Sept. 17 hosting No. 11 Wisconsin, Tuesday Nov. 1 at Toledo on ESPN 2
Week one matchup: Saturday at 7 p.m. against Army
Coach quote for week one: “This is a dream come true. We’ve been talking about it for six months. It’s time to do it.”

Overview: After 15 years of being an assistant coach, Doeren finally gets a chance to run his own team out onto the field Saturday. He’s taking over a team that ran the table in the MAC regular season last year.

“You have to have a chip on your shoulder every year,” Doeren said. “It doesn’t matter what happened last year.”

Senior Chandler Harnish will start at quarterback for the fourth straight season. Last year he threw 21 touchdowns and only five interceptions earning first team All-MAC honors.

Toledo Rockets
Last season record: 8-5 (7-1 MAC)
Head coach: Tim Beckman, third year
Intriguing matchups: Sept. 10 at No. 18 Ohio State, hosting No. 5 Boise State Friday Sept. 16
Week one matchup: Tomorrow at 7 p.m. against New Hampshire
Coach quote for week one: “Top ten football team, established program, 97 weeks in the top 25 (subdivision). It’ll be a challenge for us.”

Overview: The coaches picked Toledo to win the West Division and ultimately the MAC Championship game in the preseason poll.

On Monday junior Austin Dantin was named starting quarterback for tomorrow’s game over sophomore Terrance Owens.

“Dantin is a proven winner,” Beckman said. “He beat Purdue last year and Northern Illinois the year before as a starter. He’s more of running type quarterback.”

Western Michigan Broncos
Last season record: 6-6 (5-3 MAC)
Head coach: Bill Cubit, seventh year
Intriguing matchups: Saturday at 3:30 at Michigan, Sept. 17 against Central Michigan
Week one matchup: Saturday at 3:30 in Ann Arbor
Coach quote for week one: “Denard Robinson (Michigan quarterback) is one of most exciting guys in college football.”

Overview: The Broncos will begin this season with momentum from last year coming off three straight wins. Junior quarterback Alex Carder returns after throwing 3,334 yards and 30 touchdowns.

“(Carder) has to really play well,” Cubit said. “Last year he was trying to win the job. This year he’s trying to win a championship.”

He will need protection and three offensive linemen are out due to injuries. When Carder does get enough time to throw, he has Jordan White as an option. White was All-MAC last season.