Chippewas are heavy favorites against Eastern Michigan Saturday
The last team to lose to Eastern Michigan University (2-6, 1-3 MAC) fired its head coach two days later.
Central Michigan University (5-4, 3-2 MAC) is a two-touchdown favorite for Saturday’s game in Ypsilanti, even with senior running back Thomas Rawls unlikely to play.
“He hasn’t practiced yet,” said Offensive Coordinator Morris Watts. “He’ll be back pretty quick. For this Saturday, no, I don’t think so. I don’t know that, I’m not the trainer or the doctor so I don’t have any control on that.”
Rawls is 10th in the nation in rushing yards with 1,011. This is despite missing two games and getting three carries in the win against Buffalo Saturday before injuring his leg.
Junior running back Saylor Lavallii and sophomore running back Martez Walker split the carries Saturday, combining for 37 carries, 137 yards and two touchdowns.
Prior to Saturday, the duo had 52 carries on the season for 186 yards and one touchdown.
“A lot of times when a back starts to get more and more carries, they get in a rhythm and they can get in the feel of the game,” Lavallii said. “I think that Tez and I were able to get that rhythm getting more of the bulk of the carries.”
Watts said the Eagles don’t blitz often and usually don’t press receivers at the line of scrimmage. This minimizes risk but also doesn’t create opportunities for big defensive plays like sacks and turnovers.
“We seem to get blitzed quite a bit every game we play,” Watts said. “We’re anticipating that they’ll probably add more blitzes and come after us a little bit more than they’ve been doing, but we’ll be ready for that.”
EMU’s 38.1 points allowed per game places the Eagles 116th out of 125 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, yet the defense may be the strength of the team. The Eagles’ 15.3 points scored per game is 121st in the nation.
“(EMU’s) running game is definitely a big strength for them,” said senior defensive back Jason Wilson. “They’ve got a new quarterback that they’ve put in these last few weeks, and he seems like a real good player.”
EMU redshirt freshman quarterback Reginald Bell Jr. has more rushing attempts than passing attempts. Bell Jr. has been efficient as a runner, leading the team in carries and yards.
Passing the ball, only two FBS quarterbacks have fewer yards (of players that played in 75 percent of games).
While the numbers point to CMU as the better team, Lavallii knows anything can happen against the Eagles.
“We know whenever we play Eastern Michigan, they’re going to come to play because we’re playing for the Michigan MAC Trophy,” Lavallii said. “We know every time we play them or Western, those guys are going to play because it’s a rivalry game.”
CMU won the Michigan MAC trophy in 2013 by beating WMU and EMU by margins of 27-22 and 42-10 respectively.
“We know we have to win the Michigan MAC Trophy,” Walker said. “So we’re going to have to win both of those games.”
The Chippewas finish off the regular season Nov. 22 at home against Western Michigan University.
The Eastern Michigan game will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at Rynearson Stadium and can be seen on ESPN3.
