COLUMN: Rush, Chippewas must improve in order to return to Ford Field
DETROIT — Be honest with yourself.
When the season began, where did you think the Central Michigan football team's 2015 season was ultimately headed?
Did you expect another season of missed chances, frustrating mental mistakes and painful mediocrity? Or were you ready to taste genuine success and a trip to Ford Field to show the national college football audience what the Chippewas are made of?
If you thought what would happen was the latter, you got your wish.
Sort of.
Before the 2015 Quick Lane Bowl, first-year Head Coach John Bonamego said he told his players to treat Monday's showdown with Minnesota as a "dry run" for next year's MAC Championship. He wants the members of his team to familiarize themselves with the confines of Detroit's biggest football stadium.
In Bonamego's mind, it would serve as a dress rehearsal, of sorts, for the bright lights of the big stage against a team of similar skill level down the road.
There was plenty of anticipation leading up to the Quick Lane Bowl. Hundreds of elated fans took to social media to pledge their allegiance to Bonamego's mission and show a their belief in the value of another Detroit-based bowl game.
But how would CMU fare once it got to the Motor City?
CMU's practice round for a postseason game in Detroit was soaked in last-minute heartache.
The maroon and gold party at Ford Field was shut down by the Gophers, who out-played the Chippewas in all three phases of a tightly-contested game.
CMU's success all season has begun and ended with quarterback Cooper Rush.
As Rush goes, so goes CMU.
The junior put together an electrifying performance this fall.
On the field, Rush was efficient, intelligent and resilient. Off the field, he opened up to the media and fans as he represented his team through the ups and downs of a tremendously adverse season.
His season, however, and as a result CMU's national identity this year will be defined by one of the last decisions Rush made.
Instead of taking a sack with less than three minutes remaining in the Quick Lane Bowl, Rush forced an ill-advised pass into Minnesota's secondary and was picked off. It was a turnover that cost CMU the biggest game of its out-of-nowhere successful run.
The loss to Minnesota was a missed opportunity at giving CMU fans even more confidence heading into 2016.
Bonamego turned his alma mater's football program into a winner sooner than many critics expected. Rush has progressed into one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
One costly turnover on national television does not negate that.
But as the narrative has gone for CMU since its last MAC title in 2009, the Chippewas came up just short again.
If this was CMU's dry run on what it hope to be a successful trip to the Motor City next year, the Chippewas will need to play much more disciplined football while attempting to get here again, Rush included.
Otherwise, any hopes of a league title will once again quickly fade to black.
