Chippewas likely out of MAC West race after loss to Toledo
Senior quarterback Cooper Rush, middle, is taken down by a host of defenders on Oct. 21 in Glass Bowl Stadium.
With Mid-American Conference championship hopes all but gone, the Central Michigan football team is now focusing on a new goal to define its season.
The Chippewas entered Saturday’s game against Toledo hoping to stay in the MAC West Division race, but fell to the Rockets 31-17 on the road.
The Chippewas fell behind in the second half in large part due to a four-touchdown performance by Toledo’s junior receiver Cody Thompson.
Thompson hauled in two touchdown catches in the third quarter and put the game out of reach with two more in the fourth.
The loss was the seventh consecutive defeat at the hands of UT for the Chippewas, and likely ended CMU’s quest for an appearance in the MAC Championship.
“This one definitely hurts,” said senior quarterback Cooper Rush. “It’ll hurt for about 24 hours. We can still win a lot of ball games this season. We can get to nine, 10 wins — a team hasn’t done that here in a while.”
With the Rockets and Western Michigan each remaining undefeated in the MAC West, the Chippewas would need to win the rest of their games and see both teams lose three times in the next month.
Although the Chippewas are still mathematically in the hunt, head coach John Bonamego said he knows the odds are not in his team’s favor.
“Mathematically, representing the West, there’s still a chance,” he said. “But realistically, that’s probably not going to materialize.”
Bonamego said he’ll be keeping a close eye on how his team responds for the rest of the season.
“When you get to this point in the season as a head coach, you start looking at everybody,” he said. “I want to see how they react. I want to see who’s really in and who’s committed and who’s not. I want to see who’s going to continue to come and prepare and work hard.”
CMU sits at 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the MAC. The Chippewas can become bowl eligible with a victory against Kent State Saturday at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
“There’s still things we can do,” Bonamego said. “We’ve got five wins and four (games) left. Hopefully we can get into a good bowl game. We can still have an eight, nine, 10-win season. There’s a lot to play for still.”
Following the defeat, Bonamego made a plea to his team.
“I just challenged (the team) to play out the rest of the regular season for these seniors,” he said. “We owe an awful lot to them.”
Rush said responding to the challenge from Bonamego won’t be difficult.
“Luckily we have a good group of guys that can stick together,” he said. “We have a lot of guys that respect the seniors and will keep playing hard for them and coach. It’s a group of guys that’ll want to get back to work and get this taste out of our mouths.”
Regardless of where the team finishes in the conference, Bonamego said he cares more about the resiliency his team shows for the remaining four regular season games.
“This is where you find out what you’ve got in your locker room,” he said. “This is when you find out the people that are just a little bit in or the ones that are truly committed. I’m anxious to see what transpires over the next four weeks.”
