OPINION: Why Western Michigan deserves what they have


Let's take a look back in time. For the Central Michigan football team, Sept. 10 feels like a entire season ago.

On that day, the Chippewas were granted one last play off of a controversial penalty against Oklahoma State that extended the game after the clock hit zero.

Senior quarterback Cooper Rush threw a bomb down field that was caught by senior wide receiver Jesse Kroll, who then lateraled the ball to junior wide receiver Corey Willis who sprinted toward the goal line to score the game winning touchdown.

Oklahoma State, now ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Poll, was ranked 22nd at the time. The win fueled CMU's fan base into hoping the Chippewas might compete for a Mid-American Conference title.

Fast forward to Oct. 1, the Western Michigan Broncos were 4-0 and CMU was 3-1 when they met for an annual rivalry game. 

There was talk about the possibility of College GameDay, the ESPN morning show that travels across the country to preview the biggest college football games of the weekend, coming to Mount Pleasant. It was realistic at the time. Looking back, it was a long shot. 

After Central Michigan's 49-35 loss to Virginia in week four which squashed any real possibility of the GameDay crew coming to town, Western Michigan came to Kelly/Shorts Stadium and routed the Chippewas in front of 30,000 people and a filled student section. The hope was there, the school believed their team could pull off a win and ruin Western’s undefeated season.

It was over after the first drive.

The two Michigan MAC schools' seasons have gone in two completely different directions since then. Since Oct. 1, the Chippewas have gone 3-3, limping to a 6-5 overall record. The Broncos remain undefeated at 11-0.

On Saturday, ESPN's College GameDay visited  Kalamazoo.

I was there on Saturday to fulfill a lifelong bucket list item to be in the pit for College GameDay. I've never felt energy like that surrounding any MAC athletic team before, including CMU.

There were fans lined up waiting to get in since midnight the Friday night before — more than 1,000 fans, alumni and students showed up — and it was loud the entire program.

Not to mention the temperature was in the mid 30s and snow was blowing down the entire time.

When 9 a.m. finally rolled around, and the show was starting to broadcast live, all you could here was the echo of three words repeatedly: “Row the boat, row the boat, row the boat.”

P.J. Fleck, the head coach of the Western Michigan football team, has brought new life to a football program that had nothing going for it before he came.

In Fleck’s first season as the Broncos' head coach, his team struggled to a 1-11 finish. The program only grew from there.

In 2014, his team went 8-4 and Fleck won the MAC Coach of the Year Award. In 2015 he went 7-5. While 2015 may seem like a step down, the end result made it a plus. The team won the Bahamas bowl against Middle Tennessee for the program's first bowl win in history.

In 2011, Fleck lost his second son, Colt, to a heart condition. Earlier in the season, Fleck said on SportsCenter, "As you hold your son as he takes his last breath, that's pretty tough to go through and your whole life changes. There is no bad days after that."

According to Fleck, "Row the Boat" is a "never give up mantra" that has three parts. The oar, which is the energy that you bring to your life, the boat is the sacrifice, and the compass is the direction of your life that you choose to take.

Think what you want of it and what it means, but those three words have brought more life to Western Michigan’s fan base than anything I've ever seen around the Central Michigan football program.

A 6-5 record is average. When you start a season 3-0, with a huge win against a team like Oklahoma State, you are expected to be better than barely bowl eligible.

I hope someday to see some of the spirit from the CMU students that I witnessed on Saturday in Kalamazoo. I hope Chippewa football provides a reason for fans to show up to all of the games and stay the entire time. If it's going to change anytime soon, we need a new energized life here in Mount Pleasant.

Because to be quite honest, I still haven't felt anything on CMU's campus like I experienced Saturday in Kalamazoo.

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