Football prepares for Beach Bowl showdown with Tulsa
Junior tight end Tyler Conklin celebrates with his team after the game against Ohio on Nov. 15 at Kelly / Shorts Stadium.
MIAMI — After losing five of its last six games, Central Michigan football didn’t end the season the way it wanted to.
A bowl victory could go a long way to fixing that.
Head coach John Bonamego called this week a "business trip," and after traveling 1,500 miles to Miami, Florida, the Chippewas will get a chance at their first bowl win since 2012.
CMU (6-6) will play the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (9-3) at 2:30 p.m. Monday at Marlins Park in the third annual Miami Beach Bowl. The game will be televised on ESPN.
Tulsa enters the Beach Bowl as the heavy favorite. UT is favored to win by 11.5 points, according to CBS.com.
Scouting the Golden Hurricane
Unlike CMU, Tulsa comes in with momentum on its side, winning four of its last five games.
The team’s three losses came at the hands of Ohio State (48-3), Houston (38-31) and Navy (42-40).
The Golden Hurricane finished the regular season with the one of the best offenses in the country, averaging 522.5 yards and 41.4 points per game.
The offense is predicated around the ground attack, which ranks eighth nationally with 261.8 yards per game.
Junior James Flanders (1,529 yards, 17 touchdowns) and senior D’Angelo Brewer (1,330 yards, 7 touchdowns) finished as the top two rushers in the American Athletic Conference. The two rank ninth and 20th in the country among running backs.
The Golden Hurricane offense, however, doesn’t lack balance. Tulsa averages 260.8 yards per game through the air behind senior quarterback Dane Evans, who has thrown for 3,044 yards and 27 touchdowns.
At his disposal, Evans has a plethora of weapons to pass to. Wide receivers Keevan Lucas (1,108 yards, 12 touchdowns), Josh Atkinson (927 yards,7 touchdowns) and Justin Hobbs (657 yards, 4 touchdowns) can all move the chains and stretch the field.
The Chippewa secondary, on the other hand, looks likely to be without junior All-Mid-American Conference cornerback Amari Coleman, who had a procedure done on his knee after the game against Eastern Michigan.
Coleman leads the team with 4 interceptions.
Senior CMU quarterback Cooper Rush said the Chippewa offense will have to do its part to help out the defense.
“We got to possess the ball and stay out of third and longs. Staying ahead of the chains will be key keeping the ball away from them,” he said. “It comes down to executing. Got to put points on the board.”
Defensively, the Golden Hurricane have not been as stout. Tulsa ranks 89th nationally in scoring, allowing 31.5 points per game.
Against the pass, UT has particularly struggled where it has given up 432.4 yards per game.
Rush said the offense looked good in practice this week and will have to run the ball with success to open up the passing game.
“We were able to have a good week,” he said. “We got to run the ball well and stay out of tough situations.”
Final Chapter
Cooper Rush, along with 16 other seniors, will play their final game on Monday. Rush said the game will be a “battle,” but is confident they can pull the upset.
Rush added that Bonamego told the seniors to have fun in their last game, but that they wont settle for anything less than a win after failing to bring a MAC Championship to Mount Pleasant.
“Us seniors really want to end it right,” Rush said. “It would be everything to be able to leave our mark as we leave as seniors and accomplish something. To be able to put a bowl trophy up there would be pretty nice.”
