Rush to the finish: Central Michigan quarterback chasing MAC record in last college game
With a chance to become the Mid-American Conference's leading passer in yards gained, Cooper Rush will play his last game as the starting quarterback for Central Michigan on Monday in the Miami Beach Bowl.
The 6'3 Charlotte senior will need to throw for 263 yards in Monday's game against Tulsa to break Dan LeFevour's 12,905 passing yards during his career as CMU's star quarterback between 2006 and '09.
If he is able to break LeFevour's record, Rush said he would owe much of his success to his teammates.
“It’s really a great team reward,” Rush said. “It would't happen without receivers catching the ball and our linemen blocking. It takes everyone to accomplish something like that. It would be really cool to look back and be able to say that we did that together.”
During his time in Miami preparing for the bowl game, Rush credits his team for being "focused and energized" during practices.
"We're really looking forward to going out there and executing," he said. "We really want to leave Miami with a win so we've been really focused this week in practice. We don't want to lose and have that bad taste in our mouths coming home."
Looking back
With hopes of pursuing his dream of playing for the NFL, Rush said he will always be grateful for his experience at CMU.
“I’ll really miss college football,” he said. “I was very fortunate to be able to play for four years. Not everyone gets to say they’ve done that so I’m very lucky and I’m really going to miss my teammates.”
Through the "ups and downs" that come with college football games, the best advice for upcoming freshman is to work hard and be a good teammate, Rush said.
Unable to narrow it down to one specific moment, Rush said he takes the most pride in "being a good leader."
"I want to be remembered as someone who gave it their all for their teammates," Rush said. “There’s been good games and there’s been bad ones but the relationships I’ve built and some of the stuff we’ve been able to do on the field are what I’ll remember forever.”
