Football looks to end season with bowl win


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Junior wide receiver Corey WIllis huals in a deep catch during the game against Ohio on Nov. 15 at Kelly / Shorts Stadium.

Cooper Rush knows the only way to end this season on a high note is to knock off Tulsa in the Miami Beach Bowl.

The senior quarterback and the rest of the seniors for Central Michigan’s football team will have one last chance to earn a victory when they take on the Golden Hurricane at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 19 at Marlins Park.

The game will be aired on ESPN. The team will continue to practice in Mount Pleasant before heading to Miami this Wednesday.

“This is a business trip,” Bonamego said. “It’s a 41-hour bus ride back (to Mount Pleasant). If I think somebody’s not (all) in, we’ll put them on a bus and send them home.”

The Chippewas began the season 3-0, but with injuries and other variables, they ended the season losing six of their final nine games to head into the bowl game 6-6.

“We want to end with a winning record,” Rush said. “(We want to) leave our mark as a team and senior class. We haven’t been able to do that, so this would be (a chance) to put something up in the trophy case and leave with a winning record.”

CMU is 2-3 in its last five bowl games with its last win coming against Western Kentucky in the 2012 Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl.

In order for the Chippewas to pull off the victory against Tulsa, they’ll have to stop one of the most balanced offensive attacks in the country.

The Golden Hurricane is ranked 10th in the nation in total offense. Tulsa averaged 41.4 points per game and average both 260 yards passing and rushing per outing.

Head Coach John Bonamego said it will be imperative for his offense to make plays in order to keep Tulsa’s fast-paced offense on the sideline.

“It’s always going to be a challenge, but you do the best that you can,” he said. “It’s an offense that wears you down over time. They make big plays because people don’t communicate and they don’t get lined up and then people make mistakes, and (Tulsa's offense is) there to take advantage of them.”

Tulsa is led by senior running back James Flanders and junior running back D’Angelo Brewer. Flanders leads the American Athletic Conference in rushing yards (1,529) and second in touchdowns (17), while Brewer is second in the AAC in rushing yards (1,330).

The Golden Hurricane rushing attack has been key to their 9-3 season. Tulsa has rushed for over 300 yards in eight of their 12 contest and has scored over 30 points in 11 of their 12 games.

Sophomore linebacker Malik Fountain said if CMU’s defense puts itself in the right spots, the team will have a good chance of containing Tulsa’s offense.

“We have to line up,” he said. “That’s how they beat people, they run fast plays that allow you to misalign. If you line up to them, you can play them, anybody can play them. They’re not really that great, they just get you to miss assignments so they can explode. They have the athletes to make plays.”

The bowl game will be the final game as a Chippewa for 17 players on the team, something Fountain said adds to the importance of finishing the season with a victory.

“It would be a great way to lead our seniors out so they can leave with a winning record and a bowl-game win,” he said.

Bonamego said he wants to make sure his players understand the purpose of the trip and are mentally prepare for the bowl game.

“Bowl trips are a little different,” he said. “You’re taking a bunch of guys that haven’t traveled and it’s critical for us as coaches to make sure we set the tone and make expectations clear and concise and hold everybody on the trip accountable for their behavior and understanding that there’s preparation to be done. We’re going down there for a purpose and it’s not a vacation.”

Bonamego said the team will have to balance having fun and staying focused for the game,

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