Ten-day break helps football
CMU football coach Butch Jones was the first to admit this is a long football season — one that causes a team to grind.
Since the first weekend in September, when the Chippewas flew to the Arizona for their season opener against the Wildcats, they had not gone a weekend without a game through Oct. 31 against Boston College.
And last month saw four of the team’s five games on the road, including a seven-hour trip to Buffalo and a trip to the east coast against BC.
Saturday was the first time this season the team has not played on a weekend, and it comes as part of the 10-day break it had between Boston College and the team’s game at 8 p.m. today against Toledo.
“I think it’s beneficial, especially with us not having a bye week,” Jones said. “And then, I think, playing with the physicality of our schedule. The road games have mounted up and I challenge anyone, in the month of October, if anyone had more road games than our program.”
The grind of the season peaked during the string of road games, Jones said.
“It accumulates over time,” he said. “And it takes it toll on this football team.”
Junior linebacker Matt Berning shared his coach’s sentiment.
“Being this late in the season and not having had a bye week yet, it gives us a little more time to prepare and to rest,” he said. “It’s nice to have, like, two days off and not have football and you can manage your time different and maybe, just one day, to take a day completely off.”
But also for Berning, the time off has revitalized him and has him anxious once again to get back on the field.
“It gets you kind of edgy,” he said. “You just want to go out there and hit somebody again. You get tired of practicing against each other, you want to go out there and hit somebody again instead of your own teammates.”
The break could not having come at a better time, Jones said, as the Chippewas are preparing for their final three games of the regular season with the Mid-American Conference Championship looming in December.
“The next three weeks, we have all our goals in front of us,” he said. “Every game’s critical but, the more you win, the more you set things up. These next three games are important, but not one is more important than the other. And we have to get some individuals back healthy and that’s going to be the critical part.”
After five games in October, the Chippewas play just three games in November, leading into the conference championship Dec. 5 at Ford Field in Detroit. CMU (5-0) is a half-game ahead of Northern Illinois (4-1) in the MAC West division.
