A far away farewell for football
The CMU football team did not have very far to travel during the month of December the past three years.
For three of the past four seasons, the Chippewas have played in the Mid-American Conference Championship game, winning it this season against Ohio, 20-10, after missing out last season.
Also, the previous three seasons, CMU was invited to the Motor City Bowl (renamed the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl).
What those games had in common and made them somewhat significant was both were played at Ford Field in Detroit, a drive that would take around three hours for any interested Mount Pleasant fan.
This season, however, the 11-2 Chippewas — now ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press poll — were invited to the GMAC Bowl on Jan. 6 against Troy.
The game is at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., a field that holds 40,646 fans. It will be a significant trek for Michigan natives looking to travel to the game as opposed to Ford Field. And for the seniors — win or lose — it is their last game for Central Michigan.
“I think it’s going to be fun,” said senior defensive end Frank Zombo. “It’s going to be my last game, which just means I’ve stayed here as long as possible.”
As for the travel to Alabama and playing his last game far outside the state and out of the region, it did not affect Zombo.
“It’s just going to be something new,” he said.
But senior wide receiver Bryan Anderson addressed the fact that many CMU fans will miss out on seeing the game in person, a fact that bothers Anderson — also playing his final game for the Chippewas — to a certain extent.
“It’s not going to be good for Central fans,” he said. “We don’t know what we’ll get.” Anderson did mot know the capacity of Ladd-Peebles (40,646 compared to Ford Field’s 65,000), but knew it was not very big.
“We just have to realize that even though friends and family won’t really be able to make the trip, they can still watch it on TV,” he said. “We’ll just have to keep that in mind while we play.”
