2011 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl Preview

Western Michigan Broncos vs Purdue Boilermakers

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Two teams went to the college football postseason… and a September regular-season game broke out. The two conferences who routinely schedule each other in the first month of the season have been paired for a late-December duel in a dome. The prevailing flow and form of a college football campaign will be turned upside-down when the Western Michigan Broncos take on the Purdue Boilermakers in the Little Caesars Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit.

It’s a core part of September in the life of a Midwestern college football fan: Before the heart of the Big Ten season arrives in early October, the prestigious conference led by commissioner Jim Delany hosts teams from the Mid-American Conference to warm up the engines. Big Ten-MAC games in September are as natural as the sun rising in the east. The occasions are perilous for the Big Ten’s lower-division teams, and they’re gleaming opportunities for the upwardly mobile programs in the MAC. The big brother-little brother contrast found in the relationship between these two conferences won’t always generate the highest levels of intrigue, but when evenly-matched teams from the Big Ten and the MAC get together, pigskin passions can run high.

This dynamic is precisely what one is likely to find when Western Michigan and Purdue lock horns.

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Western Michigan went 0-2 in its regular-season tour of the Big Ten. The Broncos and coach Bill Cubit were thrashed by Michigan and then nipped by Illinois in a three-point game, 23-20. Western Michigan didn’t steal a Big Ten scalp in the regular season, but those two games did enable the Broncos to become a better and more resilient outfit. WMU won at Connecticut and used that win in New England to catapult itself into the second half of the season. Thrust into a nighttime tilt with Miami of Ohio, the Broncos used a sturdy defense to dig out a 24-21 win which enabled them to finish the year at 7-5, 5-3 in the MAC. In a season when Northern Illinois, Toledo and Ohio formed the class of the Mid-American Conference, Western Michigan’s fourth-place finish (third in the MAC West Division) represents a solid accomplishment the whole team can feel proud of.

Purdue should also be satisfied with its progress this season under veteran coach Danny Hope. Everything looked bleak for the Boilermakers after an embarrassing early-season loss to Rice, but this team stabilized itself instead of spiraling out of control. A rugged win over Illinois in late October followed by a rousing overtime upset of Ohio State on Nov. 12 gave the Boilers the chance to lock down a bowl bid with a season-ending win over Indiana. The Boilermakers wobbled at times, but they won on the road to claim the Old Oaken Bucket and a postseason invite.

Each of these teams has overachieved relative to prior seasons. Western Michigan and Purdue have both struggled to maintain a foothold in their respective leagues. It’s fitting that they’ll re-enact the MAC-Big Ten September series with a bowl championship at stake. When September turns into December, the lifeblood of college football – emotion – will create a lively and festive atmosphere in Motown.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

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