2010 Eastern Michigan Eagles Football Preview

2009 Results: 0-12, No Bowl

Head Coach: Ron English (2nd year @ EMU, 0-12 Overall)

Home Venue: Rynearson Stadium (30,200), Ypsilanti, Michigan

The Eagles had the misfortune of being the only team in all of Division One Football to fail to win a single game in 2009, leaving Coach Ron English still searching for his first career victory. How bad were the poor EMUs? Only three of games saw them come within a touchdown or less of their opponents! The sad state of the program is summed up with this question: Can English hit the reset button and win his first career game in 2010?

OFFENSE

As the Eagles only scored 16 points per game last season, the offense is in need of some serious upgrades. Let’s start at quarterback, where sophomore Alex Gillett (763 pass yards, 484 rush yards, 5 Total TDs, 7 INT in 3 ’09 starts) is expected to split time with statuesque redshirt freshman Devontae Payne. Clearly Gillett has the ability to make things happen with his feet and Payne is a prototypical pocket passer, so if these two can get some support around them, there might be something to this unit.

Unfortunately, the only remotely proven player on the offense is senior tailback Dwayne Priest (633 rush yards, 7 TDs), who is speedy but undersized. While his numbers weren’t great last year, he did a good job carrying the ball 175 times behind a poor O-Line, something that I don’t expect to change this season. Priest should anchor a decent running game that might be the highlight of the offense.

But his offensive line looks like a very weak unit once more. After losing a 4 year starter and the team’s only 2nd Team All-MAC selection, the line doesn’t give me a lot of hope for improvement. Furthermore, that is going to hamper an already weak passing game that only returns one player who had more than 20 catches in 2009. As senior Ben Thayer (29 catches, 291 yards, 2 TDs) is a tight end, there won’t be a lot of explosiveness through the air this fall.

Simply put, Eastern Michigan is still in full-on rebuilding mode on offense. Their quarterbacks are young and potentially productive, but their receivers are among the MAC’s weakest and the O-Line is going to give up a lot of sacks. Furthermore, Priest is a good runner but he won’t consistently get a lot of room to make plays, so I’m not confident that the Eagles will improve in the running game, especially if the mobile Gillett doesn’t earn the starting nod. I think that EMU is in for another ineffective offensive season.

DEFENSE

Coach English is fighting a two front war: His defense was an utter mess in 2009, the worst in the entire MAC at 38 points per game allowed. That’s what happens when you have a chronically weak D-Line that opened the floodgates for opponents on the ground to the tune of nearly 280 rush yards per game! What made that number even worse is the fact that opponents averaged well over six yards per carry and the EMUs will need to improve up front quickly if this defense is going to be remotely respectable.

Unfortunately, the Eagles lose their best D-Lineman as Brandon Downs (57 tackles, 7.5 sacks) has graduated. That leaves three returning junior starters to carry the load, along with a good cadre of depth players. They’re simply not a very talented unit and even if they improve drastically across the board I’m not sure that they’d break into the middle of the pack in the conference.

At linebacker, there are a lot of players who have provided good depth in the last few seasons. However, senior Tim Fort (43 tackles) and junior Marcus English (41 tackles) have to step up as prime time defenders this season with the loss of the team’s leading tackler from 2009. Behind a weak line, that won’t be easy and I’m afraid that the run defense should suffer for it.

As for the defensive backs, there are two ways to analyze their 2009 campaign. The first is to look at their statistics and be very impressed as they allowed an NCAA-best 151 pass yards per outing! However, the other way is far more realistic: Opponents threw only half as often as they ran the ball and the porous EMU run defense essentially rendered the passing game moot. When teams build a big lead early on the ground, there’s no reason to pass. However, this unit did manage to grab 12 picks last season, giving me some confidence that they’ll be all right through the air.

However, a decent secondary will be undermined once again by the failings of the front seven. Eastern Michigan’s D-Line should be marginally improved, but they were so terrible in 2009 that I don’t see any tangible effect on how opposing teams attack and defeat this defense. Expect the Eagles to get railroaded by opposing offenses again this season as the run defense is the worst in the conference and perhaps the entire country.

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SCHEDULE

Unfortunately for EMU, the schedule is no cake run either. Out of conference, they face three road games against BCS opponents: Ohio State, Virginia and Vanderbilt. While the last two aren’t particularly strong BCS level teams, they’ll still have more than enough talent to overwhelm the Eagles. The only winnable game outside of MAC play is on opening day against a vastly improved Army team that specializes in running the football, so chalk that one up as a likely loss as well. Meanwhile, the Eagles draw Ohio, Buffalo and Miami from the East Division, giving them two highly winnable crossover games. Nevertheless, this schedule only includes five home games and it will be all that Eastern Michigan can handle and more.

OUTLOOK

The Eagles simply aren’t a good football team. They’re very weak along the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football and that is never a good sign for success. I fully expect that their defense is going to be on the field a lot this year as opponents chew up the clock with ease against their meager run defense. That will leave their inexperienced and ineffective offense with fewer chances to score points, meaning that a redux of 2009 is a distinct possibility. While I think that the Eagles will improve enough to finally get English a victory, I don’t think that they have a chance to win more than two or three games all season. In fact, I think that they’re only going to win one game and finish in last place in the MAC West Division.

PREDICTED RESULT: 1-11 (1-7 MAC)