Central
Michigan Chippewas
Preview 2009
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By
Pete Fiutak
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2009 CFN Central
Michigan Preview |
2009 CMU Offense
-
2009 CMU Defense |
2009 CMU Depth
Chart
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2008 CMU Preview |
2007 CMU Preview |
2006 CMU
Preview
Head coach: Butch Jones
3rd year: 16-11
Returning Lettermen:
Off. 17, Def. 22, ST 5
Lettermen Lost: 18 |
Ten
Best CMU Players
1. QB Dan LeFevour, Sr.
2. WR/KR Antonio
Brown, Jr.
3. DE Frank Zombo, Sr.
4. WR Bryan Anderson,
Sr.
5. LB Nick Bellore, Jr.
6. DT Sean Murnane, Jr.
7. LB Matt Berning, Jr.
8. CB Josh Gordy, Sr.
9. DE Sam
Williams, Sr.
10. TE David Blackburn, Soph. |
|
2009 Schedule
CFN Prediction: 8-4
2009 Record: 0-0
9/5 at Arizona
9/12 at Michigan St
9/19 Alcorn State
9/26 Akron
10/3 at Buffalo
10/10 Eastern Mich
10/17 at
Western Mich
10/24 at Bowling Green
10/31 at Boston Coll
11/7 OPEN DATE
11/11 Toledo
11/18 at Ball State
11/27
Northern Illinois |
|
2008 Schedule
CFN Prediction: 6-6
2008 Record: 8-5
8/28
Eastern Illinois
W 31-12
9/6 at Georgia L 56-17
9/13 at Ohio W 31-28
9/20 at Purdue L 32-25
9/27 Buffalo W 27-25
10/4 OPEN DATE
10/11 Temple W 24-14
10/18 Western Mich W
38-28
10/25 at Toledo W 24-23
11/1 at Indiana W 37-34
11/8 OPEN DATE
11/12 at No Illinois W 33-30 OT
11/19 Ball State L
31-24
11/28 at Eastern Mich L
56-52
MOTOR CITY BOWL
12/26 Florida Atlantic L 24-21 |
Central Michigan was good enough to win its third straight MAC title
last year, it should've beaten Ball State, didn't, and ended up
missing out on a chance to come into this year with a shot at
nailing four in a row. But now winning the MAC title wasn't the
problem last year. Not winning the Motor City Bowl, was.
Of
course every team wants to win the conference race, but for Central
Michigan, there was no real reward to from the bowl matchups if had
won it. If the Chippewas had been able to go beat Buffalo and take
the title, they would've gone to the Motor City Bowl. They lost to
Ball State and to Eastern Michigan in a tremendous shootout and
ended up in the Motor City Bowl for the third straight year. Losing
to Purdue the year before was acceptable. Losing to Florida Atlantic
last year, wasn't.
The bowl defeat to the Owls summed up the
CMU year in a nutshell. While going 8-5 with a bowl game is never
anything to sneeze at in Mount Pleasant, the year could've been so
much more if the weaknesses weren't so glaring. If superstar
quarterback Dan LeFevour didn't have to fight through an ankle
problem for most of the season ... if there could've been some
semblance of a power running game ... if the defense wasn't among
the worst in America when it came to stopping the pass ... there
were a lot of ifs last year that could be corrected just a little
bit going into this year, and the results should be different.
It wasn't like CMU was bad, except on pass defense; it just
needed a little bit of tweaking. With ten starters returning on
defense, the MAC's elite passing attack getting LeFevour back, along
with his star receivers, Antonio Brown and Bryan Anderson, and with
the league's best special teams, this will be the MAC's best team
going into the year. A team with this much going its way should be
able to pull out all the close battles, unlike last year when it
should've beaten Purdue, Ball State, Eastern Michigan and Florida
Atlantic, and a team this good shouldn't have to pull so many out of
the fire in the first place like it had to against Ohio, Buffalo,
Toledo, Indiana, and Northern Illinois.
Nine of CMU's 13
games were decided by a touchdown or less, and six of those were
decided by four points or fewer. The team tended to play up or down
to the competition, the blow out loss to Georgia excluded, and this
year it has to do a better job of ending the discussion before it
can start.
The offense is geared up to fun 'n' gun with
anyone, even if LeFevour goes down, while the defense should boast a
devastating pass rush led by a phenomenal line. The pass defense
can't be any worse, and despite several injury issues, it won't be.
Now that the team knows what it's like to not win a MAC title, it'll
be the favorite to win it all going away ... on the way to another
Motor City Bowl.
What to watch for on offense:
Even more of an emphasis on the
passing game. LeFevour wasn't quite his 1,000-yard rushing self last
season thanks to a few dings and with the upgrade in the passing
attack. With Onterio Sneed gone, the running backs aren't going to
be quite as strong even though Bryan Schroeder and Carl Volny are
good speedsters to crank out a few big runs now and then. With an
NFL-caliber passer like LeFevour, and two receivers in Antonio Brown
and Bryan Anderson who'll get more than just a cup of coffee from
the big league, it'll be bombs away for a passing attack that should
average around 300 yards per game.
What to watch for on defense:
The pass defense. It
was awful for two seasons and CMU won two MAC titles. It was the
third-worst in the nation last year and CMU was probably the
league's second best team and went to a bowl. Injuries were an
issue, and still are, but it's a deep secondary with a fast group of
veterans returning at all four spots. It doesn't have to be USC's
pass defense of last year, but if it's just average, or merely not
miserable, the rest of the team should be able to take care of the
rest.
The team will be far better if … the team can get out
to a fast start each and every game. Too often the offense had to
rally after a sluggish first quarter, and it was average out of the
halftime locker room and had to scramble in the fourth. CMU was
outscored 85 to 62 in the first quarter last year, but it put up 139
points in the second. The offense has to do a better job of getting
on top of teams early so it can weather the storm late.
The Schedule: There's an ugly stretch of five road games in
seven starting with a trip to face defending champion, Buffalo, and
ending with a Wednesday night game against Ball State. In between
there are home games against Eastern Michigan and Toledo, two games
that would likely have been winnable if they were on the road, while
facing Western Michigan and Bowling Green on the road in
back-to-back weeks is a horrible stroke of scheduling luck. On the
plus side, the game against Northern Illinois, probably the third
best team in the league behind CMU and WMU, is in Mount Pleasant to
close out the regular season. The non-conference schedule, outside
of the layup against Alcorn State, is challenging starting out at
Arizona and Michigan State while travelling to Boston College on
Halloween, the worst possible time coming off two tough conference
road dates.
Best Offensive Player:
Senior
QB Dan LeFevour.
Now comes the tricky part. Is the ultra-mobile 6-3, 223-pounder another
Chad Pennington or Ben Roethlisberger and able to generate enough buzz
from the NFL types to go in the first round, or at least in the first
100 picks, or is he another Nate Davis or Omar Jacobs, who gets a ton of
hype, gets talked about as a high pick, and then fizzles? He'll suffer
from the spread quarterback stigma, but being in the MAC doesn't hurt
him. The big key will be to perform well against Michigan State, Arizona
and Boston College by putting up big numbers with his arm, even though
the team would do better if he ran wild.
Best Defensive Player:
Senior DE Frank Zombo. Built more like a plugging defensive tackle, the
6-4, 269-pounder is tremendously quick off the ball and has turned out
to be the program's best pass rusher since Dan Bazuin. Zombo didn't get
any help two years ago when he came up with a big season as the team's
only pass rusher, and last year he got a ton of help, and helped take
the pressure off of everyone else, and came up with a huge season. Now
he should be a lock for All-MAC stardom and he should finish with
double-digit sacks.
Key player to a successful season: Senior CB
Josh Gordy. The team has been able to win over the years with a bad pass
defense, but things could be so much easier if the corners could put the
clamps down once in a while. Gordy is an ultra-athletic veteran with 35
games, 169 tackles, seven interceptions and 16 broken up passes under
his belt. He has been hurt, but he needs to be 100% and needs to erase
one side of the field, or at least handle everyone's No. 1 receiver, so
the safeties can help out everywhere else.
The season will be a
success if ... CMU wins its third MAC title in four years. The
schedule doesn't work out well, but this is the league's best team with
several of the league's best players. Anything less than a title will be
a failure in LeFevour's final year.
Key game:
Oct. 17 at Western Michigan. On the plus side, the
MAC game of the year is coming for CMU after a home game and at the
start of a run of three straight road games. This is the game the
Broncos will be gunning for, and the winner will likely go on to win the
West as well as the MAC.
2008 Fun Stats:
- Fourth down
conversions: Opponents 11-of-22 (50%) - Central Michigan 5-of-18 (28%)
- Fumbles: Opponents 15, lost 8 - Central Michigan 10, lost 4
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Average yards per game: Opponents 423.8 - Central Michigan 423.5
-
2009 CFN Central
Michigan Preview |
2009 CMU Offense
-
2009 CMU Defense |
2009 CMU Depth
Chart
-
2008 CMU Preview |
2007 CMU Preview |
2006 CMU
Preview