been a terrific first three weeks. been seeing the games really well. looking forward to more of the same as conference play opens up.
added play at bottom of thread
some mac notes:
eastern michigan gained 18 yards on a pass from matt bohnet to aj bennett on their very first play from scrimmage against michigan.... and then they proceeded to absolutely nothing for the rest of the game. this is an emu offense that was top 10 in the nation last year in total offense, and they were held to 10 first downs and just 134 total yards against michigan ... on the bright side for emu, they open up mac play against central michigan, and last years game was an absolute shootout -- a 61-58 quadruple overtime game that saw a combined 1,000 of offense ... central michigan's offense, which put up 569 yards of offense and 38 points against miami 2 weeks ago, was held to just 172 yards against penn state. quarterback kent smith, who torched miami for 356 yards passing and 122 yards rushing, was held well in check by psu, and the lions sacked him 8 times ... central michigan had a solid defensive showing against indiana in the season opener, but have gotten torched since then, giving up 524 yards to miami and 519 yards to penn state ... toledo cruised to a 42-17 win over temple, jumping out to a 28-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter and then coasting the rest of the way. quarterback bruce gradkowski broke the all-time toledo record for passing yardage and completions early on in the temple game ... while the competition has been mediocre to this point, the rockets have outscored the opposition 48-0 in the first quarter this season, and have jumped out to leads of 62-0, 35-0, and 28-0 before their opponents put points on the board ... trinity dawson got most of the carries for toledo last week. amstutz has been using a 3-back rotation early on this year with trinity dawson, richard davis, and jalen parmele. eventually, scooter mcdougle will join that mix ... western michigan beat southern illinois 34-28 last week. to many, that doesnt mean much, but that win wasnt a gimmie for the broncos, as southern illinois was ranked #1 in the nation in 1-AA heading into last week and were averaging 70.0 ppg in their first two games. on paper, the salukis might even be a better team than wmu's next foe -- the temple owls ... some good news for western michigan -- they finally got a chance to play with all their offensive weapons on the field at the same time. over the first two weeks, they were without starting quarterback ryan cubit for one game, starting tight end tony scheffler for one game, and starting running back trovon riley for two games ... after opening the season with two road losses to big 10 foes, northern illinois got a well-deserved cupcake win on saturday when they routed tennessee tech 42-3 ... after three weeks, garrett wolfe has rushed 62 times for 454 yards ... aj harris has been just as solid through 3 games, rushing 23 times for 182 yards ... northern illinois quarterback phil horvath was a bit of a question mark before the season. he was so-so in split duty last year with josh haldi. but now that its "his" team, horvath has been really sharp up to this point -- 52/78 passing (67 completions) for 701 and 5 touchdowns. hes thrown one interception in each of niu's first three games, but thats about the worst thing you can say about the way hes played ... ball state was smashed 63-3 by auburn. they actually gained 220 yards, which normally isnt the case when a team gets beaten so badly. but it was never a game. auburn led 35-0 at halftime and just methodically smoked bsu
bowling green was off last week to prepare for boise state on wednesday ... buffalo played one of their best games in the last year and a half but still managed to lose 17-3. to their credit, they actually looked like a decent college football team. the offense moved the ball well, and the defense was solid throughout. after generating just 260 yards and 12 first downs in the first two weeks combined, the bulls put up 349 yards and 21 first downs against rutgers. quarterback stewart sampsel probably bought himself some more time as the starter once he gets back from injury because he played a good game against rutgers-- a respectable 15/26 for 140 yards, and he also ran the ball well when he was flushed out of the pocket as well as on some designed runs. he rushed 11 times for 44 yards. true freshman drew willy also saw some action, completing 10/15 passes for 88 yards ... miami running back brandon murphy was the big story in the redhawks 27-10 win over kent. after losing their top 2 backs to graduation (smith and clemens), miami desperately needed murphy to step up and aggressively claim the running back position. he had two pretty good games against ohio state and central michigan, but he really busted out against kent, rushing 31 times for 172 yards and a touchdown ... for kent state, the rushing woes continued -- just 31 yards on 16 carries ... kent quarterback michael machen was 31/56 for 338 yards against miami. through 3 games, machen has already thrown the ball 150 times, and thats not gonna change, at least for now, because kent is going up against a strong rushing defense in ohio this weekend ... its tough to project what kind of offensive production we'll see from ohio university this weekend. personnel-wise, theyre not very good. theyve only scored one offensive touchdown in three games. but theyve played far and away the toughest schedule of any mac team heading into conference play (northwestern, pittsburgh, and virginia tech) so they might show some signs of life now that they wont be so overmatched, but theres good reason to remain skeptical about their offense ... akron quarterback luke getsy was 23/43 for 319 yards and 2 touchdowns against middle tennessee, but he threw 3 interceptions. through two games, though, he has performed much better than expected. talent isnt an issue with him (he transferred from pitt) but he had a poor fall camp and since he would be working behind a young offensive line, there was reason to believe that akron could really struggle to move the ball early on but that hasnt been the case at all. the zips have put up 385 yards (against purdue) and 421 yards (against middle tennessee) in the first two weeks ... dominek hixon had a big game for akron last week -- 9 catches for 169 yards and a touchdown. he was the mac special teams player of the week for week 1 as well.
added play at bottom of thread
some mac notes:
eastern michigan gained 18 yards on a pass from matt bohnet to aj bennett on their very first play from scrimmage against michigan.... and then they proceeded to absolutely nothing for the rest of the game. this is an emu offense that was top 10 in the nation last year in total offense, and they were held to 10 first downs and just 134 total yards against michigan ... on the bright side for emu, they open up mac play against central michigan, and last years game was an absolute shootout -- a 61-58 quadruple overtime game that saw a combined 1,000 of offense ... central michigan's offense, which put up 569 yards of offense and 38 points against miami 2 weeks ago, was held to just 172 yards against penn state. quarterback kent smith, who torched miami for 356 yards passing and 122 yards rushing, was held well in check by psu, and the lions sacked him 8 times ... central michigan had a solid defensive showing against indiana in the season opener, but have gotten torched since then, giving up 524 yards to miami and 519 yards to penn state ... toledo cruised to a 42-17 win over temple, jumping out to a 28-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter and then coasting the rest of the way. quarterback bruce gradkowski broke the all-time toledo record for passing yardage and completions early on in the temple game ... while the competition has been mediocre to this point, the rockets have outscored the opposition 48-0 in the first quarter this season, and have jumped out to leads of 62-0, 35-0, and 28-0 before their opponents put points on the board ... trinity dawson got most of the carries for toledo last week. amstutz has been using a 3-back rotation early on this year with trinity dawson, richard davis, and jalen parmele. eventually, scooter mcdougle will join that mix ... western michigan beat southern illinois 34-28 last week. to many, that doesnt mean much, but that win wasnt a gimmie for the broncos, as southern illinois was ranked #1 in the nation in 1-AA heading into last week and were averaging 70.0 ppg in their first two games. on paper, the salukis might even be a better team than wmu's next foe -- the temple owls ... some good news for western michigan -- they finally got a chance to play with all their offensive weapons on the field at the same time. over the first two weeks, they were without starting quarterback ryan cubit for one game, starting tight end tony scheffler for one game, and starting running back trovon riley for two games ... after opening the season with two road losses to big 10 foes, northern illinois got a well-deserved cupcake win on saturday when they routed tennessee tech 42-3 ... after three weeks, garrett wolfe has rushed 62 times for 454 yards ... aj harris has been just as solid through 3 games, rushing 23 times for 182 yards ... northern illinois quarterback phil horvath was a bit of a question mark before the season. he was so-so in split duty last year with josh haldi. but now that its "his" team, horvath has been really sharp up to this point -- 52/78 passing (67 completions) for 701 and 5 touchdowns. hes thrown one interception in each of niu's first three games, but thats about the worst thing you can say about the way hes played ... ball state was smashed 63-3 by auburn. they actually gained 220 yards, which normally isnt the case when a team gets beaten so badly. but it was never a game. auburn led 35-0 at halftime and just methodically smoked bsu
bowling green was off last week to prepare for boise state on wednesday ... buffalo played one of their best games in the last year and a half but still managed to lose 17-3. to their credit, they actually looked like a decent college football team. the offense moved the ball well, and the defense was solid throughout. after generating just 260 yards and 12 first downs in the first two weeks combined, the bulls put up 349 yards and 21 first downs against rutgers. quarterback stewart sampsel probably bought himself some more time as the starter once he gets back from injury because he played a good game against rutgers-- a respectable 15/26 for 140 yards, and he also ran the ball well when he was flushed out of the pocket as well as on some designed runs. he rushed 11 times for 44 yards. true freshman drew willy also saw some action, completing 10/15 passes for 88 yards ... miami running back brandon murphy was the big story in the redhawks 27-10 win over kent. after losing their top 2 backs to graduation (smith and clemens), miami desperately needed murphy to step up and aggressively claim the running back position. he had two pretty good games against ohio state and central michigan, but he really busted out against kent, rushing 31 times for 172 yards and a touchdown ... for kent state, the rushing woes continued -- just 31 yards on 16 carries ... kent quarterback michael machen was 31/56 for 338 yards against miami. through 3 games, machen has already thrown the ball 150 times, and thats not gonna change, at least for now, because kent is going up against a strong rushing defense in ohio this weekend ... its tough to project what kind of offensive production we'll see from ohio university this weekend. personnel-wise, theyre not very good. theyve only scored one offensive touchdown in three games. but theyve played far and away the toughest schedule of any mac team heading into conference play (northwestern, pittsburgh, and virginia tech) so they might show some signs of life now that they wont be so overmatched, but theres good reason to remain skeptical about their offense ... akron quarterback luke getsy was 23/43 for 319 yards and 2 touchdowns against middle tennessee, but he threw 3 interceptions. through two games, though, he has performed much better than expected. talent isnt an issue with him (he transferred from pitt) but he had a poor fall camp and since he would be working behind a young offensive line, there was reason to believe that akron could really struggle to move the ball early on but that hasnt been the case at all. the zips have put up 385 yards (against purdue) and 421 yards (against middle tennessee) in the first two weeks ... dominek hixon had a big game for akron last week -- 9 catches for 169 yards and a touchdown. he was the mac special teams player of the week for week 1 as well.
Last edited:
