This should be an interesting matchup between Central Michigan and a 5-7 Minnesota team that’s playing in a bowl solely because of their Academic Progress Rate. The Chippewas finished 7-5 (6-2 in the MAC) with a tough schedule: non-conference games against Oklahoma State, Michigan State, and Syracuse accounted for three of their losses, and another came against a Toledo team that was ranked for part of the season. Minnesota also faced a brutal schedule; their season can perhaps best be summed up as “inconsistent”. “Maddening” is another word their fans might find apropos. It’s not often you can say a team played their best football during a three-game losing streak, but I’d argue that’s exactly what the Gophers did in late October and early November, losing to #15 Michigan, #3 Ohio State, and #5 Iowa by a total of 22 points. They also lost earlier games to a Northwestern team ranked #16 at the time, and to TCU-then the #2 team in the country- in the season opener.
Early in the season, Minnesota’s defense stepped up and kept the Gophers in games while the offense sputtered. The offensive line was a key part of the Gophers’ inconsistency as injuries forced frequent shuffling of players and positions, including the insertion of some inexperienced underclassmen. True freshman Tyler Moore played multiple games at center. The offense progressed as the season went on, and a big part of the offensive improvement was the emergence of freshman Shannon Brooks at running back. Brooks led the team with 644 yards and seven touchdowns on 104 carries and had games of 176 and 174 yards against Purdue and Illinois. However, Brooks failed to reach the 100-yard mark in any other games, and Minnesota’s ground game is ranked just 100th in the country. Central Michigan features the 30th-ranked run defense in the country, allowing just over 137 yards per game on the ground, and their red-zone defense is even better. Unless coach Tracy Claeys has some kind of trick plays up his sleeve, I don’t see the Gophers having much success with a ground-and-pound game plan.
The passing game for Minnesota isn’t significantly stronger than the run game, numbers-wise, although I saw definite improvement in junior quarterback Mitch Leidner over the course of the season. Senior wideout K.J. Maye is Leidner’s favorite target by far, although sophomore tight end Brandon Lingen saw an increasing number of targets in the second half of the season and had 100-yard games against both Michigan and Iowa. Freshman receiver Rashad Still is another guy who gained the confidence of Leidner and the coaching staff as the year progressed. However, Central Michigan has a strong pass defense- the best in the MAC- allowing under 200 yards per game and just 16 passing touchdowns all season. Toledo was the only team to pass for 300 yards against the Chippewas.
The Central Michigan passing game, second-best in the MAC, has been clicking this season. Junior quarterback Cooper Rush, who threw for 493 yards and seven scores in the Bahamas Bowl a year ago, finished the season with 3,703 yards, a healthy completion percentage of 67.2, and 25 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. Senior wideout Jesse Kroll is his top target (856 yards, four touchdowns) but the Chips have NINE players on the roster with at least one receiving TD. Minnesota’s secondary is good, but the sheer number of capable receivers available to Rush could prove a challenge even for them. Junior cornerback Jalen Myrick was one of several key defensive players to suffer a late-season injury and he was questionable as of the 23rd; having him available to complement seniors Briean Boddy-Calhoun and Eric Murray in the backfield could be huge.
CMU spreads the ball around in the run game as well, but without the same results. Their rushing offense is ranked 124th nationally and averages just over 100 yards per game. Six different players have at least one rushing touchdowns for them, including Rush with two, but no Chippewa has rushed for more than Martez Walker’s 373 yards. At the same time, the Gophers’ run defense ranked 21st this season, although they gave up 21 touchdowns on the ground. Defensive tackle Steven Richardson, another player injured in November, is listed as probable and will likely play a big role in stopping the run.
One other thing to note for Minnesota is that their coaching staff has been shuffled. Head coach Tracy Claeys, who took over mid-season, started making changes right after the regular season ended, notably relieving longtime offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Matt Limegrover. Tight ends coach Rob Reeves will serve in that capacity for the bowl game; the full list of changes can be found here.
Predicting bowl games is a fool’s errand, so I won’t try, but here are a couple of interesting things to note: Minnesota is 0-7 in bowl games since beating, surprisingly, Alabama in the 2004 Music City Bowl. That Gopher team featured both Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney at running back, both of whom went on to success in the NFL. Central Michigan played in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit from 2006-2008 and went 1-2, beating Middle Tennessee State and losing to Purdue and Florida Atlantic. The Chippewas are 3-5 all-time in bowl games.
The Quick Lane Bowl will be played at Ford Field in Detroit on Monday, December 28 at 5 p.m. The game will air on ESPN2. Enjoy!
