Kent State Week: Is EMU Playing like a MAC Champion Yet? 'No', Says Chris Creighton
Kent State Week: Is EMU Playing like a MAC Champion Yet? 'No', Says Chris Creighton
No MAC team plays like a MAC champion this early in the season, EMU's head coach said Monday.
Eastern Michigan closed out its non-conference schedule Saturday by recording its first shutout of the Chris Creighton era 36-0 over St. Francis. Now it’s time to turn up the heat a little bit.
For EMU (3-1 overall), MACtion begins this week with a road trip to Kent State (0-4). Kent State’s record isn’t impressing anybody, and that team hasn’t been able to show any progress through its four games on the year. Kent’s season started off somewhat promising with a 55-24 loss at Pitt, then it lost at home to St. Francis, only to finish out by getting bodied 137-0 by two top-10 teams.
While this game should certainly be one where EMU enters as heavy road favorites, this game still gets the league-approved level of respect from EMU’s head coach. It’s not like EMU, still searching for its first-ever MAC championship game appearance, is in a place to cast stones anyway; Kent State’s made it to Detroit twice.
“[At] the beginning of the year, no one's good enough to win a MAC championship… We're all at the bottom if you will, and it's a matter of who can close their gap, who can become their best — not necessarily the fastest — but whose ceiling is the highest,” Creighton said Monday during EMU’s weekly press conference. “I don't know if people ever really think about it that way, but it's pretty clear to me. You know that this time of year, I don't think that there's any MAC team right now that's good enough to win a MAC championship.”
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Preparing for Kent State
LAST YEAR’S GAME
Last year’s 28-14 home win was not a pretty one for the Eagles. The cold and rainy weather had its effect on the game, but the cold and rain wasn’t the reason for 18 punts to be called all day. Kendric Nowling came prepared to play as he fielded Kent State’s game-opening trick onside kick and ran it to the end zone for EMU’s quickest touchdown in school history. Then like I said, it was an ugly game (18 punts!) and Samson Evans got in the end zone twice.
It wasn’t the kind of game anybody wants to relive.
QB TOMMY ULATOWSKI’S FIRST START OF 2024
Kent State tells itself every year that it’ll accept its bumps and bruises throughout the non-conference slate just so it can get some million-dollar paychecks written to help fund its other sports. I don’t know if they were totally prepared to lose two quarterbacks to season-ending injuries against Penn State, but that’s where the Flashes find themselves to open up MAC play.
Devin Kargman was removed after the second play of the game with a hip injury, and JD Sherrod had an Achilles injury later in the half to scratch him for the season. Tommy Ulatowski, who had a finger injury and didn’t play against Tennessee, is back to being the starting QB.
Ulatowski made three starts last season (15 career games played) and is a 48.2% passer with a career line of 67/139 for 848 yards, 9 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. This year, he’s 1/7 throwing with a 9-yard TD thrown against St. Francis.
KY THOMAS WILL GET WORKLOAD
Kent State’s going to run the ball come Hell or high water, and Ky Thomas is going to get fed the rock. As a team, Kent’s run the ball more times (126) than it’s thrown it (96), and Thomas has been the feature back.
Thomas, a former Minnesota and Kansas transfer, had 824 yards rushing under Kenni Burns at Minnesota when he was that program’s running backs coach in 2021. Two years ago at Kansas, Thomas saw his production dip from 166 carries to 53 while appearing in the same amount of games (9).
With Kent State, Thomas has rushed for 104 yards on 40 handoffs (2.6 avg.), has 43 yards off eight catches, and is still looking for his first touchdown of the season.
FLASHES TO WATCH
WR Luke Floriea — Had two touchdown scores against EMU last year, and has the ability to make long scores. He leads KSU’s receiving this year with 16 grabs for 214 yards and 2 TD.
WR Chrishon McCray — Missed a month of the 2023 season and was still a First Team All-MAC receiver as a freshman. Currently has 12 catches for 121 and 2 TD in 2024.
DE Kam Olds — Olds, a former Buffalo Bull, is in a four-way tie atop the MAC standings with 3 sacks made. EMU’s Petyon Price and Justin Jefferson are also tied for the league’s lead here, as is NIU’s Neveah Sanders.
K Andrew Glass — Glass is tied with Freddy Cortez (2009-2012) for most field goals made in a Kent State career with 55 made.
Offensive hiccups, but at least there’s 30 points on the board
For as improved as this year’s offense has been compared to last year, there are still some new heights that this team wants to reach during league play. But last year’s offense was basically the worst in America, and comparing the two offenses is like comparing a corpse to a healthy, living person with a heartbeat.
For the 2024 season, EMU’s offense…
… has scored with nine touchdowns and 11 field goals over 43 drives this season,
… has already matched last year’s total in games with at least 30 points scored (which is just six shy of matching 2022’s total),
… has turned the ball over just one time (a fumble at Washington) over 285 plays ran,
… has punted the ball away 10 times and has already had six turnovers on downs,
… is 66th in the country in pass percentage (62.7%) and 120th in rushing average (2.90 yards per carry),
… if we only look at offensive touchdowns, PAT kicks, 2-point conversions, and field goals, is averaging 24.25 points per game (if we include all scores, EMU averages 27.5 points per game as a team),
… is the highest-rated MAC unit in offensive available yards, and sits at #26 in the nation (per BCFToys.com),
… is the highest-rated MAC team in offensive points per drive, 39th nationally. Toledo is on EMU’s heels at #41,
… is a very-average 67th nationally in third down conversions (40.32%, 25/62),
… is 52nd in offensive possession efficiency,
… and, with all of the players trying to gain experience along the offensive line, it’s tied for #117th nationally in tackles for loss allowed (28).
There are a lot of new faces across the offense that are responsible for making this unit go, so there was never any expectation that these players were all going to hit the ground running and play at their fullest potentials in September. That just wasn’t going to happen.
It still might look perfect this week, even if Kent State’s arguably the least-threatening school in the country on both sides of the ball. On paper, this seems like a game where EMU should be able to gain some confidence before the bye week. Same could be said about last week, but the team didn’t enter its home stadium with the same fire displayed against Jacksonville State.
In the Jax State game, EMU scored four touchdowns over its five drives in the first half — none in the second half or in the overtime periods. Against St. Francis, EMU’s only touchdown in the first half came from a defensive scoop-and-score when St. Francis’ offense was threatening to score at the goal line.
“Hard to admit that it may have been, low energy. I didn't see that coming,” Creighton diagnosed Monday. “And ultimately that's my job, to make sure that… we're at our absolute best and firing on all cylinders, emotionally, mentally, physically, all of those things. And give credit to Saint Francis for sure. But yeah, [we were] just a little bit off-kilter.”
Effort and execution are related in this sport, and Creighton’s going to want to see his team makes the right steps forward before his team even gets off the bus Saturday. Because the test here, really, isn’t whether or not EMU can physically push Kent State around on the field. The test is whether or not Creighton can mentally wire his team to be enthusiastic about preparing for and playing against a Kent State team that, again, lost to St. Francis and has not taken the lead in any game this year.
“Like I said earlier, we're not good enough to win a MAC championship,” Creighton re-iterated toward the end of Monday’s presser. “Is there time? Yes. Can we? Absolutely. Are we there? No. So, I don't know about momentum. There were certainly positives that we want to continue with… I think there could be some healthy confidence, and all of that. And it's figuring out how to win… I've been in this league for 11 years, I think it’s a mistake to look at the conference, and look at the non-conference records and whatnot, and think that you can predict how things are going to go. That's crazy.”
Long-term group project: Fine-tune the offensive line
The other explanation that Creighton offered when asked about his offense’s production issues and if low energy was a cause of it playing off-rhtythm, is that there are simply a lot of guys who need playing experience across the offensive line room. He’s said before that he’s pleased with how many guys are ‘above the line’ and capable of seeing the field on gamedays. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out what the lineup, and backup lineups, ought to look like the rest of the way.
Mickey Rewolinski, who leads the offense with 18 starts made at Eastern, has hardly missed any playing time as the everyday left guard after being the team’s left tackle last year. Broderick Roman, team captain and started the season for his first time as the Week 1 center, has had a career marred with bad injury luck and came out of the Jax State game on the first drive of the game with leg soreness, then missed the St. Francis game.
In the first two weeks of the season, those two started at their normal spots with Chris Mayo at left tackle, Carson Lee at right guard, and first-year transfer Blake Bustard at right tackle. Against Jax State, EMU had Mack Indestad and Joshua Anderson make their first career starts at left and right tackle while Bustard sat the game out, Mayo came into the game on a reserve basis. Once Roman came out of the game, Lee slid over to center and started there the next week against St. Francis too. Jez Janvier, who has re-emerged through the offensive line this year, came off the bench to play most of the Jax State game, then made his first start at right guard the following week. Against St. Francis, Bustard came back into the lineup as the starting left tackle while Anderson started and played most of the game again on the right side; Indestad did not play against St. Francis.
In added efforts to get more linemen in-game reps, EMU used some packages where a sixth lineman got on the field — sometimes that was Daniel Warnsman, sometimes it was Everett Small; Mayo saw himself as a seventh O-lineman near the goal line in the same package that defensive tackle Melvin Swindle was used as a fullback.
Injuries aren’t wished for, but EMU’s unquestionably tried to make the most of those moments to get its young guys some necessary experience before this team gets deep in the weeds of conference play.
As explained by Creighton after the St. Francis game Saturday, “Some ways it hurts you, because you don't have a chemistry with five guys or six guys, you got four games in and all of those things. But then it also helps you. Anytime you get people in there playing and getting experience, it's — I don't know what the ratio is from practice, or even years of practice to playing in games, but every snap that you get that's a significant minute, and game action is huge for the maturation process.”
If there’s some napkin math I like to use to help judge how good or bad things are going along a team's offensive line, it’s their tackles for loss allowed percentage. Right now, EMU is 106th in the country at 9.82% of plays turning into negatives, which is ahead of just four other MAC programs: Buffalo (10.17%), Akron (10.84%), Ball State (11.48%) and Kent State (12.16%). EMU kept QB Cole Snyder clean with no sacks and just two TFL allowed in the season opener against UMass, but has struggled since: 8 TFL and 7 sacks given up at Washington, 12 TFL and 5 sacks by JSU, and 5 TFL and 2 sacks by SFU.
Just because EMU went 3-1 in its first four games, that doesn’t mean EMU will go 3-1 through its first four conference games. And just because EMU has had too many plays end poorly so far, that doesn’t mean time’s running out to show drastic improvements the rest of the way.
Wrong way: Penalties trending
Speaking of categories where EMU needs to show a serious improvement: there’s too much dirty laundry on the field. Of the 16 quarters of football played so far, there’s only been one quarter played where EMU wasn’t guilty of any penalties.
As a program standard, EMU doesn’t want to see any more than five penalties drawn in a game. In its first four games, EMU has drawn 7 (82 yards), 4 (42 yards), 11 (99 yards), and 10 penalties (86 yards). With 309 total yards given up this season via yellow flags, EMU’s one of the most penalized teams in the country.
Sure, there are some holding and false start calls against some of the newer offensive linemen, but that’s not the overwhelming issue here. Of the 32 penalties that’ve gone against EMU this year, the offense is responsible for just nine of those. The defense is responsible for most of the team’s drawn penalties this year with 17, and special teams units are guilty for six penalties as well.
One of the two safety penalties from the JSU game would be course-corrected after a postgame review found Quentavius Scandrett's previously-ruled-illegal hit to be legal, and didn't have to miss playing time against St. Francis.
Obviously, the long and the short of this story is that EMU needs to play cleaner and better-detailed football. But the blame with all of that doesn’t really sit with the new O-linemen who are trying to make the most of their in-season auditions. Instead, it’s the defense and special teams units that have to diagnose their penalty concerns and play better throughout the MAC season.
By the Numbers
1-15
Still in just his second year ever as a head coach, Kent State's Kenni Burns is still looking for his second-career win, and first over an FBS program. Kent's one victory last year came over Central Connecticut (38-10).
3-2
Creighton holds a 3-2 record against Kent State as EMU’s head coach. EMU won in 2018 (28-20), 2022 (31-24), and 2023 (28-14), and lost in 2019 (34-26) and 2020 (27-23).
31-47
Entering his 11th conference season as EMU’s head coach, Creighton holds a 31-47 record in league play.
0 in last 196
Dating back to when he was a quarterback at Buffalo, Snyder has not thrown an interception in his last seven games played. His last pick was thrown late in the first half against Toledo. After that, he threw 24 passes throughout the game, finished the UB season without throwing up a turnover, and has yet to throw an INT as an Eagle.
