EMU Football Depth Chart and Snap Counts: Week 13
Will EMU go bowling or sit at home this December? All depends on how the regular season finale at Buffalo goes.
One more game left.
Maybe two?
A win next week at Buffalo, and Eastern Michigan (5-6 overall, 3-4 MAC) is going to a bowl game
A loss, and EMU’s probably sitting at home this December.
Maybe.
There are 41 bowl games (including the playoff games) which means we’re looking for 82 6-win teams to fill those spots. So far there are 58 bowl-eligible teams, including four from the MAC — Toledo, Bowling Green, Ohio, and Miami.
Neither Jacksonville State nor James Madison, as deserving as they are, are going to bowl games this year after the NCAA denied their We Deserve A Postseason More Than Some Of These Other Guys appeals yesterday, so that’s two more chances for somebody else, like Eastern(?), to go bowling.
If there aren’t enough 6-win teams to go around, the bowl committee looks at 5-win teams ranked by APR (academic progress report) scores. EMU is tied at #48 ranking with an APR of of 975 with Arizona State, East Carolina, NC State, and Toledo, down from its #38 ranking it had last year.
The current five-to-six-win/bowl-bubble teams with a higher APR than EMU? I found 20 schools: Northwestern (tied #1), Cincinnati (#6) Minnesota (tied #8), Wake Forest (tied #8), Boise State (tied #13), Rice (tied #15), Mississippi State (tied #19), UCF (#22), South Carolina (tied #23), Michigan State (tied #28), Stanford (tied #28), Ball State (tied #34), Baylor (tied #34), Army (tied #36), Cal (tied #36), Georgia Tech (tied #36), Temple (tied #36), Florida (tied #43), Indiana (tied #45), and Arizona State (tied #48).
There are 41 teams, EMU included, that are still fighting for that sixth win over the next couple of weeks, so EMU’s not exactly in a position where it can coast into a bowl game with a 5-7 record like Northwestern (5-5) might.
Bowl game or not, EMU’s not going to want to show any quit next Tuesday at Buffalo to wrap up the season. Buffalo (3-8 overall, 3-4 MAC) is still suffering from its 0-4 start to the year and won’t be going bowling this year, which means the Bulls get to play The Spoiler at home to wrap-up the season. On paper, EMU needs to redeem itself on the road on the last game of the season, which sounds fun until you remember two things: 1. Buffalo destroyed EMU last year at home, and 2. EMU is winless on the road this year.
Today was the final week-opening press conference of the season. Below is the team-released depth chart in the weekly game notes, along with season-long snap counts for offense and defense (via Pro Football Focus), stats, notes, and quotes from the press conference.
Previous depth charts: Spring/Summer | Week 1 vs. Howard | Week 2 at Minnesota | Week 3 vs. UMass | Week 4 at Jacksonville State | Week 5 at Central Michigan | Week 6 vs. Ball State | Week 7 vs. Kent State | Week 8 at Northern Illinois | Week 9 vs. Western Michigan | Week 11 at Toledo | Week 12 vs. Akron
OFFENSE
QUARTERBACK
#4 Austin Smith
#8 Cam’Ron McCoy / #3 Ike Udengwu III
Austin Smith’s season line sits at 152/271 (56.1%) for 1,634 yards, 8 TD, 7 INT. Against the Zips, Smith was 20/32 (62.5%) for 214 yards, 1 TD and no turnovers. Efficiency hasn’t been consistent for the QB this year, and he’s got one (maybe two) game(s) left to really show some growth and potential as the team starts to prepare for its winter season.
RUNNING BACK
#22 Samson Evans / #28 Jaylon Jackson
Samson Evans’ 71 yards rushed against Akron may not seem like much, but those 71 yards included three touchdowns and his 1,000th career rushing yard on EMU’s gray turf (career 232 rush att., 1,060 yards, 4.57 avg., 23 TD at home). For the season, Evans has 508 yards rushed (11th MAC) on 120 carries (12th) for 11 touchdowns (2nd).
Jaylon Jackson is the team’s leader in yards from scrimmage (705) with 502 rushing and 203 receiving yards, 3 total TD.
X RECEIVER
#17 JB Mitchell III
#13 Jamarien Wheeler
Z RECEIVER
#2 Tanner Knue
#5 TE Max Reese
H RECEIVER
#1 WR Hamze El-Zayat
#11 Terry Lockett Jr.
Tanner Knue (48 rec., 472 yards, 3 TD) and Hamze El-Zayat (25 rec., 370 yards, 2 TD) lead EMU’s receiving efforts by yards. J.B. Mitchell’s production has had a rising role on the team in the first-half of the season. The ball hasn’t gone his way as much in the second-half, but caught 7 passes against Ball State, 5 against each of CMU and WMU, but only 4 grabs for 40 over the last couple of games.
Y RECEIVER, TIGHT END
#83 Jere Getzinger
#85 Andreas Paaske / #88 Blake Daniels
Blake Daniels is the team’s leading receiver out of the tight end room (13 rec., 149 yards), but Jere Getzinger got their position room’s first touchdown of the season with a game-winning grab in 2OT against Akron.
Getzinger, on how he remembers his game-winner: “So we installed the play earlier this week and we knew were going to have a chance especially with Samson running the ball back there. [RT Brian] Dooley really helped me sell it because we were ready to zone down and get Samson into the end zone. Dooley was yelling at me to come down, the defense was ready for me to come down, and I just popped right out the back to make the catch.”
LEFT TACKLE
#63 Mickey Rewolinski
#76 Chris Mayo
LEFT GUARD
#54 Zack Conti
#55 Dan Sunderman
CENTER
#75 Carson Lee
#67 Broderick Roman
#70 Dimitri Douglas
RIGHT GUARD
#68 Alex Howie
#75 Carson Lee
RIGHT TACKLE
#77 Brian Dooley
#73 Joshua Anderson
A lot of attention, deservedly so, went to Brian Dooley this year. Alex Howie, senior right guard, has been the team’s leader in snaps played on the field all year long, and has played 686 snaps this season (per PFF).
Said Creighton: “He’s a rock. He was in high school, he is and has been all the way through here at Eastern Michigan. So dependable, so consistent. He, on the sidelines, on the bench, I think is that calming presence more than words, when he speaks everyone listens, cares deeply. He’s a really good player.
DEFENSE
LEO
#11 Mikah Coleman
#49 Jaden Gaines
DEFENSIVE END
#47 Justin Jefferson
#45 Joey Zelinsky
NOSE TACKLE
#94 Peyton Price
#99 Melvin Swindle II
DEFENSIVE TACKLE
#98 Tim Grant-Randall
#92 Alex Merritt
MIKE, LINEBACKER
#6 Chase Kline
#44 Luke Cameron
WILL, LINEBACKER
#19 Joe Sparacio
#12 Elijah Williams
The rest of the country still has to play out its Week 13 games, but to this point, Chase Kline and Joe Sparacio rank second and third nationally with 132 and 125 total tackles made, respectively. Sparacio had a nation’s-best 22 tackles recorded against Western Michigan, but Kline’s 23-tackle performance against Akron became the new national leader for a game this year.
STAR
#4 Daiquan White
#5 Korey Hernandez
CORNERBACK
#29 Kempton Shine
#14 Keylen Gulley
Kempton Shine’s 27 career pass breakups is second-most in school history behind DaQuan Pace’s (2013-2016) 28 career mark.
CORNERBACK
#17 Bennett Walker
#26 Tristen Hines
FREE
#16 Cameron Smith
#27 David Carter Jr.
BANDIT
#3 Quentavius Scandrett
#39 Barry Manning
SPECIAL TEAMS
PUNTER
#30 Mitchell Tomasek
#33 Ryan Kingston
Mitch Tomasek has gotten maybe too much exercise out there, but the poor offense out of EMU meant Tomasek’s been able to have a portfolio year: He’s punted the ball 56 times this season (tied 9th-most nationally) for 2,548 yards (3rd) and an average of 45.5 yards per punt (16th). Tomasek’s had 16 punts travel 50+ yards and has recorded at least one 50+ yarder in 10 of his team’s 11 games, 22 inside the 20.
PLACEKICKER
#35 Jesus Gomez
#37 Kenyon Bowyer
Jesus Gomez hasn’t had the year he would’ve liked — three missed field goals (10/13) and PAT kicks this season (17/20). Against Akron, he missed his first try from 56 yards, but made a clutch 32-yarder to send the game into overtime.
LONG SNAPPER
#46 Steve Bird
#51 Mitchell Dietzel
KICKOFFS
#37 Kenyon Bowyer / #33 Ryan Kingston
KICK RETURN
#28 Jaylon Jackson
#1 Hamze El-Zayat
Teams have come prepared for EMU’s kick and punt returning units ever since Howard saw them run up the score in the second quarter. Jaylon Jackson had 23 returns last year for 517 yards and one touchdown (had two returns of 80+ yards), but this year he’s at 14 kick returns for 310 yards. Last year, there were only two games where he didn’t field a kick back. This year, he’s return-less in five contests. The good news is he’s had 8 total returns over the last three games.
PUNT RETURN
#1 Hamze El-Zayat
#28 Jaylon Jackson
#23 Elijah Jackson-Anderson
El-Zayat, this year, has been a singular improvement for the punt-returning game. Between Hassan Beydoun and Dylan Drummond last year, they fielded nine punts for 52 yards. El-Zayat has returned 12 punts for 144 yards.
HOLDER
#30 Mitchell Tomasek
#33 Ryan Kingston