St. Francis Week: Entering 'Don't Get Caught Sleepwalking' Season
FCS-level St. Francis comes to town this weekend, and EMU's hungry to build off of last week's thriller.
As Eastern Michigan has the exact type of record it wants to see next to its name at this point in the year, EMU can’t find itself caught overlooking its next opponent. Yes, 2-1 should absolutely turn to 3-1 after 60 minutes of football against the 1-2 St. Francis Red Flash football team on Saturday.
Right now, EMU’s schedule reads that it has games against St. Francis (home) and Kent State (away) over these next two weeks, then a bye week before the defending MAC champions come to Ypsilanti for its first real challenge of the MAC slate). If Miami’s logo gets you excited but the other two teams only get a yawn out of you, then you might be standing on a trap door.
This is still college football, and taking teams like St. Francis lightly is exactly what leads to the downfall of unfocused teams.
That group already beat Kent State for its first-ever FBS upset in school history. Of course that team’s going to play inspired to catch its second on the gray turf of Maxx Crosby Field.
“I mean we're all football teams at the end of the day. We never overlook anyone,” redshirt sophomore tight end Max Reese said during Monday’s team press conference. “Anybody can be beaten at any time, knocking they're looking to come in here and walk in our house and show us something. But we got to defend home turf.”
EMU is not yet 3-1, but a focused week should help Eastern get to that record.
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Preparing for St. Francis
ON THE RED FLASH (not ‘Flashes’)
THIS YEAR: St. Francis’s football squad (1-2) has had a mixed start to the year. On the plus side, this team picked up its first-ever win over an FBS program when it took down Kent State 23-17 a couple of weeks ago. The problem, though, is that this team has fumbled its way out of its games against Dayton (18-10) and Central Connecticut (27-20).
HEAD COACH: Chris Villareal is a former NFL offensive lineman and fifth-round pick in the 1996 draft (#152 overall) was named to four Pro Bowls and was an All-Pro selection twice, and made 148 career starts across his career with the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills. He coached some high school football after his playing days, made his way onto the St. Francis staff as an offensive coordinator, then was named head coach in 2009. Villareal has been St. Francis’ coach ever since and has a career 65-82 record overall (28-44 Northeast Conference).
This will be the second meeting between EMU and St. Francis. In 2021, EMU routed the Red Flash 35-15, and out-gained its opponents 410 yards to 292 while going 5 for 5 in its red zone trips.
BALL SECURITY AN EARLY PROBLEM FOR SFU
Lost 3 fumbles in each of its losses to Dayton (18-10) and Central Connecticut (27-20) this year. It lost one in its win over Kent State. Ball security is an obvious weakness for St. Francis, and EMU already prioritizes the turnover-takeaway ratio as a recipe for success.
EMU enters this week tied in the middle of the country with an even split on turnovers (1) and takeaways (1) this year; EMU and Washington exchanged fumbles in their game two weeks ago.
As far as EMU’s Havoc ratings go, this team could use a game or two to start swinging in the right direction. Defensively, this team is creating havoc less often than it did last year (15.22% vs. 12.82%), and is off to a slower start making plays in the coverage department. Honestly, I don’t totally expect EMU to have four interceptions through the first three games like it did last year, but the secondary so far has hardly broken up passes this year. Opposing quarterbacks are completing passes at a 73% clip for 804 yards and 6 TD against EMU’s defense.
On offense, EMU’s definitely got its issues at O-line that contribute that 23 tackles for loss figure. Snyder’s had 15 of his passes broken up this year, but is completing his throws 64% of the time for 665 yards and has 4 total scores (3 passing, 1 rushing) this season. Much to his credit, he’s yet to throw an interception this season — one of seven FBS quarterbacks to have at least 90 pass attempts and zero INTs this year. Seeing a slight improvement on the havoc calculator versus last year’s rate is a positive note for the Eagles, and this week matches up well for EMU to keep trying to swing in the right direction.
Creighton said that on Sunday during his team’s meeting, everybody was itching to figure out how to do just that.
“I really appreciate that about our guys,” Creighton said, “is that there is this growing maturity about knowing, without us having to tell them, that that we [have] got to be better than we are… So we're chomping at the bit being able to be back at home. You know, after being gone for two weeks, back to back home games, it was a great environment year. Expect nothing less on Saturday.”
WHO’S IN? WHO’S OUT?
Considering that the injuries are starting to pile up for EMU and some new faces entered the starting lineups last week against Jacksonville State, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a lot of dudes wearing sweatpants on the sidelines this weekend. Before last week’s game, 15 players were ruled out and three of the four ‘questionable’ players sat out, and they watched six more players get hurt during Saturday’s game.
Anybody with moderate to risky injury concerns this week is better off not risking the worst on Saturday. And if anybody’s trying to come back from injury this week, they might be better off not risking re-injury against St. Francis when the evermore important MAC games are right around the corner.
Running back: Dontae McMillan was out with a leg injury suffered from the Washington game, and Delbert Mimms was sidelined after a hit during the Jacksonville State game. Elijah Jackson-Anderson finished with 87 yards on the ground and even had a TD catch out of the backfield.
Offensive line: Two new tackles got their first career starts last week (Mack Indestad at left tackle, Josh Anderson at right tackle), and captain Broderick Roman came out during the very first drive of the Jacksonville State game with a leg injury. Indestad also came out of the game with injury.
Wide receiver: We’ve yet to see J.B. Mitchell (returning starter) or Porter Rooks (NC State graduate transfer) this season.
Defensive backs: Joshua Scott and Dramarian McNulty have each missed time after being starting cornerbacks in Week 1. Graduate Bryce Llewellyn has been listed as out every game this season. True freshman Jordan Toney started the last two games but came out during last week’s game, and Jaheim Jenkins was also made unavailable last week. First-year transfer Tyrelle Deener was penalized for targeting last week and will miss the first half against St. Francis. Also, Barry Manning got hurt during the JSU game.
That’s not everybody, but those are probably the biggest injury marks on the team so far. EMU certainly wants to not have to face the embarrassment of losing to an FCS school, but would they rather risk any serious injuries before conference play?
BREAKOUTS
AT TIGHT END: Max Reese is coming off the best game of his college life with two touchdown receptions in last week’s 37-34 double-overtime win against Jax State. He wasn’t the only one to start seeing more productivity on the field last week.
UP FRONT: Anderson made his first start at right tackle and Indestad made his first start on the left side. Indestad has been hyped-up as a tackle who could’ve probably played last year had he not suffered a hand injury. On Monday, Creighton noted that Anderson’s best football-playing days are still ahead of him.
“I think Josh Anderson has really stepped up and is playing really well, and his ceiling is even much higher than how he's playing right now,” the coach said.
The offensive line faced adversity very early in the JSU game with Roman’s injury exit, and had a lot of moving parts throughout the game. Carson Lee slid from right guard to center, just like he did last year when Roman came out with injury. Jez Janvier came off the bench to go to Lee’s spot, and then Daniel Warnsman came in to be an extra, sixth offensive lineman near the goal line.
All told, the O-line still had its problems. Even though the offense still had 447 yards of offense, the group still let in too many trespassers: 12 tackles for loss and 5 sacks on quarterback Cole Snyder, a week after Washington got in the backfield for 9 TFL and 7 sacks.
RUNNING BACKS, STANS MCMILLAN: At running back, Jackson-Anderson had some breakout moments against the Gamecocks. His first career touchdown last year came out of the Wildcat formation with a pass from Samson Evans. Against JSU, Jackson-Anderson got a 24-yard receiving score out of the backfield, then got some tough yards to pick up key first downs in the fourth quarter after Mimms came out with injury.
By the numbers
0 INT
Zero interceptions through three weeks is a good place to be for Snyder and EMU’s offense. Through the first three games in each of the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Snyder had two picks thrown at each point in those seasons with Buffalo. EMU’s offense had five interceptions thrown in the first three games of 2022, and 2 in 2023.
2-0 vs. NEC
EMU holds a 2-0 record all-time against Northeast Conference foes. EMU beat Central Connecticut in 2019 (34-29) and St. Francis in 2021 (35-15).
Looking to be 3-1 again
The last time EMU got to a 3-1 start to the year was 2019 when it had wins over Coastal Carolina, Illinois, and Central Connecticut. EMU finished the season 6-7 and fell to Pitt in the Quick Lane Bowl.
88 receiving yards
After a breakout performance for tight end Reese last week against JSU, the redshirt sophomore has 88 receiving yards on the season while leading the team with 2 TD grabs.
94 yards to the house
St. Francis kick returner Damario Crawford had his first career kick return for a touchdown last week, a 94-yard return.
274
St. Francis running back DeMarcus McElroy (Marshall transfer) has 274 rushing yards on the season, and had a 97-yard rushing score last week against Central Connecticut.