To Jim Harkema, comeback classic can teach EMU 'real you'
To EMU coaching great, there are always three games that help decide ball games. EMU's comeback win over CMU had way more than that.
Eastern Michigan couldn’t have had a more perfect guest of honor to attend an instant classic.
Jim Harkema, former head coaching great for EMU, came back to Ypsilanti for the occasion. It was homecoming, Central Michigan’s in town for a rivalry game, and the record book gods work in mysterious ways: Chris Creighton passed Harkema on the all-time MAC victories list with yesterday’s 38-34 comeback victory.
Harkema finished with 32 MAC wins from 1983-1992.
Creighton, in the middle of his 11th season, now has 33.
Some alumni players returned for the game, and Harkema served as the honorary coach for the week.
In front of EMU’s Eagles, the former Hurons coach gave the team three instructions. First, work hard. Secondly, have fun. And third, just know that every game has three plays that are going to determine the outcome.
Harkema said that he’d have former players ask him what those three plays are so they can be ready for it and give their all on those few plays.
So why don’t you play every single play like it’s going to be that one?
That line of thinking stuck with the team when they heard it, and repeated it to themselves Saturday morning, and during the pregame meal.
“We talked about it again right before we took the field,” Creighton said after the game. “So you (to Harkema, in attendance for the postgame press conference) truly were coaching with us. It was awesome.”
Long story short, Harkema’s “three plays” speech comes from the ‘70’s when Rick Leach was the quarterback for Bo Schembechler’s Michigan teams. Leach’s max effort plays would help extend drives, and Schembechler would refer to some of his first-down gains as some of the most important plays in their games.
Yesterday’s game against Central though, wasn’t defined by three plays.
“We counted early in the second quarter [and] we already had three. So I think it was more like 7 to 10,” Harkema said. “It was a crazy game.”
A crazy game indeed.
Eastern Michigan began the game with a 13-0 lead in the second quarter, erasing the memory of a first-possession interception that Cole Snyder tossed on the team’s first third down of the game. Still, he fired back aggressively with deep passing to Markus Allen and Oran Singleton and Jesus Gomez made field goals from 22 and 41 yards out. CMU caught a break as halftime approached. After the first half’s 2-minute timeout, CMU finished a 73-yard drive with its running quarterback throwing a 22-yard dart in the end zone, and then its defense came away with a 67-yard scoop and score after it got the ball free from Snyder on a sack. CMU had the 14-13 lead with one minute left in the half until running back Delbert Mimms III had two 16-yard catches to set up Gomez for his third field goal of the day and went into halftime with a 16-14 lead.
Then, as Creighton would say, the third quarter was not good for EMU and the fourth quarter was not good for CMU.
Central scored on all four of its third-quarter drives and running back Marion Lukes, who didn’t play in the first half, had 110 rushing yards on 9 carries in the third quarter. CMU made touchdown drives on 68 and 77-yard drives (7 total plays), and kicker Tristan Mattson made field goals of 56 and 51 yards for the Chippewas to take a 34-16 lead with 13:26 left on the clock.
“You just knew that everybody was still in,” Creighton recalled. “So there's always offensive and defensive adjustments being made. There in the third quarter, they brought their running quarterback in (Bert Emanuel Jr.). The fourth quarter, they didn't have him, that was a factor. We were able to complete passes. Still stuck with the run game, but we were just off in that third quarter.
“When things aren't going your way and you're just missing and whatnot, for him to have the belief and then the resilience, the ability to flush that [early interception] in the moment and to be able to play free and to come back and lead the team, I think that's part of that story, the second half as well.”
Snyder rolled to his right and fired a deep shot to Allen crossing deep toward the sideline. The ball bounced through Allen’s hands and into Terry Lockett’s, who just had to turn and run 10 yards for the score. EMU’s 2-point conversion play was successful as walk-on Joey Mattord caught the pass out of the backfield, 34-24. EMU’s defense won with a three-and-out on its next series (as Emanuel exited with injury), and a bad punt by the Chippewas gave great field position (CMU’s 45) to hurry up and score with a 30-yard strike from Snyder to Lockett.
Next thing you know, EMU was down by 3 with 7 minutes to play and the defense kept fighting. Defensive end Trey Laing got involved in four of the defense’s next five plays, including a third-down sack (with Donovan Green) to force another punt from Central.
“I think this room is probably, like, the deepest room I've ever been in,” Laing said after the game. “All of our guys are capable, and all of us are capable of making big-time plays. My number was called today, and I just made some big-time plays. And as far as (Kasey Teegardin) coaching this up, and keeping our room upbeat,… it's a brotherhood, and we all do this for each other. So us just having that mindset, let the next dog eat, and no one's tired. Just always keeping fresh legs rotating. I think this (is) what gives us the edge.”
Under four minutes remaining, EMU needed to rally 62 yards to get into the end zone. Mimms had a clutch, 38-yard run to at least get in the red zone, and nearly got a score on his 1st & goal carry from the 8-yard line. Initially ruled a touchdown, officials needed video review to overturn his spot. Mimms then lost 2 yards on second down, got those 2 yards back on third down, then Snyder motioned into a QB sneak to score from the 1-yard line on fourth down.
Score: 38-34, Eastern’s way; an instant classic.
Harkema may have helped set the standard for coaching at EMU, but seeing victories over CMU was a rarity in his time as EMU’s coach with a 1-6-2 record even if he did have four-straight winning seasons beginning with 1986, and was the MAC’s season champion in 1987 (10-2 overall) and knocked off San Jose State in the California Bowl that year. Even so, Harkema’s had some comeback victories during his coaching days and knows what comeback victories can do for teams.
“It can do it can do wonders, depending on how players react to it,” Harkema said. “That, ‘Well, we really did have it in us,’ as opposed to ‘weren’t we fortunate?’ And I'm sure coach [Creighton] will spend a lot of time [on it], that's the real you.
“It's the ebbs and flows of the game. But it's, it's dependent on, do you just have that excitement that you did it, or is it a is it a teaching moment?”
You do a great job Alex!
Great article Alex! Appreciate your work