NOTES: EMU headed to 68 Ventures Bowl to face South Alabama
NOTES: EMU headed to 68 Ventures Bowl to face South Alabama
Also, former EMU offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer has his Washington Huskies in the Playoff.
EMU vs. South Alabama in the 68 Ventures Bowl
Eastern Michigan found out Sunday which bowl game it’s headed to after it finished the regular season with a 6-6 record.
Final stop: Mobile, Alabama to face off against South Alabama in the 68 Ventures Bowl, formerly the LendingTree Bowl.
South Alabama, led by third-year coach Kane Wommack, finished the year with a 6-6 record and has a shared common opponent with EMU. In Week 4, South Alabama lost at home 34—30 to Central Michigan.
For EMU, this is its sixth bowl trip over the last eight seasons/last seven full seasons, and has seen more bowl games than any other MAC team since 2016. This is the third year in a row EMU has been to a bowl game — a program-setting mark — and will be playing for another program-setting mark in the upcoming bowl game. EMU has never won bowl games in back-to-back seasons, so this stage is certainly ripe for the Eagles.
This is also going to to end up being a de facto home game for the Jaguars. This bowl game’s home site is at Hancock Whitney Stadium, South Alabama’s home field — South Alabama is 4-2 in home games this season.
By contrast, for EMU to get its sixth win of the year, it had to go to Buffalo and pick up its first road win of the year.
More EMU Notes
Four EMU players have already announced their intentions to hit the transfer protal, which will officially open tomorrow: DE Mikah Coleman, OL Zack Conti, DT Alex Merritt, and TE Andreas Paaske.
The last time EMU played in the state of Alabama: EMU would rather not talk about it. The Eagles got slapped 21-0 to Jacksonville State in its first year as an FBS program.
EMU landed six players on the year-end, All-MAC lists:
1st team: P Mitch Tomasek.
2nd team: OL Brian Dooley, KR Jaylon Jackson, WR Tanner Knue, LB Joe Sparacio.
3rd team: LB Chase Kline.
Chris Creighton is 1-4 in bowl games. Last year, EMU broke its 35-year wait for another bowl win with a victory in the Potato Bowl.
Last year, South Alabama went to its first bowl game since 2016 and lost 44-23 to Western Kentucky in the New Orleans Bowl. USA is 0-3 all-time in bowl games.
South Alabama started playing college football in 2009, and made the jump to FBS in 2012.
Wommack is only the second head coach in the South Alabama’s history (Joey Jones: 52-50 record over 9 seasons).
MAC Bowl Game Notes
Miami vs. Appalachian State (Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl) — The MAC championship-winning RedHawks are going to the Cure Bowl to face the Sun Belt’s runner-up in bowl play (Troy faces Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl). There’s still enough brand awareness when it comes to playing Appalachian State, with an 8-5 record, and a MAC team beating this team is always better than not.
Toledo vs. Wyoming (Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl) — A far cry from the kind of opponent Toledo would be facing if it could’ve positioned itself for a New Year’s Six slot, but this is a super entertaining matchup nonetheless. If Toledo/the MAC wants more national credibility, this is a can’t-lose situation for the Rockets.
Ohio vs. Georgia Southern (Myrtle Beach Bowl) — This matchup gets a loud “HMM…” out of me. Ohio hasn’t been as good as I would’ve loved to see this year, but who cares about looks when they have a 9-3 record? Tim Albin’s doing really good things in his second year as Ohio’s head coach, as is Clay Helton for Georgia Southern with two-straight bowl trips.
Bowling Green vs. Minnesota (Quick Lane Bowl) — I’ve been mean to Bowling Green football for a while. This isn’t a program that excites me very much, and now this team is demanding my respect now that it’s going to ANOTHER bowl game. I was never really a big believer in Scot Loeffler as a head coach for the Falcons, but who cares what I have to say when his players certainly believe in what’s going on in Bowling Green, Ohio? P.J. Fleck and Minnesota sound tough until you ask yourself: do the Gophers even have a quarterback right now?
Northern Illinois vs. Arkansas State (Camellia Bowl) — You might think I have to be loyal to the MAC in all of my rooting interests, but that’s simply not going to be the case here. Vibes-wise, why wouldn’t I want to see Arkansas State have its best game of the year now? Did you not see how this team closed out the year vs. the way it got started? NIU’s fragile, and the transfer portal already provided a dagger to this team’s roster: 3x All-MAC selection WR Trayvon Rudolph is on the move.
Notes on the Top 6
#1 MICHIGAN — Not surprised to see Michigan atop here. They are, after all, undefeated even though they haven’t totally blown the doors off of everybody on its schedule. No matter how you dice it up, winning the games it did without Jim Harbaugh in attendance should make for an argument for this as one of the best runs at a national title in this sport’s history.
#2 WASHINGTON — Big ups to Kalen DeBoer, a former offensive coordinator for Eastern Michigan from 2014-2016, who is now the head honcho for Washington. (Also to Shaq Vann, a former running back at EMU, who is on staff at Washington). DeBoer won the Pac-12 outright and beat Oregon, the clear next-best team in the league, twice. Once at home, and a second time in Las Vegas. DeBoer and Michael Penix have been a great pair since they started coaching and playing together at Indiana, and now DeBoer has an all-time head coaching record of 103-11.
#3 TEXAS — This is the jump that the country wanted to see, especially knowing that Texas beat the would-be SEC champion Alabama. Texas didn’t even finish the year undefeated, which is the big holdup here. Texas lost to 10-2 Oklahoma — which lost to Oklahoma State (Texas blew OSU out in the Big XII title game 49-21) and Kansas (8-4 record, Texas blew out 40-14) — but apparently losing to Oklahoma isn’t as bad as going undefeated in ACC play.
#4 BAMA — The SEC title game holds so much more weight than any game that the ACC had to offer up. That has to be the justification for 12-1 Alabama over 13-0 Florida State in the final rankings when the Tide was ranked #8 entering championship weekend. The crime, in my view, is less about Alabama being *in* and more about FSU being *out* of the playoff.
#5 FLORIDA STATE — Aw shucks, Jordan Travis is hurt and now the ACC is an entirely devalued league because of it. Florida State went undefeated and won the ACC championship with its third-string QB, and went down a spot.
#6 GEORGIA — Given the B.S. “eye test” arguments about what FSU is or isn’t capable of, what makes Florida State so bad that it absolutely cannot be in the final four but it’s so good that it’s still one spot above one-loss Georgia? Dumb logic.
