1) Head Coach Ron English’s Job Status:
“Embrace The Process” is one of the mantras English has used over the years to motivate his team, but it could not be seen on the field and it appeared at times, the defense lacked in effort. With the loss, English falls to 4-25 on the road and 11-42 overall at Eastern Michigan University.
“Today’s loss crystalizes the fact that Ron English’s tenure at EMU has to end, and has to end now,” Eagle Totem blogger Jeremy Rosenberg said.
There were so many errors that we have seen too many times over the years on full display— dropped catches, one missed tackle after another and lack of pressure by the defensive line, makes it a forgone conclusion English will be relieved of his duties sooner rather than later.
2) Quarterbacks:
Redshirt junior Tyler Benz finished 12-of-19 for 157 yards passing to go along with a touchdown and an interception. Benz’s touchdown came on a 15-yard pass to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jay Jones.
As it has been for most of the season, Benz tends to struggle when asked to throw the deep ball as those passes have been overthrown to the point I have stopped counting.
At 42-7 in the second half, freshman Brogan Roback entered the game for Benz and played up and down, but showed signs of promise. In the fourth quarter, Roback rolled out of the pocket and completed a pass to freshman tight end Duwhan Alford and managed to go 67 yards for what appeared to be an Eagle touchdown.
As luck would have it, the TD was nullified because of personal fouls on EMU and Buffalo which erased the score. Roback went 4-of-8 for 25 yards and threw an interception.
3) Running Backs:
Despite fumbling the ball early in the first quarter, junior Bronson Hill rushed for 57 yards on 14 carries.
Junior Ryan Brumfield led all rushers in yards with 79 on two carries. 75 of Brumfield’s yards came on a touchdown run in the late stages of the fourth quarter to make it 42-14.
As a team, EMU rushed for 172 yards, but was held in check for the most part outside of Brumfield’s TD run.
4) Receivers:
It is never a good sign when your tight end is the leading receiver almost every Junior tight end Tyreese Russell led the Eagles again with four catches for 55 yards, but there has yet to be a game in which a receiver has stood out amongst the crowd.
Jones caught the 15-yard touchdown pass from Benz on a slant route, but only grabbed one more pass on the day for six yards.
Sophomore wide receiver Dustin Creel caught three passes for 44 yards to round out the significant contributors for EMU. All season long, multiple receivers dropped the ball on key plays in drives that could have swung the momentum and today was no different.
5) A Change must be made now:
There comes a time when a change must be made in order to build for a better tomorrow. For English, his ship has sunken like the Titanic and it is time to move forward.
The fan base deserves much better than being put through double-digit blowouts almost every Saturday. The fact they were unable to come close to defeating Buffalo, a team they defeated in its prior five meetings should be a sign to listen to your fans.
I hope the EMU Athletic Department does the right thing and decides to start over from scratch immediately or else they will risk further alienating what is left of the fan base. Don’t worry, if no action is taken, their Football Bowl Subdivision status will be in jeopardy because of lack of attendance.
Be bold and show us the first step to creating a new “culture”.
Social Media:
Follow Eugene Evans on Twitter @EasternEchoGeno.
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