Eastern Michigan University football opens up the season on August 31 at Coastal Carolina, and before that there is only speculation on what the 2019 season will bring. The team went 7-6 overall last year with a 5-3 conference record. Athlon Sports foresees a similar outcome this fall. The site predicts EMU at a 6-6 overall record and a 5-3 record in the MAC.
Here is the brief on the team for this upcoming schedule by Steven Lassan at Athlon.
"Eastern Michigan also suffered some key losses on defense, especially up front with Maxx Crosby departing for the NFL. Senior quarterback Mike Glass is a breakout candidate, and coach Chris Creighton will patch the personnel concerns on both sides of the ball to keep this team in the hunt for a bowl."
The unit rankings by Athlon has EMU with only one spot in the top six out of six major categories. The site predicts the Eagles to have the best core of defensive backs in the conference. Athlon writers also released a list of superlatives and season predictions. EMU was picked in several sections. Two of the three writers had the Eagles as their sleeper team in 2019. The same two writers had Mike Glass III as their breakout player.
Creighton, in his sixth season, will try and get his team to a third bowl game appearance in four years. The Eagles went to the Camellia Bowl against Georgia Southern last season and the Bahamas Bowl in 2016 against Old Dominion. Despite losing both, Eastern Michigan has gone to more bowl games in the last three years than they did in the previous 29 seasons.
Lassan mentioned Glass, who will be a captain in his final year for EMU. He showed his dual threat potential in the pocket last season, throwing nine touchdowns and running for six scores. Glass also had two consecutive games of over 100 yards rushing.
Athlon previously put seven Eagles on the All-MAC preseason teams. Offensive lineman Steve Nielsen and defensive back Kevin McGill were on the site’s first team All-MAC predictions. McGill was recently put on the Bednarik Award watch list, an honor for the best defensive player in college football.
Ohio was predicted to win the east division in the MAC with a 6-2 record in conference, and Toledo to win the west division with the same record. Athlon writers picked Ohio to defeat the Rockets in the MAC championship game. Western Michigan and Northern Illinois are the other two teams in the west division predicted to be tied or ahead of EMU in 2019. The Huskies are predicted to have the same finish as the Eagles at 5-3 in the MAC.
Other superlatives and predictions by the Athlon writers are Nathan Rourke (Ohio, QB) as Offensive Player of the Year and Quinten Dormady (CMU, QB) as top newcomer. Two writers selected Alvin Davis (Akron, S) as Defensive Player of the Year and the other picked Antonio Jones-Davis (Northern Illinois, LB).
