 |
| Photo Purple Walrus Press |
By Editor & Publisher Jeff Brown.
Eastern Michigan football is off to an excellent start as they trounced North Carolina Charlotte to open the 2017 football season at Rynearson Stadium "The Factory" in Ypsilanti Friday night by a score of 24-7. As far as EMU fans, the crowd was big, enthusiastic and left The Factory hungry for the next game against Rutgers.
Eastern Michigan Quarterback Brogan Roback finished the game completing 22 of 31 passes for 267 yards. EMU Senior wide receiver Sergio Baily caught 5 passes for 78 yards and teammate Antoine Porter caught 3 passes for an impressive 74 yards.
As for the EMU running game, that was equally impressive as junior running back Shaq Vann rushed for 93 yards on 23 carries and bruising back Ian Eriksen ran for two touchdowns to solidify Eastern's win.
Eastern's defense proved to be strong as defensive backs intercepted three Charlotte passes thrown by Charlotte Quarterback Hasaan Klugh. EMU's strong defense limited Klugh to only 54 passing yards on 23 attempts.
Our EMU Eagles are off to a great start as the 2017 football season began with a convincing win at home...and under brand new lights.
Next week Eastern will take on Rutgers Saturday, September 9, at High Point Solutions Stadium in New Jersey. Kick of is set for 3:30 pm.
I may be mistaken, but isn't this game, which EMU won so handily, one of those very odd features of college football, in which the home team pays the visiting team a set "fee", usually in the six figures, to play the game? Most EMU non-MAC games fit this pay-to-play-us formula, and sometimes EMU accepts the fee, to visit another school. Naturally, the host team prefers to pick visitors that it expects to beat, and usually that expectation is proven to be accurate. So, a win like this isn't a true indicator of the prospects for the season. Next game, at Rutgers, EMU is unlikely to win, but will collect what is often called "the loser's fee" from the host.
ReplyDeleteThis game was part of a 'home and home ' agreement. Last year EMU went to UNCC and now UNCC came here. These games were specifically set up to give each team an FBS opponent of similar stature without having to pay too much. So to EMU-UNCC is OSU-OU.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct about the next two gqmes where EMU will collect about seven figures each and not get a home game either team next year.