EMU Vs Buffalo in Pictures
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- Glenn Bryant at the free throw line
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- The Band
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- Glenn Bryant takes a shot
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- Jalen Ross at the line
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- Bryant for a layup
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- Austin Harper charging the basket
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- Bryant sizes up his opposition
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- Off by a fraction of a second
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- Daylen Harrison looks for a route to the basket
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- After the shot
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- Bryant takes a shot
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- J.R. Sims moving the ball
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- Harrison looking for an opening again
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- Bryant charges the net
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- Riley after a shot
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- Harper after a shot
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- Jamell Harris takes a shot
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- Austin Harper charges the basket
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- A hard fought game won by the Eagles
Season in Shambles
It is a well know meteorological fact that the three coldest geographic locations on the surface of the Earth are the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, the wilds of Kamchatka, and Rynearson Stadium on a November afternoon. Two years ago, on one such desolate November day, I put on my cold weather gear and headed to Rynearson Stadium to watch the Eastern Michigan football team battle Northern Illinois on the day after Thanksgiving. Dubbed “Bleak Friday” by yours truly, our Eagles endured the cold weather, a two win season, and a 71-3 drubbing by the Huskies of NIU.
The most depressing aspect of this particular game wasn’t the bone-chilling weather, it wasn’t the fact that we lost, or even the margin of defeat. It was the fact that I and the other brave and committed souls in that stadium saw something that was a truly bad omen for Eastern Michigan football: the team quit on Coach Ron English.
It was surprising to see this abandonment, even out of a two win team. If there is one aspect of Ron English that I think most of us can agree on, it is that he is a capable motivator. The thought that a team would quit on him was unexpected to say the least.
How did EMU’s 2012 opponents do in week 5?
EMU’s opponents went 7-5 over the weekend, with two matchups of future opponents, and one game that pitted a future against a past opponent.
| Team | W | L | Total % | Conf | W | L | Conf % | Last | Next |
| Ball State | 3 | 2 | 60% | MAC | 1 | 1 | 50% | Lost 45-43 at Kent State | 10/6 vs. Northern Illinois |
| Illinois State | 5 | 0 | 100% | Missouri Valley | 2 | 0 | 100% | Won 34-31 at South Dakota | 10/6 vs. Southern Illinois |
| Purdue | 3 | 1 | 75% | Big Ten | 0 | 0 | N/A | Won 51-41 vs. Marshall | 10/6 vs. Michigan |
| Michigan State | 3 | 2 | 60% | Big Ten | 0 | 1 | 0% | Lost 17-16 vs. Ohio State | 10/6 at Indiana |
| Kent State | 3 | 1 | 75% | MAC | 2 | 0 | 100% | Won 45-43 vs. Ball State | 10/6 at EMU |
| Toledo | 4 | 1 | 80% | MAC | 2 | 0 | 100% | Won 37-17 at Western Michigan | 10/6 vs. Central Michigan |
| Army | 0 | 4 | 0% | Independent | N/A | N/A | N/A | Lost 23-3 vs. Stony Brook | 10/6 vs. Boston College |
| Bowling Green | 2 | 3 | 40% | MAC | 0 | 1 | 0% | Won 48-8 vs. Rhode Island | 10/6 at Akron |
| Ohio | 5 | 0 | 100% | MAC | 1 | 0 | 100% | Won 37-34 at Massachusetts | 10/6 vs. Buffalo |
| Central Michigan | 2 | 2 | 50% | MAC | 0 | 1 | 0% | Lost 55-24 at Northern Illinois | 10/6 at Toledo |
| Western Michigan | 2 | 3 | 40% | MAC | 0 | 1 | 0% | Lost 37-17 vs. Toledo | 10/6 vs. Massachusetts |
| Northern Illinois | 4 | 1 | 80% | MAC | 1 | 0 | 100% | Won 55-24 vs. Central Michigan | 10/6 at Ball State |
| Total | 36 | 20 | 64% | 9 | 5 | 64% | |||
| Past | 14 | 5 | 74% | 3 | 2 | 60% | |||
| Upcoming | 22 | 15 | 59% | 6 | 3 | 67% |
2012 MAC Blogger Roundtable, week 5
Eagle Totem rules the roundtable with an iron claw!
This week’s MAC Blogger Roundtable is hosted by…me! I am king of the roundtable, BOW DOWN BEFORE ME! MWAHAHA!!!
I did this in week 5 last year also, and six questions proved too difficult, so this year, as king, I subjected my…er…subjects…to a three-question inquisition.
The following blogs paid fealty:
Free Press livechat with Ron English
Ron English did a livechat hosted by the Detroit Free Press this afternoon. There were some interesting questions, and although a lot of his answers were fairly cautious (safely worded), there are a few points where you can read between the lines. For your reading convenience, here’s a transcript of the whole thing.
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Hello, Eagles fans, I’m here and ready for your questions.by Coach English 9/28/2012 7:29:00 PM 3:29 PM -
Coach, great to see you. We have lots of questions in the hopper already. We’ll get going in a minute …by James Jahnke 9/28/2012 7:29:24 PM 3:29 PM -
OK, let’s do this …by James Jahnke 9/28/2012 7:30:26 PM 3:30 PM
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As an EMU alumni, I had/have high expectations coming into this season. With an 0-4 start, losing a tough game last week to the Spartans. What can you do to help jump start the offense and get this team on the board more?by Tom EMU08 9/28/2012 7:30:33 PM 3:30 PM
Injury update: Jamell Harris broke his hand yesterday
Jamell Harris posted this photo on Twitter just afer 4 pm yesterday.
We haven’t even gotten around to previewing the men’s basketball season, but we’ve already got one injury to report.
During a drill at practice yesterday, probably around mid-day, senior forward Jamell Harris broke his left hand. After a trip to the hospital for x-rays, Harris was back on campus wearing a cast.
This injury isn’t nearly as bad as it could be. First, it’s his left hand, and Harris is right-handed. Also, rumor has it that he’ll be out four to six weeks; the season will start with an exhibition game five weeks from tomorrow, and the first non-exhibition game is another week after that. Even at that, the first game is against Rochester College, an NAIA team, with the first NCAA Division I game not coming until November 11, giving Harris a total of nearly seven weeks to recover.
Kinsman Thomas pleads guilty to aggravated assault
This is not a rumor and this is not speculation. AnnArbor.com has reported that former EMU wide receiver Kinsman Thomas pled guilty to two counts of aggravated assault yesterday.
On December 14, 2011, a male EMU student reported that, while walking alone along the south side of Pease Auditorium (that’s the side facing Cross Street) at about 4:40 am that morning, “he was struck from behind and pushed to the ground by three men” who he described as having athletic builds, in their late teens or early 20s. The attackers took his bag, which contained a laptop computer.
On Monday, April 16, warrants were issued for the three attackers, described at the time as a 23-year-old EMU student and a 19- and a 21-year-old non-student. We now know that Thomas was the 21-year-old non-student. The charges against each were assault with intent to rob while unarmed and unarmed robbery, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Tuesday Tidbits know no boundaries
Yeah yeah Wednesday Thursday blah blah. “Tuesday Tidbits” is not a description, it’s the name of a feature. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The rest of the story is that I got so caught up in all the NFL drama, which I found particularly interesting given T.J. Lang’s involvement, that I just never got around to writing up the tidbits. Speaking of Lang and the NFL, we’ll start there with an update on the story.
You may recall (I hope you do, it was only a few days ago) that one of Lang’s tweets invited NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to fine him (“Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs.”), and indeed, given the NFL’s history in cracking down on criticism of officiating, a hefty fine seemed likely. This morning an NFL spokesman announced that none of the Packers players would be fined for their post-game comments. Let’s face it, this is probably about as close as the NFL is ever going to get to a mea culpa.
Last minute update: The NFL has announced that they’ve reached a deal with the real officials, who will return immediately.
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After 39 years with the EMU Athletic Media Relations Office, Jim Streeter is retiring effective October 19. A 1973 EMU alumnus with a major in physical education and minors in journalism and history, “Streets” is EMU’s fourth Sports Information Director/Media Relations Director, heading up the office for 37 of its 52 years. Personally, in covering EMU athletics on Eagle Totem, I’ve worked primarily with Assistant Media Relations Director Greg Steiner, but the few times I’ve dealt with Streeter he’s been unfailingly kind and helpful. I join many others in wishing him the best in his retirement.
T.J. Lang: making waves, making us proud!
EMU alumnus and starting guard for the Green Bay Packers T.J. Lang made headlines in a way that no EMU football player has since…well, maybe ever. Just in case you missed it, here’s our story so far:
1. The NFL owners are engaged in a contract dispute with the officials. The owners locked the officials out, and hired replacements.
2. The replacements don’t have experience officiating game play at anything near this level — most of them have only officiated high school and Division III football, with a few having experience in the XFL (indoor pro football) and Division I. Also, apparently some of them previously officiated the Lingerie Football League, but were fired for on-field incompetence. (Really.)
3. The replacements have done a terrible job. As much as we all gripe about “normal” officiating, this is far, far worse. The replacement officials do not have any control over the game, and it’s a matter of time until this lawlessness results in a serious injury to a player.
4. This came to a head last night, on Monday Night Football, when a series of blown calls, culminating in a non-call on blatant pass interference and the ruling of a touchdown when the defender clearly had possession, gave the win to the Seahawks over the Packers. It’s all pretty clear from the replays we’ve seen over and over today, but what you don’t get a sense of on replay is how bizarre the whole thing felt — play after play — as it happened live.
5. No one, except a few Seahawks fans, took this very well. (Even some Seahawks players, once they saw the replay, apparently agreed with or at least understood the outrage, and an unidentified player on one of the Packers’ NFC North rivals termed it “the worst call in NFL history”.) Packers players, understandably, took it quite hard.
T.J. Lang took the lead in expressing his anger at the officiating, and he expressed it publicly, posting repeated comments on Twitter in the hours after the loss.
(Follow after the jump for more, including the uncensored tweets.)
Read more…
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