With the NC State exorcism done, Notre Dame comes back home for a couple of home games. While next week’s is the one most Irish fans have had circled this past year, they do have on more test in front of them.
This is the first game that Notre Dame will play against Central Michigan. A former bastion of MAC excellence, the Chippewas have struggled to return to that excellence under Head Coach Jim McElwain. The former Florida head coach is in his fifth season in Mount Pleasant. He has alternated between success at the top of the conference and lackluster performance. He looks to bring his big game experience to lead his Chippewas to the biggest win of their programs history.
Central Michigan at Notre Dame (-35)
Notre Dame Stadium
Notre Dame, Indiana
Date: Saturday, September 16, 2023
Time: 2:30 PM ET
TV: Peacock
Yes this is your annual reminder to get a Peacock subscription to watch the game this year. Also a reminder that I believe still stands, that Xfinity customers should be able to access Peacock through their cable subscriptions! As for Central Michigan, they have had a bit of a struggle in the early going this season. They lost handedly to Michigan State and then were taken down to the wire in a shootout against FCS powerhouse New Hampshire. Let’s see what we know from those games.
Central Michigan’s Offense
Coaching the Central Michigan offense is former Idaho head coach Paul Petrino (yes of that Petrino family). This is his second season helming the Central Michigan offense. Petrino has found his number one weapon in Bert Emmanuel Jr. The sophomore QB leads the team in both passing and rushing yards. His completion percentage is of alarm since he is smack dab at 50% for the early season and was under that number last week against UNH.
The backfield combo with Emmanuel is Myles Bailey. The junior running back is hot on Emmanuel heels for rushing yards on the season and would be key to any success for the Chippewas. The passing threats have not really established themselves this season. It’s hard to tell if that is because of a lack of talent that the Chippewas are bringing in or the inconsistency of Emmanuel’s throwing power. Their top catcher is red shirt sophomore Chris Parker, who is transitioning to the position from Cornerback.
Central Michigan’s Defense
Completing the full Former Idaho Coaching Set, Robb Akey is in his 5th season as the DC for Central Michigan. The defense has slowly improved under Akey, averaging 8.2 Tackles for loss last season. However, the defense seems to have struggled early under some suspect opponents. According to gameonpaper.com, the Central Michigan defense allowed 6.78 YPP and 8.41 in their two contests. Primarily, this defense has been attacked through the air. Using Yards per dropback, once again from gameonpaper.com, CMU allowed 7.82 and 9.34 yards.
That’s not to say the defense has no skill position players. If you are going to look for a player to try and set the tone at all levels of the defense, it would be All-MAC Cornerback Donte Kent. He was the lone preseason All-MAC First Team selection on this team and also leads the team in tackles. He comes into South Bend with 15 PDs last year and 2 already this season. However, the reason Kent has been making the majority of the tackles is that the D-Line is not getting any push up front. The lone player up front that is trying to make a dent in opposing DL is Jacques Bristol.
Prediction
The Chippewa coaching staff all week has been talking about not being intimidated going into an atmosphere such as Notre Dame Stadium. With all respect to Michigan State (which I mean…isn’t a lot), I think the Chippewas will face the toughest environment coming into the house Rockne built. As mentioned, this should be a big Sam Hartman game. Despite SMU having a pretty good CB, he has shown he will find the open man, whomever and wherever he is. On the defensive side, I imagine this will be a game of adjustments to contain Emmanuel but I trust Golden to get his team prepared. Keeping him in the pocket and forcing him to beat you with his arm will definitely be a recipe for success. I fully expect to see backups here in the second half, right as half of the new Peacock subscriptions cancel with a comfortable Irish victory.
Just a reminder that Peacock also has great comedies to watch – Parks & Rec, The Good Place, Killing It, Girls5Eva, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Twisted Metal, Paul T. Goldman + Premier League games & now the occasional B1G game.
Thanks for the heads up Mr. Bevaqua
Also the Mario movie
Night Court and Quantum Leap are pretty good. Night Court is right on the level with the original, and Quantum Leap is much better.
Original QL was great. Stopped watching the new one. Too much focus on the modern day people on the new one. And very confusing why the entire department is staffed by a retired ghostbuster and a bunch of 20 year olds.
I couldn’t get into the new QL. The original had no focus on the modern, and I found a b plot every week super annoying
That throwing motion from Emmanuel in the picture looks heinous.
I’ll be at the game, so ND will in 38-37 in 4OT. Enjoy!
But will the sprinklers turn on in the third overtime again?
Given that we have a turf field….yes.
Dan LeFevour isn’t walking through that door.
Still, I hope there’s a few cowbells in the stands just in case.
I found a tidbit that I couldn’t quite figure out how to make it work in the post. Apparently McElwain and his wife live in a literal barn a couple of miles from the CMU campus? Like a Central Michigan booster was like, “Hey coach, I have a barn you can use for living and large meetings.” Truly this could only happen in Michigan
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/26788968/our-head-coach-lives-barn-why-jim-mcelwain-fits-right-cmu
That has Iowa State written all over it
No picture of the barn. Sad.