Central Michigan – NCAA College Football – 2010 Season Preview
The Central Michigan Chippewas are hoping to dominate the MAC again in 2010, after an immensely successful 2009 season. In conference play to improve their record to 32-7 against MAC competition in the last three years, they finished the season 12-2 and a perfect 8-0.
The coach Butch Jones is responsible for the three-year domination in the MAC. However, he was hired to replace Brian Kelly as head coach of Cincinnati and his success did not go unnoticed. Former running backs coach at Michigan State, Dan Enos, was hired as Jones’s replacement.
Central Michigan will have many of the same weapons that made them so good last season, with seven returning offensive starters and 5 returning defensive starters. However, with the departure of quarterback Dan LeFavour to the NFL, they have one major hole to fill. As the all-time leader in touchdowns, LeFavour ended his career in NCAA FBS history. Ryan Radcliff, untested quarterback will likely be his replacement.
In scoring defense (18.9 points per game), Central Michigan was ranked nationally as the 17th best team. Although a few starters to graduation were lost by them, everyone else is back and some of the underclassmen are expected to be better than the players they are replacing. Notably, to be one of the MAC’s top safeties, safety Jahleel Addea looks like he has a chance.
The Temple Owls were considered to be on the same level as CMU in the MAC, last year. However, the two never got to meet in the MAC Championship Game and they flopped against Ohio. This season, however, in CMU’s second game of the year, the two will face each other. Of the MAC Championship game, it is expected to be an early season preview.
CMU has to run the table in order to generate any sort of BCS buzz, given that they play in a relatively weak conference. CMU’s defense should be good enough to keep them near the top of the MAC, although with an inexperienced quarterback, it doesn’t seem all that likely.
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