Every day (or so) for the next month I will be previewing one of the upcoming college bowl games. I will give my thoughts on the teams playing, players to be on the lookout for, and a general overview of the bowl.
The Motor City Bowl will feature the champion from the Mid-American Conference, Central Michigan, and the representative from the Sun Belt Conference Middle Tennessee State. This certainly isn’t a game that will garner much national attention, but it’s always fun to watch the best from each conference square off against each other.
Central Michigan will be playing the Motor City Bowl minus the man who coached them for the entire year. Coach Brian Kelly has bolted the Chippewas program and moved onto Cincinnati. I don’t know how the players are going to respond to this. If your coach bails on you before your bowl game, does that mean he has no confidence in you? It has to be a slap in the face for all the players. Kelly will be replaced by offense coordinator Jeff Quinn for the interim basis. I don’t know if the Chippewas are going to come out playing angry, or just looking flat and confused with a new head coach. Central Michigan has looked pretty good this year, relying on a passing attack lead by Dan LeFevour and helped by running back Ontario Sneed. LeFevour has throw for over 2800 yards this year, but isn’t afraid to run the ball either, having nearly 500 yards rushing on the year. The Chippewas bring a balanced attack and a pretty good defense to the table. Their losses this year have been to Boston College, Michigan, Kentucky, and Northern Illinois. It’s never good to lose, but those aren’t bad teams to lose too. The one loss that is a question for me is the one to Northern Illinois. In that game, Garrett Wolfe ran for 203 yards and may have exposed a major weakness in the Central Michigan defense.
Middle Tennessee State boasts a rush first offense, which when coupled with a good defense is designed to simply control the clock the entire time. They have three running backs who average over 4.3 yards per attempt, so that gives them flexibility to keep their players fresh. Unfortunately, they haven’t quite managed to do that against the good teams that they face. They took an ugly 59-0 loss against Oklahoma and then a 44-17 beating from Louisville. Add that into their 52-7 loss against South Carolina and their three games against notable teams ended very badly for the Blue Raiders. Despite their struggles against more powerful teams, Middle Tennessee State did manage to roll against most of their competition. They finished 7-5 and had two shutouts and six games in which they scored over 30 points (all of which they won). The key for them lies in not falling behind early, because if they do that, they have to be more reliant upon their passing attack, which isn’t very good.
Central Michigan has shown some struggles stopping the run this year, and if Middle Tennessee State can exploit that, they can win the game. The fact that rushing is what the entire Blue Raiders offense is based off of gives me a feeling that they will do exactly that. I look for Middle Tennessee State to be able to run the ball effectively and pull off a win.
My Prediction: Middle Tennessee State wins
