Y11 Audio: 2023 EMU Football Roster Readthrough

A re-introduction for the pod and introduction to Scott, a football writer and animal knower welcome to y1 audio I'm Alex alado thank you for listening first time in a long time sorry for uh the delay uh it's been since football season really I had the the great great idea Once Upon a Time of doing two episodes a week for this plus doing MAC football pod with Justin and Caleb you'll hear more from Justin later uh and then I decided to do just one of the podcasts during the season uh so I dropped this project we're picking it back up now now that it's the year of 2023 the year of Our Lord for real this time uh we have Scott who's going to be joining the newsletter now as a uh well your title's kind of up in the air Scott I don't I don't know what we kind of landed on are you uh somebody that knows football are you a football writer I I I don't know I I really don't know what we're going to put on your tax forms but you're one of those positions yeah I mean according to my notes written by my boss it says ball noer SL foot Rider so I'm a boss now too so I have to see now I don't even know my own title now this is this is interesting this is a Twist yeah you're your boss your HR um my coffee maker guy you're you're everything to so that's important whoa whoa whoa hold on hold on hold on all you know what whatever yeah I'll make you your coffee that's fine I don't mind doing that uh but Scott you're going to be joining ips1 11.com pretty soon uh or right now we're right now doing this I guess uh as a baller foot writer uh generally what does that mean uh to you um I think more of the X's and O's more of the schematic more of the player eval stuff I don't have quite the Emu Mac knowledge I think you do but um just with like my work and like a lot of what we do um we kind of expand into like player eval all that kind of stuff so that's what want to focus on and hopefully with specifically emu and Mac be able to break things down see what I like about Eastern what I don't like what uh we could learn about them all that kind of stuff obviously you and I both know like we've known each other uh our whole lives essentially so there is the trust value already there but I am really bringing you on because I really do trust your football knowledge um why what what have you done to stay active in in this game what is it that you do for work uh so people that want to read your work that are interested in learning about the ex SS you know at Ryerson Stadium throughout the mech uh when they read your work why are they going to know that Scott knows what the heck he's talking about because uh I don't know what what do you do for for people to earn your trust as a football knower um so I'm coming up on eight years with a company called stats perform to be eight years yeah I know eight years now uh used to be Stats LLC and then it was just stats and then now it's stats perform after we merged with a European company called perform it mainly focuses on um soccer or football as they call it um heard but I've done specifically American football for the past eight years um it's all player evil uh working with schemes of what each team is doing and then we just break down film it's a lot of film uh work usually I wake up Monday I watch film and then I go to sleep on Friday having watched 40 80 hours of film every week that's not that's not a lie either like I've I've seen you in action that's not a lie you do put in that much that much film that's good man hey I you you know I love having you around you know I love you know that we get to grow as friends through this and like we can kind of like you know join our interest together and kind of make this newsletter grow um so I'm really excited to see how you can grow you know because like I I trust your football knowledge and all that I know a lot I've learned a lot you know in talking to you I learn a lot every time we hang out but now that you're going to be able to put all those thoughts and all your knowledge into words on paper for everybody to like learn digest and like actually like share around and have a discussion with I'm really excited for that part of you know of you you know because that's going to be really really good that's really sweet thank you I appreciate that I'm excited too I'm excited to learn a lot from you just about I don't know writing in general just because it's not something I've really done before but I don't I've seen you do it for years it's something that seemed interesting and you make it look so easy you make everybody laugh you make everybody more knowledgeable so that's something I admire about YouTube well those are two great lies and I appreciate those Scott uh listen let me give you I had to say something I had to say something list no you don't but I well I I guess it is a podcast so you do have to say something but I'll give you one bit of knowledge uh or just like a piece of advice I guess uh because you know you don't have to be like a Hemingway you don't have to prove like anything when it comes to anything when it comes to writing just write what you like if you like it other people are going to like it too well thank you is that what you do then most of the time what's that that's what you do most of the time I I yeah I I think I don't know I hope so I mean I I do like reading about emu football I wish there was more of it out there there I write a bunch of you know a bunch of it I could write more yeah but I I'd say I fulfill that okay I like it hey uh speaking of SOME NEWS: USFL practices at Rynearson Stadium? reading about emu football uh I did see uh something in the news today read all about it I don't know how much how much you saw it but in the Detroit News Tony Paul's on the scene uh did you see that emu and the usfl are working together perhaps did see that but then it was kind of like yes and then it was a no so it's a yes again I'm kind of like unsure what's going to happen but that's just for practice right just for emu to hold practices for like the Detroit Hub I guess yeah that yeah that's the rate of it so far so uh really quickly the usfl not the XFL not the IFL not the AFL which is dead actually the AFL doesn't exist anymore for real um but the usfl which is in its second season as in its Resurgence um it's looking for hubs so in its first comeback year everything happened in I believe it was mobile or Birmingham Alabama and now it's trying to find like different destinations for multiple teams to just have their games in you know four four teams are going to be over there four teams are going to be over there they found a couple hubs already for 2023 they found Memphis and New Orleans or I'm sorry Birmingham will continue to host the 2023 Hub uh for a bunch of these teams there's going to be another Hub in Memphis so those are going to be two the third that's already been hinted is Detroit now there has been an official word on that that'll happen on Thursday today's Tuesday as we talk we're going to publish this thing on Wednesday though what is going to happen they're going to have a you know press conference out uh out of Ford Field emu's already kind of turned down the idea of there being games at Ryerson but they didn't turn down uh any reporting when there was questions about there being practices being held at Ryerson so that might be the setup for the number of teams that are going to be in Detroit one of them's of course going to be the Michigan Panthers proud to be a Panther fan uh but we don't know the other teams that might be in that Hub too there could be a fourth but Detroit's probably definitely going to be that third uh but we'll get official word on Thursday exciting times you'll get Spring football in the area live yeah directly in the area which is great because I and you know me man as someone who grew up watching the Tigers and loving baseball in the area my whole life I don't want to watch it I'd much rather watch Spring football that's a good point you also like cat teams a lot so lions tigers panthers perfect I do like cat teams uh Ohio Bobcats yeah that's a good one good one uh I don't like the Clemson Tigers though not a fan of them do we count like Zips as tigers or no Zips that's kangaroo I know like technically but you know they're the cats of Australia right oh the the big cats of Australia I think so right yeah aren't they closer to rabbits though yeah I think they're more like deer but I was I was reaching it was the first team I saw this real quick I was I was doing my best to good Lord Scott I'm going to change your title to like animal nowh in a little bit thank you appreciate that I only write about animals and I love me uh we kind of you and I talked uh the other day when we got coffee together about you know your role on this website and what your initial plans are going to be uh do you know what you're going to write about for your first topic so you can kind tease that a little bit oh I can't even tease myself I don't even trying to figure out because there's we talked about maybe the bll game breaking down some of the big plays from that game um I don't know and just like different plays that emu runs over the course of the Season U probably the bowl game thing though that's that's that's my teaser of a tease I guess you know I went to that game not to flex but I to that game okay yeah that's all that's all I want to say about that thanks for that oh God hey man that was awesome though that was an awesome bulll win I mean half of the time to do it like it was stage do it like I mean you know me like I am I feel you know confident in confident about like the way emu is going to perform one week to the next right and a lot of times I am very comfortable with being pessimistic about the team situation uh and I'm not afraid to admit that when I do feel that way when it came up for this bowl game when you know everything was leading up to that selection Sunday happened the game was announced weeks there were weeks leading up to it not once did I think that emu didn't have it in the bag I thought that was going to be be good from the jump I thought it was going to be hard I didn't think it was going to be you know an easy win by any stretch but I didn't think that emu didn't have what it took to win and it certainly helps when you have seniors that want to stick around and play out the bullwin instead of you know skip out and maybe prepare for the NFL draft they had a couple of guys that maybe could have done that but no it total team effort and it led to a historic win and that was an awesome sight to see live man it was super super awesome that's awesome you still felt that way after like the first quarter too yeah I mean like so yeah of course San Jose State they got off to that big lead right it was like 13 nothing you know it just the thing that like that was tough about it was the quarterback was clearly making plays the defense made some plays early on but the quarterback definitely moved around made big chunk plays like the first couple drives and that's that was kind of the hard part but as the defense started to like settle in started to simplify like shorten up the potential for the quarterback I kind of thought that you know I don't know man I I I was able to ride that emotional roller coaster with them and kind of see things through like I just didn't feel the need to be oh crap Let's Fold it in you know just 10 minutes into the game I just didn't feel like that would have been a safe space to be in Looking back on EMU’s 2022 season okay uh but do want to take this time really quickly so I have you on let's really quickly run through the 2022 season we're not going to hit every game and hit every Knicks you know every little detail of everything that happened I just want to gloss over the season that was really quickly later on we'll talk about uh Wii as in the Royal Wii Scott you won't be here for that but the Royal Wii will'll talk about the Emu roster as it looks forward to 2023 now that all these roster movements have happened transfers graduation signing classes and whatnot but right now let's look at the season that was before we talk about the roster that will be heading into 23 sound good sounds great you have no choice of course it sounds great uh but emu of course uh started out the season with the win over Eastern Kentucky uh 42- 34 uh I remember that game being you know pretty tough you know obviously the win was pretty good Eastern Kentucky they went on to the playoff in the FCS but I don't know how far they went but they were pretty damn good uh they had that one tight end who was really awesome and I remember after the game you know the team was just like you know they were kind of brigh eyed they're like holy crap yeah we feel good about this win but holy crap that's what it took against an FCS school and we've got 11 more games to go hell yeah damn it uh the week after that Dro one to Louisiana 21 to 49 bunch of turnovers bunch of scores in the second half just no life out of emu in that second half looked really really bad um and if you're feeling you know good through week one bad through week two how are you supposed to feel through week three after a win at Arizona State 30 to 21 uh first ever regular season ma win at a Pack 12 school Scott did you know that um for Eastern yeah but for the was it for the Mac for the Mac I think I remember like that coming up at some point but yeah you reminded me just now the first ever Mac over Pack 12 win was just not this past season but the season before in the 2021 bowl games when Central beat um Washington State but yeah uh beat Arizona State of course whenever you lose to EMU that's like the last draw so Herm Edwards had to get fired as soon as he like walked off the field not even didn't even hit the cement got the handshake he's like why do you got to go um you're feeling pretty good about that win and then you come home to what a 50 to 31 loss to Buffalo not a good way to open up the max season uh yeah it at that point when it comes to the roller coaster of like how you're supposed to feel about this team you know the first quarter against San Jose State like we kind of referenced earlier that's nothing but like going through that Buffalo game and then you go you know a 20 to 13 win over UMass and then you have the historic win at Western Michigan you're feeling amazing and then you lose another 29 29 Point loss at home to NIU that's the real roller coaster right there that that sucked I hated that part of the year because how are you supposed to feel super confident about your odds of going to the Mach championship game at that point you know your biggest tough ahead you know your biggest task ahead of you at that point was the too game two weeks later because you know if you win that then you're pretty much in the driver's seat but as far as confidence wise goes you know NIU wasn't great they won the Mach in 2021 but this past year they were not great and then just not not doing well at home 0 and3 against M teams losing to Buffalo well 0 and two actually cuz you beat UMass and then you lose to NIU I don't know I just it's just it's just hard to to come back from that point I guess not impossible not impossible I mean they were close they were definitely close you go on the road beat Ball State 20 to 16 all right all right all right maybe there's something there CU that is the first time of the year where one of the bigger problems of the Season that kraton kept pointing out in every post game you know postgame speech and you know Monday opening week press conference he always emphasized the point of hey we didn't win the turnover battle this week and finally in week seven it finally happened at Ball State uh they won the turnover battle in that game beat them by four okay you're starting to feel a little bit more confident then you lose to Toledo at home 27 to 2 for not 29 Points didn't Grading MAC teams’ 2022 seasons get smoked that point didn't get smoked that time but you did have the lead in the fourth quarter you did have the lead in the fourth quarter with two positions and you did Trail in the fourth quarter but you did have two more possessions after that to write your wrongs and you just didn't and so that that did them in you beat akan you beat Kent State you beat Central Michigan you know all that gives you the Michigan Mac trophy with your wins over West Western and Central yes you go to a bowl game yes you do finish this the regular season with an 8 and4 record yes it's the best year that you've had since 1987 and yes you do get that ninth win a couple weeks later in Boise on the blue Turf in a historic setting but goddamn man the two 29o losses to Buffalo and to NIU and then Chase those with the three-point loss to Toledo all those coming at home you know as much as like you really want great wins like the Eastern Kentucky win's actually a good game as like for people that really did watch and people that really do care about Eastern that's a good win the Arizona State win is obviously huge the Western win and Central wins added up obviously those are really huge those are both score-wise the biggest wins in those Series in a very long time and of course the San Jose State win you can't can't talk enough about that but do those outweigh the three bad losses that really kept emu away from the MAC Championship you know circle like those are two things that I'm really trying to balance with you really want to be happy with the nine wins but damn dude those four losses especially three of those man they just they just suck yeah but they got nine wins damn I love that is that is some expert anal right there man can't be mad at him man they won n games I was looking at it right so I was going back through other Seasons like this is the first time they had like a four game winning streak in the same season and like wever yeah and I went back like 10 years I couldn't find anything and then I assume it's got to be way longer than that too yeah it's the first yeah that those four wins at akan at Kent State against centr and then San Jose State yeah you know some half of those teams aren't any good um but it is the first four you know clean four- win um streak of the Katon era I do believe yeah because I think they've won like back if you put two seasons back toback they've won like two at the end of the season like two at the beginning of the next season but never like within this season yeah so like so let me ask you this Scott because when it comes to the divisions the way it was split emu and Toledo both finished this the the regular season with five and3 records in Mac play obviously because Toledo beat Eastern Toledo went on to be the Mac West representatives in the MAC Championship Game ended up beating Ohio and ended up beating the Bull game too so you know good finish for them respect words too but when people say emu is just three points away from from making the ma championship game me personally I I've never been able to totally be on board with that because I'm also looking at as I've said a couple times already 29 Point loss to Buffalo 29 Point loss to NIU uh the Buffalo game I get it the NIU game was just despicable because they really had no quarterback they've I mean Scott I'm excited for you to go back and like look back at that game and see who was actually active and see the way that NIU played because they ran the same you know the same Run play like 50 times yeah that that was UN just should not have happened and so when people say they were three points away I'm like ah I mean really they were like 30 points away like twice because sure you could beat Toledo you could change any one of those those late drives in the fourth quarter and we're talking about a different season here a much better season here but change an entire mindset performance everything that happened in Buffalo and NIU and then we're seriously talking here yeah I mean I I know what you mean but yeah they three points away I'm sorry like if yeah they would have won that game they were in the they're likely gonna win those last three still hopefully um and then they're in they're into the ma Championship so logically yeah three points but I know what you mean like they probably should have lost NIU not only that badly but at all the yeah there's other things that could have gone differently things could have also gone differently in a bad way with some of these closer games uh Scott one more question and we'll get you out of here uh I already asked you about what you think your first post is going to be and I think we've kind of settled on uh you're going to write about the bulll game timely yeah but now you make me want to watch the NIU game right hey hey hey this no my question was gonna get your your your brain working in that direction what are some other posts you might want to work on oh so this is random but there's like this NIU game when he lost by 29 and and now you kept running the same play over and over again I'm kind of curious yeah I'm kind of curious what went wrong to allow that to happen see I would have loved to like read something about that before but like you know there's nothing on my feed okay maybe three months ago would have been a good time for that but that's true that was that was also great yeah hey anytime I can get my fix I'll you know I'll read it okay all right I got you uh Justin another third of the MAC football pod is now on uh Ipsy 11 audio you're making your debut on here buddy it's a big night thanks for having me on yeah I I don't think you really mean that you don't you don't want to spend time doing this you'd rather be with your kid or your wife you don't really mean that you don't really mean to thank you oh my kid is asleep we're recording this in the evening so I don't have the option to be with my child right now we better be really quiet if we're g to talk about Eastern football then yeah if my wife founds that that's why I woke him up what's she going to do I'm I'm waiting if she mean she she'd be it does not matter which football team I'm talking about she would be angry if I woke him up she's going to hit you with the with the big old 50 PB wrench huh yeah exactly we got some problems that even this won't fix uh earlier I talked with uh football writer Scott about the season that was for Eastern uh I just have a few letter grades for the other Mac teams well Eastern 2 of just how they did across 2022 I'm not going to get too much into the weeds of all these teams I'd rather just kind of give them a letter grade and move on but when I give them a letter grade Justin I want you to give me a letter grade I'm gonna grade the football teams and you grade my grade does that make sense sure does sweet all right so we're just going to get right into it uh alphabetical order with these teams we're going to start with akan uh akan you know year one under Joe Morehead had a two- win season I'm GNA give him a D+ that's a pretty good grid they they kind of had like two seasons right um I think you could maybe give them a c minus if you consider how well they closed the end of the season but I guess maybe not finishing that Buffalo game hurts them a little bit yeah definitely and like in fairness you know what you do like seeing out of a team like that's going through a coaching change is you know you want to see competitiveness in the losses uh a lot of losses but seven of them were one score games one of them was an overtime loss to an FCS school so I don't know D+ it is Ball State you go a little bit lower you're getting a d I'm just like really really not impressed a little bit better of a record five- seven overall three and five in Mac play uh but Jesus Christ man did you realize that like 72% of Carson Steels rush yards were made after contact I did realize that yes and he also was one of the nation's leaders um like in that category of like yards after contact in total so it wasn't like oh he had a high a high share of yards after contact and he was kind of just rushing for three yards at a time like no he would get hit in the back field and run for eight yards it's disgusting it's really disgusting it sucks that he's leaving for UCLA well it sucks for us it's great for him it's going to be great for his body like yeah he's probably going to go be playing some faster bigger athletes in the Pack 12 but he's going to have a faster bigger offensive line blocking for him and so I'm very happy for him um that said I'm gonna go just slightly higher and give them a c minus they had a lot of roster turnover and I actually thought they fought really good that's fair the thing is with Carson steel and you have I have like talked about this you know in private but he's going to a perfect destination where he movies should be made about him not like of him well definitely of him starring him but him as a character is perfect you have you know this guy who was a really good athlete out of high school but under recruited he just goes to Indiana uh turns out he just has like a Pet iguana pet alligator I don't know what else he has probably like a pet Gila monster too uh I don't know man I I just think just to speed this up I think that he would be a great great character in a TV show and what a better place to land than uh Los Angeles the City of Angels yes I sorry I also realized I'm messing this game up I'm supposed to be just grading your grade not being like here's my grade um so I give you a grade of BSU a B plus I like it that works uh Bowling Green play played so much better than I thought they would even at six and seven which is just one more win than what Ball State had I'm way more impressed with the year that bowling Ken had because they had more wins that than they should have than they should have had uh six and seven overall five and three in Mac play they made it to a freaking bowl game when I thought Scott laugher should have been like sent out the door after the EKU loss I'm going to give them a b forget it I'm just going to give him a b why not you don't get many B's yeah I'm giving that great an a I I think like if you had asked me if you asked me closer to the end of the season I still would have been like H well you know this team does still kind of suck but when you step away from it you hit the nail on the head they made a bowl game like what am I what else can I say about that there's no there's no point in being like well they could have you know they're actually bad who gives a that'll sort itself out next year point is this year they played an extra game that's huge because they've been kind of toiling in obscurity for a little for a little bit since uh um you know B's left for Syracuse so good on them now the two obvious teams that like lost a lot in the transfer portal are Kent State and Western Michigan just in terms of guys that leave for power five schools uh third place it's Bowling Green with four guys that left for for power five schools so don't expect a lot of this to repeat itself in you know in next season don't ever expect good good success out of Bowling Green to happen two years in a row um but yeah it's definitely harder when you guys have guys have going out like that Buffalo started out bad started out really bad with that Holy Cross loss then he did good and then he didn't do so well I'm going C+ that's this is the most C+ team I think the Mac had this year uh finished seven and six uh shouldn't have you know should have lost to akan in the end uh finished 5 and3 in Mac play but still you know for the way this team was constructed for and I always have to like I shouldn't say I have to always do this but now that we're finished with year two I do have to keep referencing the late start that Buffalo had with mool linquist heading into year one and now I have to take year two more of like a year treat it more like a year one or more seriously I guess I I like where Buffalo was headed it just wasn't able to put together all the pieces it probably wanted to didn't really string together full games either uh C+ I don't know great grade perfect grade no notes other than to just Echo that Buffalo kind of set themselves up to get sort of a grade like this right you mentioned that they started poorly but then they got kind of hot and uh you know four weeks into the back season that was kind of the deao Macky champ right like we already crowned them they had just beat Toledo but like you mentioned they didn't really finish games and or didn't really play complete games that includes that too win they only played one good quarter in that game it was the fourth quarter and it was a really good quarter and they had to turn CTO over to really put the nail in the coffin there um so yeah it a C+ ass team if I've ever seen one and a lot of their games were like that where they either played three pretty quality quarters and one really bad one or they had one really awesome quarter and the other ones were like well wait hold on what central Michigan lots of injuries lots of disappointments uh kind of got fun towards the end with especially the the um the big snow game against Western uh but still finish the season 4 and8 3 five in Mac play maybe it's because I'm a hater but I'm still giving them a d uh just not just didn't like what I saw out of them you know there was a lot of opportunity for them to to fall apart and they absolutely did and I kind of saw that in the pre-season uh and they just I don't know they just just didn't didn't meet expectations going into 20122 maybe things can change next year but in 2022 I I didn't like it I'm giving him a d if that great at B minus I think you feel the hate in your heart and you should be harsher they they failed they outright failed this season this is a team that in 2022 or the 2021 season was on paper the best damn team in the conference right they just slipped up uh in certain places they had a wonky uh comeback loss against NIU they botched a pretty short field goal they didn't even get a chance to kick it they SN it weird or whatever like they sort of just suame to the succumbed to the um NIU devil magic a little bit and coming into this year they had to replace a lot on defense but like come on like it was it seemed not open and shut but you'd thought that this team would at least compete well and two NFL linemen too on offense two NFL linemen yeah ended up being you know obviously a pretty big deal um I think the Assumption was Lou Nichols was um doing more work uh than we thought I think you were the first person you were early on the boat of like be careful that's that ain't a thing uh he needs help and uh that ended up being true the team just fell apart they were you know they couldn't do they seemed okay offensively but they couldn't do anything on offense till they were down by 28 points like which is very weird yeah got a little exciting with Bert towards the end of the season but it was really just in late season Shenanigans they they lost the snow game against a dead coach walking against W mu it they can't be feeling anything other than rotten in Mount puant about this year emu this is the team that everybody that listens to the show's been waiting for I'm giving him a B+ you know as hey stop throwing Tomatoes at me stop stop throwing Tomatoes at me everybody stop stop stop this guy stinks yeah it was a N9 win season and yeah it's the best that you've ever seen in your life especially if you're me who's only 30 years old uh but you know the four losses I get pretty emotional about how bad some of them were the Toledo loss is the one that everybody will always stare at and I understand it and rightfully so uh I will just always refer to how much work uh this team needed to grow from after the Buffalo and NIU losses both at home both 29o losses uh both pretty inexcusable a lot of parts of the Season were great of course won the Michigan Mac outright with great scores in those games especially like historically speaking in each of those series you know you have the bull win of course you have the Arizona State win which was really great the Eastern Kentucky game doesn't really you know doesn't totally count as like one of the quality wins everyone's going to talk about but you know as someone who like actually watched the game like I have a lot of respect for EKU in the season that they had so I will give them you know that is like a good win but other than that I mean you still lose to Toledo like you shouldn't have you still lost to Buffalo like you shouldn't have you still lost to NIU like you shouldn't have uh I don't know there's just a lot of parts where Eastern fell short and they started looking really G really good towards the end of the season and they really blew out the opponents that they should have and so that's all good but the parts where they fell short that's why you can't get the a for me I give that grade an A minus I think it's pretty much right but on a couple counts I think you're not being generous enough to your own Moder that's fair because the NIU game um I remember that that was like the same day as Western Michigan homecoming and so I was there watching them get pummeled by Ohio but I remember while we were tailgating I told everybody I was like emu is gonna lose today probably big they shouldn't but like at that point NIU is the defending Mac Champs I think they started like 0 and2 in Mac play they were kind of in that mode where okay we don't have a choice other than we can't lose this game or not defending our title right they also didn't have a quarterback but go on and was going to throw everything at that game and they did including a little bit of Rocky Lombardi they threw everything they had left that game three quarters of a leg correct and then he never played again the rest of the season and so what I'm saying is the importance of that game to NIU not that it wasn't important to Eastern and not that they don't understand how to stack them right um NIU I don't think was losing to anybody in the Mac on that day because they were just like they packed an entire season's worth of Good Vibes into that game um and at the time when they lost to Buffalo Buffalo's on the verge of playing pretty hot that was kind of like the start of Buffalo's streak where we started that was Buffalo's first win right that was when they were and three and had just lost a Holy Cross it's one of those that like looked really bad at the time started to look not so bad and then kind of started to look a little bit worse but I think in the context they were they were on the verge of playing pretty well Buffalo had figured something out at that point and they Unleashed it on Easter they got pretty unlucky there um I'll also give him credit for playing a really good first half against Louisiana um like they were in that game there's a big old lightning delay like can't read too much into that it's non-conference anyway right this is a really solid season and also they beat uh eastern and western or sorry they beat Central and Western by a combined 41 points I'm not going to look it up but I feel like that's never happened yeah that's true that like I know it's the biggest margin against Western and then I yeah I'll just say that's the biggest margin but against those two schools in the same season ever yeah that's it's an a it's an a year for me uh Kent State this was hard to grade but I gave him a c minus um I don't know I felt like a d would have been too harsh uh they definitely deserved to be in the C range for being five- seven four- four in Mac play uh but it just fell just fell short in too many spots especially for as talented as this team was you know this is a team that has it's leading the mac and having guys leave for the power five seven transfers out into the P5 um it's just I don't know man just fell Too Short in too many areas so I gotta give him a c minus give that great A B I think he could have went to the D yeah I think he could have like I it's just relative to it's weird to say like Kent State has expectations but like very clearly sha Lewis had expectations they were the champ game not too long ago so no I mean they we just expected to compete at a higher level and the talent flooding out to the power five suggests that yeah I mean that's why everyone thought they would be better the talent was obviously there and I know takes more than just the skill positions to make this thing happen in this even in this conference um but you see where those wide receivers go and it's not like they really struggled offensively or anything like that like it was all still good I think most of the talent going to the P5 was on the offensive side of the ball right so you know they got some defensive issues to sort out but hey that's part of the game too and they didn't do it it's just not a season that in that division that they should have Miami was oh God this is another one that was hard to grade uh I just gave him a c i I don't know man like I in spirit I wanted to give them a d because I just did not feel impressed at all with this team uh but still finish was six- seven record 4- four over four and four Mac play uh I don't know man it's it's kind of hard to like diss them too hard if you're going to like be so close to 500 but I'm just not impressed and I'm not I don't know just not enthused by this team right now so give him a c why not perfect grid yeah uh quarterback was hurt like that's the longest no they played like when he came back so maybe wouldn't have mattered but it's it's hard to like give a team A D like that when they you know the quarterback they thought they were going to have all year um you know up and died in the first half of the first game of the year yeah like not much you can do about that except maybe not play him in a blowout right on the road in the SEC but you know um it's it is what it is and I you f just going straight to F straight up just yeah that's got to be the easiest one right look injuries killed them you know and we already talked about Rocky Lombardi uh this is a team that just cannot hold it together when it comes to like keeping transfers especially at running back the one position where you're supposed to like actually hold it down with the current leadership uh two years in a row where you're seeing top top running backs leave your roster to transfer uh and your team the performance 3 and9 overall 2 and six in Mac play f after winning the MAC Championship the year before F yeah that MAC Championship sandwich in between two pretty bad Seasons um you I know that Rocky's hurt but you can't look that bad you cannot get beat by akan the way you got beat by a um yeah there's nothing good about that season yeah I think that was it like I wasn't sure if I wanted to go D or not and then I remembered oh yeah they got their brains blown out by AC the breakes beat off of them by akan and I know it's like well the game didn't matter NIU like season's already over they have bigger aspirations and I'm like dude I'm not so sure that coaches around one more year yeah if they have another like four- win year next year or something like that like they're not if Rocky gets hurt again or something like that like No One's Gonna listen to that anymore it'll be done yeah like football not mattering to NIU in November yeah that's not a good not good it's the type of that taste will sit in your mouth for as long as the team doesn't win they can erase it pretty quickly next year if they start if they rattle off some wins and open up pretty well in back play but like that is I think going to sit for a while Ohio I'm giving him an A minus this there's no team on here that I'm giving an a outside of Ohio and I'm giving him an A minus 10-4 overall 7- one in Mac play lost the MAC Championship game which stinks uh but that's obviously because you lose your quarterback you lose you know Curtis War who had a hell of a year uh the team around him hell of a year not the best start to the year wasn't like a you know what it wasn't the kind of year that makes you remember the greatness of like Jordan Lynch and you know all those NIU teams from 10 years ago it wasn't that kind of 10- win season for Ohio but damn did they perform damn were they fun uh yeah I I love the season that they had fell short in a couple spots so I got to give him an A minus but you know hats off to him perfect grd nothing nothing wrong with that at all they did almost lose to forom at home um they gave up the story of their season for me other than Curtis R is they gave up 30 points in a game in the opening six games and then didn't give up more than 25 in any game the rest of the season with the exception of the bul game that's so good it it's it's a crazy crazy turnaround midseason on the defensive side of the ball because if that doesn't happen there's no shot yeah man they play nasty like I they they just played downright nasty that second half of the year I think that was ultimately like the biggest thing for them I'm with you uh like I said nobody's getting an A so you know what I'm giving Toledo B plus b plus same grade as Eastern uh another nine win season N9 and five 5 and3 in MC play um you know probably should have lost at ipsan probably should have lost that game but you didn't uh Toledo they played out standing uh they played up to up to what I believe is the Toledo standard or what Toledo is like fully capable of just always being especially in that first kind of like five or six weeks of the year uh wasn't consistently perfect you know the Ohio State game the San Diego State game they weren't perfect but they were still doing fine I thought uh and then they just kind of got a little bit more exposed as the year went on uh still won more games than you didn't obviously you got to benefit out of playing in one of the worst seasons out of the Mac that I remember in a long time uh and it helps when you're already just like as far as Raw Talent goes you're the best in the Mac in most seasons uh this year especially so Toledo B+ yeah I think that spot on is this the strangest season a ma Champion has had like of late like definitely the strangest that I can remember NIU last year was pretty strange to me as much as like they kind of outclassed a lot of people in a lot of ways and I like the kind of like coones that they brought the table a lot of the times it wasn't like a great Mac Champion team either and I know you've called that out of punch too so I'm I'm resuming you as Source yeah it's it's strange because it's like also Miami too Miami in 2019 wasn't all that great yeah the the team they faced off against wasn't really either like there was another when the Mac is kind of in these down years it produces these weird Champions but the thing with Toledo is like I think what makes it the most strange season for them is that like you said very clearly the most talented team and like gave itself every opportunity to not deserve it and they they pulled it off and I think you looked at you know they gave up 42 points to Bowling Green on November 15th and then a couple weeks later they give up seven points to the best offense in the mech um you I know sans's roor but like absolutely locked it down and I get why they were kind of sandbagging through the end of the season because they didn't need to win those games and they had already lost enough that there wasn't really any bull positioning on the line but I feel it's kind of robbed of like what could have I think been a really really special season because they sort of they really blew the ending against San Diego State they really blew the Buffalo game like you said they they almost blew the Eastern Michigan game they did blow Bowling Green they lost to Western Michigan and then they just looked great to end the season they were just like oh yeah we're too we got this and I don't know B+ is a perfect grade for that I think all told like it's that MAC Championship game that like it's just super OD because like I think for both teams it's just like 17 to7 even with Curtis workout like that was just a lows scoring environment that with those two teams in there like I just it still it still makes me feel uneasy and that was I shouldn't say uneasy but like it still like makes me feel like a little bit empty in that game right cuz that was like two months ago and it's like I was expecting like you know 30 something to 30 something 40 something to 30 something 20 something to 30 something not 17 to 7 and like even the way like where Toledo was able to score like it wasn't like they forced their ways down the field each time either so all told even when like Toledo didn't have a good enough season in the Eastern game when Toledo didn't have a good enough season during the Buffalo game when Toledo didn't have a good enough season you know during the San Diego State game we still always believe that in the end because all the other things that they have going right for them they're just going to be so much better than anybody else and they just didn't outclass Ohio when the when the opportunity was there for them to do that and in like a dome you know right essentially HomeField environment it I think that was the that was the first game where I don't know like the the eventual champion of the Mac doesn't really exist in the college football Consciousness directly like in a big way but you know it still happens and for Toledo like the only time they really existed in anybody's Consciousness was when other people were doing cool to them even when they won like I think what people remember about the Toledo Ball State game uh as a AC game was like Carson steel almost single-handedly winning that game right that's the lasting memory from that game the lasting memory from the Eastern Michigan game is how Eastern Michigan should have won it they showed up in highlights when San Diego State drove the field to beat them um you know they show up when bowling Green's hitting a Hail Mary in the snow to beat them right yeah why is Bowling Green one like winning that I don't care if there s if Toledo is not 100% in it to win it like there's that shouldn't happen yeah and they left the door open for them to potentially have a rematch in the Mac title game which like from a rivalry standpoint you shouldn't let happen but and then you get to December 3D and then there they are like there was the team we were freaking waiting for all year there they were in control never in doubt defense absolutely putting the clamps down and it just that never happened at all during the season like they only popped up when other people were having fun against them and I just don't remember a Mac Champion like that last on the list uh going five- seven overall four- four Mac play it sounds pretty good that sounds like a degrade but I'm giving Western an F giving Western an F what the hell man that offense was putrid like I it's just like I'm grading them on the scale of Western Michigan and they get an F I think that's the right scale that's a perfect grade that's what I would give him that's what most of the fan base gave him uh that that that's what the school gave him that's what the school gave them they uh they forked over some money to say we're going to try a different direction here they um I think by S&P plus that was one of the three worst offenses since 1970 yikes that they fielded it that they fielded that was a it's you know I know they had you know new quarterback all that stuff right but um a new quarterback in year one or two is different than a new quarterback in year six you kind of know what's going on at that point right um and this isn't like a transfer in quarterback this is like he who has entered this the same like entered the field the same situation the other quarterbacks from before have you know just be groomed up through the system come up through the high school ranks and then wait a little bit Etc I think Jack salc was a I think he was a true freshman however right it's like the same system now they did have a new offensive coordinator but you know what does that say the offensive coordinator that they hired was like an old buddy of of the head coach um he was very good football right yeah Jeff Thorne and um you know Jeff Thorne was a really really good division three coach so I don't mean to make that sound like a total like you know you're just you're hiring your friends or whatever um but he h Tim hired his friends and it didn't work out and this is kind of what happens and they churn through offensive coordinators at w you there was really no consistency um it's a huge drop off in offensive quality that you know they didn't want to wait to see how that recovered and that season was just an absolute EMU roster readthrough disaster all right got through these grades we have a roster to look at now that you know a month the most major month of like roster movements have like already happened across college football yeah there's still like you you know now late January early February through the summer which in between is going to have what spring the second transfer window more graduate transfers are going to move around other late junior college guys who graduate in May they're going to move around then there's going to be camp in the summer everything's going to you know going to like change a lot of teams right but I'd say about we know about like 80% 85% of like most team structural bones when it comes to like what the rosters are going to look like and Eastern is no different in fact Eastern's probably like more set to know what the hell they have going for themselves moving forward than most teams do because you're in year 10 with your coach you know a lot of these guys this is a culture where players don't really like try to leave all the time to like transfer out like yeah there's like 13 transfers out from Eastern this year but only one of them leveled up to the P5 a couple are at the FCS level so you don't really have that to worry about for Eastern we know a lot of the positions we know of like guys that are returning guys that are coming in guys that are still trying to make a spot on the on the two deep so let's so my idea is to go position by position by position and just kind of look around each room and see okay this I remember what it looked like last year what does it kind of look like right now now that you know the early signing period is behind us and we have you know next week's normal signing period beginning um of course if you're an ips1 11.com subscriber number one thank you for uh for your support number two you should have access to my roster Tracker Where I do this already pretty much every day where I go through all the positions and I just make sure everything looks nice make sure all the updates are there make sure you know who's coming back who's left and why how many years all the returners and new SES how many how many years of Eligibility they all have and so so on and so forth so there's already a written version of what we're going to talk about but now there's going to be a talked about version of what's been written about starring Justin and I isn't that great uh Justin do you have your cheat sheet in front of you so we can go through all these I do awesome uh before we even begin I mean you you spend a lot of time watching Eastern of course because you're Western grad um but some guys that are leaving you know who are some guys that like come dear you know come to mind right away in terms of like okay no matter who is coming back next year this is a guy that they're definitely going to miss because he was so good last year so I guess who's going to be like really really hard to replace this year yeah I know he didn't have the year that they expected to but I I think Hassan Bon will still be a big loss it's not not everybody's as talented as that guy you know sometimes it's just that simple um and I'm glad to see him go from a western perspective but uh that I think is going to be you know it's a guy who requires a lot of attention on the defensive side of the ball and while they do have um Lasser who I think was a revelation this year coming back and canoe um and they'll be all they'll be okay I I am curious to see uh who steps into that third role you know as a western fan I'm I'm kind of surprised that you didn't lead with Jose Ramirez because how much ass he kicked against Western Michigan in Kazo so you mentioned though as criteria of no matter who comes in uh who's going to replace them it's not any disrespect to Jose Ramirez but like emu has a track record of churning out those dudes like one of them is one of the best pass rushers in the NFL right now P o' Conor was no slouch in his day preceded Max Crosby right and then you have Jose Ramirez I have no doubt that someone on the roster currently or who is about to join it is going to be there next dude you heard it here first folks no need to worry about losing an All-American because Eastern's got it in the bag let's start on offense uh let's start with I don't know what's what's a good position what what do you think quarterback you think quarterback's a good place to start quarterback it's a pretty important position I think yeah this is a position where Eastern's fortunate enough to where like they kind of knew what they were getting themselves into at this point of the year like very early during last summer here's what I mean so this point last year emu saw its two top quarterbacks leave uh Ben Bryant he went back to Cincinnati and then Preston Hutchinson who was the 2020 starter he transferred out to the FCS level so it brought in two transfers a grad transfer in Taylor Powell he's left after he started essentially half the years but time with Austin Smith and then Cameron McCoy uh a young younger guy from he he lives in Michigan but uh he played in Cincinnati as a freshman or went there his first year so those are the two transfers that came in to kind of sandwich Austin Smith in who was a 2021 s so now Taylor pow graduates Austin Smith who finally got um some starting some starting time last year before he went down with an injury right before the end of the season he'll be slotted in as the number one um and that was kind of the expectation you know you did well as a high school recruit you know now 2023 will be his third year in college uh so he'll be you know this is the time for you to you know to to have the Reigns to lead the offense uh behind him you have that McCoy kid that I just talked about dual threat kid uh didn't really see him at all last year so uh it'll be interesting to see that that's a phrase I got to throw away you know what is it too late to do New Year's resolution Justin cuz I as much as I don't fall victim to it I don't ever want to hear myself Say it'll be interesting to see that's a difficult resolution but I'm in favor of all of us making it I hate it man I hate saying it'll be interesting to see and I also hate the phrase um it appears as if when like there's a very obvious thing that you're observing yeah there're so EAS to say though but it appears as if emu has five quarterbacks it'll have on the roster this year because I read five names see what I mean like that's it'll be interesting to see if uh someone plays quarterback this year emu knows who its top two quarterbacks are uh because this is the situation that it saw for itself during Camp last year and this is you know a favorable spot to be in they like Austin Smith they like what he presented to the table they didn't really go out of their way to bring in any transfer that would like probably damage that I know they did bring in a junior college kid uh and I'm GNA butcher his name so I apologize in advance uh Ike uden gendu from uh Mount San Antonio College but California kid uh yeah I I don't I don't know what he's going to present to the table we we'll see is that where Mount San Antonio College is what' I tell you it's in California Walnut California look at that yeah I mean that's a that's a tough uh tough College to really pin down exactly there's a lot going on there yeah it's it's just one of those things but uh but yeah quarterback wise U is they they just got to feel confident with where they're at uh Austin Smith he didn't like light the world on fire but he's definitely got enough experience in this offense to know what he's doing and you know what you don't have to be the you know the best athlete on the field you just have to be the best quarterback on your offense um and Austin Smith might be that guy in 23 is this the best shape the quarterback room has been in coming out of an offseason in the last like five years um I don't know I mean it's hard to say I like I mean for me I look I want my teams to be as good as like the Madden rating says it is right so I don't know how good the quarterback the quarterback room is after Smith I haven't seen McCoy play I haven't seen you know the junior college guy that it brought last year Brooks Blount I haven't seen him throw a football haven't seen the the walk-on that it brought on last year from the high school ranks and I don't know what the new junior college guy is Smith I feel very confident in him and I like him I I think he's got you know good personality to him and I like a lot that he brings to the table right but if he gets hurt which hey everybody gets hurt he himself has gotten hurt just last year I don't know I don't know what Eastern's going to get I don't know what the room looks like after him it's very young and that's very favorable but I don't know if it's something that you can rely on if a freak injury happens it is nice to have like a guy that you know can do the job though yeah so and who more or less won the job throughout the season right which I think is a um is an added benefit yeah I mean I don't he did he definitely didn't take the job away like the starting job was definitely his after the Toledo loss so I think that's that's a detail that I noticed but uh I don't know I mean I like where it's at but I don't know we'll see it's just just has to perform for you know for 12 weeks and then the 13th game or 14 maybe who knows uh looking at running backs let's let's move right on Down the Line running backs you lose Darius Boon to a transfer uh and you graduate a walk- on Michael four uh but other than that you're looking at your top two guys coming back Samson Evans who led the mac and uh and Rush touchdowns Jaylen Jackson who was a transfer from Lamar uh a kick returning extraordinaire as well uh two different looking backs you know two different skill sets and all that behind them we don't know too much there's some guys that you know DJ Smith Bryson Moss they played a little bit nothing too impressive a high school guy that they signed last year another one coming in this year that both have potential we'll see if they get to carry the rock this year but at least looking at the top two spots you you still have Samson Evans which you know love to see that really good running back strong guy smart running back too and Jaylen Jackson with his skill set is is incredible uh you lose Boon but it's not it's not that bad you know Darius Boon was I think he was the in the 2019 signing class and he was if I recall the top rated sigy in that class but still he was only the third running back on the team so I don't think he's too big of a loss there now the running back room returns all but like a games worth of carries give or take like 30 total carries um I I was super impressed with Samson Evans this year like just an absolute breakout from a guy that you know we already knew was really good but man that's that's going to be massive for 2023 I I like that Jackson was about as good as I expected him to be coming into this year you know little guy like 57 160ish um probably not too far off on lising his frame there uh a lot of speed like I said a great kick returner once he had his second 80 plus return uh of the Season like four games into the Year everybody kind of avoided him so his his numbers definitely dropped off in that regard so don't read kick return averages the same way you would like baseball you know stats but that guy is awesome what he presents to the table on offense too he's not afraid to you know run it up the middle when he gets the opportunity to uh and he he definitely gives Eastern's offense a chance to run with more Temple Tempo he can you know split out wide and kind of place some wide receiver there and use a speed there but his usage isn't tremendously high and I know a lot of fans would love to see more of him you know get more get more touches show more electricity uh I just don't know if Eastern's setup to let him do that as much as fans would love to be able to plug him in on mad and do that but still gives Eastern's offense a lot of chance to change Pace change things up and draw up different plays um with the familiarity of Smith and having them be in their second year together I I hope that there's some creativity coming with a run game between Smith and Jackson next year and it better you it better happen because Evans and Jackson they're both in their final year of Eligibility too so that's something to watch in 23 yeah us uh using the kind of change of pace back to you know capture greater usage share it comes at a price and that price is that Samson Evans according to college football dat.com was the most efficient running back in the Mac yeah at at the fourth highest usage in the Mac so he wasn't quite you know obviously Carson steel was the highest usage back but the Samson was the best back in the Mac on a per play basis um and that's you know every car you take from him is a risk that you're going to get worse than that uh sliding over the wide receivers I know we talked about Dylan Drummond or not Dylan Drummond Hassan badun a little bit uh former you know nobody asked him to be here walk on turned a thousand yard receiver all ma receiver team captain and all that stuff Dylan Drummond who was a true freshman receiver uh saw the field as a true freshman they were all true freshman I guess at some point uh saw the field as true freshman where Eastern was his only offer out of high school played all five six five six years I mean co co is just really throwing me off still um played every year he was here though uh definitely came up big throughout this year uh some big plays in the bowl game too you know wide receiver is definitely one of those spots where you can like lock your way into like finding wide receivers that's why Eastern's able to get big Playmakers out of guys where they only have one offer out of high school or zero and you look at the three starters that led this team the past three years it's really only been one offer between those three guys Hassan was a former walk-on Tanner canoe was a former preferred walkon and Dylan Drummond like I said the one offer uh so it's pretty incredible for how much success they were able to get out of only one scholarship offer being handed out between those three guys um so you lose two of them Tanner canoe comes back probably the best hands of those three Darius Lasser someone who you referenced earlier um his dad was a former NFL he's a ju Jo receiver himself he didn't have the best very very beginning of the season but definitely was more reliable and was that fourth option that easn was very lucky to have this year uh but after that I don't really know what Eastern's got you know they got a couple of high school guys that were excited to to see but you know you lose a few receivers especially Zack Westmorland who they thought at the time when they when uh when he came in that he was going to be like a steal from the P5 ranks now he transfers out left in the middle of the Season he's at Southern Illinois um I like a couple of the options that they have of course with canoe and Lasser and like I just said you can you know you can lock your way into having another receiver or two out there if they just have a good sign and just have a good camp um it's I don't see how that couldn't happen I just don't know who the third option's going to be you know last year Eastern was happy to find that fourth option now we are looking to see who the third option is again yeah I think you kind of hit on it earlier they um are very good at finding Diamonds in the Rough so to speak to use a old cliche obviously yeah but I think the wide receiving core has kind of always been built out of like third options right and I don't mean that as like a any disrespect to any of these guys you could just look at it as they're all number everybody's a third option they really spread the ball around a lot just as a system right um with the exception of Bon's 2021 season under kraton this has really been not a program that has guys that put up really Gody receiving numbers right yeah it's very very spread out like occasionally you'll have guys go for 700 yards and again like that 2021 season aberration because you had both um I think I think Drummond also went over 700 yards but looking back I mean you have to go back to 2019 for Arthur Jackson's senior season yeah 732 yards so um I mean that's that was a really that's a really good year right but um you know across 13 games it's not like lighting it up so they always have a lot of guys catching a lot of balls um it's it's not all like one route I guess I mean like that's that's the point of like trying to get guys to EMU were like hey none of you are going to be happy with your playing time but I promise nine of you are going to see receptions tonight and like that's that's what I remember a lot about like the um the broen rowback era was just like how how much especially like when he like was really cooking like how much a lot of different guys were getting the balls too you know yeah Eastern's their old way of doing things it was like especially I should say like kraton's first like few signing classes it was like every other year he would like go out to California and find like four junior college wide receivers and bring them to Eastern and like this would happen like every two years until now where like he's getting guys out of high school you know and and having the receiving room that he is and like he kind of locked into having the Three Amigos bed Drummond canoe starting for as long as they did um and that kind of like didn't force kraton to keep going into The Well of having Joo guys now it's just lasted now it's just like a junior college receiver or two coming in there's two transfers coming in ter Lockett from Michigan State Javon switon from Indiana um both of them are pretty unproven though so we don't I don't really know what to expect out of them uh let's just slide over to tight end really quickly don't have to spend too much time here I think this is going to be a position that's done by committee you have guys that are going to be you know your blocking specialist your run blocking Specialists you're going to have your your guys that are better off at being big bodies that run downfield really fast and have better hands than the Run blockers gunar Oaks he's dra he's graduating out but staying around you have jir getsinger he's a better blocker Andre poosi he's a uh he's an international player that definitely came out of the scene last year um showed pretty good hands Max ree he redshirted last year you know he should be a really good receiver he was a wide receiver in high school transitioned over to tight end in his first year so again this is a position where yeah I don't know I don't know we we'll just see this is it definitely looks like a position that's going to be played out by committee and buy Personnel package and buy play call um but I you don't need your Superstar to come out of this room either I was actually shocked to see Gunner Oak's numbers this year looking at it um because my initial thought was like uh it's not a position that they use all that much but I mean relative to the reception totals to the rest of the guys it's not necessarily true caught 27 passes um and the tight ends as a rle caught uh you know like 43 passes or something like that um which is more passes than Darius last caught so yeah very interesting I mean it's not something that I recall as being much of a weapon but apparently it was I didn't need to open my eyes subscri so I subscribed toc1 looking at o line we're not going to stare too much into this it's a big room um but you do lose three and maybe you could say a fourth starter on that o line from the 2022 team um from left to Center you have marcelus Johnson who transferred to Missouri City s with the guard spot he's graduating out he'll begin the NFL and Richard Bates he's also graduating out uh Jake Anan he was a starter wasn't like a longtime starter anything like that but was still a starter was on the 2016 signing class he was injured during the preseason and would have otherwise added you know an important body with experience to that offensive line room um thought there would have been a chance for him to get a medical shirt but he's out uh you still have a couple guys coming back on the right side uh Alex Howie he was a starter guard Brian douy team captain tackle he's coming back uh some other guys that have had some starting time Dimitri Douglas Mickey rinsky revolinsky but this isn't the most experienced starting unit right now um so there's a lot that needs to be proven there um one it did bring in three transfers at o line but the only one I'm going to highlight right now is Chris Mayo from West Virginia um if the 247 Sports composite means anything and if we want to just drum it up to being like so and so's raw score out of high school and just kind of let the debate sit with that Chris Mayo is the most raw I'm sorry Chris Mayo is the best raw athlete out of high school for the offensive side of the ball that Easterns brought onto the team in program history for as for as far as I can see um so that alone hey you know he's got a good enough to score good enough score to keep me interested um lots of years remaining on him he's got three years left so maybe he'll be an instant you know an instant somebody to start right away maybe he needs some more development but he's definitely an option does it concern you graduating that many snaps on a team that I shouldn't say that like I mean obviously it does but like concern you in that it's a team that's probably going to be carrying the a little bit of wi of expectations next year yeah yeah that yeah that part is where I'm a little iffy cuz like If This Were A Team where like if if Austin Smith were a Taylor Powell right where like he was that much older and like I had so much more trust in like his quick throwing game um and you had like the receivers to work with I could see how like the pass like a quick pass game could kind of mask you know whatever inefficiency whatever inefficiencies uh a struggling or an unproven offensive line might present right but this is a team that has to run the ball and like I know I always say that but this is a team that actually did find success running the ball this time and like wants to do more of it and to run the ball you have to lean forward and like actually like play with an attitude and like have some more familiarity with the guy to your left and right to find some success in the trenches and so when you lose this many starters you know hopefully the new guys that come in they are starter ready and they are ready to go but right now I just don't know if that'll be the case because you lose most of them you know if you lose two okay you lose three wait wait wait hold on I'm scared I'm nervous what so yeah I would be a little too that's a thing that can really um you know it can make you at the end of the season be like um what you know what went wrong everything felt so like it was supposed to be so good and then like oh yeah you know that whole important thing where all the Giant humans play that's Central to the sport as a whole it is where most the actions at the reverse side of that though is that you if you have the guys on the roster that can play and then we you know you know with our with my dumb not knowing much about offensive line BR can't see that right like then thegu the limit so it's it is a big opportunity too yeah so hopefully Eastern's done enough to like you know stock at shelves with the right talent and like get them grooming into this situation like they brought in like a Colorado transfer last year uh they had some other offensive line offensive linemen signed last year too that you know were I don't know pretty talented I guess uh this year maybe the starting the starter graduates out but Demitri Douglas who was the center for a little bit like the first three games the past year maybe he's the new starter and maybe Mickey revolinsky who filled in for Alex hoe when he was injured maybe he just goes to the left side and in place a s or whatever I don't know left right I don't know what's going to happen there but maybe he's one of the five and then you just have to be like okay well maybe this kid from West Virginia is the answer or okay I'll just say another name Daniel Sunderman because he's a graduate transfer he's the only grad transfer Eastern brought on this year so far uh he comes up from the D2 ranks and he was a guard so maybe he you know maybe he's actually good maybe he's you know NFL ready but like or has NFL potential but wasn't able to show it in the D2 ranks maybe he's better than what we know but yeah i' I'd much rather keep most of an offensive line from a nine- win season than not right a nine- win season um that saw your best running back have the best year of his career uh swapping over to defense we're gonna go at defensive line inside and outside uh on the inside you lose Jordan Crawford to graduation on the outside you lose two great ends of course Jose Ramirez and Grant Truman Jose Ramirez of course all you know allamerican status on the inside Jordan Crawford he was a former Joo guy from Texas uh from the state of Texas not UT not a UT bounceback um but he filled in time as a full year starter this year he was doing well the dline they had a couple of injuries early and in preseason uh Alex Merritt was hurt early in the season uh Mikey Haney he was injured Jesus Christ every time I say this out loud it makes me so mad in the final 30 seconds of the spring game when it was a torrential down four outside are spring game injuries the worst thing in football no they're not but are they uh yeah I can't imagine a worst time lots of talent across this D line though uh looking inside lots of experience coming back no Crawford but yes Alex Merritt yes Melvin Swindle and yes pton price uh pton price especially had a really good year I keep banging the drum for Melvin Swindle I think he's a great talent just kind of waiting on that to uh actually happen uh and Alex Meritt too he's he's Prov proven some too so uh I'm sure they're excited for him to get back out there uh outside on the ends it sucks to lose as much talent and experience as those two guys had but there's a lot of talent and potential to be had on the ends Michael Coleman he kind of got some playing time and Carter Evans uh brother of Samson you know both of them saw the field and they've been doing well there were Sterling miles from Cincinnati you might remember him because he blocked not one not two not well yes he did not one not two but yes three kicks uh especially the one that you'll all probably remember from the bowl game um some other young guys though like Mikey Haney he comes back from injury like I said Malik Bogard he was the top s in the 21 class Messiah Blair he's the top s that emu's ever had from the state of Michigan it's pretty good and Luke Fletcher another freshman uh you know this room definitely has some potential just hasn't seen a lot of it on the field in 22 mostly because it's been led by like I said Ramirez and Truman but still I like the spot where this defensive this defensive line is at when this defensive line brings it the rest of the team just eats like if the defensive line does not have a good day Eastern's probably not going to do well in the game so when these guys do well everything else kind of falls into place and I like the state of this this defensive line even though that there's some unproven pieces there's a lot there's enough Talent here to keep me interested and keep me optimistic I guess there's a lot of returning players here yeah um I'm curious though about you mentioned of all these names that are returning you mentioned Melvin Swindle um what stands out to you for him as someone who he had two tackles for a loss last year um what is what what right and what shows up to you you know when you watch him you know on tape or during games that that shows that there's kind of some untapped potential there I just like his activity when he's down there you know he gets really active when he's down there and he's pretty strong in spurts he hasn't had a ton of snaps on the field but like you said like it's hard to like get stats at that position but he's able to he was able to make some plays in his limited playing time um I am cheating I he did have a uh a really good uh recruiting score out of high school so that kind of swayed my decision to be excited for him when he did sign with Eastern and I have been ever since I'll be honest but still I he's still really good talent um just thought there was a lot of potential on him yeah that's as good of a reason as any to be excited about a guy you know they come in with potential and then are kind of waiting there turn right yeah and like I I'll pull it up right now but I don't think he was like you know someone with like a really good like recruiting score but not a lot of offers to go with it because that's always something that bothers me like I shouldn't say bothers me but like that's always like a tell if like there's like a really good like recruiting score but only like five offers it's like okay I don't really know how much like I can believe on you but you know this kid he had yeah I'm I'm pulling up his list right now uh his offers were from eastern Arkansas State Iowa State Kansas Memphis North Texas Oklahoma State South Dakota and Texas Tech uh couple of interest from Oklahoma and Arkansas as well so not the longest list in the world but still pretty good quality over quantity Amen to that uh linebacker we're not going to dig too deep into that uh because in its four 2 425 system which I don't know if they're going to keep running that next year um Chase Klein and Joe spasio thought Joe spasio was going to graduate out nope both of them come back uh kleene Michigan State transfer spasio Boston College transfer they lose to RQ Spates our old friend um you know and actually if uh you're an ips1 subscriber you can go back and read my discussion I had with teriq who is not playing football anymore he's you know he's going pro in something else other than Sports huh he's doing one of those but in a Q&A I actually did ask him about the playing time that uh he saw dip because he was a 2020 and 2021 starter he was second on the team in tackles in 20 led the team in 21 and then he took a huge back seat in 22 in terms of playing time and uh I asked him a lot of things and that was one of the questions was uh what happened there so you should go read that if you haven't uh Joe spasio second leading tackler for loss on the team is pretty cool from that position um interception to Klein I thought Klein would have been the the guy to get more of the tfls yeah I Klein had two so it's not like not a we're not we're not talking about a substantial Gap here between those two guys right uh Klein three passes defended so maybe a little bit more active um in picking up Crossing out slot receivers that type of thing but um you know both really active linebackers 91 total tackles for kleinon 89 for spasio uh defensive backs um in 22 so one thing that's important to note is that during this season four games in uh Blake Bogan went down with a huge with a huge injury against Buffalo and he missed the rest of the season and from that point on Eastern's defense went from being a two high sa a two high defense to one high and the the free safety up top that ended up being Quint quintavius scander um who was rising up through the ranks you know he was a freshman he had four years of uh of Eligibility at the time still so very very young uh he should be still doing well there but the corners you know cornage is probably like the strongest position on this defense I think especially with shine Mark Lee who both entered the year as starters they both did well throughout the year and I don't think they did anything to play themselves out of their roles but then Joshua Scott came in last year as a junior college Edition and he was just as good as the starters and it was hard to like keep him off the field he moved around a lot when Eastern was trying to figure out what they were going to do with Bogan out of the picture by the time the blll game rolled around Scott finally like found himself out an island playing Corner fulltime again and that's probably going to be the better long-term option for him cuz he's Josh Scott is really good so K Shin um but those are important to note safety I mean just a lot of guys like came in and out you know TJ Peavey who's been around for a while he moved around at safety a third linebacker slot corner you know just kind of filled in a lot there cam Smith who was a 2021 signed out of like uid Ohio I believe um you know he moved around a lot as a safety a lot of moving Parts on that like from the safties and corners but generally what I'm just going to tell you right now is that the corners are just really damn good for Eastern and the safeties they they asked a lot of the young guys to do well for the seniors like when Brandon Benson he came up but now he's graduating out Russ Vaden he started out you know as a starter on safe as a starting safety uh as a senior but now he's graduated out there was a lot put on the younger freshman and sophomores for for them to do well when the seniors have to like get out of the way and you know prepare for graduation and while the team's like okay now you got to play well we got to you know do this thing a lot was put on the safety plates and they they did perform well so now it's as Eastern's trying to figure out what it's going to do with its defense now that its DC has uh has retired what its new defense is going to look like schematically what are all these talented guys going to do in trying to fill in these these pieces we don't really know too many of the answers there but you do know that you have a lot of guys that are willing to work together and of course like I said for now the third time the corners are really good I'm interested to see if this group can generate um a bunch of takeaways I don't think emu ranked very highly in terms of like um I think it look like they like 13 interceptions but I I don't think it was a big takeaway driven defense M and taken as at as a whole season right no you're right yeah because that was the thing that like kraton was upset that and I said this earlier in this episode but like you know a problem that Eastern had in the first half of the year was that it did not win the turnover battle until the Ball State game yeah wow I mean and for a team that finished at nine and four that's that's pretty difficult to do um yeah looking at it they were seventh in the Mac in turnovers per game one and a half uh Buffalo led the way defensively followed by Western Michigan at 2.1 um and then bottom of the league was Central Michigan they were averaging fewer less than a turnover created per game so emu kind of squarely in the middle this is an experienced group um that is probably you know the departure of Jose is probably not as much Havoc going to be created in the back field I know I said that you know they probably got a dude on the roster that's going to replace just fine all American levels one thing and it won't necessarily be replaced all next year I just assume there's going to be a few cleaner Pockets next season than there were this year which means more opportunities to take that ball away uh if they can do it that's gonna I think really catapult the entire defense and I think push the team to you know we talked about having kind of expectations I think that will really push this team over the top um because imagine this year's team if they were turning people over twice a game instead of you know just over one that's a good thought I like where your heads at uh last position group kind of sort of uh and then we'll get out of here uh really quickly I just want to say thanks Justin for taking the time to do this it's uh it's always fun to talk about MAC football with you and even more fun to just like read rosters man I love reading rosters are you kidding me this is what January's made of this is how you remember some guys you know uh here are two guys that uh Eastern had to remember Chad Ryland and Jake Julian uh Chad Ryland transferred out to be Maryland's kicker and now he's like Mel Hyper's number one kicker in this draft cycle how about that um he is a legend yeah he left to be a kicker elsewhere Jake Julian he grab graduated out to be a punter uh very shortly for the Patriots and now he's like a free agent as far as I can see um but still emu felt really really good about their two leaders on the Special Teams units at kicker and punter um and they don't and you know this isn't like I don't know Eastern's not being fake at all when they say how much they care about special teams and how much it matters because that's how they got to the nine- win season by having so like by how much they gave a damn about special teams not just this past year but this whole time under kraton anyways call order to you know ask anybody to replace both of those guys in the same year and that's a lot of work for any coaching staff to replace two guys at these two spots that they care so much about you know you know to do that to do that right and they found two guys that did a really really good job like one where like I have people coming up to me and saying is Jesus Gomez like actually like NFL good and like that might be the case you know Jesus Gomez uh Mexican kicker had a really good year I think it was like the third or fourth game into the season where he tied a School record for banking a 55 Yard yeah love seeing that and Mitch Thomas also did well as a punter as well um finished the regular season with the max best pting average uh Jesus Gomez I'm looking at the stats now he was 13 of 16 on field goal tries perfect through all 43 Pats uh but yeah Jesus Gomez I mean what more can I say he's M Mexicans are cool again Mexicans are cool again as a Mexican I can say that uh as a as a white I cannot yes you can well I could I'll allow it no actually you can't say it too many people will listen to this you can tell me in private are there is he the only kicker in the Mac that is perfect on extra points because I feel like it's a right of passage to like Miss a couple oh God I'll look it up right now all right so there's a few of them that were perfect in PS this year uh Thomas clucky of Toledo through 52 uh Gomez already said that uh Mason Lawler of Bowling Green through 34 Andrew Glass of Kent State through 31 and John Richardson of NIU 31 a lone bright spot for the downtrodden Huskies yeah but those the you know the other guys were in the 30s other than uh clucky and Gomez so what do you think what do you think the odds are for this team in terms of should this team be favorites in no you know what this is how I'll ask it this is how I'll ask it and we'll get out of here uh I'm going to give you 20 20 votes you're going to have 20 votes to work with and those 20 votes represent the Mac media this summer when they pick who is going to win their divisions how many votes how many first place votes is emu going to get in the west you mean Ju Just to win the division not umis confence champ just the division of if I gave you 20 votes to work with how you think are gonna go to EAS so CMU is gonna get one I'm not one of them I'm not one of them well well CMU does not always get one of them anymore unfortunately uh R sorry yeah um let's see here but this is a good time to point out that green got one last year almost a great payoff on that one um they did make it Detroit so you listen and if that was how they asked the question he's technically correct um I have a hard time thinking that they will be picked as favorites they will not be a distant second though like maybe seven that's still a good split though 13 and seven CU my thought is like if it's like if it's only feto and emu getting them I like I think people are going to give NIU first place votes oh because of the hell and yeah because like it's a different team with Rocky lombardia and they just have the pedigree like I think someone would be like yeah I'm not I'm not it's the not counting out touchdown Tom of the Mac like that's that's what they're going to do and so like I think they'll snag a couple and then like I don't know maybe one maybe someone tosses one ball States way so I'm just thinking there's some like split-off votes or some weird votes for like Western or something like that I don't know hey man Ball State won't be a bad choice because I don't know if you've seen the transfer that they came in but uh let's let's do this after I hit end record on here but I want you to look up ball State's new quarterback oh that's going to be your you know you know I'm a true sio and it's 11: PM Eastern on a school night and I'm like I cannot wait to look up The Ball State quarterback room that's right um shout out to John Paddock for uh betting on himself as a preferred walk on Illinois um I hope it works out for him but yeah I'm gonna go with seven or eight first place votes for em I like it