Since the wheels have totally fallen of the Wolverines, UM fans should fill up Rynerson Stadium and adopt EMU.

If UofM have fallen flat then EMU football has been driving on the rims

Looks like Michigan is going to be down for a while, if EMU"s new coach can get them moving in a positive direction and winning some games this year and next, the Eagles should grow their fanbase and get more media attention in metro Detroit.

It can be done, Missouri Valley Conference teams have beaten some FBS programs and given more than a few a real scare. EMU needs to recruit where NDST & UNI are and get some of those players as those 2 programs would be successful in any Go5 Conference

(10-01-2014 08:27 PM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  

(10-01-2014 07:59 PM)Policiious Wrote:  Looks like Michigan is going to be down for a while, if EMU"s new coach can get them moving in a positive direction and winning some games this year and next, the Eagles should grow their fanbase and get more media attention in metro Detroit.

It can be done, Missouri Valley Conference teams have beaten some FBS programs and given more than a few a real scare. EMU needs to recruit where NDST & UNI are and get some of those players as those 2 programs would be successful in any Go5 Conference

No way. You are delusional. Even with Michigan down they still draw over 100K. EMU is the armpit of FBS ball. I work with guys from Michigan and whenever we talk MAC football all they say is I don't understand why EMU is not a D3 school. EMU has some of the worst facilities in FBS and zero following they need to realize what they are and drop down a level. Missouri Valley teams would destroy EMU. Illinois State blew them out in 2012.

EMU has an indoor practice facility which is a good facilities foundation. The state of Michigan does not have the talent level to support 5 FBS programs (this year is a textbook example of that), however there are several states that have only 1 FBS program that FCS programs like UNI, NDST, WIU & ISU are drawing talent from.

Wisconsin, Minnesota & Missouri have more than enough talent to support the 1 FBS program that each of them have. Much of that excess talent is why NDST has been a dominant FCS program and UNI fields teams that have beaten Iowa State twice in the last 10 years and play Iowa competitiively. Illinois State and WIU draw considerable recruits from Wisky.

If EMU focused on those 3 states plus Kansas which produces several JUCO talents; they'd have a far more competitive football program than they have now without spending a big chunk of change on recruiting

Lest you forget that back in the 70's and 90's NIU was a big a football joke as EMU is now. EMU can turn themselves around

(10-01-2014 08:38 PM)Policiious Wrote:  Lest you forget that back in the 70's and 90's NIU was a big a football joke as EMU is now. EMU can turn themselves around

Lest you forget EMU has been a joke since the 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s.

NIU has turned it's program around. If EMU can muster 2 back to back .500 seasons maybe they can talk.

Quote:If EMU can muster 2 back to back .500 seasons maybe they can talk.

When they had Charlie Batch as QB, they weren't bad at all. But that's about it -- not bad, at all. Probably why Charlie Batch went to the NFL -- totally shocked scouts there's a QB who could do that. :)

Everyone seems to forget that beyond football, Northern Illinois has been in the bottom third of the MAC's all-sports competition for men's and women's athletics. Granted the majority of folks on this board only seem to care about football, but there are people at EMU and other MAC schools that wonder with our location, why we're not more competitive in more sports.
Policiious and several others on here can't seem to remember we turned our backs on the MAC at one point, and there were MAC schools that did not want us back in the league -- EMU wasn't one of them.

(10-01-2014 10:55 PM)uiniu57 Wrote:  Everyone seems to forget that beyond football, Northern Illinois has been in the bottom third of the MAC's all-sports competition for men's and women's athletics. Granted the majority of folks on this board only seem to care about football, but there are people at EMU and other MAC schools that wonder with our location, why we're not more competitive in more sports.
Policiious and several others on here can't seem to remember we turned our backs on the MAC at one point, and there were MAC schools that did not want us back in the league -- EMU wasn't one of them.

Whoa there, I want EMU to be successful on the gridiron and wish NIU had the success that EMU has had in the sports it sponsors. EMU is a track and baseball powerhouse

EMU = FCS

They need to drop down, for their sake and ours...

(10-01-2014 11:16 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  EMU = FCS

They need to drop down, for their sake and ours...

Purdue perhaps to join them, probably even a worse football team than EMU

(10-01-2014 11:19 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-01-2014 11:16 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  EMU = FCS

They need to drop down, for their sake and ours...

Purdue perhaps to join them, probably even a worse football team than EMU

Wow, Maddawgz randomly bringing up a BigTten team into the conversation. I've never seen that before!

Maddawgz "I Root For:" should say "Any Big Ten Opponent".

(10-01-2014 11:19 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-01-2014 11:16 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  EMU = FCS

They need to drop down, for their sake and ours...

Purdue perhaps to join them, probably even a worse football team than EMU

Please stop.

(10-02-2014 07:30 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  

(10-01-2014 11:19 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-01-2014 11:16 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  EMU = FCS

They need to drop down, for their sake and ours...

Purdue perhaps to join them, probably even a worse football team than EMU

In 2012 Purdue beat EMU 54 - 12. Also the same year Illinois State beat EMU 31 - 14. If you are calling for Purdue to drop down then half the MAC is going with them. Purdue's only FBS win this season is against WMU and they would easily beat EMU, Miami, Kent, Ball State, UMass, and Buffalo. And if that were to happen, then EMU would probably drop down to the non-scholarship Pioneer league which ironically is where their current head coach came...

UM will be back on top and EMU cannot escape the fact that their stadium is only 5-7 miles from the big house. EMU's facilities are not that bad, they have a terric basketball arena and the stadium is ok.

Quote:EMU has an indoor practice facility which is a good facilities foundation.

EMU has a bubble, which has not been state-of-the-art in 30 years.

EMU's no crappier than a host of other MAC teams. The difference with EMU is that there's no hope there. In football, which is increasingly becoming the only thing that matters to the NCAA (not EMU's fault, it's just the way it is), they have no opportunity to be anything more than what they are. The interest level in the Detroit area is never going to increase significantly. The dumpster fire the next town over has that on lockdown. People there would rather b*tch about Brady Hoke than wonder whether Bolden, Bell, or Roback should be under center for the Eagles/Hurons.

They can maybe become relevant in the MAC West, but as soon as they do, whatever coach that got them there will bolt.

I don't see how there's much chance of sustainable success there.

(10-01-2014 08:38 PM)Policiious Wrote:  Lest you forget that back in the 70's and 90's NIU was a big a football joke as EMU is now. EMU can turn themselves around

We cant even get 24k to show on a Saturday after a 7-0 start, the team being ranked and an orange bowl appearance the year before.

No EMU football can not turn themselves around in a short time frame as far as fans go....which is the point/suggestion of the OP.

(10-01-2014 08:38 PM)Policiious Wrote:  Lest you forget that back in the 70's and 90's NIU was a big a football joke as EMU is now. EMU can turn themselves around

The Huskies have had some bad years, but they have managed to produce at least one winning team each decade. EMU has not had a winning team since 1995.

I do not think too many Michigan fans will abandon a crappy Michigan team to see a crappy MAC team. If EMU had gone to the last four MAC Championship games, they would see some converts, but not this EMU team.

It really just takes hiring the right coach. If NIU would have hired the football equivalent to Ricardo Patton after Novak, who knows where they would be now.

You think if EMU would have hired Kill he wouldn't have eventually built them up to respectability?

(10-01-2014 08:37 PM)Policiious Wrote:  EMU has an indoor practice facility which is a good facilities foundation.

If EMU focused on those 3 states plus Kansas which produces several JUCO talents; they'd have a far more competitive football program than they have now without spending a big chunk of change on recruiting

Strong winds blew a hole in the EMU practice bubble which you describe as a "good facilities foundation" in October 0f 2011. The San Francisco 49ers were practicing inside it at the time. The bubble was out of commission for several weeks.

And why do you think that recruits from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri are going to be at all interested in coming to EMU? Maybe when they take a recruiting trip to Ypsilanti for Homecoming and see 2500 people in the stands for the game?

Where do you come up with this stuff?