(10-29-2023 04:14 AM)EMU 83 Wrote:  I went to a wedding yesterday - and it was killing me that I was not at the game, but I listened when I could on the radio. Listening to this game reminded me of the dark times of keystone cops EMU football. We would make a play and then shoot ourselves in the foot. I had to turn it off after the multiple penalties of lining up offside or unsportsmanlike conduct.

Thank goodness for this forum. It gives us a chance to vent and also to laud our successes with other likewise fans who love EMU. Creighton has placed our historically moribund football program into a situation where we now feel like we have a chance to win where ever we play! Heck, some of us were picking EMU to beat Minnesota on the road. In the past, we felt good about the loss looking presentable.

In our fickleness, however, after a win, we want to extend a coach's contact and after a loss we want to fire everyone. We can't know what is going on in the locker room. We are just 10 months from winning a bowl game that we felt would launch us into a MAC championship this year. Were mistakes made this year? Absolutely, but let's remember how difficult it is to hire and keep a talented head coach in the MAC who isn't rising too fast to get poached by a power 5 school.

Let's rely on Creighton's body of work, and look forward to righting the ship these last few games and starting over next season.

(10-28-2023 08:56 PM)holybovine Wrote:  

(10-28-2023 06:42 PM)Jerry Weaver Wrote:  

(10-28-2023 04:39 PM)holybovine Wrote:  In the game thread , Steve said EMU was “playing good ball”. I just about lost my mind. I know he’s the sunshine man, but I also think he intentionally pushes an AD narrative that everything is fine. All the time. Why? Who knows? But I suspect access is his reward.

I flew from Texas for this game, and I can tell you that things are not fine. Not only did we not play well, we were dominated. Let me count the ways:

-There’s the final score: 45-21
-WMU outgained us by more than 100 yards (421-317), with most of our yards coming in the 4th quarter when the competitive phase of the game was already over.
-WMU ran for 252 yards (4.3 per carry). We ran for 28 yards.
-We committed 10 penalties, most of the stupid variety.
-We committed 4 turnovers, WMU had 1.
-WMU possessed the ball for 13 more minutes than we did.
-WMU had 4 sacks, and pressured the QBs on every pass.

We were dominated in every way a team can be dominated. And WE were the ones with “one of the best coaches in the MAC” coming off of a bowl win with all momentum and MAC title aspirations. And WMU was supposed to be a complete rebuild with a new coaching staff, on the verge of being eliminated from bowl contention with a 2-6 record.

We were 3 point underdogs at home to this team, and the game was not competitive for one moment.

Every single person associated with the program should be ashamed. Coaches, players, announcers, trainers, support staff, etc. They were humiliated by a program at its nadir. Just wait until WMU gets some momentum.

The offense in particular should be embarrassed. Look, we all know the various QBs on the roster aren’t FBS material. But our offensive line was completely destroyed. They looked like they were playing Michigan today. They didn’t give any of their QBs much of a chance. On the rare occasions that they did, the QBs were not able to do their jobs. So what we have is a complete systematic failure as a unit. In Creighton’s 10th year.

You can blow me off as a single alienated voice in the wilderness, and point to past CC successes, but this is the beginning of the end for the Creighton era. This was too much of a debacle to blow off as an isolated incident. And before you ignore my feedback, how many of our alums are flying in from across the country to watch games? Probably not many. I’m lucky to be able to do so. But I know the AD reads these boards, and you better believe I won’t be doing this again anytime soon. If you are going to give a coach a lifetime contract for mediocrity, you better be sure that he is capable of reaching even that low of a bar.

There is ZERO reason for giving a MAC coach a contract extension based on such a low-bar of performance. Murphy's 20 wins playing cupcakes and Creighton going to a bowl despite only playing one payday game unlike most MAC schools is just insane.

Exactly Jerry! Thank you. Sometimes I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Why do we anchor ourselves like this to average coaches? If they are worth a damn, we WANT them to eventually leave for something bigger!

I'm not suggesting that we get rid of Creighton in any way. The job he has done here is nothing short of remarkable. I just don't want to see any EMU coach under contract for more than four years and ANY automatic extension should be tied to a MAC conference championship, plain and simple. My reasoning?

1) We don't have the money to buyout coaching contracts. It is who we are.

2) The last two MAC football coaches poached by bigger programs were NIU's Carey by Temple and Buffalo's Leipold by Kansas at the last minute when superior candidates were unavailable. No length of MAC contract is going to stop a coach from leaving for bigger $$$. So why offer it?

3) We all cringe when we see a P5 opening, and Creighton's name is mentioned. Do we honestly think MSU's Matt Ishbia is going to spray money for a MAC coach with a 29-46 conference record? Even Northwestern will look away, so why extend him?

4) We let Murphy go for ten years and he left us with a dumpster fire and zero MAC championships. The 20-win auto extension got us that, even though it was a REALLY low bar of performance considering how Rob scheduled OOC games. The same applies to Creighton's bowl game extension. We let him play only one payday game while others are playing two or three, thus six wins is an awfully ordinary outcome for the season and half of the FBS goes to bowl games anyhow.

Seems awfully silly to me.

This is where I come in and say we've had more up years with Creighton than down years. So far this year has been disappointing but more football will be played. I'm glad the program is in Chris Creighton's hands. Hopefully he will make the necessary changes.

(10-30-2023 03:52 AM)emu79 Wrote:  This is where I come in and say we've had more up years with Creighton than down years. So far this year has been disappointing but more football will be played. I'm glad the program is in Chris Creighton's hands. Hopefully he will make the necessary changes.

I might suggest a possible hypothesis for MAC teams: they usually regress after a very big year.

Mull that over and let it sink in. Does it apply to EMU FB '23?

(10-30-2023 03:52 AM)emu79 Wrote:  This is where I come in and say we've had more up years with Creighton than down years. So far this year has been disappointing but more football will be played. I'm glad the program is in Chris Creighton's hands. Hopefully he will make the necessary changes.

Five sub .500 seasons
Four over .500 seasons
One season that is still in progress
Still 15 or so games sub .500 for his career.

I like the guy. Possibly the best coach the program has ever had. I just hoped for more in the win column at this point.

(10-30-2023 06:16 AM)KPJ Wrote:  

(10-30-2023 03:52 AM)emu79 Wrote:  This is where I come in and say we've had more up years with Creighton than down years. So far this year has been disappointing but more football will be played. I'm glad the program is in Chris Creighton's hands. Hopefully he will make the necessary changes.

Five sub .500 seasons
Four over .500 seasons
One season that is still in progress
Still 15 or so games sub .500 for his career.

I like the guy. Possibly the best coach the program has ever had. I just hoped for more in the win column at this point.

I like how you sum that up, KPJ. But for the last point, while indeed accurate, it does not “feel” as bad as that. That is because when you take out the first two years (3-21), his EMU record is 47-45 the last eight years. 8 years is a long run of not ever being bad if not even pretty good. I am content with that- especially given the atmosphere he creates around the program and university. I understand opposing sentiments as well though.

EDIT: I should add this has been my sentiment prior to this year. This year, the losses have been horrific and the wins have not been impressive. I am willing to overlook a year like this, but if it continues into next year and the one after that, I will definitely have a different sentiment.

Creighton is what he is in year 10. The results don’t surprise me anymore. I was hoping last year might be a stepping stone to a MAC title game appearance this season, but it’s painfully clear that we benefitted from a weak schedule in 2022. We won 8 regular season games without beating a single team that ended up being bowl eligible, which seems impossible.

Losing to our in-state rivals makes it feel even worse. Has Creighton ever beat CMU when they WEREN’T a dumpster fire? I can’t recall. And then to be embarrassed off the field by 2-6 WMU is the cherry on top.

I’m glad other posters here are holding his feet to the fire a little bit, and acknowledging his ridiculous contract. We’ve accepted consistent mediocrity here, rather than the eventual, potential opportunity to take a risk and bring someone in who can actually win the MAC. Creighton brought our program back from the dead, but this is clearly as far as he can take it. We aren’t a laughingstock anymore, and we also aren’t a threat to win the conference. We’re just…here. Some people are fine with that. I wish we strived for more.

(10-30-2023 07:28 AM)RamyEMU Wrote:  

(10-30-2023 06:16 AM)KPJ Wrote:  

(10-30-2023 03:52 AM)emu79 Wrote:  This is where I come in and say we've had more up years with Creighton than down years. So far this year has been disappointing but more football will be played. I'm glad the program is in Chris Creighton's hands. Hopefully he will make the necessary changes.

Five sub .500 seasons
Four over .500 seasons
One season that is still in progress
Still 15 or so games sub .500 for his career.

I like the guy. Possibly the best coach the program has ever had. I just hoped for more in the win column at this point.

I like how you sum that up, KPJ. But for the last point, while indeed accurate, it does not “feel” as bad as that. That is because when you take out the first two years (3-21), his EMU record is 47-45 the last eight years. 8 years is a long run of not ever being bad if not even pretty good. I am content with that- especially given the atmosphere he creates around the program and university. I understand opposing sentiments as well though.

EDIT: I should add this has been my sentiment prior to this year. This year, the losses have been horrific and the wins have not been impressive. I am willing to overlook a year like this, but if it continues into next year and the one after that, I will definitely have a different sentiment.

8 seasons of just over .500 football is a HUGE improvement from where the program has been.
EMU is one of, if not the only, place(s) that flys though (pun intended).
I’m not calling for the guy to be fired.
I’m just saying we have to expect more.

(10-30-2023 08:49 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  Creighton is what he is in year 10. The results don’t surprise me anymore. I was hoping last year might be a stepping stone to a MAC title game appearance this season, but it’s painfully clear that we benefitted from a weak schedule in 2022. We won 8 regular season games without beating a single team that ended up being bowl eligible, which seems impossible.

Losing to our in-state rivals makes it feel even worse. Has Creighton ever beat CMU when they WEREN’T a dumpster fire? I can’t recall. And then to be embarrassed off the field by 2-6 WMU is the cherry on top.

I’m glad other posters here are holding his feet to the fire a little bit, and acknowledging his ridiculous contract. We’ve accepted consistent mediocrity here, rather than the eventual, potential opportunity to take a risk and bring someone in who can actually win the MAC. Creighton brought our program back from the dead, but this is clearly as far as he can take it. We aren’t a laughingstock anymore, and we also aren’t a threat to win the conference. We’re just…here. Some people are fine with that. I wish we strived for more.

Hm did we forget we beat WMU what four or five times straight? I don't think Creighton is at all satisfied with this year. I think he's pissed that his staff and himself maybe missed the boat on talent evaluation. Add to that the frustration of injuries. Yep everyone has them I know. I don't think he's mailing it in.

BTW, the big story line isn't if Sunshine/Subscription Steve got a little keyboard happy when EMU scored a few TDs, but the Maxx gift and CHAMPIONSHIP BUILDING PROJECT, PHASE iI.

See the Maxx thread. Nothing much to see here.

(10-30-2023 09:51 AM)emu79 Wrote:  

(10-30-2023 08:49 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  Creighton is what he is in year 10. The results don’t surprise me anymore. I was hoping last year might be a stepping stone to a MAC title game appearance this season, but it’s painfully clear that we benefitted from a weak schedule in 2022. We won 8 regular season games without beating a single team that ended up being bowl eligible, which seems impossible.

Losing to our in-state rivals makes it feel even worse. Has Creighton ever beat CMU when they WEREN’T a dumpster fire? I can’t recall. And then to be embarrassed off the field by 2-6 WMU is the cherry on top.

I’m glad other posters here are holding his feet to the fire a little bit, and acknowledging his ridiculous contract. We’ve accepted consistent mediocrity here, rather than the eventual, potential opportunity to take a risk and bring someone in who can actually win the MAC. Creighton brought our program back from the dead, but this is clearly as far as he can take it. We aren’t a laughingstock anymore, and we also aren’t a threat to win the conference. We’re just…here. Some people are fine with that. I wish we strived for more.

Hm did we forget we beat WMU what four or five times straight? I don't think Creighton is at all satisfied with this year. I think he's pissed that his staff and himself maybe missed the boat on talent evaluation. Add to that the frustration of injuries. Yep everyone has them I know. I don't think he's mailing it in.

Hm, we didn’t forget that we beat Western 4 times straight. This loss brought Creighton’s record against WMU to 4-6. He’s 3-7 against CMU.

I don’t think he’s mailing it in, either. I just don’t think he’s a coach that can get us over the hump. I love the guy, but the results speak for themselves. Since Creighton has been here, we are the only school in the conference to not have played in the MAC Championship game. We should expect better.

(10-30-2023 05:49 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(10-30-2023 03:52 AM)emu79 Wrote:  This is where I come in and say we've had more up years with Creighton than down years. So far this year has been disappointing but more football will be played. I'm glad the program is in Chris Creighton's hands. Hopefully he will make the necessary changes.

I might suggest a possible hypothesis for MAC teams: they usually regress after a very big year.

Mull that over and let it sink in. Does it apply to EMU FB '23?

Your hypothesis isn’t accurate:
-Toledo
-Ohio
-Northern Illinois

All seem pretty consistent to me.

(10-30-2023 12:29 PM)emu steve Wrote:  BTW, the big story line isn't if Sunshine/Subscription Steve got a little keyboard happy when EMU scored a few TDs, but the Maxx gift and CHAMPIONSHIP BUILDING PROJECT, PHASE iI.

See the Maxx thread. Nothing much to see here.

Quit trying to stifle discussion.

More and more you reveal yourself to be an AD plant.

(10-30-2023 01:23 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(10-30-2023 09:51 AM)emu79 Wrote:  

(10-30-2023 08:49 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  Creighton is what he is in year 10. The results don’t surprise me anymore. I was hoping last year might be a stepping stone to a MAC title game appearance this season, but it’s painfully clear that we benefitted from a weak schedule in 2022. We won 8 regular season games without beating a single team that ended up being bowl eligible, which seems impossible.

Losing to our in-state rivals makes it feel even worse. Has Creighton ever beat CMU when they WEREN’T a dumpster fire? I can’t recall. And then to be embarrassed off the field by 2-6 WMU is the cherry on top.

I’m glad other posters here are holding his feet to the fire a little bit, and acknowledging his ridiculous contract. We’ve accepted consistent mediocrity here, rather than the eventual, potential opportunity to take a risk and bring someone in who can actually win the MAC. Creighton brought our program back from the dead, but this is clearly as far as he can take it. We aren’t a laughingstock anymore, and we also aren’t a threat to win the conference. We’re just…here. Some people are fine with that. I wish we strived for more.

Hm did we forget we beat WMU what four or five times straight? I don't think Creighton is at all satisfied with this year. I think he's pissed that his staff and himself maybe missed the boat on talent evaluation. Add to that the frustration of injuries. Yep everyone has them I know. I don't think he's mailing it in.

Hm, we didn’t forget that we beat Western 4 times straight. This loss brought Creighton’s record against WMU to 4-6. He’s 3-7 against CMU.

I don’t think he’s mailing it in, either. I just don’t think he’s a coach that can get us over the hump. I love the guy, but the results speak for themselves. Since Creighton has been here, we are the only school in the conference to not have played in the MAC Championship game. We should expect better.

You make an extremely valid point Sam. His record in one-possession and Overtime games is indeed horrendous. Those are the "over the hump" games you alluded to, and your analysis is indeed correct. Coach seems to have a patent on ALMOST getting us there.

While I say that, Cooper, Rasnick, Woodruff, Genyk, English and even the late version of Harkema failed in 36 seasons to match what Creighton has done.

At the end of the day, however, it does not matter. He has a long-term contract and will indeed be our coach for a long time.