The season did not start out looking good for the MAC- in week 1, the league went 3-10 out of conference, including Temple’s loss to 1-AA Villanova and several beatings at the hands of mid-level BCS conference schools. But things turned around for the league- Central Michigan beat Michigan State and Toledo beat Colorado in week 2, and the league race turned out to be very compelling down the stretch.
It wasn’t all glory, of course, the league’s bottom four teams had abysmal years, several of them with a chance to go winless, and ultimately one of them did. Last year’s league finalist fell hard too, and new coaches found the going tough this season.
So here are, once again, the reversed power rankings with a look at the 2009 season.
13. Eastern Michigan
Record: 0-12 (0-8). 6th in MAC West
Biggest Win: Sadly, there weren’t any. Their closest game to a big win came in week 2, when (Outback Bowl bound) Northwestern needed a last second field goal to beat the Eagles.
Turning Point: It might have been when the schedule came out. They kicked off with Army, but then had 5 games against two Big 10 teams and then three of the best the MAC had to offer (Temple, CMU, and Kent State). Since they didn’t get it done against Army, Eastern spiraled out to an 0-6 start which is pretty tough to recover from in any case. Losing to then 0-7 Ball State seemed to put another nail in the coffin too.
Something to Build On: Their QB this year, Alex Gillett, was a freshman with promise, and their lead RB returns for his senior season next year. The two combined for a mid-MAC rushing attack this year, and if they can make improvements, could be successful there in 2010.
12. Miami
Record: 1-11 (1-7) 7th in MAC East
Biggest Win: Toledo, 31-24. Yes, it was the only win they had, but it was a respectable one- Toledo had looked like the team to beat early on, and played good games down the stretch at times.
Turning Point: The first 150 minutes of the year. In two and a half games, the Redhawks scored zero points. It was pretty clear that Miami was in some trouble then.
Something to Build On: Miami can look and find a lot of momentum coming down the end of the year- their win over Toledo, a two point loss to Temple, and a couple of other respectable games suggest that the worst should be behind them for now.
11. Akron
Record: 3-9 (2-6) 6th in MAC East
Biggest Win: Kent State, 28-20. Their surprising win over Kent State derailed the Flashes path to the conference title game, and was their first win over a 1-A school this year.
Turning Point: I’ll put it as the loss to Buffalo- at that point, their losses were to a pair of Big 10 teams and the two future conference finalists. Buffalo, though, had struggled too, and was Akron’s last chance to get something going for a while, schedule-wise.
Something to Build On: Well, they are getting a new coach- Rob Ianello, a former Notre Dame assistant. He can look at the Kent State and Eastern Michigan wins as evidence that his squad can win games against motivated teams, and start the turnaround process on a 1 game winning streak.
10. Ball State
Record: 2-10 (2-6) 5th in MAC West
Biggest Win: Western Michigan, 22-17. They denied Western’s chance to reach bowl eligibility (although it probably wouldn’t have gotten them anywhere) and avoided being a 1-win team.
Turning Point: Probably week 1, when the Cardinals lost to a bad North Texas team at home. It was a clear sign that this was not the 12-0 regular season they had last year.
Something to Build On: They probably aren’t as bad as their record shows- they had boatloads of close losses- 7, 7, 7, 5, 4, 3, 6- these are games that could have been different with better bounces- the bounces they had to get in 2008 for the year they had.
Here we have a pretty big gap, from the 0-3 win group up to a pack of 5 win teams, who had much more tolerable seasons, although some certainly failed to live up to their promise.
9. Western Michigan
Record: 5-7 (4-4) 3rd in MAC West
Biggest Win: While they had a slightly better conference record than a team I put ahead of them, WMU had no signature wins, beating nobody out of conference save 1-AA Hofstra and beating no teams with a winning record. Beating Toledo when they were still somewhat hot is probably their best win.
Turning Point: Losing to Kent State when they were sitting at 4-4 with Eastern Michigan and Ball State still on the board- win that and they’re very much in the bowl hunt.
Something to Build On: This is a tough one- this was supposed to be WMU’s year, with Senior QB Tim Hiller getting some pre-season attention nationally, and a senior RB too. I don’t know enough about the depth chart up there to have any idea if they have talent to replace those guys, but they have a system that usually works, so maybe next year they can just reload and improve.
8. Kent State
Record: 5-7 (4-4) 4th in MAC East
Biggest Win: Ohio, 20-11. For this week and one more, Kent State actually controlled its own destiny in the MAC and could have won its way to the championship game.
Turning Point: Losing to Akron two weeks after the Ohio win. From there, the season spiraled away with losses to Temple and Buffalo, knocking them out of any contention for the postseason.
Something to Build On: This year is still an improvement on the 3 and 4 win years in ’07 and ’08, and they did it with a Freshman QB and Sophomore RB, so there’s a lot to look forward to on offense there. Kent State should be in the MAC East mix again in 2010.
7. Toledo
Record: 5-7 (3-5) 4th in MAC West
Biggest Win: Colorado, 54-38. The Rockets looked like world-beaters that night, dismantling CU with an offensive assault. Giving up the 38 should probably have been a warning sign, but on that night, it didn’t seem like anyone in the MAC could keep up.
Turning Point: Losing to Western Michigan 58-26. After losing to Ohio State, Toledo bounced back with two wins over non-BCS squads and looked to be rolling again, only to run into the otherwise-unimpressive Broncos. They only won two more games after that.
Something to Build On: They’re losing senior QB Aaron Opelt, but his leading receiver this year was a freshman. If they can keep the system in place, there’s no reason to think their passing attack should drop way off from this year. They’ll still need a defense, but the offense should keep them in games.
6. Buffalo
Record: 5-7 (3-5) 5th in MAC East
Biggest Win: At UTEP, 23-17. The Bulls started their season across the country beating a UTEP team that had its share of pre-season expectations (and later beat Houston). It would up being a while before Buffalo picked up another win, but winning at UTEP is never easy.
Turning Point: Buffalo came to life after they beat 1-AA Gardner-Webb 40-3. From there, they picked up another win, did lose three more by a combined 7 points, then won their last two games- by far the strongest finish of any of the 5-7 bunch.
Something to Build On: The Bulls are going to have to hire a new coach after Turner Gill was named the head coach at Kansas this week. It will be interesting to see if they can bring someone of his caliber in to continue what he’s built, considering the school had spent years in the cellar before that. The talent is there, since Buffalo is keeping their key skill players another year.
Now we get into the upper third of the MAC this year- the winning teams, the ones all headed for bowls thanks to the ACC and Big 10 not filling up their slots.
5. Northern Illinois
Record: 7-5 (5-3) 2nd in MAC West
Biggest Win: At Purdue, 28-21. Purdue didn’t have a great season, but they did knock off Ohio State later on, and division rival Toledo wasn’t able to beat them earlier in the year. The win set the Huskies on a 7 of 9 win run, setting them up for a shot at the league title.
Turning Point: Besides the Purdue win setting off good things, their loss to Ohio untracked their season a bit down the stretch. They then lost to Central Michigan in the finale to wind up 7-5. Luckily, there were bowl bids out there for them, but it wasn’t a sure thing until late in the day on Selection Sunday.
Bowl Matchup: The Huskies will take on South Florida in the International Bowl on January 2. South Florida comes in with an electric young QB that can annihilate anyone with the long ball, although the Bulls have been inconsistent since starting out hot and beating Florida State in the early season.
4. Bowling Green
Record: 7-5 (6-2) 3rd in MAC East
Biggest Win: Troy, 31-14. The MAC lost every game to the Sun Belt last year, and BGSU went out and throttled their champion to kick off the season. Of course, they then lost four games in a row, but they recovered.
Turning Point: Beating Kent State 36-35 set off a 6-out-of-7 winning run to end the year, pushing them into the bowl mix.
Bowl Matchup: The Falcons travel west to face Idaho on the blue turf in the Humanitarian Bowl on December 30. Idaho mirrors Bowling Green a bit, with an effective passing game but sometimes suspect defense. If the weather is decent, this should be a high-flying affair, and if it’s not: snow game chaos.
3. Temple
Record: 9-3 (7-1) 2nd in MAC East
Biggest Win: At Navy, 27-24. Temple rebounded from a bad start and steamrolled the bottom half of the MAC, but when they were able to beat Navy, people started noticing and Temple’s season gained some legitimacy.
Turning Point: Temple started out with that loss to Villanova (who’s in the 1-AA Final this weekend) and a sound beating by Penn State, but turned around to hammer Buffalo 37-13 and launch their 9 game winning streak.
Bowl Matchup: The Owls drew one of the more appealing MAC bowls this year by facing off against UCLA in the EagleBank bowl in Washington, DC on December 29. I won’t pretend to know much about UCLA, but they went 3-9 in the Pac-10, relying on wins over San Diego State, Tennessee, and Kansas State to get to bowl eligible this year. Temple’s first bowl game in ages is just down the road and in an open-air stadium, so this should be a very favorable environment for the Owls.
2. Ohio
Record: 9-4 (7-1) 1st in MAC East
Biggest Win: Temple, 35-17, in the final game of the regular season. The win sent Ohio to the championship game and guaranteed them a bowl berth. Honorable mention goes to a 31-30 OT win over North Texas that got their season going in week 2.
Turning Point: Beating Bowling Green when they sat at 2-2 started off a 7 of 8 game run to finish the season with their 9 wins.
Bowl Matchup: Ohio will head back to Detroit to play 6-6 Marshall in the Little Caesar’s Bowl on December 26. Marshall comes in without their head coach, and having lost three of their last four down the stretch, falling out of the C-USA East race along the way. Their key strength is their ground attack, led by the appropriately named Darius Marshall. They have the talent to make this a good game, but Ohio should have the edge in this one.
1. Central Michigan
Record: 11-2 (8-0) 1st Place MAC West
Biggest Win: Aside from winning the conference championship game, their dramatic 29-27 win over Michigan State is the MAC’s biggest win all year. It set the stage for a 7 game win streak, with only Boston College interrupting their run of victories through the end of the year.
Turning Point: Michigan State certainly counts, but beating Toledo handily after that loss to Boston College broke up their streak showed that CMU was still on track and on their way to the postseason.
Bowl Matchup: If TCU-Boise is the non-BCS world championship, then CMU-Troy is at least the non-BCS East finals. Troy recovered from their loss to Bowling Green and won 9 games, including all 8 in the Sun Belt, and look to give Central Michigan a fight in the GMAC bowl in Mobile, AL on January 6.