Eastern Michigan Athletics
Football Set to Open Spring Practice Tomorrow, March 10
3/9/2020 1:23:00 PM | Football
Eagles to open camp March 10 and then hold the spring game April 11
Video Interview | Spring Prospectus (PDF).
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) — The Eastern Michigan University football program returns to the turf for its first spring practice Tuesday, March 10, at 3 p.m. The session kicks off a string of 15 practice dates during a five-week period that culminates with the program's annual spring football game Saturday, April 11.
During the spring practice period, the Eagles will be hitting the field three times per week. Depending on the weather, practices will take place inside Rynearson Stadium or the St. Joe's Sports Dome.
The Spring Game will be a capper for the practice period as Head Coach Chris Creighton and his staff will put on a scrimmage for Eagle fans on the gray turf inside "The Factory." Details, events, and promotions surrounding the game are forthcoming.
Prior to hitting the practice fields for the first time, EMU Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations Greg Steiner caught up with Creighton to get his thoughts on a multitude of topics surrounding the program. That interview text is below, while the complete interview can also be found in the corresponding video.
Season tickets will go on sale Monday, March 23, as EMU's Ticket Office transitions to a new online ticketing system. Fans will enjoy the ease of purchasing mobile tickets, receiving them via text message and gaining access to the venue with their phones. Advanced ticketing and other features will also be seamlessly integrated into the official athletics website and mobile app, powered by SIDEARM Sports, to elevate the customer experience.
2020 EMU Football Spring Preview Interview
Greg Steiner: Spring practice gets underway on Tuesday as Eastern Michigan returns to the football field joined alongside Head Coach Chris Creighton. Does it feel like it's the seventh time that you've taken to the field with this team?
Chris Creighton: Gosh, in some ways it feels as though we're just getting started and then when you say seven years, I mean, in looking back, it has been a while, so I think we're hopefully getting better and better at it.
GS: When you look at kind of the longest-tenured FBS head coaches, you're now 25th on the current active head coaches list. It just shows the profession changes a lot but also shows the stability you've been able to bring to this team and the university over the last seven years.
CC: It's been good. It really has. It feels as though I'm not new here anymore. It feels as though our program is becoming more and more established and again, hopefully we're getting better and better as we go.
GS: We're not going to spend too much time talking about last year, but when you look back at what it was, third bowl game in the last four years, having an opportunity to beat a Big 10 team for the third straight year, what stands out the most to you about last year's team?
CC: Well, we had some breakthroughs but probably not as many as we would've liked. We beat some teams, we've beaten every team in the Mid-American Conference now but fell short of our goals, had some big wins obviously with beating a third Big 10 team for the third straight year. We had a chance for a magical night against Pitt in the Quick Lane Bowl and fell short. I love our team and we fought like crazy, but we did also fall short in some areas. That's definitely made us hungry to try to make that better this year.
GS: You lost many four-year players and starters from the team a year ago. You look at guys like Vince Calhoun, Brody Hoying, Kevin McGill, Shaq Vann, that were four-year guys and now they are gone. It's the first time a lot of Eastern Michigan fans will remember the program without them. How do you go about trying to replace some of the productivity they had?
CC: Yeah, I mean that's the nature of college sports and college football is that you want guys to graduate and to move on with their lives when their time is up. So we've been recruiting, and we've been developing players. At the same time, you start listing off some of those names and "replace" is really not the right word. I mean guys have to make their own name. Guys have to step up and be their best. We'll have our Pro Day here soon and get to see all those guys coming back, and it was a great group. There's no question. We do feel as though we've recruited well and that we've developed guys, so this will be a big spring.
GS: Heading into the spring, what do you view as your biggest strengths coming back and also what's the biggest area that you really want to work on heading into the spring?
CC: Well, I mean there's a lot of ways to answer that when you lose a big senior class. I mean our senior leadership has to step up just like everything else. But I'm really excited about this group, and we're headed in a really good direction right now. We've lost three key secondary players defensively, but feel really good about the core of people that we have coming back on defense. I really believe that we can take a step forward defensively.
And then offensive side, we've lost a lot of offensive skill, and like you mentioned, a lot of production. That always starts at the quarterback position, and so we're going to have to make sure that we're playing great at that position. Then, there will be some new faces at receiver and running back and I feel pretty good about our offensive line and our tight ends.
In terms of the special teams, our two starting specialists are both back and I think that both of those guys have a chance to be really, really, really good. Drake Sutton, our long snapper, the less people think about him the better, and he would be the first to tell you that. His name was not called because he didn't make mistakes, so we'll need to step up there as well.
GS: Everybody wants to talk about the quarterback role. You've had Mike Glass III for the better part of two years. He and Tyler Wiegers shared the responsibility two years ago. Last year, of course, he gets the starting nod, but did miss a game. Preston Hutchinson starts, had some good reps, but it's still a quarterback room that's going to be pretty green. How do you go about getting them enough preparation this spring to be ready for the fall?
CC: Well, you're limited to 15 practice opportunities, and we'll be taking full advantage of all of those. Preston played some of the Buffalo game, but it was start-to-finish in the Western Michigan game and obviously had a great night. He has given himself, and all of us, a ton of confidence. He'll also be leading and competing at the same time, just like Mike was last year. We have guys who have developed in the program, and then we had a graduate transfer come in as well in January, so I'm excited to see that develop.
GS: Running back wise, of course, Shaq was with the program for six years, but it was a running back that played a complementary role because you wanted to throw so much. How do you envision 2020 being? Do you still rely on the running back a little bit more than you did in 2019?
CC: Well, honestly, and this isn't necessarily game-to-game, by the end of next season we need to be 50-50. We need to be able to run the ball and throw the ball with equal proficiency, there's no question about it. We do not want to be a one-dimensional team and each team is going to have strengths and weaknesses and you want to accentuate those, but we want to be able to run and throw the ball with equal proficiency. We've got some good backs coming back and had one of our freshmen get here early. He has been here since January and then we have another one coming in June. It's going to be an exciting spring to see those guys go.
GS: Kobie Beltram at the linebacker position last year had a team-best 128 tackles. He graduates. How do you go about filling a role for his productivity as well as in that middle position?
CC: Well, I mean Terry Myrick will have to continue to step up, he will be a senior and one of our two inside linebackers. Kobie did have an outstanding year and from the moment he got on campus, he was so serious about being his best, learning, and doing it right, and a year later became a leader in our program. All of those guys will be missed. But we've got a group of guys that Coach Neal Neathery has been bringing along, and they're chomping at the bit to get out there this spring to show what they can do. I've coached with Coach Neathery since 1997 and I really don't have concerns about him bringing linebackers along.
GS: You still bring back a fair amount defensively. What stands out the most that excites you about this defensive crew that returns?
CC: Yeah, it always starts up front. When you look at our defensive line, we had some guys graduate, but we also had two on our defensive line that we thought we're going to graduate, but because of injuries and whatnot, are able to come back. And you talk about the front line, we're talking about the interior of the D-line, it all starts there, and we've got a chance to be pretty good from the inside out. Where we lacked a little twitch in our pass rush game last year, we feel as though there's a couple of guys who didn't play much, or at all, last year that will throw their hat in the ring with Turan Rush on the outside. I think we're going to have even more productivity on the outside. Starting there with the D-line, and half of our linebackers are back. I told you we've lost two of our three safeties and one of our two corners. Again, we really haven't had to rely on outside help in those positions. They're guys in the program that we feel are ready to step up and are going to need to.
GS: On special teams, I know you touched on Drake Sutton's graduation, but as you mentioned return Chad Ryland and Jake Julien. Jake led Eastern in punting last year setting a career and program-best mark for that. What do you see his biggest strength coming into his senior year being?
CC: Gosh, from January now to early March, he's been phenomenal. I mean his leadership, his effort and winter conditioning. I just think his ownership in the program and his confidence. It just seems like it was a snap of the fingers. We were recruiting him the summer before we started a few years ago and he started as a freshman and here he is going into his senior year. He's got the ability to be the best in the league, and we're excited about that whole unit and group taking it as far as it can go. Chad Ryland, I'll tell you, if you look at our specialists in the Pitt game, hard to be much better. Those two guys together with everybody else out there on those units, was really superb. He's becoming an upperclassman now in our program and has had some incredibly great moments, so we've got really high expectations for him.
GS: You've got to make a couple adjustments on your staff with some guys departing. You bring Coach Brandon Blaney, Coach Mike Piatkowski, and Coach LaMarcus Hicks in. What has it been like to have those guys in the room so far working with you?
CC: It's really been a smooth transition. We haven't been out coaching yet, but from the outset, it's always been trying to hire great people and recruit great people, and we immediately think about the position that they need to coach and whatnot. Great people who care about the people that they're working with and care about the guys that they're coaching. Then, obviously, we want experts at what they do and it's been a very smooth transition. Obviously, we miss the guys that have moved on, and at the same time there's some new excitement and new ideas and I think we've got a great group.
GS: Before we get you out of here, you mentioned Pro Day, some guys that are at the pro level have had an exciting off season. You look at Andrew Wylie winning a Super Bowl title. You look at Maxx Crosby finishing as the runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year. What does it say about this program's ability to develop guys that may have been overlooked and send them to the next level and become pretty darn successful?
CC: Well, I mean, I think Eastern Michigan's got a history of that. When you start looking at the number of guys who have gone to the NFL or to the other professional leagues from Eastern Michigan, it's a pretty long list. I don't know that we're doing anything differently other than trying to recruit great people who are talented, fit this place, and fit who we are. But it is fun.
You mentioned three bowl games in four years, and 3-0 versus the Big 10 in three years. When I'm talking to recruits, we say we just had an offensive lineman win the Super Bowl and just had a defensive end who just got drafted last year was up for Defensive Rookie of the Year, we're in this beautiful building, and our guys are still killing it in the classroom. There are a lot of positives. At the same time, we just don't feel as though we've achieved what we've wanted to achieve. So, where are we in that process? We have a long way to go. And so you've got another season, and the 2020 staff, team, and program is hungry and driven to get better and to prove ourselves yet again.
GS: Coach I know you've said it a couple times that championships are won in the winter and spring. Spring is really an important time for people to make that growth and jump, isn't it?
CC: Well, let's go back to the winter just real quick. Our seniors set a goal of setting 372 personal records in our testing phase at the end of the winter, that's an average of four per guy. We set 440 personal records. Hard to argue that could have gone much better. Now, next Tuesday we'll start spring. We call them opportunities instead of practices. Yes, we're practicing, but it's an opportunity to practice, to get better, to develop as an individual, as a group and as a team and program. The maturity of our guys, I really do think that we have the ability to look at it that way and to attack it that way. When, and if we do, I think April 13th, that Monday after the spring season, we'll look back and feel as though we've progressed.
GS: Already here upon us, spring practice getting underway this week. The spring game concludes the annual spring campaign on April 11th. Coach, can't thank you enough for your time. As always, we'll catch up throughout the spring after practice.
Below is a full schedule for this year's spring practices (times are subject to change):
PRACTICE 1: Tuesday, March 10 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 2: Thursday, March 12 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 3: Saturday, March 14 - 9:30 a.m. - Coaches Chalk Talk (9:15 a.m. registration)
PRACTICE 4: Tuesday, March 17 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 5: Thursday, March 19 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 6: Saturday, March 21 - 10:30 a.m.
PRACTICE 7: Tuesday, March 24 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 8: Thursday, March 26 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 9: Friday, March 27 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 10: Tuesday, March 31 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 11: Thursday, April 2 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 12: Saturday, April 4 - 9:30 a.m.
PRACTICE 13: Tuesday, April 7 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 14: Thursday, April 9 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 15: Saturday April 11 - 3 p.m. - Spring Game
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) — The Eastern Michigan University football program returns to the turf for its first spring practice Tuesday, March 10, at 3 p.m. The session kicks off a string of 15 practice dates during a five-week period that culminates with the program's annual spring football game Saturday, April 11.
During the spring practice period, the Eagles will be hitting the field three times per week. Depending on the weather, practices will take place inside Rynearson Stadium or the St. Joe's Sports Dome.
The Spring Game will be a capper for the practice period as Head Coach Chris Creighton and his staff will put on a scrimmage for Eagle fans on the gray turf inside "The Factory." Details, events, and promotions surrounding the game are forthcoming.
Prior to hitting the practice fields for the first time, EMU Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations Greg Steiner caught up with Creighton to get his thoughts on a multitude of topics surrounding the program. That interview text is below, while the complete interview can also be found in the corresponding video.
Season tickets will go on sale Monday, March 23, as EMU's Ticket Office transitions to a new online ticketing system. Fans will enjoy the ease of purchasing mobile tickets, receiving them via text message and gaining access to the venue with their phones. Advanced ticketing and other features will also be seamlessly integrated into the official athletics website and mobile app, powered by SIDEARM Sports, to elevate the customer experience.
2020 EMU Football Spring Preview Interview
Greg Steiner: Spring practice gets underway on Tuesday as Eastern Michigan returns to the football field joined alongside Head Coach Chris Creighton. Does it feel like it's the seventh time that you've taken to the field with this team?
Chris Creighton: Gosh, in some ways it feels as though we're just getting started and then when you say seven years, I mean, in looking back, it has been a while, so I think we're hopefully getting better and better at it.
GS: When you look at kind of the longest-tenured FBS head coaches, you're now 25th on the current active head coaches list. It just shows the profession changes a lot but also shows the stability you've been able to bring to this team and the university over the last seven years.
CC: It's been good. It really has. It feels as though I'm not new here anymore. It feels as though our program is becoming more and more established and again, hopefully we're getting better and better as we go.
GS: We're not going to spend too much time talking about last year, but when you look back at what it was, third bowl game in the last four years, having an opportunity to beat a Big 10 team for the third straight year, what stands out the most to you about last year's team?
CC: Well, we had some breakthroughs but probably not as many as we would've liked. We beat some teams, we've beaten every team in the Mid-American Conference now but fell short of our goals, had some big wins obviously with beating a third Big 10 team for the third straight year. We had a chance for a magical night against Pitt in the Quick Lane Bowl and fell short. I love our team and we fought like crazy, but we did also fall short in some areas. That's definitely made us hungry to try to make that better this year.
GS: You lost many four-year players and starters from the team a year ago. You look at guys like Vince Calhoun, Brody Hoying, Kevin McGill, Shaq Vann, that were four-year guys and now they are gone. It's the first time a lot of Eastern Michigan fans will remember the program without them. How do you go about trying to replace some of the productivity they had?
CC: Yeah, I mean that's the nature of college sports and college football is that you want guys to graduate and to move on with their lives when their time is up. So we've been recruiting, and we've been developing players. At the same time, you start listing off some of those names and "replace" is really not the right word. I mean guys have to make their own name. Guys have to step up and be their best. We'll have our Pro Day here soon and get to see all those guys coming back, and it was a great group. There's no question. We do feel as though we've recruited well and that we've developed guys, so this will be a big spring.
GS: Heading into the spring, what do you view as your biggest strengths coming back and also what's the biggest area that you really want to work on heading into the spring?
CC: Well, I mean there's a lot of ways to answer that when you lose a big senior class. I mean our senior leadership has to step up just like everything else. But I'm really excited about this group, and we're headed in a really good direction right now. We've lost three key secondary players defensively, but feel really good about the core of people that we have coming back on defense. I really believe that we can take a step forward defensively.
And then offensive side, we've lost a lot of offensive skill, and like you mentioned, a lot of production. That always starts at the quarterback position, and so we're going to have to make sure that we're playing great at that position. Then, there will be some new faces at receiver and running back and I feel pretty good about our offensive line and our tight ends.
In terms of the special teams, our two starting specialists are both back and I think that both of those guys have a chance to be really, really, really good. Drake Sutton, our long snapper, the less people think about him the better, and he would be the first to tell you that. His name was not called because he didn't make mistakes, so we'll need to step up there as well.
GS: Everybody wants to talk about the quarterback role. You've had Mike Glass III for the better part of two years. He and Tyler Wiegers shared the responsibility two years ago. Last year, of course, he gets the starting nod, but did miss a game. Preston Hutchinson starts, had some good reps, but it's still a quarterback room that's going to be pretty green. How do you go about getting them enough preparation this spring to be ready for the fall?
CC: Well, you're limited to 15 practice opportunities, and we'll be taking full advantage of all of those. Preston played some of the Buffalo game, but it was start-to-finish in the Western Michigan game and obviously had a great night. He has given himself, and all of us, a ton of confidence. He'll also be leading and competing at the same time, just like Mike was last year. We have guys who have developed in the program, and then we had a graduate transfer come in as well in January, so I'm excited to see that develop.
GS: Running back wise, of course, Shaq was with the program for six years, but it was a running back that played a complementary role because you wanted to throw so much. How do you envision 2020 being? Do you still rely on the running back a little bit more than you did in 2019?
CC: Well, honestly, and this isn't necessarily game-to-game, by the end of next season we need to be 50-50. We need to be able to run the ball and throw the ball with equal proficiency, there's no question about it. We do not want to be a one-dimensional team and each team is going to have strengths and weaknesses and you want to accentuate those, but we want to be able to run and throw the ball with equal proficiency. We've got some good backs coming back and had one of our freshmen get here early. He has been here since January and then we have another one coming in June. It's going to be an exciting spring to see those guys go.
GS: Kobie Beltram at the linebacker position last year had a team-best 128 tackles. He graduates. How do you go about filling a role for his productivity as well as in that middle position?
CC: Well, I mean Terry Myrick will have to continue to step up, he will be a senior and one of our two inside linebackers. Kobie did have an outstanding year and from the moment he got on campus, he was so serious about being his best, learning, and doing it right, and a year later became a leader in our program. All of those guys will be missed. But we've got a group of guys that Coach Neal Neathery has been bringing along, and they're chomping at the bit to get out there this spring to show what they can do. I've coached with Coach Neathery since 1997 and I really don't have concerns about him bringing linebackers along.
GS: You still bring back a fair amount defensively. What stands out the most that excites you about this defensive crew that returns?
CC: Yeah, it always starts up front. When you look at our defensive line, we had some guys graduate, but we also had two on our defensive line that we thought we're going to graduate, but because of injuries and whatnot, are able to come back. And you talk about the front line, we're talking about the interior of the D-line, it all starts there, and we've got a chance to be pretty good from the inside out. Where we lacked a little twitch in our pass rush game last year, we feel as though there's a couple of guys who didn't play much, or at all, last year that will throw their hat in the ring with Turan Rush on the outside. I think we're going to have even more productivity on the outside. Starting there with the D-line, and half of our linebackers are back. I told you we've lost two of our three safeties and one of our two corners. Again, we really haven't had to rely on outside help in those positions. They're guys in the program that we feel are ready to step up and are going to need to.
GS: On special teams, I know you touched on Drake Sutton's graduation, but as you mentioned return Chad Ryland and Jake Julien. Jake led Eastern in punting last year setting a career and program-best mark for that. What do you see his biggest strength coming into his senior year being?
CC: Gosh, from January now to early March, he's been phenomenal. I mean his leadership, his effort and winter conditioning. I just think his ownership in the program and his confidence. It just seems like it was a snap of the fingers. We were recruiting him the summer before we started a few years ago and he started as a freshman and here he is going into his senior year. He's got the ability to be the best in the league, and we're excited about that whole unit and group taking it as far as it can go. Chad Ryland, I'll tell you, if you look at our specialists in the Pitt game, hard to be much better. Those two guys together with everybody else out there on those units, was really superb. He's becoming an upperclassman now in our program and has had some incredibly great moments, so we've got really high expectations for him.
GS: You've got to make a couple adjustments on your staff with some guys departing. You bring Coach Brandon Blaney, Coach Mike Piatkowski, and Coach LaMarcus Hicks in. What has it been like to have those guys in the room so far working with you?
CC: It's really been a smooth transition. We haven't been out coaching yet, but from the outset, it's always been trying to hire great people and recruit great people, and we immediately think about the position that they need to coach and whatnot. Great people who care about the people that they're working with and care about the guys that they're coaching. Then, obviously, we want experts at what they do and it's been a very smooth transition. Obviously, we miss the guys that have moved on, and at the same time there's some new excitement and new ideas and I think we've got a great group.
GS: Before we get you out of here, you mentioned Pro Day, some guys that are at the pro level have had an exciting off season. You look at Andrew Wylie winning a Super Bowl title. You look at Maxx Crosby finishing as the runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year. What does it say about this program's ability to develop guys that may have been overlooked and send them to the next level and become pretty darn successful?
CC: Well, I mean, I think Eastern Michigan's got a history of that. When you start looking at the number of guys who have gone to the NFL or to the other professional leagues from Eastern Michigan, it's a pretty long list. I don't know that we're doing anything differently other than trying to recruit great people who are talented, fit this place, and fit who we are. But it is fun.
You mentioned three bowl games in four years, and 3-0 versus the Big 10 in three years. When I'm talking to recruits, we say we just had an offensive lineman win the Super Bowl and just had a defensive end who just got drafted last year was up for Defensive Rookie of the Year, we're in this beautiful building, and our guys are still killing it in the classroom. There are a lot of positives. At the same time, we just don't feel as though we've achieved what we've wanted to achieve. So, where are we in that process? We have a long way to go. And so you've got another season, and the 2020 staff, team, and program is hungry and driven to get better and to prove ourselves yet again.
GS: Coach I know you've said it a couple times that championships are won in the winter and spring. Spring is really an important time for people to make that growth and jump, isn't it?
CC: Well, let's go back to the winter just real quick. Our seniors set a goal of setting 372 personal records in our testing phase at the end of the winter, that's an average of four per guy. We set 440 personal records. Hard to argue that could have gone much better. Now, next Tuesday we'll start spring. We call them opportunities instead of practices. Yes, we're practicing, but it's an opportunity to practice, to get better, to develop as an individual, as a group and as a team and program. The maturity of our guys, I really do think that we have the ability to look at it that way and to attack it that way. When, and if we do, I think April 13th, that Monday after the spring season, we'll look back and feel as though we've progressed.
GS: Already here upon us, spring practice getting underway this week. The spring game concludes the annual spring campaign on April 11th. Coach, can't thank you enough for your time. As always, we'll catch up throughout the spring after practice.
Below is a full schedule for this year's spring practices (times are subject to change):
PRACTICE 1: Tuesday, March 10 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 2: Thursday, March 12 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 3: Saturday, March 14 - 9:30 a.m. - Coaches Chalk Talk (9:15 a.m. registration)
PRACTICE 4: Tuesday, March 17 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 5: Thursday, March 19 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 6: Saturday, March 21 - 10:30 a.m.
PRACTICE 7: Tuesday, March 24 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 8: Thursday, March 26 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 9: Friday, March 27 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 10: Tuesday, March 31 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 11: Thursday, April 2 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 12: Saturday, April 4 - 9:30 a.m.
PRACTICE 13: Tuesday, April 7 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 14: Thursday, April 9 - 3 p.m.
PRACTICE 15: Saturday April 11 - 3 p.m. - Spring Game
Players Mentioned
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OL
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