2021 G5 Preview: Eastern Michigan's Offense Is Going To Be Amazing
The defense? Don't worry about it.
ICYMI: This is a part of The Outside Zone’s full 2021 G5 preview series, which last looked at USF. You can find a master list for all of the previews here.
Eastern Michigan is one of those jobs. You know the type. The kind of job that coaches talk about only in hushed tones, as if the program is haunted, or cursed by war exploits, Ted Lasso-style. Hell, maybe it is. For whatever reason, Eastern Michigan has been one of the worst jobs at the FBS level pretty much since it joined those ranks in 1975. That’s not supposed to happen in a conference with as much parity as the MAC< but college football doesn’t have to make sense. Some jobs are just hard, and there doesn’t really have to be a reason for it.
The Eagles are 161-349-7 since 1975, have just one conference title and nine seasons at or above .500, four of which belong to Jim Harkema, who ran something called the “Air Option Offense,” created by Homer Rice - who may have invented RPOs - that has essentially no coverage online. That might be a story for another day if I can get my hands on Rice’s book.
Anyway, Harkema is also the owner of one of EMU’s four bowl bids. The other three? Those all belong to Chris Chreighton, who has to be in serious consideration for best coach in program history and one of the most underrated coaches in the country. Creighton, who made his name as a program builder first at Wabash and then at Drake, took over a team in 2014 that was as deep in the pit as a football program can be. The Ron English era, 2009-13, yielded a ghastly 11-46 record, with back-to-back 2-10 showings in his final two years after peaking at 6-6 in 2011. This was a roster devoid of talent, identity or any hope whatsoever. If this job is the college football version of Sisyphus rolling the stone up the hill, Creighton showed up with that stone at the very bottom of the hill.
He certainly hasn’t snapped that curse or rolled the stone all the way up the hill, but he’s done about as good a job as EMU could possibly ask for. He’s been to three bowl games in the last five years and has built up a legitimately respectable program in the MAC West while raising the ceiling and floor significantly. It seems unlikely, even after a 2-4 season, that EMU would fall back to where it once was again for as long as Creighton is in town.
Still, that doesn’t mean that everything is perfect for EMU - after all, that 2-4 record in 2020 is still there, and that’s the most recent exposure that we have to this team. Would it have improved in a longer season, potentially to bowl eligibility or at least 5-7? That seems likely. The defense was abysmal all season long and didn’t look to be getting any better, but EMU’s offense in 2020 was legitimately very good and looked borderline unstoppable in the last two games of the season against Western Michigan and NIU, both wins for the Eagles. It seems fair to think that with three non-conference games and some more time for a young offense to gel, Eastern Michigan would have landed right into the Creighton sweet spot in a normal season.
That’s the good news about the upcoming season for EMU: We won’t have to wonder about that for very long. Just about every key member of this team is set to return, including 10 offensive starters and just about every major backup, so the offense is going to be as good, if not even better than it was last year after a full offseason to work together. The defense loses a bit more, but can’t really get much worse, and even if it stays terrible I think the EMU offense can bail it out more often than not. Essentially, we should get to see last-two-games EMU - top 30 offense, terrible defense - for an entire season this year, and that’s an absolute blast.
One of the biggest pieces in all of this is quarterback Preston Hutchinson. Hutchinson took over as the starter in 2020 after two years on the bench and played about as well as you could possibly hope for a first-year starter that came to college as a two-star prospect. He wasn’t perfect, making a few too many mistakes down the field, but he completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 1,662 yards and 12 touchdowns while rushing for another 206 yards and eight touchdowns.
His six interceptions weren’t ideal, admittedly, but even with those picks he showed off something that very few first-year starting QBs do: confidence. Hutchinson threw the ball down the field as much as any quarterback in the MAC and even more than his predecessor Mike Glass III. Hutchinson averaged 8.4 yards per attempt, which basically means that Eastern Michigan wasn’t dinking and dunking, it was running its full offense. He doesn’t have a cannon or anything like that, but he was consistently accurate and adept at quickly reading defenses, even when faced with pressure or varied coverage looks. His interceptions weren’t based around being fooled by the defense so much as they were results of Hutchinson just trying to make a play. That’s not the worst thing in the world, especially in an offense that really wants to create big plays.
With slot specialist Hassan Beydoun (40 receptions, 508 yards), big play threat Tanner Knue (27 for 413) and possession receiver Quian Williams (24 for 322) all back, more of those risky, big play throws are likely to result in this, rather than some pretty blatant interceptions, thrown directly into double coverage. If Hutchinson can get these guys the ball consistently, as he did in 2020, this passing attack should be spectacular.
The rushing attack is… a work in progress. It certainly wasn’t bad last season - Darius Boone averaged 5.8 yards per carry while Samson Evans notched 4.9 - it just wasn’t consistently present. Eastern Michigan could run the ball last season, it just didn’t, sometimes. At least not with its halfbacks.
Hutchinson easily lead the team with 87 carries (sacks included), just one short of doubling up the second leading rusher, Boone. He’s a strong runner and a good fit in EMU’s read option-centric rushing attack, but he probably shouldn’t be carrying the ball twice as much as his halfbacks. If Eastern Michigan can dial it back and get the ball to Boone and Evans more, it would be a positive thing for this offense and for the health of its burgeoning star at quarterback.
The run design here isn’t especially creative - nothing about this offense is - but it’s solid and gets the job done. The line wasn’t great at keeping Hutchinson upright but could run block well and should be able to do the same this season. That should be enough for the back pairing, both of whom are smaller guys but can do a surprising amount of damage in close quarters. The rushing game isn’t the star here, but I think that a 700-yard, 500-yard, 300-yard line with Boone, Evans and Hutchinson is both feasible and a pretty great goal to aim for in 2021.
The defense is bad, and will be bad again in 2021. Safety Blake Bogan is awesome and back after missing much of last season, which will help a little bit, but the run defense is atrocious and isn’t going to make a huge jump this year. Best case scenario for this group is that Bogan and cornerback Kempton Shine can lead an improving secondary and force a bunch of interceptions, because this unit just doesn’t have the juice to get off of the field consstently.
If it can force some turnovers, Eastern Michigan might be in for a really good season in 2021, especially if the offense can click into place as it did down the stretch last season. Given, a good season at EMU is probably 8-4, but that would be the third-best season in program history, so it feels both attainable given the roster and absurd given the history.