The last time Central Michigan visited Memorial Stadium, the Todd Reesing-led Kansas University football team [dismantled the Chippewas, 52-7][1], setting the tone for what turned out to be a 12-1, Orange Bowl championship season.
Seven years later, KU would love to have scored 52 points combined in its first two games of the 2014 season, and the Jayhawks are another bad performance away from any bowl game appearance (a stated goal coming into the season) seeming like a complete pipe dream.
The Jayhawks (1-1) are hurting — at the very least from bruised egos — following [their 41-3 loss at Duke][2]. They hope they can get right against CMU (2-1), which also just got pounded this past weekend, 40-3, at the hands of Syracuse.
http://www2.kusports.com/videos/2014/sep/17/35972/
The Chippewas did win, 38-17, at Purdue two weeks ago. But that was before star senior running back Thomas Rawls, a transfer from Michigan, was suspended for violating team rules — [he faces prosecution on accusations of stealing a purse at a casino in April.][3]
In just two games, Rawls had compiled 283 rushing yards and three touchdowns in what KU coach Charlie Weis called CMU’s “old school,” multi-back/multi-tight end offense.
In his fifth season at Central Michigan, Dan Enos has a 21-31 record and 20 starters returning from a season ago. But the Chippewas really struggled without Rawls. Playing at home against Syracuse, CMU failed to do much of anything on the ground. Four different players carried the ball and they combined for just 34 yards on 23 rushes.
With CMU forced to play a far more one-dimensional style than Enos would prefer, quarterback Cooper Rush completed just 18 of his 34 passes for 183 yards and was sacked five times.
The Jayhawks will need to stuff the run, just like Syracuse did, and tee off on the passing game when they know what is coming in order to enter Big 12 play on a positive note and, quite possibly, [save Charlie Weis’ job][4].
With that in mind, here are five Chippewas to watch Saturday at Kansas.
No. 84 — Titus Davis, senior WR
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On the Biletnikoff Award watch list, Davis was a first-team All-MAC receiver in 2013, when he racked up 1,109 yards for CMU.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound target is second in the program’s history in career TD catches, with 24, and fifth in receiving yards, with 2,731.
Davis has started 31 games for Central Michigan and he returned a punt 66 yards in the team’s season opener versus Chattanooga.
No. 6 — Saylor Lavallii, junior RB *(maybe?)*
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Now that Rawls is no longer an option for CMU, Lavallii might be the guy at RB. For what it’s worth, the 5-9 junior is listed at the top of the Chippewas’ depth chart.
But he isn’t the clear-cut favorite. The running backs list goes four deep, with Lavallii listed first. But it designates Devon Spalding, Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore and Martez Walker as, essentially, No. 1 options, too.
Basically, at this moment, CMU doesn’t have a starting running back.
But Lavallii has a history of success, with 184 rushing yards last season against Ohio and a two-TD game versus Miami (Ohio).
Against Syracuse, Lavallii rushed for a team-best 15 yards on just four attempts. Spalding ran seven times for 19 yards. Walker (13 yards) and Shoemaker-Gilmore (10 yards) both rushed three times.
No. 46 — Justin Cherocci, senior LB
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In his junior season, Cherocci established himself as CMU’s top play-maker on defense. He had a career high 15 total tackles against Toledo in 2013.
The middle linebacker has 311 tackles in his four-year career, and has started 23 straight games for CMU.
Cherocci led his team with 11 tackles vs. Syracuse and had eight solos when the Chippewas won at Purdue.
No. 10 — Cooper Rush, sophomore QB
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Now in his second season as the Chippewas’ starting QB, Rush has thrown 19 TD passes in 13 games.
The 6-3, 220-pound right-hander only attempted 16 passes in CMU’s win at Purdue a couple of weeks back, and completed 11 of them for 172 yards and a pair of touchdown tosses.
His career-high for attempts in one game is 46, last season against UNLV. He only connected on 23 of those in a 31-21 loss, when he threw one TD pass and two picks.
Rush threw two or more interceptions four times in 2013, but so far this fall had completed 44 of 76 passes for 528 yards, four TD’s and one INT.
No. 58 — Leterrius Walton, senior NT
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The 6-5, 300-pound defensive lineman might be the most menacing Chippewa the Jayhawks have to deal with.
Walton opened the season with four tackles, a pass break-up and a QB hurry in CMU’s 20-16 home win against Chattanooga.
One of eight team captains, Walton had a career-best seven tackles (five solo) a season ago, versus Miami (Ohio). He had 9.5 tackles for loss in 2013.
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/sep/02/flyin_high/?football
[2]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2014/sep/13/embarrassing-road-trip/
[3]: http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/2014/09/15/cmu-suspends-rb-thomas-rawls-after-arrest-in-casino-purse-theft/15680489/
[4]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2014/sep/15/column-make-or-break-cmu-game-could-seal-weis-fate/?football
