The Central Michigan Chippewas are spending the week preparing for the team's 2023 season opener at Michigan State this Friday night. Jim McElwain is entering his fifth season at the helm in Mount Pleasant and spoke to media Tuesday afternoon ahead of the upcoming matchup.
In his opening remarks, McElwain went out of his way to thank MSU for the opportunity for his players to come into Spartan Stadium to take on one of the two Power Five programs in the state that many grew up cheering for as kids.
"I know we're all excited to get started," McElwain said. "Looking forward to seeing how our teams are going to respond. You know, obviously a great opponent and an unbelievable place to play. [I'm excited for my team] to get the opportunity and thanks to Michigan State for allowing us to come in there and play. We've got a lot of guys who grew up Spartan fans, went to games there a bunch as little kids, and now they get an opportunity to play there. So it's pretty cool."
Overall, The Chippewas' roster features 50 players from the state of Michigan, including two from East Lansing (freshman defensive back Evan Boyd and redshirt freshman long snapper Grayson Curtis). Obviously there is not an exact count of how many players grew up as fans of Michigan State, but certainly more than a few of those 50 did and coach McElwain values the opportunity for those that were to be able to play in Spartan Stadium.
As for the game itself, the CMU coach feels comfortable with how his team is approaching the matchup.
"I think I'm more comfortable than anything with their preparation and how they've gone about their business," McElwain explained. "Even starting back January, coming off the disappointing year we've had. I feel really good about the locker room. I feel really good about the leadership. It's a tall task, obviously, but it's also paying our university a bunch of money and allowing us to be able to have an athletic department, so you’ve kind of got to be happy about those kinds of facts."
Central Michigan finished the 2022 season with a disappointing 4-8 overall record, including a 3-5 mark in Mid-American Conference play. CMU ended tied for fourth in the MAC West Division. The team will be paid a guaranteed sum of $1.75 million for the trip to East Lansing for Friday night's season opener.
The primetime matchup in Spartan Stadium will be in a drastically different setting than the confines of Kelly/Shorts Stadium. MSU's home stadium is roughly 30,000 seats larger than the home stadium of CMU and comes with a lot more aspects to account for with the game plan and getting players ready. There are a lot of younger players this season on the roster as well that McElwain is hoping to help determine their readiness for the season with Friday night's game.
"Going into a game like this, obviously, that size differential, the speed of the game, the environment itself, we don't get to play in front of 70,000 people very often," McElwain said. "Those are the things that you can never simulate. Which, you know, kind of makes you excited about actually being able to evaluate it and say, ‘OK, this game's not too big for these guys, but maybe we’ve got to work on these guys.’ So you can never simulate that and how they're going to react when the lights come on."
While McElwain did note the matter of figuring out what some of the younger or newer players are capable of, Central Michigan does return plenty on both sides of the ball. CMU will return five offensive players and nine defensive players who saw starts in several games last year. Injuries took a toll on the roster last season, and CMU returns several players from injury and adds several more from the transfer portal that are expected to contribute.
It was noted by one reporter in attendance that Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker had mentioned he was showing his team old game footage from past matchups between the programs. That seemed to include the 2018 matchup — the most recent in the series — which ended in a relatively close 31-20 victory for the Spartans. Just like the most recent matchup between the schools, Tucker expects Friday’s game to be a "dog fight." McElwain was asked if he was also showing his own team film from past matchups between the two intrastate foes.
"God, I don't want them getting scared," McElwain joked. "I'm not going to show them any of that stuff. So no, we're just going to play the game and, well, that's kind of cool that he actually did that. That should make some of the CMU fans happy."
"I haven't [shown them old film]," McElwain continued. "I guess I'm the bad coach here because every team's different. This is a group of guys, I don't even know if they knew what was going on in 2018. What, were they in diapers? I don't even know the age difference. This is a group of guys I don't even know if they knew what was going on in 2018 when this team [last played MSU]. But no, I mean, every year is different. For us, it's a great opportunity to go in a place that's such a storied program and it's a great place to play."
The Chippewas have a history of giving the Spartans fits, though. MSU is 8-3 all-time against CMU. Besides the three victories by CMU in the series (1991, 1992, 2009), three of the eight victories by MSU have been by two scores or less and MSU is only on a four-game winning streak at present.
Those victories by Central Michigan have come during eras of strong teams in Mount Pleasant. CMU had plenty of struggles last season, though. That was especially exemplified in turnovers with the Chippewas finishing No. 129 out of 130 teams in turnover margin (-1.50 per game), 128th nationally in turnovers lost (28), and 130th in fumbles lost (18).
"I think we've got a bunch of guys that really needed to kind of go through maybe what we went through a year ago," McElwain said in addressing the program's adjustments made after last season's poor performance. "I mean, all of us [needed that], not just players, but the staff, the administration, the people associated with the program and within the organization. You're able to kind of pull out some of the things, the details that were maybe not [working], and again some of that was my fault, and just being able to work on some of those things and what it takes to be successful is really the biggest piece."
One thing that is not expected to change from last season is a rotation at the quarterback job between redshirt freshman Bert Emanuel, Jr. and redshirt sophomore Jase Bauer. Despite some apparent confusion caused by the Central Michigan athletic department releasing a depth chart last night without consulting the program's head coach before doing so, McElwain was asked about the two players being listed as "or" for which could get the start against MSU or see the most playing time.
"Both guys are doing a great job," McElwain said of the quarterbacks’ fall camp performance so far. "And you know, this is something I think that's going to give us an advantage throughout the season and I feel really good about that route and how they've both stepped up from a leadership standpoint knowing that they have the opportunity to go in and and make a difference. So that's pretty exciting."
McElwain was asked whether the Chippewas plan to utilize them in specific packages or general rotations compared to how the two quarterbacks were used last season as a follow-up question.
"I hope it doesn't look like last year in any way, shape or form," McElwain joked. "[Hopefully] we play better."
As for the offensive line, the Chippewas were breaking in a young one in 2022 that had lost two 2022 NFL Draft picks. In order to add some proven depth, CMU added Dominic Serapiglia III out of the transfer portal from Southeastern Louisiana.
"He's been great," McElwain said of Serapglia. "He's he's been a great addition. One of the things we felt we needed is to get a guy in there that that played with a little extra. And he's certainly a guy that does that.
"I think first and foremost when you just do roster balance, we needed to make sure we had enough O-linemen in that room. And he's a guy that showed interest in us, and I'm glad he's here."
The offensive line's opportunity to grow overall after being so young last season, and returning so many players to it is something CMU's head coach is happy to see, though.
"A huge disappointment from a year ago was how we played up front," McElwain said. "It's a good thing having those guys back because they went through it. Now they're a year bigger and a year stronger. And, you know, we look as the season goes on for that group to really help us as a team be successful."
On the defensive side of the ball, the depth chart McElwain was unsure about for his team suggests a big change from a heavy emphasis on the 4-2-5 formations used on many of the team's snaps last year. Three linebackers are listed this season and McElwain was questioned on whether the team intends to move away from heavier use of the 4-2-5 formation as a result.
"Obviously you're going to see a lot more upfront," McElwain said. "We're able to do some things that way, and yet at the same time looking at it from the standpoint of, well you don't want to just give away the game plan, but we needed to do some things to shake up the defense. I think our staff did a fantastic job this offseason doing some studies and getting our best personnel on the field.
"At a school like Central Michigan it’s not like you can just go out and grab a guy to fill in what you've done. You've got to take your team every year, both offensively and defensively, say who are the best players, and then you put a scheme in that kind of evolves around getting your best 11 on each side of the ball. That's something I think we've done this year and done a good job of."
Finally, McElwain was pressed on the battle for kicking duties as junior Josh Rolston and redshirt junior Tristan Mattson are sitting atop the depth chart as co-starters for placekicking and kickoffs. Rolston is the returning starter who has played in 25 games for the Chippewas, while Mattson arrives from Arkansas State where he played in 27 games for the Red Wolves.
"Both those guys will have different kicking duties and it's been a really good competition," McElwain said of the position battle. "It's great to see when you’ve got a couple of guys that you can put in there and you've got confidence that they can put it through the uprights"
Last season was a struggle on special teams in Mount Pleasant. Rolston finished the year converting just 1-of-3 field goal attempts and was just 4-of-6 on extra points. A follow up question regarding those struggles got a laugh from McElwain.
"I want to say how nice you are putting it as ‘a bit of a struggle,’" McElwain joked. "It was brutal. So obviously bringing these guys in with competition, they're still doing it. We've got two practices here still, which are heavy special team-oriented, and we chart everything they do. We'll see who gets out there, puts it through the uprights, which we need to make happen obviously when you're playing an opponent that has such an advantage in a lot of different ways."
Central Michigan will make the almost 70-mile drive down US highway 127 to East Lansing later this week for the 12th meeting all-time between the intrastate foes. Kickoff between the Chippewas and Spartans is set for 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time and the game will be broadcast on FS1.
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