“We just need to regroup,” he said.
Counting Thursday’s four games, the MAC is off to a 3-10 start. The MAC West Division is 0-6.
The defending-champion Buffalo Bulls were the only MAC team to put a notch in the win column with its 24-17 victory over UTEP.
And that was a relatively ugly win for the Bulls, who were outscored in the first, third and fourth quarters 17-8, who had 63 fewer total yards than UTEP and six fewer first downs.
The day’s best performance by a MAC team might have been Central Michigan’s 19-6 loss at Arizona, where the Chippewas’ defense allowed only one touchdown.
CMU’s schedule doesn’t get much easier. The MAC’s preseason favorite travels to East Lansing, Mich. on Saturday, Sept. 12 to face Michigan State in a game to be televised by ESPN, starting at noon.
Broncos busted by UM
Western Michigan coach Bill Cubit, whose team will play host to Miami in the RedHawks’ MAC opener on Sept. 19, downplayed his team’s 31-7 loss at Michigan.
“It’s one game,” he said. “We didn’t play well. Why didn’t we play well? Were we that overmatched? I don’t think so.
“I just think there was some inexperience there and we let the game get out of hand early, which is what has happened to us in the past (early in previous seasons) against Nebraska and West Virginia,” he said.
WMU quarterback Tim Hiller, who led the MAC in touchdown passes and passing yards in 2008, threw for 259 yards against the Wolverines but was intercepted twice. The Broncos also lost a fumble.
“We moved the ball and turnovers just killed us,” Cubit said. “There were three more times we were down there and we turned the ball over.
“That’s not like Tim Hiller,” the WMU coach said. “He’ll get better ... He didn’t go through spring ball and in the summer we had to take it easy on him because of his knee — he’s seven months post-operative. We had to give him some days off during the summer and during camp we didn’t want to mess that thing up. We’re going to be fine.”
Two of the top tacklers
Two of the three leading tacklers after Week 1 in the MAC are Miami RedHawks.
Sophomore middle linebacker Jerrell Wedge leads the conference with 15 total tackles, and junior strong safety Jordan Gafford is tied for second with 13.
Ball State’s Knipp also has 13 tackles.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.
About the Author