Eastern Michigan Eagles 2016 NCAA Football Preview
EASTERN MICHIGAN EAGLES
MACtion – West Division
2015 Record – 1-11
ATS – 4-8
2016 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating Rank
West Division #6
Conference #11
2015 Recap
And we thought watching the Ron English era was tough. The Eagles started out with a good performance against Old Dominion in the opener and then blasted the Cowboys in Wyoming. They seemed to lose their will to live at some point while giving up 58 points to Army West Point and finished the year at 1-11. The Eagles are 3-21 under HC Chris Creighton, but hopefully, this season will bring a little more success.
2016 Preview
OFFENSE
This offense has a shot to be pretty good this season. Yes. We said that. They averaged 25 points per game last season and have a lot of the key components back this season including ALL 5 SENIOR starters on the offensive line. The Eagles lose leading rusher Darius Jackson who had 14 TDs rushing last season but Shaq Vann steps in this year and he had a nice start to his career as a freshman. The WR corps is pretty experienced including Eddie Daugherty who led the team in receiving yards in 2015 while averaging over 15 yards per reception.
DEFENSE
It takes a special kind of bad to give up over 40 points per game for three consecutive seasons. Playing in the MAC. But yet here we are. Last season’s abomination was actually disappointing because the offense pretty much held up their end of the bargain.
It will help to get back arguably their best player on defense Pat O’Connor after missing the 2015 season due to injury. Eight starters return on defense and we hope that experience counts for something. They have a lot of junior and senior starters and we do think they will be about a TD better this season on defense. <falls off chair>
SPECIAL TEAMS
This group was actually decent last year. The Eagles were ranked in the top half of the MAC in net punting and punt returns. They need to find a new PK this season and that is a negative as Dylan Mulder was 11/17 last year including 4/5 on bombs of 50+ yards. Not a disaster on paper but we need to see what they come up with at PK.
MEGALOCKS ATS Value Rating (10) 8.0
MEGALOCKS says:
The Eagles have won more than two games ONCE in the past seven seasons. They have not been to a bowl game since the 1987 California Bowl. One year later it could have been the California Raisin Bowl.
Three of the first four games are winnable (Mississippi Valley St, Charlotte, Wyoming) and anything less than two wins in those first four games could send them into another drawn out debacle of a season.
Overall, we give the EAGLES a 8.0 ATS Value Rating (Very Good) this season. We may be biased because we REALLY want them to have a good season. And by good, we simply mean win some games and give the program and their fans something to cheer about. The MEGALOCKS Supercomputer Complex gives them a great shot of finishing up with a winning record ATS and a decent shot at covering 7+ games. The Eagles have had one winning season ATS in the past 10 years so be very careful. We do not normally like being the first one out of the foxhole but we feel that Eastern Michigan will be a money maker this season.
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