The Chippewas of CMU have lost three in a row in MAC play, with their lone win coming at home against Akron. The Eagles are on their own losing streak, two games, dropping recent contests against Ohio and Toledo after beating UMass and Akron on the road, as well as Sacramento State at home in Week 1. They will have to win out to have any shot at playing for a conference title, and being at home should help them in this situation seeing as each of the last five contests in this series have been won by the home team.
Both teams are dealing with quarterback injuries, though one is more serious than the other. CMU QB Angel Flores is out for the season, while EMU QB Noah Kim is questionable after picking up a couple knocks against Toledo. Yale transfer Brogan McCaughey started for Kim against Ohio’s MAC-leading defense and actually held his own, completing 67.5% of his passes for 197 yards, a touchdown and a pick. Per PFF, he was a bit unlucky to have that interception given he had zero turnover-worthy plays in the game. He also only took two sacks on 17 pressures.
Given his one-game sample against a good Bobcats defense, I’d say McCaughey would be just fine if he had to start again, as CMU is a massive step down from Ohio, sitting just 123rd in defensive PPA outside of garbage time since Week 4. The potential return of WR Nick Devereaux would be an added bonus. He’s been out since the Wisconsin game and was listed as questionable ahead of the Ohio game, which was an improvement from his prior status. After a bye week, he could be active here? I’m still working on the craft of reading tea leaves…
The Chips’ QB depth isn’t as settling considering Jadyn Glasser has three picks and seven turnover-worthy plays, along with zero big-time throws, on 82 dropbacks. Glasser has been with the program now three years, but experience clearly hasn’t improved his carelessness with the ball, as he had the same turnover-worthy-play issues in 2024. He’s hard to trust under center; look for CMU to continue to rely heavily on their ground game, which is unlikely to be as efficient as it was with Flores in the lineup considering he led the team in rushing and gained almost five yards per carry on 128 attempts. Glass is nowhere near that level, tallying just seven yards on 24 attempts.
Heavy reliance on the ground game eats into EMU’s strength defensively. Believe it or not, the Eagles are eighth nationally in PPA per rush allowed outside of garbage time since Week 4, as well as top-25 in rush success, stuff rate and explosiveness allowed in that span (CollegeFootballData). Even better, they are top 30 in finishing non-garbage time drives on both sides of the ball over the last six weeks, which should ultimately give them the edge to win this one at home.
Central Michigan vs Eastern Michigan best bet: EMU Eagles ML (-115) at the time of publishing. Playable to -140 or -2.5 (-115).
