Get up, it’s "GameDay."
That is what the residents of Kalamazoo, Michigan will be hearing and saying Saturday morning when the popular college football pregame show College GameDay will be on Western Michigan’s campus before their game against Buffalo.
This is the first time College GameDay has been to a Mid-American Conference school since a 2003 game between Bowling Green and Northern Illinois.
Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck was a wide receiver for Northern Illinois in that 2003 game.
“It would cost you $20 million just for the type of marketing that you’re going to get from the number one sports brand in the country,” Fleck said. “That type of exposure (is good) not just for our football program, but for our engineering school, our business school, our fine arts, the city of Kalamazoo.”
Miami player suspended
Miami defensive end Zach Smierciak was suspended indefinitely from the team last week after being arrested for felonious assault.
Smierciak allegedly pushed a ladder with a person on top of it, causing that person to fall.
According to reports, Smierciak was angry after being kicked out of the Oxford bar, Brick Street.
When the story broke, coach Chuck Martin said Smierciak would be suspended from the team until the legal process took place. Martin is still being cautious this week as more information is gathered.
“We are very cognizant of letting not only the legal system … and the school system (make decisions) and get all the facts,” he said, “Nothing has happened yet on either front, so we’re still in kind of a holding pattern.”
Eastern Michigan bowl eligible
Eastern Michigan won 48-41 against Ball State last Tuesday. While the game went back and forth and came down to the final minute, that isn’t the real story.
The story is that Eastern Michigan is now bowl eligible for the first time since 1995. This practically guarantees the Eagles their first bowl game since 1987, with there being less MAC schools with six wins than the conference has bowl tie-ins at this point.
“In the beginning of the season, our seniors articulated to the team what our goals were going to be, and that was to go to and win a bowl game,” coach Chris Creighton said. “It took a real mature focus for the guys to be able to get to the point where our goal was to get to a bowl and win that bowl. We still haven’t gone to a bowl, it’s not a bowl guarantee.”
Anthony Maddie injured
Northern Illinois quarterback Anthony Maddie is out for the remainder of the season after suffering a hairline fracture in his foot.
Maddie had a long road to becoming a starting quarterback. He started his college career at Western Michigan and transferred to NIU after his freshman year.
He had to sit out his sophomore year due to the transfer. In his junior year, he lost the quarterback competition to replace Jordan Lynch, and injured his back in fall camp. This season, the redshirt senior took over the starting job after Northern Illinois dropped its first four games. But now, Maddie’s season, and maybe career, is over.
“It’s extremely hard. There weren’t a lot of words exchanged with me and Anthony when we sat him down and he got the news,” coach Rod Carey said. “There was some tears there.”
