Eastern Michigan head coach Ron English reiterated a phrase during the Mid American Conference media day that Eastern Michigan is building a foundation rather than digging one.
Hopefully that’s the case for Eastern who have for the most part been an afterthought in the division one college football ranks.
That foundation that Coach English is talking about though may consist of more junior college players than usual.
According to Rich Rezler of AnnArbor.com, there are now seven new junior college transfers (10 total) on the Eagles’ roster this season, and they’re all on the defensive side of the ball – where Eastern needed significant help.
Out of 120 teams playing Division I FBS football, the Eagles were 119th in passing efficiency defense, 118th in rushing and scoring defense, and 113th in total defense in 2010.
Since this was the case for Eastern, English and defensive coordinator Phil Snow started to hit the junior college ranks hard.
And their catch? A batch of starting linebackers.
Justin Cudworth, from College of the Canyons in Valencia, Calif., was a spring standout and has wrapped up a starting spot.
Sean Kurtz and Blake Poole, both from Santa Ana Community College, are battling for starting spots against returning players like Marcus English, Steve Brown and Matt Boyd – who have 18 career starts among them.
“Bringing those guys in helped raise the level of play for the guys who were here,” English said. “We’ve got a real shot, at that position, to raise our level of play and we needed to do that with our stand-up players on defense.”
Hopefully this is a strategy that works out for the Eagles. Eastern only has two wins in the last two years and are consistently rumored to be on their way out of division one football.
Source: AnnArbor.com