CMU falls to LSU on the road Saturday
BATON ROUGE, LA. » Playing in Death Valley, Central Michigan needed a fast start.
The Chippewas didn’t get it. CMU turned the ball over on its first two possessions and then couldn’t contain an LSU team bent on showing something to its home crowd on Saturday as the Tigers downed CMU, 49-21, before more than 92,000 at Tiger Stadium.
“Obviously disappointed in the outcome,” third-year CMU coach Jim Mcelwain said. “We came in with the expectation to be able to play with these guys. It’s never easy to lose and I don’t care who you lose to, it hurts.”
LSU (2-1), which lost its season opener at UCLA, marched to a touchdown on the game’s first drive and then returned a Chippewa fumble 33 yards for a touchdown
to open a 14-0 lead less than five minutes into the game.
They extended their lead to 21-0 with a long touchdown pass late in the first quarter and were up 42-7 early in the third quarter.
To that point, the lone highlight for CMU came on a 78-yard TD pass play from Jacob Sirmon to Jacorey Sullivan with under a minute to play in the first quarter.
The Chippewas managed to move the ball in the second half, but by then, the game was no longer in doubt.
“There were some good things, some positives that we can take out of it,” said Mcelwain, whose team entertains Florida Interna
tional on Saturday, Sept. 25 (noon) in its final nonconference game. “We’ve got to do a good job of bouncing back next week.”
CMU finished with 284 total yards. Most of that came on Sullivan’s TD and in the second half. The Chippewas got their second-half points on a Devonni Reed 20-yard interception return and on an 18-yard TD pass from Daniel Richardson to Joel Wilson.
Mcelwain said he was encouraged by the fact that CMU didn’t fold its tent and pack it in in the second half despite the deep deficit.
“I didn’t see that from these guys and that really says a lot about our team and that locker room,” he said. “We’re getting there. We’re getting a lot better.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time, but at the same time, as I talk to the guys,
I say, ‘Look, this isn’t about building; the time is now.’ We’ve got to come back and play well this week and then get ready to go into league and learn from what we’ve gone through here. We’ve got to move forward.”
Wilson made four catches for 31 yards. He had not caught a pass this season before Saturday’s game, and the four receptions are a career best.
CMU’S Luke Elzinga punted six times for an average of 49.0 yards and a long of 60. Four of his punts were downed inside the LSU 20-yard line. Three of his punts were 50 yards or longer.
Elizinga raised his average to 44.54 yards per punt, a number that should put him in the top 30 in the nation when the latest statistics are tabulated.
The announced attendance at Saturday’s game was 92,547. That number ranks as the sixth-largest crowd to ever witness a CMU football game.