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How about some praise for Central Michigan’s football team?
Chippewas invoked 'Houdini' to win, with a lot of practice that set it up
While there was so much focus in these parts on Iowa’s failure Saturday in its 32-31 loss to Central Michigan Saturday, something else got ignored.
Namely, the Chippewas were terrific. They gave a performance that was impressive, and dare I say it, inspiring.
David Harman's game-winner (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)
CMU senior quarterback Ryan Radcliff has started every game for the last three seasons, but was probably never better than against the Hawkeyes. The poise and the vision he showed were that of a winner.
The fellow who kicked the game-winning 47-yard field goal — not long after his perfect on-side kick — was David Harman.
“David Harman, you guys don’t know him, but he’s an unbelievable young man,” said Chippewas Coach Dan Enos.
“When I got the job two years ago, in spring practice he was probably the third or fourth kicker. I didn’t even know who he was for a week or two and I was like ‘Who is this guy?’
“It’s a true story. He was a walk-on and he didn’t have a very strong leg. He works, he’s tough.
“Then in the second ballgame of that first year, we lost two kickers to injuries. Who’d that ever happen to? Nobody but us. Then we had to put him in the game. Against Temple in the fourth quarter, it was 10-7 and he kicked a field goal to go to overtime. And I knew right then this guy’s got the mindset and he’s got the determination. And last year he kicked very well for us.
“He physically — if you lined him up against other kickers he’s probably not going to look great, but I’ll put him out there with anybody because he’s tough and he believe in himself. He’s a competitor.”
Harman’s onside kick was off a play the CMU coaches call “Houdini.” Which is beautiful in itself.
CMU has kickers lining up on each side of the ball, giving the receiving team no idea which one will kick it, let alone where the ball will end up going.
“It’s something we’ve worked on for many, many weeks,” Enos said.
Plas Presnell: "Houdini"
“Our football office guy, Plas Presnell, who’s a longtime coach — he’s been there 30-some years. He’s been a coach, now he’s in administration operations. It was his scheme that he taught us to implement. It was totally him.
“I kept saying ‘When are we gonna use this?’ He’d laugh and say ‘It might come up someday, Coach.’
“To beat a team like that on the road you’ve got to have something like that happen.”
Central Michigan’s win was built on the back of preparation, determination, and self-belief. Are those not the things we cherish about sports?
For the comments section on this one post, would you all be kind enough to not turn this into something darker? Let’s honor a job well done by Central Michigan. Not every underdog has its day. But this one certainly did.
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Why? It’s not like they defeated some well coached BCS jaugernaut. It was pure, ham-handed Choke Ferentz, with his standard game preparation and game/clock management that would be shameful at the Pop Warner level. What also-ran wouldn’t smell blood in the water like a great white against this joke and bring their AAA+ game?
OK Mike, how’s this: CMU made the plays they had to make when they had to make them. They had multiple opportunities thanks to spectacularly poor play and coaching by Iowa and a weak officiating crew (though the Chippewas only did what teams do with weak officials: they got away with nearly everything they tried and Iowa obliged).
Please tell me you are joking! In one of my previous posts, Mike, I decried the denial bubble around Iowa City that sapwns nothing but blind loyalty and excuse-making. Does that bubble extend to your office, too? Why are you making excuses for these people? CMU was 3-9 last year and is really no better this year. They weren’t “terrific”. We were incompetent in every phase of the game and the result bordered on treason. “Terrific? God have mercy! Is anybody in eastern Iowa EVER going to wake up and realize that it will never really get any better than this if we don’t make some major changes?
And … it took just one comment to go against my wishes, with the next two immediately joining in. Sigh.
This blog post was NOT about Iowa, it was about a team that came in, played hard, and played well. I wrote columns Saturday and Sunday about Iowa and its woeful result. They weren’t flattering, Paul.
You commented on one of them, so you must have at least read the headline or skimmed past the text on the way to the comments box.
Good grief. CMU came into Kinnick and schooled the Hawks on most phases of the game. The better team won.
WoW Mike! I’m impressed. I seldom look to the Gazette to give credit where credit is due when it comes to anyone who beats the hawks. Yet you have shown some personal growth and leadership. Thank you for a little humility. Radcliffe was often quite good. And CMU was actually quite tough.
I’ll give CMU credit for playing hard and not giving up. But the lineman who tried to gouge Gaglione in the eyes on their last drive? Eh, not so much. What is maddening about this loss is that, in the last two minutes, Iowa could only lose if they did several things wrong. And they did every one of them.
I want to thank you for the article. A very class scribe must have written it. I also want to say that those CMU fans that attended Kinnick were impressed with the Iowa fans. They were friendly, kind, and represented Iowa extremely well. Best wishes to the Hawkeyes.
Enough debate, point-counter point and speculation. It is time to search for a new head coach. Regardless of the size of Ferentz’s buyout. He is not bigger than the program.
Actually there’s about 20 million reasons Ferentz is bigger than the program. Ultimately, this is on Barta for an unreal extension. Read Black Heart Gold Pant’s post today regarding it, very good.
It was still a 3-9 MAC team. They had no business getting close, and from where I was sitting, it looked like it got handed to them by a Hawkeye team with no pride, no courage and no direction. Nothing changes that.