2008 Eastern Michigan Eagles football team

The 2008 Eastern Michigan Eagles football team represented Eastern Michigan University during the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Eastern Michigan competed as a member of the Mid-American Conference. The team was led by head coach Jeff Genyk, who was released at the end of the season. He was replaced by Ron English.[1]

2008 Eastern Michigan Eagles football
ConferenceMid-American Conference
DivisionWest
Record3–9 (2–6 MAC)
Head coach
Home stadiumRynearson Stadium
(Capacity: 30,200)
2008 Mid-American Conference football standings
ConfOverall
Team W L  W L 
East Division
Buffalo x$  5 –3   8 –6  
Bowling Green  4 –4   6 –6  
Temple  4 –4   5 –7  
Ohio  3 –5   4 –8  
Akron  3 –5   5 –7  
Kent State  3 –5   4 –8  
Miami (OH)  1 –7   2 –10  
West Division
Ball State x  8 –0   12 –2  
Central Michigan  6 –2   8 –5  
Western Michigan  6 –2   9 –4  
Northern Illinois  5 –3   6 –7  
Toledo  2 –6   3 –9  
Eastern Michigan  2 –6   3 –9  
Championship: Buffalo 42, Ball State 24
  • $ – Conference champion
  • x – Division champion/co-champions

2008 started with a bang in a 52–0 defeat of Indiana State. For longtime fans, this was repayment for an embarrassing loss to ISU in 2001. Despite the strong start, Eastern lost 4 straight after the opener, and was never close in any of them. Then they pulled off a road upset of Bowling Green, who had beaten BCS member Pittsburgh earlier in the year. But after that, they had two close losses by three at West Point to Army, and by seven at home to Akron.

After a loss to Temple on November 22, 2008, Eastern Michigan fired coach Jeff Genyk, but would allow him to coach the Eagle's final game of the season against rival Central Michigan.[2] Many games lost by 7 points or less was one of the reasons given for firing Genyk. Eastern won that game, however, 56–52. Two national records were set against CMU as QB Andy Schmitt had 58 completions and Tyler Jones tied a record by catching 23 passes. With Eastern Michigan's win over Central Michigan, all three schools split the series, and Eastern retained the Michigan MAC Trophy on the tie. Schmitt finished 58/80 for 516 yards (school record), threw 5 TDs, and ran for one more. Most of these records were reset from just the week prior against Temple. In that game, Schmitt finished 50/76 for 485 yards, but Eastern was outscored by three. His 76 passes in a game without an interception set an NCAA record. He was only intercepted once against Central with 80 passes.

Schmitt's return as a 5th year senior in 2009 was a point of optimism for fans. For those two games he was 108/156 for 1001 yards and 1 interception. Perhaps the 2009 season would have been much different (instead of 0–12) if Schmitt had not gone down with a career-ending knee injury early in that season.

Schedule
DateTimeOpponentSiteTVResultAttendance
August 287:00 pmIndiana State*
W 52–017,494
September 612:00 pmat Michigan State*
BTNL 10–4271,789
September 1312:00 pmToledo
  • Rynearson Stadium
  • Ypsilanti, MI
L 17–4116,860
September 201:00 pmat Maryland*
L 24–5148,023
September 2712:00 pmNorthern Illinois
  • Rynearson Stadium
  • Ypsilanti, MI
ESPN+L 0–3717,159
October 44:00 pmat Bowling Green
W 24–2116,217
October 111:00 pmat Army*
ESPN ClassicL 13–1727,096
October 181:00 pmAkron
  • Rynearson Stadium
  • Ypsilanti, MI
L 35–4217,055
October 2512:00 pmat No. 22 Ball State
L 16–3820,948
November 12:00 pmat Western Michigan
L 10–3119,917
November 221:00 pmat Temple
L 52–5513,033
November 2812:00 pmCentral Michigan
  • Rynearson Stadium
  • Ypsilanti, MI (rivalry)
W 56–5226,188

Game summaries

Indiana State
1 2 3 4 Total
Indiana State 0 0 0 0 0
Eastern Michigan 14 14 14 0 42

Michigan State
1 2 3 4 Total
Eastern Michigan 0 7 0 3 10
Michigan State 7 14 7 14 42

Toledo
1 2 3 4 Total
Toledo 14 0 27 0 41
Eastern Michigan 0 7 0 10 17

Maryland
1 2 3 4 Total
Eastern Michigan 0 14 3 7 24
Maryland 10 14 10 17 51

Northern Illinois
1 2 3 4 Total
Northern Illinois 14 7 7 9 37
Eastern Michigan 0 0 0 0 0

Bowling Green
1 2 3 4 Total
Eastern Michigan 0 7 10 7 24
Bowling Green 7 0 7 7 21

Army
1 2 3 4 Total
Eastern Michigan 0 13 0 0 13
Army 7 0 3 7 17

Akron
1 2 3 4 Total
Akron 3 21 7 11 42
Eastern Michigan 0 14 7 14 35

Ball State
1 2 3 4 Total
Eastern Michigan 0 0 7 9 16
Ball State 3 7 14 14 38

Western Michigan
1 2 3 4 Total
Eastern Michigan 0 7 3 0 10
Western Michigan 10 7 0 14 31

Temple
1 2 3 4 Total
Eastern Michigan 7 14 3 28 52
Temple 3 21 10 21 55

Central Michigan
1 2 3 4 Total
Central Michigan 14 21 10 7 52
Eastern Michigan 14 28 14 0 56

References
  1. English to be announced as EMU coach, ESPN, December 15, 2008, retrieved December 20, 2008.
  2. Bennett, Brian (December 22, 2008). "Sources: English to be announced as EMU coach". ESPN. Retrieved April 21, 2010.


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