The Mid-American Conference held its second conference call of the 2018 season Monday morning. The conference enters its second week of the football schedule with more non-conference games.
The 2018 MAC season will conclude with the 22nd Marathon MAC Football Championship game on Nov. 30 at 7:00 pm ET (ESPN2) at Ford Field in Detroit.
Here are the takeaways from the conference’s second coaches teleconference of the season:
- Coach Terry Bowden and the Akron Zips headed to Lincoln, Nebraska, this past weekend. Due to thunder and lighting in the area, Saturday’s game was canceled with no future postponement.
“It’s the most difficult of situations because you come home feeling like you played a game,” Bowden said. “Went through pregame warmups, get pulled off the field. We actually kicked the ball off. The lightning never stopped.”
The same thing happened to the Zips last season at Western Michigan, but Akron had more time to reschedule hotel rooms.
- The Central Michigan Chippewas fell to Kentucky, 35-20. A Southeastern Conference opponent, it was a Power Five opponent for CMU. The Chippewas are young, and stuck with the Wildcats, down just 21-20 at halftime. Kentucky pulled away in the end.
CMU will host Kansas this weekend in Mt. Pleasant. The Jayhawks are coming off of a 26-23 loss to a Football Championship Subdivision team, the Nicholls Colonels.
- In his coaching debut, coach Sean Lewis led his Kent State Golden Flashes to a 31-24 loss to Illinois in Champagne. Kent State, which is infamous for playing Power Five teams for buyouts, competed with the Fighting Illini for the entire game. It was one of Kent’s closer and competitive non-conference losses in recent memory.
“The guys did a great job early on as we just tried to get settled in,” Lewis said. “Finally got a little momentum with a fourth down conversion that eventually got us our first score. It provided a spark in the first half. Looking at the tape there were too many mistakes and mental errors. We competed well for our first game in our first year, good start.”
- Northern Illinois fell 33-7 to Iowa this past weekend in the Huskies’ season opener. NIU is in the midst of a four game stretch, which includes three Power Five opponents (Iowa, Utah and Florida State). NIU also plays BYU in the middle of their season.
Coach Rod Carey’s team is the favorite to win the MAC West and meet Ohio in Detroit. The Huskies head to Salt Lake City, Utah, this weekend.
“Looking forward to getting back on the field this week, but we’re really just trying to learn about them right now,” Carey said. “They fly around to the football on offense and defense. They’re fast and their kicking game is special with their punter, who is as good as they come in the country.”
