The Miami football team will host Central Michigan in the second of a five-game homestand on Saturday. The Hurricanes are coming off of a 63-0 victory over FCS Bethune-Cookman Saturday.
The meeting on Saturday between the Central Michigan and Miami football teams is their first. Miami enters the game after a 63-0 thrashing of FCS Bethune-Cookman for their first win of 2019. Central Michigan has won two of their first three games this season. The Chippewas loss was 61-0 at Wisconsin.
It took Central Michigan three weeks to exceed their 2018 win total. The Chippewas were 1-11 in 2018. Former Florida head coach Jim McIlwain has already made a difference in Mount Pleasant. Central Michigan has been able to achieve a 2-1 record with both their offense and defense performing under par.
The Chippewas are 87th nationally in total offense averaging 373.3 yards per game. Central Michigan is 81st in total defense. They allow 390.7 total yards per game. The Miami football team has shown a lot of improvement on offense. The Hurricanes should be able to take advantage of Central Michigan’s defense.
This should be a week the Miami offense should be able to continue to grow. The Hurricanes offense could be without sophomores, wide receiver Mark Pope and running back Lorenzo Lingard. Pope had the best game of his Miami football career last week against Bethune-Cookman.
Pope had three receptions for 92 yards and one carry for 21 yards. Lingard was expected to make his season debut against the Wildcats last week. He suffered a season-ending torn ACL in the sixth game of the 2018 season against Virginia. Lingard has not played since the game against the Cavaliers last season.