Eagles have best chance to get victory against Ball State
Eastern Michigan will get its best chance to win Saturday when the Eagles (0-6, 0-3) face Ball State (0-7, 0-3) at Rynearson Stadium in a battle of winless teams.
Ball State was one of the main stories in college football last season, entering the MAC championship game unbeaten and with a No. 12 national ranking. The Cardinals lost the MAC title game to Buffalo and the GMAC Bowl to Tulsa -- and also lost quarterback Nate Davis to the NFL.
Ron English was hired as head coach at EMU and has yet to taste victory. English and the Eagles were welcomed by a crowd of 14,449 at Rynearson in the season opener, a 27-14 loss to Army. Just 2,401 were in attendance Saturday when the Eagles (0-6, 0-3) fell to a 3-4 Kent State team, 28-6.
That's right ... just 2,401, only 66 more fans who were watching Alma beat Kalamazoo College in a Division III game just down the street from where more than 27,000 fans packed Waldo Stadium to watch the CMU-WMU rivalry that same day.
You can bet Stan Parrish will be wanting a win aganst the Eagles. He is 0-8, including the bowl loss to Tulsa, as head coach at Ball State, to go with his 0-21-1 mark during his final two years as head man at Kansas State in 1987-88. He could go 0-30-1 with a loss Saturday.
"As a leader you can't get down," English said during the MAC coaches' conference call Monday. "You can't focus on the record. We're building for the long haul."
