Temple Vs. Eastern Michigan

As I may have mentioned before, I graduated from Eastern Michigan. Yesterday was homecoming, so I decided to the go the game. I wasn't expecting much as Eastern hasn't fielded a winning team since 1995 and hasn't gone to a bowl game since 1987 (my first year there). However, Eastern football is usually exciting and occasionally you get see alot of scoring.

Eastern plays at Rynearson Stadium which was built in 1969 and holds 30,200 people (although it's never reached that capacity...the closest was 25,009 in 1995). It is named after a former EMU coach named Elton Rynearson who compiled a record of 114-58-15 over 26 seasons. In one stretch he had a record of 40 wins, 2 ties and 4 losses. Eastern hasn't been able to recapture that kind of success.

The color guard.

The singer of the national anthem was Ollie Woodson who was a lead singer of the Temptations from 1984 to 1986 and 1988 to 1996. He sang and co-wrote "Treat Her Like a Lady".

The opening kickoff.

This picture pretty much sums up the day, for about the first 2 and a half quarters, Temple was able to run the ball at will.

Eastern quarterback Kyle McMahon setting up a pass. He took over the team after senior Andy Schmitt went down in the Michigan game and will be out for the rest of the season.

I don't remember who this was.

Nice catch after a nice pass.

This is also pretty much summed up Eastern's day. They didn't get a field goal until 5 minutes into the 2nd Quarter and their only touchdown came with 1:39 left in the game.

Another pass.

Setting up for another pass.

A nice stiff arm after a scramble.

The battle of the trenches.

About to be a sack. After giving up 3 touchdowns in roughly the first quarter, Eastern did a pretty decent job of tightening down defensively. Temple was only able to score a field goal after that.

Setting up a handoff.

The handoff that would lead to Eastern's only touchdown of the game.

An overall shot of Rynearson during the game. There were 3000 folks at the game. Probably didn't help that the game was during the Michigan-Michigan State game. Also probably didn't help that it was raining before the game and at points during the game.

This is the other side of the stadium that was added in 1992 to bring the capacity over 30,000. Lining the wall are the names of some of Eastern's better players. For some reason I saw this shot and liked it.

Anyways, the final score was 24-12 Temple.