Finally a Win for Eastern Michigan Football

The past 24 hours have been pretty interesting for fans of the Eastern Michigan Football program.  Sometime yesterday afternoon, we find out that Coach Ron English had been fired and that the Offensive Coordinator Stan Parrish would be the interim Head Coach.  It is pretty unusual to fire a coach on the day before a game, especially when that game is against one of your rivals.  It was pretty much a given that he would be gone at the end of the season, so I was thinking that maybe he was fired earlier in the week and they saved the announcement for yesterday.

Well it turns out that there was some sort of incident in the locker room where he went into a tirade and this was recorded.  That was pretty much the final straw for the Eastern Michigan athletic director, so he was fired.  I was seriously hoping that he would have been the one to turn the program around and when he had his 6-6 season a couple years ago, it looked like that was happening.  Well, that season turned out to be the outlier that would get thrown out of a dataset.  So here we are.  If this were a sports blog, I would start going into speculation of the new coach, but it's not.  If you're looking for that sort of thing, go here.  There are also some of my other pictures of the game there and there.

Now onto pictures of the game.

 With Monday being Veterans Day, the ROTC folks had to bring in a Hummer.

 I'm assuming this is one that served some time in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

 A shot from the front.

 This is the touchdown that is used to celebrate Eastern's scores.  It is a 75mm Pack Howitzer from World War II.

 The ROTC color guard just before the playing of the National Anthem.

 Swoop posing for a picture.

 The EMU band taking the field.

 A closeup of one of the band members.

 This is a group known as Justice for Julia.  Julia Niswender was an Eastern Michigan student killed in her apartment on December 11, 2012.  This group is trying to raise funds for a scholarship in her name among other things.  With the killing of Demarius Reed and this, maybe the University will try to improve the situation.

 A shot of the eagle from the Leslie Science Center.

 And a shot that I really like.

 The band leaving the field.

 A shot just before the snap.  I guess you could call it the battle of the trenches.

 Ryan Brumfield running with the ball.

 Mycal Swaim tackling a Western player.

 Swoop.

 Dareyon Chance for Western Michigan running with the ball.

 Bronson Hill eluding a tackle.

 Tyreese Russell running with the ball.  He looked pretty good.

 Brogan Roback celebrating a touchdown after crossing the goal-line.  I'll have to say, the play calling looked slightly different today.  It seemed like there was more passing and more off tackle stuff.  Granted, Parrish didn't have much time to prepare for the game but still.

 This is a shot I've been trying to get for a long time.  I was happy to finally get it.

 One of the Western players getting tackled.  Eastern's defense did a pretty decent job today.

 Western Quaterback Zach Terrell setting up a pass.

 Trying to get a shot of the whole field.

 Another shot of the eagle.

 Bronson hill during a run.

 The players celebrating a Bronson Hill touchdown.

 A pair of Broncos celebrating after a touchdown.

 A Western player after a catch.

 Justin Currie after an interception.

 The team celebrating that.

 Western Player Brian Fields during a rush.

 Roback setting up a pass.

 For some reason, this was not called interference.

 Tyreese Russell aruging that point.

 Dustin Creel crossing the goal line.  This made the score 27-29, with the Broncos holding a 2 point lead.

 Dustin Creel about to celebrate.

 And he celebrates.

 Roback crossing the goal-line after taking a pass from Running Back Bronson Hill.  This would tie up the game.

 The Eastern players celebrating the tie.

 The referees discussing another play that certainly looked like interference.

 Ryan Brumfield getting lifted up after scoring the game winning touchdown in overtime.  It's funny, normally I have this feeling of dread when Eastern enters a situation like this.  Today, I felt like they could pull it off.  The defense stepped up to the occasion and held Western to a field goal.  And the offense stepped up to score the winning touchdown.

A shot of the scoreboard and some fans celebrating the win.

So congratulations to the Eagles for their victory over the Broncos.  Hopefully, they will be able to build on this and end the season on a high note.