Eastern Michigan Football Protesters

I don't like to talk about politics on this blog too much.  There are far too many sites out there that talk about politics but every so often political matters intrude on other things.  Last night was one of those circumstances.

 As I mentioned in the other post, there was tension surrounding the game as well.  A group of Eastern Michigan students organized a protest.  Earlier in the week, some racially motivated graffiti appeared on campus.  The one that I'm aware of said, "KKK Leave N-words".  Now, I know that my English isn't great but I don't even know what that is supposed to mean but I'm guessing that someone wants a group of students to leave.  I'd like to think it's the KKK group but I know that's not the case.

The University was quick to remove the graffiti and were quick to condemn it.  Sadly, they are still trying to find out who did it.  Those cowards found a part of campus that was neither well lit or well monitored by video cameras.  And yes, I use the term cowards because they scrawl their crap in the middle of the night and don't even want to stand behind it.  Apparently someone else scrawled something similar in one of the other dorms.

 As a result, there have been protests on campus the whole week.  For the most part, they have remained peaceful other than disrupting traffic in some places.  And I think that is a good thing.  And I think I understand what they are protesting but I'm not sure this is something that needs to be protested.

Whoever was sprawling their crap on campus was hoping to stir shit and that's what they got.  And that's why I disagree with the protesters.  They gave the assholes exactly what they wanted.  Instead of mocking the poorly written graffiti and letting it die a death from indifference, they perpetuated it.  By carrying on the way they have, they gave the people who wrote the graffiti some degree of power.  And that's the last thing they need.  Those folks need to be mocked and scorned for the assholes that they are.

I would like to think that we as a society have moved past that kind of bullshit but I guess I'm wrong.

 For the most part, the people protesting stayed to one side of the field.  And I give them props for that.  I think the police did a good job of containing the protesters and keeping it peaceful.  I think if the police had rushed in and tried to completely shut it down, it could have been ugly.  So for the most part, both sides handled this very well and I'm glad. The handling of the matter makes be proud to be an Eastern Michigan alumnus.

The protesters did march on the field after the game was completed but from what I've heard, they said their piece and left.

Like I said, this could have turned ugly.  Both sides kept their cool.  The protesters got their message out.  While I don't think everyone was happy with this outcome, it probably was the best one.

Eastern Michigan Versus Wyoming Football

So I went to the Eastern Michigan football game last night.  It was tense both on and around the field.  I'll get to the around the field tensions in my next post.  The game itself was pretty hard fought and too close throughout.  As usual, I'm only posting one picture from the game itself.  The rest will be on Hustle Belt.

 Because of the other issues surrounding the game, the band didn't play the Star Spangled Banner.  Instead they had a recording and it kind of threw my rhythm off.   As a result, I didn't get any pictures of the eagle flying onto the field.

 Well almost.

 The band did come on the field to do their normal pre-game show.  It was pretty cool.

 I do like to watch the band.

 The halftime show was pretty cool.  They played some pieces from the Incredibles and did a pretty good job with it.

 They looked pretty good in their formations too.

 I tried to get a few closeups.

 And I couple better ones.

 I shifted to the other side of the band.  I don't normally get pictures of this section.

 But the horns sounded good.  Like I said, they did a really good job with the halftime show.

 As for my one picture from the game, here it is.  I love the way it turned out.

And a shot of the student section.

Eastern Michigan Football Vs Army

I'm just posting some of my pictures from the Eastern Michigan game on Saturday night.  For here, I'm doing more of the stuff surrounding the game rather than the game itself.  If you want to see pictures from the game, go to Eagle Totem.

 The band taking the field.  I always like this part of a game.  It's kind of a shame that there isn't more focus on the game during TV broadcasts.  I guess people would rather hear the bobbleheads prattle on about nothing.

 I was trying something different for this shot.  I might have to crop a little tighter next time.  I might even try different settings on my camera to get the rest in focus.

 The color guard during the Star Spangled Banner.

 One of the things that was started last year was the flying of the eagle out onto the field.  I really like this addition and I hope that it continues as a tradition.

 Just a couple shots of the eagle.  She's a nice looking bird.

 I kind of like this shot of the band.

 Sometimes my favorite pictures from the game aren't necessarily the good things that happen during the game.  In this case, Darius Jackson was going in for a touchdown and he coughed up the ball before approaching the goal line.

 The band was pretty cool at halftime.

 I was trying some different angles then.

 The moon was almost full.

At this point, the result of the game was no longer in doubt, so I was just trying for some overall shots of the field.

Eastern Michigan Vs Old Dominion Football In Pictures

So yesterday was the opening game for the Eastern Michigan football season.  It it hard to believe that I am starting my fifth season where I am shooting from the field.  For this post, I am just going to do pictures from the game but not necessarily of the game.  If you would like to see shots from the game, go here.

 So once again, Eastern Michigan is setting up a wall for the players to break down.  I am still not sold on this "tradition" but I'm sure they will stick with it until someone gets hurt doing it.

A shot of the helmet used during the game.

 The touchdown cannon.  It actually got a fair amount of use yesterday, but it would have been nice to hear it go off one more time.

 The band taking the field.

 The color guard getting ready to take the field.

 It was a pretty full house yesterday.

 A shot of the eagle that flies down to the field.

 Darius Jackson's first touchdown run

 Swoop being Swoop.

An overall shot of the field.  Sadly, Eastern Michigan would go on to lose the game in the waning minutes of the game.

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.