Football Notebook: Special Night for Chippewas, Award-Winner Darrell Bryant
- It was a big night for Central Michigan Football. An ESPN audience on a Wednesday night MACtion game saw the Chippewas play their final home game of the season, a dominant 28-7 victory over Sacramento State that has the Chippewas 5-5, 3-3 Mid-American Conference and one win away from bowl eligibility.
It was also a big night for Chippewa safety Darrell Bryant Jr., an army veteran who earlier in the week was named the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Military Award winner. The prestigious award annually goes to an individual or group with a military background who has made the biggest impact in college football.
Bryant, a native of Hampton, Va., who is in his fifth year of college football, is the first Chippewa to win the award. Bryant, who served in the army as an infantryman from 2019-23, was the Chippewas' flag bearer as they entered the field prior to kickoff, and he served as one of the team captains.
"This is the cool part about being the head coach of Central Michigan," second-year CMU coach Matt Drinkall said. "We have a premier game on ESPN that the whole country gets to see.
We get to roll out awesome guys, led by one of them being a former military member on Veterans Day, (a guy) who does everything right, great leader. You get a win, and you honor our veterans, you honor the school.
This is a great thing for Central Michigan, across the board; for our guys, for our country, and for Darrell, who is such a great representative of our institution and of our program, because he represents what we're about. He's a guy who's kind of an underdog.
I mean, we sign him from a Division II (school), he's a little bit older, he's all about serving other people, and he has been such a tremendous leader for us." Offensive Domination The Chippewas rolled up 424 yards in total offense including 331 on the ground. It was their second highest total of the season and their third highest rushing total.
It was also CMU's second straight dominant performance as one week earlier in a 35-7 win over Eastern Michigan, the Chippewas finished with 418 total yards including 235 on the ground. Telling about how dominant CMU was are three other stat categories: first downs, offensive plays, and time of possession.
The Chippewas had 24 first downs to the Hornets' 10; they ran 75 plays to Sacramento State's 45; and CMU held the ball for nearly 40 minutes, while the Hornets held it for just over 20.