Football Preview: Big Road Test Looms for Chippewas

- When they've fought in their own weight class, they've fared pretty well. And those tests with their peers keep coming.

The Central Michigan football team goes to Ohio on Saturday (3:30 p. ) for a Mid-American Conference game.

Both teams are 1-0 in conference play, and the Bobcats have proved to be a tough out, particularly in Athens, where they have won 15 consecutive games and 25 of their last 26. "They've got a great football culture in their community, in their school, in their program," CMU coach Matt Drinkall said.

They recruit a specific type of person. They recruit tough, high-effort, high-motor, high-achieving people.

"Ohio hits you across the face like a two-by-four." The Chippewas rolled past Akron, 41-17, last week, checking a big one off their list. Not only was it the MAC opener, but it avenged a loss that, for all intents and purposes, knocked the 2025 season off kilter.

That the Chippewas beat Akron was satisfying; more importantly, how they did it was encouraging. "I know that in that Akron game last year, we went out there and didn't play so well, and I thought about that game forever," said CMU quarterback Angel Flores, who rushed for 154 yards and a touchdown in leading an offense that rolled up a season-high 481 yards.

"That (2025) bus ride back home was the longest bus ride of my life. I wanted to beat Akron so bad.

I went to sleep thinking about beating Akron."

The Chippewas' 332 rushing yards against the Zips was their second highest total of the season next to the 339 they posted in a 24-10 victory two weeks prior over Wyoming.

Those rushing totals rank as the two highest for the Chippewas in the 18 games that Drinkall has coached at CMU, providing further evidence that his run-first, ball-control offense is taking hold.