THIS WEEK IN THE MAC
Tuesday, November 1
*Ball State at Kent State, 7 pm (ESPNU)
*Buffalo at Ohio, 7:30 pm (ESPN2)
Wednesday, November 2
*Central Michigan at Northern Illinois, 7 pm (ESPNU)
*Western Michigan at Bowling Green, 7 pm (ESPN2)
2 MINUTE DRILL
• Redshirt freshman quarterback Tucker Gleason threw for 238 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner late in the fourth quarter, in Toledo’s 27-24 win at Eastern Michigan on Saturday. The victory moves the Rockets to 6-3 and 4-1 in the MAC, strengthening their grip on the West Division and making them bowl eligible for the 13th straight season.
• Miami picked up a 27-9 win over the Akron Zips on Saturday afternoon at Infocision Stadium. The RedHawks’ defense forced three turnovers, recorded four sacks, had a pick-six and held the Zips to 80 yards rushing on 25 carries in the victory. Offensively, Brett Gabbert was 13-of-23 passing for 184 yards and one touchdown. Mac Hippenhammer recorded four catches for 84 yards.
MAC NOTES
Another Year, Another Season of Bowl Eligibility
Redshirt freshman quarterback Tucker Gleason threw for 238 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner late in the fourth quarter, in Toledo’s 27-24 win at Eastern Michigan on Saturday. The victory moves the Rockets to 6-3 and 4-1 in the MAC, strengthening their grip on the West Division and making them bowl eligible for the 13th straight season. The Rockets have reached bowl eligibility every season since 2010. Jason Candle won his 51st game as Toledo’s head coach, moving him into sole possession of third place on Toledo’s all-time list. Gary Pinkel is Toledo’s all-time leader with 73 wins from 1991-2000. UB’s Fuqua Named National Defensive Player of the Week Buffalo safety Marcus Fuqua was named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week following his standout performance against Toledo. He’s the first UB player to ever earn the honor. The junior had a career-high three interceptions against the Rockets to become just the fourth UB player to record three interceptions in a game. Fuqua leads the MAC and is tied for the FBS lead with five interceptions. He was named the MAC East Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season following his performance against Toledo.
Bulls on Parade
When Buffalo takes on Ohio on Tuesday night, they will be in search of a sixth straight win for just the second time in their FBS era (2013). The Bulls will also be looking to improve to 5-0 in MAC play for the fourth time in program history (2013, 2018, 2020). A win would make the Bulls bowl eligible for the seventh time in program history and the fifth time in the last six seasons. UB played in bowl games in 2008, 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Buffalo is coming off a comeback victory over Toledo in which they scored 24-unanswered fourth quarter points. Buffalo forced six turnovers against Toledo in the win – the most by a UB team in its FBS era.
Not 1, Not 2, Not 3 …
Sophomore cornerback Quinyon Mitchell was named the Walter Camp Football Bowl Subdivision National Defensive Player of the Week following his four-interception performance in Toledo’s 52-32 victory at Northern Illinois on Oct. 8. Mitchell returned two of his three first-half interceptions for touchdowns as Toledo bolted out to a 35-7 lead at the break. Mitchell snuffed out a potential NIU touchdown by grabbing his third pick of the half in the NIU end zone on a pass from three-yard line with 16 seconds left. He gathered up his fourth pick of the game in the third quarter, a diving catch on NIU’s opening drive of the half, giving him four interceptions in slightly more than 30 minutes of play. The four interceptions were the first four of Mitchell’s career, tied the school record set back in 1950, and was the first time a Rocket had two pick sixes in one game. The Toledo standard of four interceptions in a game was set by Jerry Palmer vs. Western Reserve in 1950. Mitchell is the only FBS player since 2000 with four INTs and two pick-sixes in a game. The NCAA record for interceptions is five, held by four players, most recently Dan Rebsch of Miami (Ohio) vs. Western Michigan in 1972. Mitchell is the second Toledo player to earn Walter Camp National Player of Week honors. Safety DeJuan Rogers earned the award following the Rockets’ upset of No. 18 Arkansas on Sept. 12, 2015.
Ramirez Earns National Recognition
Eastern Michigan senior defensive lineman Jose Ramirez has garnered national acclaim after a career-best performance against Western Michigan University Saturday, Oct. 8. Ramirez was named the Reese’s Senior Bowl Defensive Player of the Week as well as the East-West Shrine Bowl’s Breakout Defensive Player of the Week. Ramirez made history Saturday when he recorded a career-high 4.0 sacks against Western Michigan en route to a 45-23 victory over the Broncos. The sack total is a single-game record at Eastern Michigan, and is the second-best individual performance in the NCAA this season.
Flashes of Brilliance
The Kent State Golden Flashes re-wrote the program record books and held off a feisty Ohio Bobcats squad in a thrilling 31-24 overtime victory on a homecoming Saturday at Dix Stadium. The Flashes rolled up 736 yards of offense in the game, the second-most in school history and the second-most this season in an FBS game. Kent State also became the ONLY team in FBS HISTORY to have a 240 yard rushers (Marquez Cooper) and 40 yard receiver (Dante Cephas) in the same game. Cephas set a program-record with 246 yards, breaking a the record set by Eugene Baker in 1997. The Golden Flashes have won eleven-straight home games, tied for the ninth-longest streak in the FBS and a new program record breaking the streak set September 1949 through October of 1951 and again October of 2011 through August of 2013
B1G Wins
The MAC has won a regular season game vs. Big Ten opponents in each of the last 16 consecutive seasons (2006-2022*) the longest streak in MAC history. Miami’s 17-14 win at Northwestern on Sept. 24, 2022 extended the streak. During this 16-year stretch, MAC teams have defeated 12 different Big Ten programs—Illinois (4); Indiana (5); Iowa (3); Maryland (1); Michigan (1); Michigan State (1); Minnesota (3); Nebraska (1); Northwestern (4); Penn State (1); Purdue (6) and Rutgers (2) for a total of 32 wins during this stretch. Miami (14), Bowling Green (9), Toledo (6), Central Michigan (6) and Northern Illinois (6) have the most wins vs. Big Ten opponents. *The MAC did play any non-conference games in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Say Cheez
Eastern Michigan was named the Cheez-It Bowl National Team of the Week following the Eagles 30-21 win over Arizona State on Sept. 17, as selected by the FWAA. EMU’s win over the Sun Devils marked the first regular season win for a MAC school over a Pac12 opponent. It also marked the first time that EMU earned Team of the Week honors and the first for a MAC school since Buffalo on Nov. 28, 2020. The Eagles became only the sixth MAC school to win the award since it debuted in 2002.
