Eastern Michigan entered Saturday's game at Rutgers without a win over a power conference team in their 126-year history. They were 0-58.
Now they're 1-58.
The Eagles kicked a go-ahead field goal early in the fourth quarter and held on for a 16-13 victory to move to 2-0 on the season.
“There’s was no pressure [to get the first win]," said head coach Chris Creighton, who was not aware of the winless mark until this week. "There was no record if we were the 59th team. I don’t think we played with pressure. The thing is in the locker room, there is a lot of joy."
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Eastern Michigan was one of two MAC teams to win road games against Power 5 teams on Saturday. Central Michigan used 590 yards of offense (467 passing) to beat Kansas, 45-27. Though wins by Group of 5 teams over Power 5 teams make headlines, Creighton believes there might be an off-the-field gap but not an on-field gap.
"We really didn’t talk about that," he said about playing a bigger school. "We talked about the difference between the names ‘Power 5’ and ‘Group of 5’. I wish I was at the meeting that got to decide what they got to name the different conferences."
"One of the big differences is money. Money doesn’t buy heart, will and determination, discipline, toughness. That’s really what we talked about. That’s who we are, that’s what we are becoming and that’s who we want to be. Once the ball is kicked, there are 11 guys out there and again, we believe in each other. We’ve got a long ways to go, but I sure am proud of them.”
Creighton led them to a 7-6 mark last year, his third as head coach, and their first bowl game since 1987. Now they're chasing more.
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