MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY HAWKS FOOTBALL facebook.com/MUFootball @MUHAWKSFB YouTube.com/MonmouthHawks FOOTBALL CONTACT: Greg Viscomi (732) 571-4447 • 400 Cedar Avenue • West Long Branch, NJ 07764-1898 SEPT. 12 • CMU AT MONMOUTH • GAME 2 MONMOUTH HAWKS (0-1, 0-0 BIG SOUTH) AT CENTRAL MICHIGAN CHIPPEWAS (0-1, 0-0 MAC) AT Date: Sept. 12, 2015 Kickoff: 3:00 PM Field: Kelly/Shorts Stadium (30,255), Mount Pleasant, MI Series: First Meeting Last Meeting: First Meeting Coaching Matchup: Kevin Callahan (126-103) vs. John Bonamego (0-1) TODAY’S GAME: Today’s game marks a historic moment in the 23 year history of the Monmouth University Football program, the team’s first against a Football Bowl Championship opponent. Monmouth is coming off a 27-19 loss to Holy Cross last week, after starting slow and falling behind 21-3 in the first 29 minutes of the game. MU dominated the final 31 minutes but a comeback bid fell short as the Hawks were unable to overcome four turnovers. Central Michigan hosts its second conesecutive home game after hosting Oklahoma State at Kelly/ Shorts Stadium last weekend. The Chippewas, under new head coach John Bonamego, fell short of upsetting the Cowboys, 24-13. The Hawks look their first win of the 2015 season but it will have to come against a FBS program that has won 16 conference titles and has seven bowl game appearances. Last week against the Crusaders, Monmouth committed four turnovers and had a field goal blocked but still had the opportunity to tie the game before a drive stalled on the HC 22 yardline with time running out. Cody Williams became the 15th quarterback to start a game for the Hawks, racking up 296 yards of total offense. All-league running back Lavon Chaney had 130 yards of total offense while junior running back Lavon Chaney had 130 all-purpose yards. Monmouth’s defense settled down after the first half, allowing 84 yards in the final two quarters. To be successful against Central Michigan, MU will have to limit its penalties and stop two of the Mid-American conference’s best in quarterback Cooper Rush and senior defensive back Kavon Frazier, who was just named MAC West Defensive Player of the Week. Central Michigan hung with Oklahoma State throughout the contest last Thursday, even taking a 13-10 third quarter lead. The Chip- pewas, led by first year Head Coach John Bonamego, were chosen fifth in the MAC West in the preseason media poll. CMU quarterback Cooper Rush ran for 51 yards and threw for 225 while scoring the Chippewas’ only touchdown aginst OSU. Rush set a bowl record with seven touchdown passes in last year’s last second loss to Western Kentucky in the Bahama’s Bowl. Defensively CMU returns five starters on defense from a season ago. Central Michigan owns a 23-3 record against FCS opponents all-time. GLANCE AT THE SERIES HISTORY 2015 MU SCHEDULE Monmouth has never faced Central Michigan or a team from the Mid-American Conference. Monmouth has never played a game in or against a team from the Great Lakes State. Date Opponent Result/Time 09.05 HOLY CROSS L, 27-19 TODAY’S MEDIA INFORMATION 09.12 at Central Michigan 3:00 p.m. RADIO: Shore Sports Network: 1160 AM, 1310 AM 09.19 at Wagner 6:00 p.m. Play by Play: Matt Harmon ‘96 ‘04 09.26 at Fordham 1:00 p.m. Color: Eddy Occhipinti ‘06 ‘09 10.03 BRYANT 1:00 p.m. STREAMING AUDIO: www.shoresportsnetwork.com 10.10 at Charleston South.* 12:00 p.m. 10.17 LIBERTY* 1:00 p.m. MOBILE PHONE AUDIO: Download Free radioPup App 10.24 COASTAL CAROLINA* 1:00 p.m. STREAMING VIDEO: ESPN3.com 10.31 at Kennesaw State* 1:00 p.m. TELEVISION: ESPN3 - PxP: Dan Gutowsky Analyst: Doug Graber 11.14 PRESBYTERIAN* 12:00 p.m. LIVE STATISTICS: http://www.cmuchippewas.com/ 11.21 at Gardner-Webb* 1:30 p.m. TODAY’S One of the key statistics in today’s matchup will be time of possession. Both CMU 0-1 Overall 0-1 Home 0-0 Away and Monmouth rank near the top of their respective conferences after one week *Denotes Big South Conference Game in T.O.P. Monmouth (3rd in Big South) controlled the ball for 34:41, while Central STAT Michigan had the ball for 33:32 against Oklahoma State. GAME 2 - MONMOUTH AT CENTRAL MICHIGAN 2015 MONMOUTH FOOTBALL GAME NOTES INSIDE THE MONMOUTH-CENTRAL MICHIGAN SERIES TALE OF THE TAPE Today marks the first time Monmouth and Central Michigan will play. CMU is Monmouth’s first FBS opponent as the Hawks just qualified as a bowl eligi- 2015 TEAM STATISTICS ble opponent this season. MONMOUTH CENTRAL MICHIGAN MONMOUTH AGAINST THE MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE 20.0 First Downs Avg. 18.0 Monmouth has never faced an opponent from the Mid American Confer- 164.0 Rushing Offense Avg 78.0 ence. 258.0 Passing Offense Avg. 265.0 422.0 Total Offense Avg 343.0 136.0 Rushing Defense Avg. 153.0 165.0 Passing Defense Avg. 266.0 301.0 Total Defense Avg. 419.0 GAME BY GAME SERIES HISTORY 40.8 Net Punting Avg. 39.6 MONMOUTH vs CENTRAL MICHIGAN 0.0 Punt Return Avg. 0.0 22.0 Kickoff Return Avg. 20.7 Date Winner,Score Location 63.0 Penalty Yard Avg. 30.0 9/12/15 FIRST MEETING Mount Pleasant, MI 19.0 Scoring Avg. 13.0 27.0 Opp. Scoring Avg 24.0 WILLIAMS CLOSE TO SETTING FIRST TIME STARTER RECORD 2015 MONMOUTH LEADERS Last week’s Holy Cross game began the Cody Williams era as the Hawks’ starting quarterback. Over the 23 seasons of football, Monmouth has had 15 Rushing Att Yds Avg Td Lg different starting quarterbacks (QBs which started a significant number of Chaney 20 99 4.9 1 26 career games), with only four earning wins in their first starts. Williams’ 258 Welch 5 38 7.6 0 19 yards against the Crusaders ranks second behind Dan Sabella’s 263 in 1994. Williams 15 38 2.5 0 14 The Springfield, Mass. native became the first freshman to start at quarter- back for Monmouth since the 2009 season when Kyle Frazier started against Passing Cmp Att Yds Td Int Wagner. Williams 22 33 258 1 2 MONMOUTH QUARTERBACKS IN FIRST CAREER STARTS Receiving Rec Yds Avg Td Lg Player Year Team/Result COMP ATT Yards TDs INTs Ambush 6 102 17.0 1 81 Rich Barglowski 1993 Stonehill (L) 5 12 51 0 1 Doug Rossback 1993 Sacred Heart (L) 18 33 152 0 1 White Jr. 5 39 7.8 0 13 Dan Sabella 1994 Wagner (W) 17 30 263 2 0 Chaney 4 31 7.8 3 68 John DiPasquale 1998 Dayton (L) 13 34 134 0 3 Chris Wielgoz 1999 Stony Brook (L) 10 21 90 0 1 Bill Rankin 2000 Robert Morris (L) 11 37 167 0 2 Defensive Tac Solo TFL Sck Int Brendan Kennedy 2003 St. Peter’s (W) 10 21 122 1 0 Brian Boland 2003 Georgetown (W) 23 39 204 1 2 Basile 10 9 0.0 0.0 0 Brett Burke 2007 Maine (L) 14 25 173 1 0 Smith 7 5 1.0 0.0 0 Andrew Mandeville 2009 Colgate (L) 7 9 97 1 0 Kyle Frazier 2009 Wagner (L) 15 27 164 0 0 Minnich 5 4 0.0 0.0 0 Craig Peterson 2011 Sacred Heart (W) 14 20 192 1 1 Brandon Hill 2013 Montana St. (L) 18 31 240 2 2 2015 CENTRAL MICHIGAN LEADERS Cody Williams 2015 Holy Cross (L) 22 33 258 1 2 Rushing Att Yds Avg Td Lg Rush 8 51 6.4 1 22 Walker 12 25 2.1 0 7 HAWKS CHOSEN SIXTH IN PRESEASON POLL Spalding 5 7 1.4 0 3 Monmouth University was picked to finish sixth in the 2015 Big South Presea- son Coaches Poll. Coastal Carolina was picked to win the conference earning Passing Cmp Att Yds Td Int 15 first place votes and 139 total points. Right behind them was Liberty with Rush 28 41 225 0 1 129 points and six first place points followed by Charleston Southern (106 Kroll 1 1 40 0 0 points) and Presbyterian (72). Gardner-Webb was chosen fifth with 57 points while Monmouth was just four points behind with 53. First year program Ken- Receiving Rec Yds Avg Td Lg nesaw State was picked seventh with 32 points. Chapman 6 72 12.0 0 40 Monmouth finished 6-5 overall and 1-5 in conference in 2014, its first sea- McCord 4 59 14.8 0 20 son in the Big South. In addition to Basile and Sieczkowski, the Hawks had Rice 4 46 11.5 0 20 five other members earn all-conference honors. MU returns nine starters on defense and six starters on offense, including junior RB Lavon Chaney. Defensive Tac Solo TFL Sck Int Frazier 13 11 0.0 0.0 0 Cox 8 6 1.0 0.0 0 Fountain 7 2 0.0 0.0 0 DID YOU KNOW? Former Hawk defensive back Jameson Zacharias is a graduate assistant with the Chippewas. Zacharias, a defensive back, played for Monmouth from 2010 to 2013, finishing with 43 tackles in 35 career games. 2 MonmouthHawks.com 2015 MONMOUTH FOOTBALL GAME NOTES CENTRAL MICHIGAN THE LAST MEETING CHIPPEWAS FIRST MEETING HEAD COACH JOHN BONAMEGO John Bonamego is in his first season as the head coach of the Chippewas.