There were plenty of question marks surrounding the Central Michigan University football team heading into last night’s season opener at Kelly/Shorts Stadium. Armed with a high-octane offense, the visiting Oklahoma State Cowboys entered the game as heavy favorites.

Despite CMU’s 24-13 loss to OSU on Thursday night, the Chippewas and their fans walked away with plenty of reasons to be optimistic about how quickly things could come together for a largely inexperienced and unproven team.

In his career debut as a college football head coach, John Bonamego seemed mainly satisfied with his team’s effort as it “hung tough” with a Top-30 team in the nation.

“I’m pleased with how we played. They hung in there against a very tough opponent and slugged it out and proved they belonged on the field,” Bonamego said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We knew they could stretch the field and be a quick strike team.”

Bonamego was quick to comment on the atmosphere at Kelly/Shorts Stadium during CMU’s 2015 season opener and the effect the student crowd, specifically, had on his teams better-than-expected showing.

“I just want to say something about our student section. I’m proud of all of you. The student section was outstanding. I’ve been told in years past they were leaving at halftime and that didn’t happen tonight,” he said. “We came up short this week, but with your support we are going to be in great shape and a very competitive football team down the road.”

The Chippewas will have an extra two days to recoup and reassess their shortcomings in Thursday night’s loss hosting FCS opponent Monmouth University at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12. Before kickoff of Week 2, Bonamego said CMU will need to make cutting down on mental mistakes their highest priority.

“The bottom line is we made too many mistakes against a quality opponent,” Bonamego said. “We had two penalties in the first half where we traded penalties for field goals (In red zone). It got us off schedule.”

CMU struggled to move the ball on third down in the fourth quarter, and capitalized with a touchdown on just one of their red zone trips during the game. Quarterback Cooper Rush scored his team’s only six-point score on a 16-yard scramble and shoulder-first push into the end zone, which gave CMU a 13-10 lead for 1:38 second of game clock.

Rush said tucking the ball under his arm instead of passing is not something he ever plans on doing, but instead a reaction to how a play develops down the field.

“It just happens in the flow of the game. If you see something, you take off. That’s something you’ve gotta do sometimes and it worked for a little bit,” Rush said. “It’s something you don’t really think about. It’s when the opportunity presents itself. You’re just trying to make a play in total game mode.”

CMU’s most blatant struggles against OSU came running the ball, a category in which junior Martez Walker and sophomore Devon Spalding combined for 32 yards on 17 carries.

“We felt it was important to establish the run and control the ball,” Bonamego said. “We weren’t as efficient doing that as we felt like we could have been.”

From a coaching perspective, CMU went through some growing pains while flexing their schematic muscles and showcasing the more specialized aspects of the playbook.

“We mixed our personnel groupings very well. It was borderline chaotic at times,” Bonamego said. “That happens. Staffs tend to work that stuff out over the course of time.”

Most notably, Rush lateraled the ball on one occasion to senior wide receiver Jess Kroll, who connected deep down the field with fellow wide out Mark Chapman for a big gain.

“We aren’t’ going to go down with those plays in our back pocket, we are going to use them,” Bonamego said. “If Jesse can get that ball a little bit further down the field, then we probably score on that.”

Defensively, the Chippewas were playing without senior defensive end Blake Serpa (hamstring) and kept OSU’s rushing attack stifled. Senior safety Kavon Frazier led CMU with 13 tackles including an emphatic hit on a punt coverage assignment in the second half.

“I didn’t even know how many I had. I was just trying to run around and make a play,” Frazier said.

Staying pace with opposing offense the rest of the season will be key. When the Chippewas were allowed time to communicate at the line of scrimmage, Frazier said they were more prone to succeed.

“We were on the field a long time. We had them on third and long a couple of times that we should have been off the field,” Frazier said. “It was (within) a couple plays of being a whole different ball game. There were a couple of times we couldn’t get lined up. When we did get lined up, we played a lot better.”

As the Chippewas prepare for next week’s action, Bonamego said valuable lessons were learned during a disappointing defeat.

“I would have like to be sitting here after a win. You picture yourself in that moment in time (before the game) and it’s never the same,” he said. “We talk a lot about image and identity and the difference between the two. Image is how you see yourself and identity is how you are perceived by others. If you don’t create your identity than someone else is going to create it for you. The later is more important.”