Continuing a legacy: A look at CMU's nine bowl appearances
As Central Michigan battled Purdue in the 2007 Motor City Bowl, senior center Nick Beamish — a middle-schooler at the time — watched the Chippewas in person for the first time.
Eight years later, he’s one of the Chippewas on the field looking to take down a Power Five for the first time in CMU postseason history.
The Mid-American Conference hasn't beaten a team from a Power Five conference since Bowling Green beat Northwestern in the 2003 Motor City Bowl.
“(CMU) almost beat Purdue and played really hard. I never knew that that was going to set the tempo for how we would play now,” Beamish said. “I was still in like seventh or eighth grade, so I was just a plain fan, but it was kind of awesome how it worked out, to get to play on Ford Field yet again.”
The MAC has an interesting bowl history, with teams like Toledo and Bowling Green being regulars in the postseason while six teams (including Western Michigan) have never won a bowl game.
Central Michigan sits in the middle of the pack, with a 3-5 bowl record in Division I play.
Only two previous CMU head coaches made a bowl game in their first season at the helm. If the Chippewas top Minnesota in the Quick Lane Bowl on Dec. 28, John Bonamego would be the first CMU head coach to win a bowl game in his first full season.
For Bonamego, he said the Detroit game the team ultimately wants to play in is the MAC Championship.
“Our goal and our focus is not just to be in bowl games, it’s to win championships," he said. "I’ve told them that this needs to be a dry run. We need to make ourselves familiar with the confines of Ford Field because we intend to be back again in the very near future.”
This will be CMU’s fifth bowl game in Detroit out of its nine Division I bowl games, dating back to 1990. Here’s a list of the nine appearances:
Central Michigan in bowl games
Date: Dec. 8, 1990
Bowl: California Bowl
Location: Fresno, California
Coach: Herb Deromedi (13th season)
Team’s final record: 8-3-1
Opponent: San Jose State
Result: L, 48-24
Date: Dec. 15, 1994
Bowl: Las Vegas Bowl
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Coach: Dick Flynn (first season)
Team’s final record: 9-3
Opponent: Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV)
Result: L, 52-24
Date: Dec. 26, 2006
Bowl: Motor City Bowl
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Coach: Jeff Quinn (interim head coach after Brian Kelly left for Cincinnati)
Team’s final record: 10-4
Opponent: Middle Tennessee State
Result: W, 31-14
Date: Dec. 26, 2007
Bowl: Motor City Bowl
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Coach: Butch Jones (first season)
Team’s final record: 8-6
Opponent: Purdue
Result: L, 51-48
Date: Dec. 26, 2008
Bowl: Motor City Bowl
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Coach: Butch Jones (second season)
Team’s final record: 8-5
Opponent: Florida Atlantic
Result: L, 24-21
Date: Jan. 6, 2010 (2009 season)
Bowl: GMAC Bowl
Location: Mobile, Alabama
Coach: Steve Stripling (interim head coach after Butch Jones left for Cincinnati)
Team’s final record: 12-2
Opponent: Troy
Result: W, 44-41 (2OT)
Date: Dec. 26, 2012
Bowl: Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Coach: Dan Enos (third season)
Team’s final record: 7-6
Opponent: Western Kentucky
Result: W, 24-21
Bowl: Popeyes Bahamas Bowl
Location: Nassau, Bahamas
Coach: Dan Enos (fifth season)
Team’s final record: 7-6
Opponent: Western Kentucky
Result: L, 49-48
Date: Dec. 28, 2015
Bowl: Quick Lane Bowl
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Coach: John Bonamego
Team’s regular season record: 7-5
Opponent: Minnesota
Result: ?
