Chippewas can’t rekindle Bahamas Bowl-magic in 21-14 loss to Minnesota
DETROIT — The Chippewas were more than 1,200 miles away from The Bahamas — the site of their 2014 bowl game. But just like last year, CMU found itself down seven points, looking for a desperation Hail Mary as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
Again, the Chippewas will head back to Mount Pleasant with a loss. But this year, junior quarterback Cooper Rush wasn’t even able to get off his pass from the CMU 30-yard line — in hopes of another late miracle.
“We were just trying to get the ball down the field and complete it,” said Head Coach John Bonamego. “Obviously it was a try to get a repeat of what we did last year in the Bahamas.”
Rush was sacked to end the game. The Charlotte native was 15-for-29 with 145 yards passing, no touchdowns and one interception. It was the third-fewest passing yards for Rush in a single game in his career — although the other two were in wins — and his fewest since 2013.
His only interception came with 2:10 to play in the fourth quarter on the Minnesota 35-yard line. As he was being sacked on third-and-7, Rush shoveled the ball toward junior wide receiver Anthony Rice before Minnesota’s Briean Boddy-Calhoun snatched the pick.
“No. 80 (Rice), he was getting me all night. He was a really good receiver and I had a hard time kind of pressing him and on that one I just had to settle down,” said Boddy-Calhoun, who also had college basketball aspirations. “The play broke down and the next thing I know I saw the ball in the air. I had to bring it down like a rebound, like back in the day.”
Rush said he should have taken the sack, in hindsight.
“I was breaking down trying to make a play and Rice was going to leap behind him if I got it over (Boddy-Calhoun),” Rush said. “He was going to keep running for awhile, but (he) made a pretty good play and you have to tip your hat to them.”
Minnesota went 10 yards on third-and-9 on the ensuing drive, but was forced to punt three plays later, giving CMU the ball at its own 4-yard line with 13 seconds to play.
The Chippewa offense struggled to get going most of the afternoon.
Rush was 10-for-22 with 72 yards on the nine non-scoring drives, leading to six punts. Bonamego and Rush said Minnesota ran more Cover-1 with press coverage than they’d shown most of the season.
The running game was serviceable, with true freshman Romello Ross leading the way with 100 yards rushing on 19 carries, plus the bruising 13-yard touchdown that gave CMU a 14-13 lead with 11:08 to go.
Just like the Chippewas’ first touchdown — which gave them a 7-3 second-quarter lead — Minnesota stormed back to retake the lead on the ensuing drive. Junior quarterback Mitch Leidner fooled the Chippewas on read-option plays multiple times to get the Golden Gophers into the end zone.
“On some of the ones that I kept, they’d bring two guys off the edge and you have to split them,” Leidner said. “Then, they had a guy waiting for me. On the touchdown drive, they had a guy go right to the back and it left a nice gap there for the quarterback.”
The Chippewas would stuff the running back and the Chippewa crowd would roar before the crowd realized who had the ball.
“They kind of just marched it down,” said senior safety Kavon Frazier. “We were tired, but yeah, we needed another play, we needed to make another play and we just came up short.”
While Leidner was named the Most Valuable Player and the Gophers were celebrating on the field, an emotional Bonamego sat next to Frazier for one final postgame interview.
“I’ll always remember our seniors and how they bought in from day one and worked,” Bonamego said. “Coaching transitions are tough on programs. We’ll hold up a championship trophy here in the very near future. (The seniors) won’t be with us, but their fingerprints will be all over it.”
