A changing game: Chippewas handle changing atmosphere, first road game
In a sense, CMU's season opener on Nov. 4 was normal.
Players were on the sideline cheering their teammates to a 30-27 win over Ohio, the Marching Chips performed throughout the game, the cannon was fired after each score.
However, there were parts of the first game of a six-game schedule that were not normal outside of the power outage with 1:17 to go in the first half: There were no fans, just parents and special guests of the players, there were no students and there was no ringing of keys on third down, signifying a key play.
College football in 2020 has looked strange with empty stadiums and players and coaches, for the most part, wearing masks and trying their best to social distance.
Coach Jim McElwain said he appreciated the atmosphere the marching band brought to the stadium, helping create noise to disrupt the Ohio offense. McElwain added his first experience with football amid the COVID-19 pandemic was strange.
"You feel horrible that your student body can't partake," McElwain said. "Yet, I totally get it — hopefully they were watching. I told the guys, it doesn't matter where we're playing, we have to do a great job of bringing our own energy to the game because there isn't a lot of atmosphere."
As for the players, the change in atmosphere was a big change for them. However, it helped them in a way.
Ypsilanti junior linebacker George Douglas said the lack of crowd noise helped the defense communicate in pre-snap situations.
"With the fans, even when you're at home, those intense moments when the fans are hyped — or they're making a lot of noise — there can be miscommunication," Douglas said. "When it's that quiet, there are more opportunities to talk as a defense, possibly alert something and be a step ahead of the offense."
Conversely, the offensive line was able to communicate better with the absence of crowd noise.
However, Homewood, Illinois junior center Jamezz Kimbrough said they have to find a way to talk to each other, no matter what the situation.
"It definitely helped, but that's part of the game, just having some communication," Kimbrough said. "If it was loud, we'd still have to make our calls and communicate at a higher volume. The band made it sound like we had a lot more fans in there than we did."
With the first game of the season handled and a three-point victory of the Bobcats, the Chippewas turned their attention to the first road game of the season.
In McElwain's first season in 2019, the Chippewas dropped six-of-eight games away from Kelly/Shorts Stadium — including the Mid-American Conference championship game and the New Mexico Bowl.
McElwain said the team's performance away from home last season was disappointing.
Now, with the challenges of the global pandemic, playing on the road will be increasingly difficult for CMU.
McElwain said he spoke with coaching peers across the country to ask for advice and how they have handled the season so far.
One big aspect was playing on the road.
In a normal season, teams travel to opposing stadiums the day before the game for walkthroughs and team dinner. McElwain said other coaches have told him contact tracing to the virus can be linked to staying in hotels. So, McElwain and the coaching staff came up with a solution.
For the first road game of the season — a Nov. 11 game at Northern Illinois — and the subsequent road games — Nov. 27 at Eastern Michigan and Dec. 12 at Toledo — the Chippewas will load busses the morning of the game and travel to the opposing stadium and return home after the game.
"What I want our guys to do is attack the moment, be excited about it, hopefully go down and play well on the road," McElwain said. "Last year was very disappointing in a lot of ways how we did. We've changed some things up a bit and we'll see if that helps them, at the end of the day, it's about going out and playing better than your opponent, it doesn't matter where you're at."
Kimbrough said the bus ride from Mount Pleasant to DeKalb, Illinois will be familiar from playing in high school. Kimbrough added he and the rest of the team will be focused for the game on the five-hour bus ride to Huskie Stadium.
"It's not something we haven't done," Kimbrough said. "But those are things we have done in high school. With everything that's going on right now, we have always been able to adjust to things on the fly and that's one of the characteristics of a good team.
"Anything that comes your way, you've got to be able to adjust to it and stay focused."
