Beef Week

Eastern Michigan received some help last week as two offensive linemen announced their decisions to transfer. One from the FCS ranks with one year to offer, and the other was a freshman, junior college starter last season.

Nathan Henry is a graduate transfer who comes from Drake (from Aurora, Ill. / Aurora Christian HS) — where Eastern head coach Chris Creighton used to coach and offensive coordinator Mike Piatkowski used to play quarterback. Drake went through a late coaching change when then-coach Joe Woodley took a defensive coordinating position at Rutgers and hired Matt Walker from Wisconsin-River Falls (Division III). The coaching turnover gave Henry a chance to transfer to, well, where Creighton is now.

Henry, listed at 6’2”, 290 lbs., was Drake’s starting left guard in 2025, and earned Second Team All-Pioneer League honors. Drake’s offense was its conference’s #1 in rushing offense (196.3 yards/game) with 23 TD and #3 in overall offense (361.3 yards/game, 5.8 yards/play).

Chad Troxler was a starting freshman left tackle at Bakersfield College last year from Bakersfield, Calif. / Liberty HS), and now he gets the chance to see what he’s got at the FBS level. Troxler got some playing time as a guard, too, and his Twitter/X account shows him doing some work at center — so there’s certainly a range to the positions he could feel comfortable in.

Troxler is listed at 6’3”, 315 lbs.

While I already included him in my roster notes post, it’s probably worth adding a third name here too. Richardo Wourman made his commitment last month and will be a post-spring addition to the team, along with Henry and Troxler.

Wourman (6’3”, 306 lbs.), from Livonia Mich. (Stevenson HS), is a Wayne State transfer who spent two years with the Division II program before making his move to EMU. He made two starts at right tackle in 2024 before going down with injury, and started six at left tackle in 2025.

With the additions of these linemen, EMU’s offense now has just as many new players as it had players departed (29). Of the offense’s 22 returning players, two of them made 8-9 starts each on its offensive line last year, but only one of them were season-opening starters.

EMU is in immediate need for some capable bodies to join its O-line as things were looking pretty slim during the team’s spring game. Five guys played the majority (if not all) of the offensive snaps during the team’s scrimmage with a big group of non-participants.

With three new transfers making their recent picks to move to EMU, it seems like this summer’s going to be a competitive one for this position group. But, if guys keep getting sidelined leading up to the season, then this team will end up with no choice but to just play the last men standing.