At the beginning of the season, this team’s defense looked clearly improved. But the question at the time was obvious. How much of what Eastern Michigan’s fans saw at the very beginning of the season would hold as the season went on, especially with two Big Ten road trips to make.
Has EMU’s defense kept up the pace? While the team’s 1-3 record doesn’t look too pretty, the defense has shown that it’s greatly improved since last year.
In each game this season, Eastern Michigan’s defense has taken the ball away from its opponents at least once.
Jason Marshall and Caleb Dobbs each had picks in the first two games of the year against Sacramento State and San José State. Also in the first game, Defensive end Quincy Byas recorded his first career fumble as a starting sophomore, which turned into quick points by the offense. DE Ronn Hardin had a strip-sack fumble in the second game versus SJSU for Bryce Llewellyn to recover the loose football rolled into the end zone for the unit’s first score of the year. At Michigan State, transfer lineman Peyton Christian had a strip-sack of his own when MSU’s offense was at the goal line, and Marshall recovered the ball.
In the first three games of the season, EMU’s defense took the pleasure of immediately wiping opposing offenses off the field with three-and-out stands.
Then, last week, the defense stood up Wisconsin’s offense o?n the first two series of the game with a turnover on downs and an interception by Rayquan Adkins — his first as an Eagle.
The turnovers are there, but more broadly, so is the havoc.
Havoc, meaning defense stops for negative plays (tackles for loss and sacks), pass disruptions (breakups and interceptions), and creating fumbles the good old-fashioned way, is a decent way of viewing a defense.
And the on-field eye test for EMU matches what the calculator shows: this defense is the best one it’s fielded this decade.
Even after Saturday’s 54-10 shellacking at Wisconsin, which included three-straight scoring drives that took less than a minute each in the second quarter, and after the previous week’s 35-7 beating by Michigan State, EMU’s defense hasn’t totally embarrassed itself this season.
EMU’s defense’s current havoc rate of 16.8% is the best mark EMU’s defense has had in a while and is, so far, a dramatic jump-up from where this unit was, which only featured two new transfers on its opening-week starting lineup.
That’s a pretty dang strong start to a turnaround season for the defense.
The 16.8% havoc rate is the MAC’s best of the season, and is go?onod enough to rank 56th in the nation. Akron, at 16.6%, is the MAC’s next-best, and 59th nationally, followed by UMass (15.9%, 72nd), Buffalo (14.4%, 90th), and Central Michigan (14.2%, 92nd).
2026, so far: 16.8% havoc rate — 274 defensive plays, 46 havoc plays (18 tackles for loss, 25 passes defended, 3 forced fumbles)
2025: 11.1% havoc rate — 800 plays, 89 havoc (50 TFL, 36 PD, 3 FF)
2024: 16.1% havoc rate — 745 plays, 120 havoc (73 TFL, 34 PD, 13 FF)
2023: 15% havoc rate — 900 plays, 135 havoc (63 TFL, 58 PD, 14 FF)
2022: 15.3% havoc rate — 872 plays, 133 havoc (58 TFL, 70 PD, 5 FF)
2021: 12.2% havoc rate — 902 plays, 110 havoc (51 TFL, 52 PD, 7 FF)
While this defense has now missed Barry Manning for most of the season, considering he only played in six quarters of football this season before his season-ending hit against SJSU, it’s stepped up in some ways at the two Big Ten arenas it played in.
Fellow senior linebacker Zach Mowchan is the nation’s leader in tackles at 36 (15 solo), and there has been help from Bryce Eliuk, a fourth-year signee, and Elgin McDuffy, a first-year junior college transfer, to fill Manning’s absence. McDuffey, with 12 stops, is sixth on the team in tackles made (6 solo), and Eliuk has nine.
