Week 4: Time to Rebound vs. FCS Lions

Where’d it go?

Where’d the cartooned celebration of the MAC’s favorite YouTube comment disappear to?

If you’re a serious FBS football team in the 2020s, you need two things. One is obvious: you need a lot of money, because this sport sure isn’t cheap. The second, as it turns out, is a sideline gimmick.

Last summer, a YouTube comment left on a MAC football highlights video was shared across the internet, and it turned into something that Eastern Michigan couldn’t ignore.

“The MAC is out here playing real football in front of 14 people and a raccoon on a Tuesday night during a blizzard.”

Addressing SEC fans at large, the writer finished with: “You wouldn’t survive one quarter in Ypsilanti.”

The team grabbed onto the comment and immediately treated it like a pet mascot. Chris Creighton and his wife ordered a bunch of shirts from the Sickos Committee’s merch store. Not just for them, but for the entire football staff.

EMU even made the logo into a funny chain emblem for its defense to celebrate steals and takeaways.

The team used it all last year, and it came out again in 2026, first worn by sophomore defensive end Quincy Byas with a fumble against Sacramento State. Jason Marshall was the second to don it with an interception.

After the game, senior captain and linebacker Zach Mowchan said that there’s a lot of competition on the team to win the Maccoon chain at the end of the year. Whoever creates the most takeaways by the end of the season wins.

“Honestly, to me, it shows all the work that we put in,” Mowchan said. “Like, we have focused on takeaways, and so when it's actually coming to fruition in the game, it's awesome to see. And just to cheer on the other guy as he's up there, you know, putting his name on it.”

And that was the last time the Maccoon chain was seen on EMU’s sidelines.

Against San José State, the Maccoon would be missing from the sideline celebration that followed two takeaways that night: Caleb Dobbs’ interception (assisted by Juan Salas) and Ronn Hardin’s fumble (and Bryce Llwellyn’s touchdown recovery).

The next week at Michigan State, after Peyton Christian’s fumble, there was no Maccoon.

Last week against Wisconsin, when Rayquan Adkins soared across the field for a first-quarter interception, the team introduced its new bling.

Instead of college football internet’s favorite YouTube comment around his neck, Adkins wore a new character.

The new cartoon was a tough-looking bald eagle with the impression of a detective from Miami Vice, and Adkins also put on a pair of neon-framed sunglasses.

“Our Vice defense,” Creighton explained Monday at the team press conference. “That’s just been the logo that they’ve used.”

As Creighton put it, it was the defensive team captains who suggested this as the new logo to the two defensive coordinators.

When or why, exactly?

That’s not really a timeline Creighton wanted to break down at length.

Honestly, even though it has, admittedly, been me inquiring about it at those media forums, I don’t really want to talk about it all that much either.

But I also wasn’t the one who put the Maccoon chain on EMU’s sidelines.

It was paraphernalia that previously needed no introduction when fans saw it last year, because anybody following this team already had a weird, internet-level connection to the sideline swagger. Now, like most things in my 30’s, it’s just a sudden thing of the past.

The record isn’t pretty, and I’d argue it’s a forgivable 1-3.

The schedule, which replaced Marshall with Wisconsin, put a last-second new league member, Sac State, at the front of the schedule. This game against Lindenwood was originally slated to be the third game of the season, and is now EMU’s fifth.

Should EMU win this game? Of course! Vegas has EMU favored by 25.5 points, which would certainly be a very comfortable margin of victory, and would certainly put a lot of fans at ease if the memories of last year’s loss to Long Island are enough to provide anxiety.

Or if not the loss to Long Island, then maybe remembering the near-loss to Central Connecticut in 2019?

Ah! Unhelpful!

Battle-tested and beat-up, EMU’s going to be without at least one starter on each side of the ball this weekend, and it’ll hope that the injury list doesn’t add anybody else in its final non-league game.

Top receiving option Nick Devereaux is going to miss an undisclosed amount of time with an injury, though Harold Mack is expected to return Saturday after he missed the Wisconsin game. Kozy Isaac, who had a 40-yard score in the season opener, has missed the last two games.

Right guard Cole Dellinger missed the last two games due to injury. Running back Amareon Blue and right tackle Samuel Adjin both exited the Wisconsin game with injuries as well.

And, for defense, EMU will be in its third game without Barry Manning after his injury against SJSU.

It’s not exactly an ideal injury report to read after a pair of Big Ten games, and doubly not fun to read when you know that Lindenwood is coming to Ypsilanti off of a bye week.

Offensively, EMU’s struggled to find a rhythm. In the first three games, it took its time before it put together an offensive score. Last week, EMU had a touchdown drive the first time it touched the ball, but none after.

Creighton was happy to see an improved run game against Michigan State (101 team rush yards, 1 TD, 3.9 avg.), though the Wisconsin game had less to brag about (62 yds, 0 TD, 2.1 avg.).

As a whole, though, EMU just simply needs better play from its offense. The team is 135th nationally at 4.29 yards per play. For all the returning synergy between offensive coordinator Mike Piatkowski and quarterback Noah Kim (Season: 83/115 passing, 713 yards, 4 TD, 3 INT), this is way too slow of a pace for the offense to be moving at.

Things could always start to change this week. Things pretty much have to start getting better for EMU’s offense this week against Lindenwood.

Defense, as noted earlier in the week, is off to a great start. Sure, being outscored 89-17 over the last two games is a cruddy feeling, but that doesn’t mean things have fallen apart for EMU either.

The defense has takeaways in each game this season, and it currently leads the MAC in havoc rate.

Lindenwood’s record isn’t great right now either, but it’s a pretty scrappy bunch.

LU has a quarterback, Pops Battle, who has a hose for an arm, though he lacks experience as a first-year starter for his Lions team. He’s throwing just under a 60% clip right now, and he’s also the team’s leading rusher with 176 yards and 3 TDs (4.8 avg.).

Lindenwood began the season with a pair of one-score games (beat Charleston Southern 20-17, lost at Stony Brook 36-32), then got pounded at Missouri State two weeks ago (48-14).

Author’s note: As you can see, I’ve made the executive decision to drastically change the way I approach writing game previews. Instead of always trying to write perfect, 2,000-word table-setters for the weekend, I will begin to work towards writing in more fulfilling (and sustainable) ways.