Walt Middleton Photography
20
7-6
56
8-5
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 7 | 0 | 10 | 20 | |
| 13 | 20 | 16 | 7 | 56 |
Game Recap: Football |
The Eagles finished their season with a 7-6 overall record
Photo Gallery | Postgame Audio.
MOBILE, Ala. (EMUEagles.com) -- The 130th season of Eastern Michigan University football officially came to a close tonight, Dec. 18, with a tough, 56-20, setback to Liberty University in the LendingTree Bowl at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Ala.
The Flames improved to 8-5 on the season while the Eagles dropped to 7-6.
Senior quarterback Ben Bryant (La Grange, Ill.-Lyons Twp. (Cincinnati)) led Eastern Michigan's passing attack with 200 yards through the air.
Sophomore Samson Evans (Crystal Lake, Ill.-Prairie Ridge (Iowa)) led all Eagles rushers with 52 yards and one touchdown in the contest, picking up 4.0 yards per carry. Freshman Darius Boone Jr. (Tulsa, Okla.-Union) also added 51 yards on the ground, averaging 4.2 yards per carry.
Junior wide out Hassan Beydoun (Dearborn, Mich.-Dearborn) pulled in 11 catches for 83 yards.
Senior Jeff Hubbard (Atlanta, Ga.-Woodward Academy) paced the Eastern Michigan defensive effort, totaling one interception. Senior defensive end Turan Rush (Charleston West Side, W. Va.-Capital (Antelope Valley)) added six tackles, 1.0 TFL, and one sack in the loss.
Both Eastern Michigan and Liberty forced one turnover in Saturday's contest, with Eastern Michigan turning that takeaway into seven points.
How It Happened
Eastern Michigan took a 3-0 lead over Liberty after scoring the game's first points on the first drive of the game.Liberty then scored to take a 13-3 lead before the Eagles put a touchdown on the board to cut into the lead and make it a 13-10 game.
Eastern Michigan scored again with 5:26 left in the fourth quarter to narrow the advantage and make it a 56-13 game.The Eagles scored one more time in the contest, narrowing the gap to 56-20.
» Eastern Michigan converted 6-of-17 third downs while Liberty was successful on 3-of-9.
» Senior Terry Myrick (Austell, Ga.-Woodward Academy) led the Eagles with eight tackles.
»EMU used its opening drive to go 66 yards over 14 plays and score a field goal. The drive was the fifth game-opener this season in which EMU came away with points.
»Senior quarterback Ben Bryant (La Grange, Ill.-Lyons Twp. (Cincinnati)) threw for 200 yards in the game on 23-of-36 passing. His performance moved him past 3,000 yards passing this season, the single-best mark of his career.
» Junior Hassan Beydoun (Dearborn, Mich.-Dearborn) finished the game with 83 yards on 11 receptions. The effort was his team-leading sixth game of the season with five-or-more catches in a game. Beydoun finished the season with a team-best 94 receptions.
» EMU saw seven different pass catchers finish the contest with 10-or-more yards in the contest.
» Senior Thomas Odukoya (Almere, Netherlands-Helen Parkhurst (Garden City)) brought down a 15-yard reception for the Eagles in the contest. That play was his second-longest haul of the season.
» Junior kicker Chad Ryland (Lebanon, Pa.-Cedar Crest) was a perfect 2-for-2 on field goal attempts in the game. Ryland finished the season hitting 18 consecutive field goals, the single-best stretch of his career.
» Senior Jeff Hubbard (Atlanta, Ga.-Woodward Academy) made an impact in the secondary against Liberty, recording his first interception of the season (third career) and second-ever pick-six. His first score via an interception came in 2017, when he ran an INT back 46 yards for a score against Ball State, Nov. 2.
» Eastern's pick-six, via Hubbard, was the team's first since it ran back a 98-yard pick for a score at Wisconsin, Sept. 11.
» EMU was called for 9 penalties (82 total yards). This was just the sixth game for EMU with more than four penalties. Coming into the contest, EMU was the most disciplined team in the country in every major category.
» Senior punter Jake Julien (Barrie, Ontario-North Collegiate) booted five punts for 232 yards (46.4 per kick), with a long of 50. Julien ended his career with a punt of 50+ yards in three consecutive bowl games.
» Freshman Zach Westmoreland (Joplin, Mo.-Joplin) hauled in the team's longest reception of the game, a 21-yarder.
Historical Notes
»Liberty's interception-returned-for-touchdown with just over three minutes remaining in the first quarter of the game was the 10th in the bowl's 23-game history.
» Bryant finishes the season with 3,121 yards through the air. He is now one of just three players in program history to hit the 3,000-yard mark in a season, joining Charlie Batch (1997-3,280; 1995 – 3,177) and Mike Glass III (2019 – 3,169).
» With his 13th score of the season, Evans now ranks tied for fourth all-time in single-season scores at Eastern Michigan. His 13 touchdowns are the most for the Green and White in a single season since all-time leader Darius Jackson found the pay dirt 16 times in 2015.
» Beydoun finished the season with 94 receptions. That is good for the all-time program record in a single-season. Beydoun's 11-catch effort at the LendingTree Bowl put him ahead of Kevin Walter, who hauled in 93 balls in 2002.
»Beydoun now has 167 receptions in his career. That number is good for fourth-most in program history. Beydoun is on pace to take over the number one spot in the category. He sits just 81 receptions between all-time leader Eric Deslauriers, who notched 248 catches in his time as an Eagle.
» Beydoun racked up 83 yards in the contest, moving him to 1,015 reception yards on the season. That number is good for fourth-most all-time in program history.
» EMU had two rushers, Evans and freshman Darius Boone Jr. (Tulsa, Okla.-Union) go for more than 50 yards on the ground. The effort marks the first time in EMU bowl game history that such a feat has been recorded.
» Hubbard's pick-six was the first-ever for EMU in a bowl game.
Head Coach Chris Creighton Postgame Quotes
Opening statement:
"First I would like to say congratulations to Liberty. They are a really good football team and I thought they played very well tonight, so congratulations to them. It was a tough night for us, there's no good way to say it. It's not what we had expected or had come here to do. Back since December 13, we've been working on trying to be different from other teams in Eastern Michigan football history and had a chance to do that with a bowl victory tonight and get to eight wins. That is really disappointing. At the same time, having not had a chance to do it yet, in talking to the whole group – we have a group of guys who played their last college football game; I can't tell you how much those guys have meant to me and our football program. I really wanted to send them out with a fun locker room and bowl victory. We weren't able to do that, but I love those guys and we're going to miss them."
On the Liberty pick-six in the first half:
"It is obviously a huge play. They brought pressure from what was our back side of the RPO and front side of the run. I just didn't see him, and the guy made a great play. The kid who knocked the ball is the one who caught it and ran it all the way back. It was obviously a huge swing. Offenses were working differently; we're by smaller chunks and working it down the field, and not the big plays like Liberty. That was a big play."
On Liberty quarterback Malik Willis:
"He's good. We have some pretty good athletes, and it was really hard to bring him down. It wasn't even bringing him down as much as getting to him and actually getting hands on him. He throws a beautiful ball, and just the little bit of time I was able to be around him he seems like a class act. He's super talented."
Up Next
» The Eagles will head home to enjoy a holiday break before returning to Ypsilanti for the start of winter workouts and preparation for the 2022 season. For the most up-to-date information on all things EMU football, continue to visit EMUEagles.com and follow @EMUFB on social media.
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December 19, 2021 at 10:35AM
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Football Falls Short in 2021 LendingTree Bowl - EMU Eagles
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