September 9, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Eastern Michigan Eagles coach Chris Crayton looks on during the second quarter against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Huntington Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports Saturday afternoon’s game in Washington will carry plenty of emotion for Eastern Michigan coach Chris Creighton, the defending national runner-up.
Creighton grew up in Seattle and played quarterback at Roosevelt High School, so this will be a homecoming of sorts for him.
Creighton, in his 11th season at Eastern Michigan, said he has never been back to the area as a head coach, so this will be a new experience for him as he will relive some of his childhood memories.
“I used to go to Husky games as a kid,” Crayton said. “We were actually so close that I would get sweatbands and dirty socks from the guys when I left the locker room. I felt like I was hitting a treasure chest.”
Creighton hopes their homecoming will yield a win against a Washington team that made no mistakes in their season opener last week.
In its first game under first-year head coach Jedd Fisch and several new players who had transferred and signed with the program as freshmen, Washington won at home over Weber State, 35–3.
Fish said he will continue to add young players to the team after playing nine of the 18 new players on his squad last week.
“We don’t talk about redshirting much,” Fisch said. “It’s not really a part of our program. Our program right now is about playing the best players we have and seeing if we can develop them.”
As for Eastern Michigan, Fisch said he was impressed with the play of its defensive line in a 28-14 win over UMass, a victory that will put Washington quarterback Will Rogers and the offensive line on high alert this week.
The Eagles recorded six sacks in Week 1 against the Minutemen.
“They play a lot of post-I defense, so expect a lot of effort to stop the run, and we’ll see how we respond to that,” Fisch said.
One Eastern Michigan player who will be familiar to Washington is linebacker James Jonkam, who was named the Mid-American Conference’s Defensive Player of the Week after recording 13 tackles and a sack last week.
Jonkam is a transfer from Arizona State who played at Washington last season before both teams moved out of the Pac-12 due to conference realignment.
–Field Level Media