Chris Creighton and his Eastern Michigan Eagle football team come to Dix Stadium Saturday for Homecoming. Creighton has been at Eastern Michigan for eleven years and they’ve become consistently consistent in the league after a couple of years of getting his program started. Since starting his first two years 2-10 and 1-11, the Eagles have posted five winning seasons, along with two 6-7 seasons where they made bowl games, and six bowl appearances total. Up until Creighton’s arrival, you have to go back until 1995 for their last winning season.
How have they done it? Creighton and his program have a clear identity, culture and formula. They know who they are, more importantly they know who they are not. Sitting in the shadow of Ann Arbor and Michigan, the Eagles created their own culture. They recruit for it, they preach it and they fight for it daily. But most importantly, the actions and behaviors of the individuals in the group exhibit and live that culture daily.
On the field, they play tough and physical, and embrace complimentary football, something Head Coach Kenni Burns has been striving for since he got to Kent.
“The thing I love about Coach Creighton’s team is they are always complimentary,” Burns said at his Tuesday press conference. “You look at it, their offense plays sound. The defense plays sound. The special teams brings it all together by creating field position. I think that’s the thing that he’s kind of mastered over there. It’s been a big part of his success and that’s something that we’re chasing here, is playing complimentary football.”
Considered to be one of the most stable football programs in the country in a July of 2021 ESPN report, the Eagles have experienced a renaissance under Creighton, a program that had little history or success before he took over.
Eastern rebranded Rynearson Stadium on campus as “The Factory”. The stadium represents the hard work and toughness that the program aspires to play like. This identity honors the industrial history of Southeast Michigan, once a manufacturing powerhouse. Creighton described The Factory: “Our colors are green and white, but our collars are blue. The Factory is where our players develop, and our coaches go to work every day. When opponents come to The Factory, they’re in for a 60-minute fight.”
Each game day the Eagles break through a cinder block wall with ‘The Factory’ emblazoned on it, representing the players ongoing process to “breakthrough” their struggles.
And of course most people know about their gray turf. The gray turf symbolizes a comment Creighton once made. “We’ll play anyone, anytime, anywhere—even on a parking lot covered with broken glass.”
The reason I bring all of this up is to not let you hear about all of the cool, gimmick things Eastern Michigan is doing. Of course, nationally and probably locally people made all sorts of fun at Eastern Michigan’s expense, and probably still do. But the proof is in the results of their program. And the key is, the players embrace it and the program has a clear identity. Let people make fun of it. Embrace your culture and who you are, and then relentlessly work and fight for it daily.
Eastern Michigan is most definitely an example for Kent State. Despite your history, resources, or who you sit in the shadow of, work your plan, and then relentlessly fight for what you want.
“That lasts for a long time once you get it figured out no matter what resources you have or anything like that,” Burns said. “When you’re playing for each other and understanding why you’re doing what you’re doing and situational football it gives you the best chance to win and they’ve done a great job of that. You see the special teams, the punt return blocked two kicks already, I think they’ve returned a kick, they’ve got a 96 yard touchdown from their defense last week to start the game off. So again they just play really well together and we’ve got to beat them at their own game this week and play well together and use all of our pieces.”
I am rooting for the KentGRIT era to be successful. And Rome wasn’t built in a day. Creighton was 3-21 in his first two years, and has now been to six bowl games. No, the Eagles haven’t broken through and won a MAC Championship under Creighton, but they are consistently consistent, a bowl team and they have a clear culture in place. They know who they are and what they aren’t.
A blue collar program that serves as a blueprint for the Golden Flashes.