Howard University vs. Eastern Michigan

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The Eastern Michigan University football team returns home Saturday afternoon, Sept. 22, to host Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference foe Howard University. The highlight of the afternoon will be the appearance and performance of the renowned Howard "Showtime" Marching Band. "Showtime" is recognized nationally as one of the finest marching bands in the land and has a long and distinguished history of excellence and showmanship.

FIRST MEAC TEAM IN RYNEARSON: When EMU plays host to Howard University Saturday, it will mark the first appearance in Rynearson Stadium for a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) team. The MEAC is comprised of: Howard, Bethune-Cookman, Coppin State, Delaware State, Florida A&M, Hampton, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Morgan State, Norfolk State, North Carolina A&T, South Carolina State.

ANOTHER TELEVISION APPEARANCE: Saturday’s EMU-Howard game is one of eight television appearances this season for EMU. The Sept. 8 Ball State game and the Howard contest are both Comcast Local TV productions as are the EMU-Western Michigan (Oct. 27) and Central Michigan (Nov. 16) games. The EMU-Northern Illinois game (Sept. 15) and the EMU at Ohio (Oct. 13) games are both slated for ESPN Regional action and the EMU-Northwestern (Oct. 19) and EMU-BGSU (Nov. 9) games are scheduled for ESPNU.

THE HEAD COACHES: EMU head coach Jeff Genyk (Bowling Green, ‘82) is in his fourth year as head coach after serving the previous 12 years working for Northwestern University. Howard head coach Carey Bailey (Tennessee, ’92) is in his first season.

GREEN EGGS AND COFFEE: EMU head football coach Jeff Genyk will be the featured guest on the Monday evening radio show, "Green Eggs and Coffee", from 6 p.m.-7 p.m. each Monday of the football season. The shows, with WTKA radio’s Jeff Radford and WEMU radio reporter Brian Nemerovski serving as co-hosts.

PROJECT PERFECT: EMU would like to recognize Saturday’s guests that are part of the Project Perfect program. The incentive program is designed to honor and recognize top students at local elementary and middle schools. Project Perfect rewards perfect grades, perfect attendance, and/or exemplary citizenship.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The labels Division I-A and I-AA have been deleted from NCAA use and replaced by the terms "Football Bowl Subdivision" and "NCAA Football Championship Subdivision." The FBS is used to describe football programs like Eastern Michigan that compete to participate in the postseason bowl system that includes the 32 NCAA-licensed bowls that make up the Bowl Championship Series. The FCS is used for schools such as Howard that participate in the NCAA championship postseason structure.

COACH HAS A VOTE: EMU head football coach Jeff Genyk will be involved in weekly coaches’ polls for 2007. Genyk, the fourth-year head coach of the Eagles’ football squad, will be one of 60 head coaches that will vote in the weekly USA Today Coaches’ Poll that will pick the top 25 teams in the NCAA Bowl Championship Series each week of the season.

COLLEGIATE CLASH SET FOR OCT. 19: For the fourth year in a row the EMU football team will be taking one of its home games on the road, hosting a Big Ten team for the first time ever in the fourth annual Collegiate Clash at Ford Field in Detroit. EMU will be the host team for the non-conference battle against Northwestern University with game time set for 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19. The Eagles hosted Central Michigan in the inaugural Collegiate Clash, Nov. 6, 2004, and Eastern won a thriller, 61-58, in four overtimes. In 2005 EMU hosted Western Michigan, Nov. 5, 2005, and lost a 44-36 shoot-out. Last year Navy recorded a 49-21 win, Nov. 5, 2006, in the game at Ford Field.

CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: EMU will have five captains for the 2007 season. The captains, as voted by the players, are: Ken Bohnet, Jason Jones, Darran Matthews, Andy Schmitt and Pierre Walker.

STATELY BREAKDOWN: The 2007 EMU football roster has 60 players from the state of Michigan, 16 from Ohio, eight from Florida, two each from Indiana and Virginia, and one apiece from Washington D.C., Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Illinois, New York and Georgia.