Eastern Michigan's RB Rehabilitation Program
In the heart of every man lies a kingdom; our quest, then, is not conquest, but the unveiling of our own majesty.
- Maestro Benedetto, poet
While the 2023 season was, by most accounts, a solid one for the Eastern Michigan Eagles, there was one particular community of questionable repute that found themselves disappointed.
Spurned on by former Eagles RB Samson Evans’ strong finish the year prior, many a College Fantasy Football drafter acquired shares of the 220 pound bruiser entering his senior year.
In short, it was a disaster. Evans’ yardage nearly halved from the season prior, seeing 100 carries less from 2022 in the same amount of games. For a player who was picked around the fourth-fifth range of most drafts, it’s safe to say he was a bust in 2023.
Rumours of an unreported injury began to surface later in the year, but by then it was too late. A bad taste had already festered in the mouth of this writer and CFF drafters worldwide.
But fair is fair, and we have to give credit where credit is due. The EMU program would never be mistaken for an incubator of top-end CFF production at RB, but, they have facilitated at least one solid producer each of the last two seasons.
It started in 2024 with NC State super-senior Delbert Mimms. Remember him? Probably not. But he had a stretch of four games in October where he never saw less than 20 carries, or 23 total touches. He finished the year with over 200 total touches (203), 950 total yards, and 10 total scores in 12 games. Those numbers were sufficient to produce a season average of approximately 14 PPG in PPR formats.
I think one of the things to keep in mind is that in the offseason, we tend to judge players on whether they are good, or bad, as season-long assets. However, when the season kicks off, we are often as CFF managers picking up and dropping players for small stretches of time over the course of the Fall. A player like Mimms, who could plug in as a spark for all of October, for example, is actually extremely valuable when you’re in-season mode.
Overall, I classify the 2024 campaign as a success when grading EMU’s rehabilitation of Mimms’ profile—a player who failed to rush for 500 yards in four seasons prior to his arrival in Ypsilanti.
This past season, EMU actually had two RBs who routinely breached the border of CFF relevancy. The RB1, Dontae McMillan, was unquestionably a CFF relevant player. The senior from Seattle, WA, touched the football 210 times, accumulating over 1300 total yards and seven scores in 12 games (~18 PPG).
His backup, Michigan transfer Tavierre Dunlap had a few moments. For the most part, he was only relevant in small spurts in deep leagues. But, he did finish the year with games of 21.8, 15.2, and 15.1 points as highlights. His production was mostly supported by his receiving usage and his role as a goal-line specialist.
Both of these players moved on this offseason, leading drafters to the next logical question: who will be replacing these lads? Full disclosure, nobody can possibly answer this question with certainty eight months out from the season.
However, I do like EMU’s pattern of taking in transfers and rehabilitating their respective profiles. Sometimes it’s a former P4 guy (Mimms). Other times it’s an FCS transfer (McMillan). They come in all shapes and sizes.
This offseason it is former Coastal Carolina/Virginia Tech RB Brayden Bennett who made his way over to the MAC. His profile mixes a bit of all three from Mimms, McMillan and Dunlap.
For one, he’s entering his senior year just like those three gentlemen were with EMU. His production during his first five seasons is better than Mimms’ and Dunlaps’, and is probably close to what McMillan was doing at the FCS level.
One of the critical factors of success in this system is receiving usage. McMillan got peppered with targets last season (44 in 12 games). Bennett’s season high thus far is 33 targets. Long story short, he’s demonstrated the ability to play this role.
And it’ll probably surprise many of the readers to know that we are not talking about a player who has toiled in CFF irrelevancy in all of the years leading up to this one, and who we are precariously hoping will emerge out of nowhere in year six.
Bennett averaged 18 (yes, 18!) PPG in 2024. In fact, his game log looks somewhat similar to McMillan’s this past season. Despite only receiving 160 total touches, Bennett accumulated 960 total yards and 13(!) scores. That’s an average of six yards per touch.
I think it’s safe to say that the output from that 2024 season is disproportionately high, and certainly the TD variance is unlikely to be as favourable to Bennett ever again in his life. But still, the fact remains that this is a player who’s already breached the realm of CFF relevance and has, in fact, excelled at times at the G5 level.
He averaged 5.8 YPC over his 134 totes in 2024, 4.5 over 91 in 2023, and 8.5(!) in 2021 across 74 carries. Every other season dating back to 2020 he redshirted.
And if you’re looking at his physique and thinking “this guy looks more like a WR”, you’re not wrong. He is listed at six foot one inches tall, and 205 pounds. What’s more, he participated in track and field throughout his tenure at CCO; so him leaning on the more…lean…side makes sense.
CCO Personal Bests
60-meter hurdles: 7.89
100-meters: 10.93
110-meter hurdles: 13.84
COACHING & SYSTEM
RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 13.2 — OC: 13.71 (half ppr)
Chris Creighton and Mike Piatkowski are the two main architects of this offensive system. Creighton’s been with the program since 2014, Piatkowski’s been the OC since 2023.
Providing Creighton’s six year RB1 history between 2018 and 2024 probably confirms what you as CFFers already know. Like I said earlier, this program will never be mistaken for a CFF RB haven.
It’s actually kind of ironic because I remember doing an article on EMU WRs last offseason, and when we got to the coaching section, the numbers—if my memory serves correct—were inversely shaped to how the RB figures appear here. That is, the WRs had all the target volume, but none of the output that you’d typically expect.
The RB1s have actually scored a good amount of TDs, persisting even through considerable carry variation per year. Samson Evans’ 13 TDs on only 83 carries in 2021, for example, is comical. I guess we know now where the production that the receivers should have been getting with their targets is going in this program.
But most importantly, if you’re keeping score at home, including McMillan in 2025, the EMU RB1 has now scored double digit TDs in five straight seasons dating back to 2021.
Again, I don’t think Table 2. offers any surprises. We know there haven’t been great CFF producers in this program at the RB position over the past half decade. Evans in 2022 bucked the trend, and then again McMillan did so in 2025 with his ~18 PPG, but the overall theme has been that the EMU RB1 scores around 12-13 PPG.
EMU deploys an outside zone run scheme under Creighton and average a slight bend towards the run at 53% rush plays over the sample of seasons selected in the above table. There is nothing remarkable to report about the pace of play calling in this scheme (pretty average at ~25 seconds per play, and around 68-70 plays per game). They sometimes average over 70 plays per game (like 74 in 2024) but this is not the norm in Ypsilanti.
CLOSING: A Possible Six Man Off The Bench
Many of the indicators suggest that there will be nothing remarkable here in 2026, but there are just enough breadcrumbs lying around to keep us intrigued. The efficiency from Bennett while at CCO is one such breadcrumb.
EMU’s effectiveness in running the ball last season with McMillan is another piece. We as drafters are all prone to recency bias, aren’t we? Keeping a wider perspective, I think it’s fair to say that this system isn’t a great one for RBs, but that it could (and has) supported some solid contributors, especially for short stretches at a time during the season.
Bennett feels like a good candidate as a ‘sixth man off the bench’ if you will, in October or November 2026. A player who is useful in spurts.
The out of conference schedule for the Eagles this upcoming Fall includes a home game vs. SJSU, at Michigan State as usual, at Wisconsin, and then they welcome FCS program Lindenwood to round out September.
If you’re curious what the situation looks like around Bennett—as mentioned, last year’s top two runners moved on. That leaves Joey Mattord, JT Bronaugh, and Syracuse transfer Malachi James as competitors. None of these players have been given many opportunities thus far in their careers. They haven’t brought in any other notable transfers to the room.
The ageless wonder, QB Noah Kim, has been mercifully granted another year of eligibility by the NCAA. So, at the very least, EMU would have one of the most experienced backfields in the MAC between Kim and Bennett in 2026 if the former Hokie/Chanticleer ends up winning the starting RB job.
Bennett’s track background is also intriguing, and it sort of elucidates the type of commodity he is at the tailback position (full disclosure, I haven’t watched a lot of Bennett tape). And his slender build also suggests that he’s more of a burner than a bruiser. Though he looked a little more bulky and ‘RB-like’ in his VT photos (see above).
I’d also be remiss not to mention that current Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby is the official assistant GM of EMU. You didn’t know that, did you? Well, now you do. ◾
Sample from 2018-2024 excluding 2020.