The 1997 Eastern Michigan Eagles football team represented

Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern), is a public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School, the school was the fourth normal school established in the United Sta ...

in the

1997 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season, play of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-A level, began in late summer 1997 and culminated with the major bowl games in ea ...

. In their third season under head coach

Rick Rasnick Ricky Dean Rasnick (September 15, 1959 – February 13, 2019) was an American college football coach. He was the head football coach at Eastern Michigan University from 1995 to 1999. Rasnick's 1995 team was the last Eastern Michigan Eagles footb ...

, the Eagles compiled a 4–7 record (4–5 against conference opponents), finished in fourth place in the West Division of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

, and were outscored by their opponents, 352 to 329. The team's statistical leaders included

Charlie Batch Charles D'Donte Batch (born December 5, 1974) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1998 NFL Draft and played 15 seasons in th ...

with 3,280 passing yards, Savon Edwards with 627 rushing yards, and Ta-if Kumasi with 710 receiving yards. Batch went on to play 15 years in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Schedule

After the season

The following Eagle was selected in the

1998 NFL Draft The 1998 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

after the season.

References

Eastern Michigan Eastern Michigan University (EMU, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern), is a public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School, the school was the fourth normal school established in the United Sta ...

Eastern Michigan Eagles football seasons Eastern Michigan Eagles football {{collegefootball-1990s-season-stub