Three takeaways from Eastern Michigan’s spring game

Ypsilanti — Spring practice has concluded for Eastern Michigan with a spring showcase on Friday night in front of fans. 

Dylan Drummond was inducted into the ring of honor, and the Eagles generally had a good time, including a number of parents in halftime activities like tug of war, a scoop and score, and a baby race with two of the assistant coaches' young children. 

Next up? Sacramento State in some Week 0 action. 

Here are three takeaways from the spring. 

Secondary shining in new defense

The Eagles have a deep and veteran defensive back room entering the 2026 season, led by safety Bryce Llewellyn who spoke after the game. He highlighted a quote from co-defensive coordinator Tate Omli. 

“He says, when we do our job, we win,” Llewellyn said of the secondary. “So, like, as far as in the defensive back group, a lot of times, like when you look at defenses — of course, it's the trenches, the front four, front three, whatever the defense is, and then it's the back end. The safeties and it's the corners, communicating, and making the right calls, and getting defense in the right sort of sets.”

That group looked particularly good on Friday, going toe-to-toe with pass catchers in 1-on-1 drills and holding their own while disadvantaged in the reactive drills. 

Along with Llewellyn, Juan Salas, Jaivin Norman, Jason Marshall, Caleb Coley, Caleb Dobbs, James Monds III, Donmiel Rogers and Tylan Boykin all return and have experience for the Eagles in the secondary. Head coach Chris Creighton said after a recent practice that he felt particularly good about the cornerback room. 

“So I have full confidence in our defense,” Llewellyn said, “and especially in our back end with our corners, and our safeties, and our nickels that we have, we're only gonna continue to get better through the summer and then into the fall camp, and then our first game, come late August.”

The main gist for the secondary, and the new look defense in particular, which featured a lot of 4-2-5 personnel as a base, is to be complex for the offense while making things easy on themselves. 

So far, it seems to be on the way there. 

“It's definitely tough to see because a lot of stuff has to be post-snap when teams are disguising like that,” Kim said. “And when they're able to do it quickly, that's even tougher as well. And I think throughout spring, one of the biggest things that I noticed was their emphasis on taking the ball away on defense. When the defense is able to create turnovers and get the ball back to the offense, that's huge.”

Offensive line powering through

The starting offensive line Eastern Michigan rolled out with the first team offense played the whole portion of the live reps on Friday.

“I'm feeling thankful,” Creighton said. “We had five guys that really, you know, gutted it out today so that we could have this spring game.”

That group, pieced together with a bevy of other Eagles linemen banged up, went as follows from left to right: Tyler Brumfield, Carter Miculka, Nick Gallegos, Cole Dellinger and Dennis Strey Jr. 

Creighton praised that group for powering through, and it includes a number of players who have been working with the top group at various points this spring. 

On the whole, though, it’s hard to take away much concrete from that group, other than the good news from Creighton that there were no long-term injuries amongst that crew. 

The group that started on Friday night might have a leg up when fall camp kicks off, but things are far from settled for a group that the Eagles feel they remade well, but still need to fine tune. 

Can Noah Kim’s return set offense ahead? 

Kim looked good on Friday, and had maybe the best play of the day where he rolled right, looked like he might run to draw in a few defenders, then lofted an easy throw to Nick Devereaux for a touchdown. 

Kim returns after starting every game at quarterback for the Eagles in 2025, and spoke of the heightened comfort and ease of operation going into a second year with the offense and play caller Mike Piatkowski. 

“It's super important just because I kind of know his mindset in his play calling and he knows, you know, what I have to offer when I'm out there on the field and executing,” Kim said. “Getting into good plays, getting out of bad plays and stuff like that.”

And in general the offense comes back in a good place for EMU, outside of rebuilding the offensive line. 

Josh Long and Tanner Lemaster looked crisp coming back at tight end, and the receiver room has a clear top three of Devereaux, Harold Mack and Benson Prosper with plenty of good depth behind it. Running back is a bit thinner, but senior returner Joey Mattord looked good Friday and transfers Brayden Bennett and Malachi James seem set to carve out roles. 

Kim led the MAC in passing in 2025, and the table is set for an encore on the effort in 2026. 

“Just have extreme confidence and excitement about him coming back and leading us,” Creighton said.