We’ve seen Central Michigan on our schedule before. They’ve been named Marshall or Central Florida or UAB or Troy. It’s that team that’s not quite a cupcake, made a bowl the year before, but they’re not BCS material. They’ll have a standout QB or receiver that racks up incredible stats in his conference and will likely have some pretty good numbers against the Dawgs too.

This time that guy is Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan’s junior QB. You’re probably sick of the dual-threat QB, but LeFevour definitely qualifies: only he and Vince Young have thrown for 3,000 yards and rushed for 1,000 in a season. He even caught a TD pass. There’s no question that the CMU offense flows through him, and HeismanPundit has named him a darkhorse if not for 2008 then for his senior season in 2009.

HP has an interview with LeFevour, and it’s worth a read. Georgia and Purdue are the big nonconference challenges for the Chippewas this year, and he discusses the team’s readiness for a game in Athens.

You’ve got a big game against Georgia coming up. How will you guys approach playing a game in such a hostile environment?

We’ve had some experience with that. We played at Kentucky last year. We’ve played at Michigan and Clemson and Purdue. We just need to remember that we’ve been in that situation before and carry it over to this game. As long as we are ready mentally, we should be ready to play.

The closest of those games was at Kentucky where CMU closed to within two points in the 4th quarter before falling 45-36. How about those other games? Michigan (41-17), Purdue (45-22), and Clemson (70-14) weren’t quite as close. There was also a 52-7 loss at Kansas to open the 2007 season.

Central Michigan can definitely be a dangerous team. They pushed Kentucky in 2006, and they came back on Purdue in the bowl game rematch last season once the Boilermakers went to sleep on a big halftime lead. Without breaking them down, the formula seems to be what it usually is against these kinds of teams: take the opponent seriously, jump on a weaker defense to put up some points, and don’t sleep on a lead. If nothing else, it will be a treat for Georgia fans to see someone of LeFevour’s talent competing opposite Stafford, Moreno, and Georgia’s own Heisman darkhorses.