Only six miles separate Rynearson Stadium and the Big House, second only to Rice and Houston for the shortest distance between two Division-I football programs in the country.

Figuratively, the two programs couldn’t be farther apart.

Eastern Michigan suffers from a lack of tradition, having changed its nickname from the Normalites to the Men of Ypsi to the Hurons to the Eagles over the past century. And as the Western Michigan-Central Michigan battle thrives, the Eagles are left stranded without a marquee rival. Michigan is arguably the most tradition-rich program in the country, and its marquee rivals go without saying.

Eastern Michigan suffers from a lack of stability. They’ve had 40 all-time coaches, including just two that made it past the 10-year mark. The Wolverines have had just 17 coaches in 130 years of collegiate play, with famous names like Bo Schembechler, Fielding Yost and Lloyd Carr.

And, worst of all, Eastern Michigan suffers form a lack of success. The Eagles have won just 43 percent of their games all-time, lost 37 since the beginning of the 2005 season and won just one Mid-American Conference crown in the program’s history. Michigan is the winningest program in the nation and has claimed 42 conference championships, 11 national championships, three Heisman Trophy winners and 150 All-Americans.

All signs point to a blowout, just like all eight previous meetings in the Battle for Washtenaw County, an epic — and somewhat sarcastic — nickname for the game between these two neighbors.

Even so, the Wolverines, after their first 2-0 start since 2006, say they aren’t looking past the Eagles.

“Losing to Appalachian State (in 2007) and Toledo (in 2008) just makes us go into every game regardless of who our opponent is,” junior safety Troy Woolfolk said. “We're going to go 100 percent, because as you can see, you let your guard down, a little bit, everyone's good enough to come back. It's D-1, and everybody's good.”

The threat of a letdown always looms after an emotional game, and no game in Michigan recent memory has been quite as emotional and exciting as last weekend’s upset of rival Notre Dame. To avoid disaster, Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez has preached to his young squad the necessity of prepping as hard for Eastern Michigan as it did for the Irish — every game is the same.

First-year Eastern Michigan coach Ron English, who spent the 2006 and 2007 season as Michigan’s defensive coordinator, has the same mindset. The Eagles lost to Northwestern last week 27-24, will play Michigan on Saturday and face lowly Temple next week. English says he won’t change his coaching techniques for any of them.

“As a player, I grew to really dislike coaches who coached one way one week and one way the next week based on what they perceived to be a bigger game than another game,” English said during his Thursday press conference. “So what we try to do is just stay focused on being consistent.

“They’re all big. And you only get 13 chances to compete a year.”

The Eagles have struggled to grasp English’s pro-style offense after executing the spread fairly well under former coach Jeff Genyk toward the end of last season. If senior quarterback Andy Schmitt gets in a rhythm, he can be dangerous, especially with Michigan’s documented concerns in the secondary.

But with English’s commitment to the ground game, the Eagles have managed just 165 passing yards per game through their first two games.

“They are playing with great intensity,” Rodriguez said. “You can see that. Fundamentally, they are blocking well, they are tackling well. They obviously could have won the last game (against Northwestern). They lost on a field goal in the last seconds.

“They are making improvements. They made great improvement from week one to week two in several areas, and I'm sure they're looking for the same progress this week.”