Come December, players from the best teams in the Mid-American Conference’s East and West Divisions will play for a conference championship at Ford Field in Detroit.
But in July, answering questions from the media will have suffice as the 13 MAC football members sent a contingent containing head coaches and two players per schoolfor the conference’s media day.
With each team at 0-0, optimism was in the air with every team looking to be the next Northern Illinois playing the Bowl Championship Series, boosting the profile of a conference that netted seven bowl teams last season.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for the MAC,” said Akron’s second-year head coach Terry Bowden. “But getting back in the league and seeing how talented and how strong it is right now – we’re probably at the strongest era the conference has ever known from top to bottom.”
Bowden said he’s gained quarterback recruits based on the success of past MAC quarterbacks and that the success of others schools in the conference has played a role in his rebuilding of a Zips program that went 1-11 last season.
“You hate to with good things on your opponent,” Bowden said. “But the total package for the MAC conference is that they come here and you’re going to go to bowl games, you’re going to win bowl games, you’re going to get drafted high, and you’re going to play on national television.”
Building on the profile of the conference were Kent State’s Dri Archer, who earned a spot on the Doak Walker preseason watch list and Northern Illinois’ Jordan Lynch, who finished in seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting last season.
Archer, who rushed for 1429 yards and 16 touchdowns during the 2012 campaign, said that people are finally starting to take notice of MAC football.
“We’re definitely getting recognized around the world,” Archer said. “A lot of MAC teams upset bigger teams last year — the MAC is on the up and up.”
Lynch, who is coming back to school for his senior season with the singular goal of not only leading his Huskies back to a BCS game, but to walk away from the bowl with a victory. And this year, his individual goals match up perfectly with his team goals.
“I set one goal for myself and one goal for the team and it’s the same thing,” Lynch said. “Just go out there, no matter what it is, get the victory. I don’t care about my stats.”
“If I’m going to carry the ball 30 times and it’s working, give me the ball thirty times. Whatever works that day, that’s what we’re going with,” he continued.
Ohio, along with the Huskies, were voted the favorites to win the East and West Divisions, respectively, setting up a potential rematch of the 2011 MAC Championship.
But the target that develops from being a preseason favorite doesn’t concern Bobcat redshirt senior wide receiver Donte Foster, who wants to build on a disappointing MAC campaign in 2012.
“Honestly, we felt like we left some things out on the field last year,” Foster said. “We don’t want to use the excuse of blaming it on injuries, but we feel like we’re good enough to compete for a MAC title.”
But not everyone takes notice of preseason expectations.
Eastern Michigan coach Ron English said that he lives in the present and that his team’s disappointing 2-10 mark last season, following a 6-6 campaign the year before, will serve the Eagles well in the long run.
“I’ve been through this before building programs,” English said. “When you get to a certain point, you have to take a step back to move forward. We played a lot of young guys last year and there were expectations, and I don’t know if we handled those real well. Going into this year, I think we have the chance to be pretty good.”
And English’s attitude echoed those of many coaches and players in Detroit on Tuesday, as each team sets their eyes on making a return trip to Detroit less than five full months from now.
ch203310@ohiou.edu
