With just two days remaining until the college football season officially kicks off, “MACtion” will soon be upon us.
On Monday, each of the 13 Mid-American Conference head football coaches participated in their first coaches’ teleconference of the season.
With each team having wrapped up its summer camp, coaches around the conference are gearing up for each of their respective schools’ season openers, including four MAC games Thursday.
Because the beginning weekends of the season generally feature all nonconference affairs, there is a great disparity between strength of opponents.
MAC Invades Big Ten Country
Buffalo, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, UMass and Western Michigan will each begin their seasons against a team from the Big Ten this weekend.
“I love playing a Big Ten schedule because I think it’s great for our kids and our programs and environment,” Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck said. “I love the type of atmosphere the kids get to play in because we live in Big Ten country.”
The Broncos and Fleck, a first-year coach, will begin their season against Michigan State on Friday. He admitted that his team is young and inexperienced, but he’s ready to begin a new era for the program, as three true freshmen are expected to start on offense.
Other notable MAC and Big Ten matchups this weekend include Buffalo traveling to Ohio Stadium to take on No. 2 Ohio State, while Central Michigan is slated to play No. 17 Michigan.
UMass will also take the field against a ranked opponent in No. 23 Wisconsin, and Northern Illinois will face Iowa.
Ranked Opponents
Toledo, which finished 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the MAC last season, will be the second consecutive MAC team to open against No. 10 Florida, after Bowling Green fell to the Gators 27-14 in last year’s opener.
Despite Florida having played a close game against the Falcons last season, Rockets coach Matt Campbell said he’s not concerned about what opposing teams were successful with last season against the Gators.
“For your first game, you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Campbell said. “We try to do a great job at evaluating the players coming back from last year’s film, but not necessarily what the schemes were.”
Ohio will also travel for a notable non-conference game Sunday, where the Bobcats will take the field against No. 9 Louisville on ESPN.
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@chadlindskog
