Tag: MAC

Buffalo takes down Northern Illinois in overtime

Buffalo went to Illinois and defeated NIU in MAC play

That loss to Northern Illinois by Notre Dame isn’t looking any better for the Fighting Irish after Saturday.

NIU played host to the Buffalo Bulls in a MAC game and were upended, 23-20, in overtime.

Buffalo’s winning margin came on a 37-yard field goal by Upton Bellenfant.

The Bulls improved to 3-1 and the Huskies are 2-1. It was the second time in school history Buffalo beat a ranked opponent.

For Northern Illinois, Kanon Woodill, who booted the game-winner at then No. 5 Notre Dame, missed a pair of field goal tries, including a 42-yarder that was blocked in overtime.

Vols enter Kent State game undefeated versus current MAC teams

Tennessee will look to remain undefeated all time on Saturday versus current MAC football teams.

Tennessee’s football program will look to remain undefeated against current Mid-American Conference teams on Saturday.

The Vols (2-0) will host Kent State (0-2) at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee enters its nonconference matchup with a 10-0 all time record versus current MAC teams: Akron (3-0), Ball State (1-0), Bowling Green (2-0), Buffalo (1-0), Ohio (2-0) and Northern Illinois (1-0).

Tennessee has never played Central Michigan, Kent State, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Miami (Ohio) and Toledo.

Saturday’s contest will also mark the fourth time Tennessee will face a MAC opponent under fourth-year head coach Josh Heupel. The Vols defeated Bowling Green, 38-6, in 2021, Ball State, 59-10, in 2022 and Akron, 63-6, in 2022.

Kickoff between the Vols and Golden Flashes on Saturday is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. EDT (SEC Network). Tennessee is ranked No. 9 in the Week 3 US LBM Coaches Poll.

Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports

A Pittsburgh special teams disaster and a ricocheting football sparked the wackiest Kent State touchdown

Fans of Maction will not be disappointed.

Pittsburgh football was riding high in the first half of its season opener at home against Kent State, but Maction had other plans.

During one of the zaniest moments of the young season, Kent State scored as a inexplicable special teams touchdown as you’re going to see anytime soon.

As Kent State punted from deep into its own territory, Pittsburgh returner Konata Mumpfield unsuccessfully tried to field the punt and fumbled the ball for anyone to grab.

The ball ricocheted off a handful of Kent State players before cornerback Naim Muhammad scooped it up and ran it back for a Golden Eagles touchdown. Seriously, this was just wacky, but Kent State capitalized. 

https://twitter.com/MACSports/status/1829932271744307219

How’s that for some early-season Maction for you?

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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Wisconsin opens 2024 football season against No. 7 team in MAC preseason poll

Wisconsin opens 2024 football season against No. 7 team in MAC preseason poll

Wisconsin football opens its 2024 football season on Friday, Aug. 30 at home against the MAC’s Western Michigan Broncos.

Western Michigan enters 2024 after consecutive losing seasons — 5-7 in 2022 and 4-8 in 2023. It also does so ranked No. 7 in the recent MAC preseason coaches poll.

Related: Reasons why Wisconsin football will or won’t make College Football Playoff in 2024

The Broncos (60 votes) were ranked behind Eastern Michigan (64 votes), Ohio (81 votes), Northern Illinois (92 votes), Bowling Green (92 votes), Toledo (109 votes) and Miami (OH) (119 votes).

Overall, the team enters the 2024 season as ESPN SP+’s No. 106-ranked group in the nation, with the No. 99-ranked offense and No. 96-ranked defense. It shouldn’t be much of a challenge for a supposedly improved Wisconsin Badgers team.

Western Michigan is one of two easier nonconference opponents on the Badgers 2024 schedule — the other being South Dakota (FCS). Luke Fickell’s team then begins a gauntlet schedule with a nonconference game against Alabama before a Big Ten slate that includes games at USC, vs. Penn State, at Iowa, vs. Oregon and at Nebraska.

Starting the season strong is a must for Fickell and the 2024 Badgers. Not only is a 2-0 start a requirement, but the team must look improved overall and ready for the upcoming challenging slate of games.

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2023-24 Conference bowl records and bowl standings

Here are the updated bowl standings for each conference this college football bowl season.

Bowl season is the time of the year for the final bragging rights for the college football season. Conferences go toe-to-toe across the bowl season with bowl tie-ins lining up some good matchups and lining up for some terrific banter between fan bases. But which conference gets the ultimate bragging rights at the end of the bowl season? That’s what we are looking to find out.

We will be keeping tabs on every bowl game result, tracking each conference’s overall bowl record, and breaking down each conference’s records against individual conferences. This will be updated on a daily basis throughout the bowl season, so feel free to come back and check out the latest breakdown.

Here is the updated look at the conference bowl standings as of Jan. 9, based on total wins first and win percentage second.

Conference W L
Big Ten 6 4
PAC 12 5 4
Big 12 5 4
SEC 5 4
ACC 5 6
Sun Belt Conference 5 6
American Athletic Conference 3 3
Mountain West Conference 3 4
Conference USA 2 2
MAC 2 4

 

Former Notre Dame defender set to coach defense, safeties at Boise State

Former Irish defender moving up the ranks!

Former Notre Dame defensive lineman Tyler Stockton has been making a name for himself in coaching since his playing days ended.

Stockton played on Notre Dame’s defensive line from 2009-2013.  From there he joined the UConn coaching staff for two seasons as a graduate assistant before being hired and spending three years at Western Illinois.

Stockton has been coaching at Ball State since 2019.  He took over calling the Cardinals defense in 2020 and helped them to their first MAC championship in 14 years that season.

Stockton again led stellar defensive units at Ball State the last three seasons and had been promoted to assistant head coach.  Stockton has coached his last down in Muncie however and is on his way to Boise State.

At Boise State he’s set to be the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach starting next season.

Congrats on the success so far and all the best wishes for more of it on the blue turf!

Notre Dame shuts Bowling Green down in second half for win

Another nonconference game, another win.

Don’t be fooled by this final. It looked for a while like Notre Dame was going to let another inferior opponent hang around until the end. While Mid-American Conference member Bowling Green comes from a league slightly better than the Irish’s other nonconference opponents to this point, a loss to this program at Purcell Pavilion still would have been embarrassing. Fortunately, the Irish only have to think about an 82-66 win.

Although the Irish (5-0) led for most of the game, they couldn’t seem to shake the Falcons (2-3) completely. A [autotag]Nate Laszewski[/autotag] 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer gave the Irish a two-point lead, but the Falcons’ persistence continued into the second half, and they went in front, 61-59 near the frame’s halfway point. That’s when the Irish completely took over, outscoring the Falcons, 23-5, the rest of the way. They scored their final 17 points unanswered with the Falcons not scoring again until their final possession with seconds to play.

[autotag]JJ Starling[/autotag] had the best game of his young career with 23 points, six rebounds and three steals. Laszewski was just behind with 22 points, including four 3s. [autotag]Ven-Allen Lubin[/autotag] scored 12 off the bench, and [autotag]Dane Goodwin[/autotag] added 11. [autotag]Trey Wertz[/autotag] dished out a game-high six assists.

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Former Notre Dame LB Jonathan Jones Finds New Home

he’s found a new home at an Ohio-based Mid-American Conference university.

Former Notre Dame linebacker and special teams player Jonathan Jones was previously in the transfer portal but now he’s found a new home at an Ohio-based Mid-American Conference university.

Jones enrolled in classes at Toledo University last week and will spend 2020 as a member of the Toledo Rockets football program.

Jones finished his Notre Dame career with 16 career tackles, playing for the Irish in the last three seasons.

Jones was recruited to Notre Dame from Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, Florida as a four-star linebacker based off of 247’s rankings.  He graduated from Notre Dame in December and will immediately eligible at Toledo.

Kent State onside kick backfires into Eastern Michigan touchdown

The onside kick by Kent State seemed like a good idea. Then again there is a reason the Golden Flashes came in 1-5

This could be a sign you are going to have a bad day.

Kent State decided to try and surprise Eastern Michigan as it opened its MAC game against Eastern Michigan on Saturday.

The onside kick attempt … went awry to say the least.

Instead of coming up with the ball, the Golden Flashes, who came in 1-5, were looking at a 7-0 deficit after 6 seconds.

Kendric Nowling of the Eagles was alert, grabbed the kick, and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown.

Transfer punter Luke Elzinga featured on Ray Guy Award watch list

Oklahoma punter Luke Elzinga makes the Ray Guy award watch list ahead of the 2023 season.

Replacing Michael Turk will be an underrated storyline heading into the season. It probably won’t be much of an issue for the first couple of games, but as Oklahoma heads into conference play and the competition levels increase, having a punter capable of flipping field position when needed, like Turk, would be a significant benefit.

Enter Luke Elzinga, a transfer punter from Central Michigan University. Elzinga came over to Oklahoma after three years at CMU, where he was the primary punter for the last three seasons and a three-time All-Mid-American Conference performer.

In his first three seasons at the collegiate level, Elzinga averaged 42.4 yards on his 145 career punts. He’s registered 24 punts of at least 50 yards, 47 fair catches, 61 downed inside the 20-yard line, and only ten touchbacks. To add to his impressive resume, he’s also a three-time All-MAC Academic Team selection.

His performance last year made it possible for him to land on the preseason watchlist for the Ray Guy Award, handed out annually to the nation’s top punter. This marks the second consecutive season that Elzinga has been named to the watchlist for the Ray Guy Award but his first as a Sooner.

Former punter Michael Turk made the preseason watchlist last year before becoming a semifinalist in 2022. He averaged 46.79 yards per punt attempt during the 2022 campaign while earning first-team All-Big 12 honors. Turk was a weapon on special teams for Oklahoma.

Special Teams coordinator Jay Nunez and Oklahoma hope Elzinga can bring a similar level of consistency to the punter position.

With Elzinga’s selection to the preseason watchlist, he joins teammates [autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag] and [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] as Sooners named to preseason awards watchlist.

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