The crew at Meet at Midfield has covered a lot of ground this season. No, I don’t just mean posting through it or making people mad online. We talked our shit and backed it up with a full season of content that covers all of college football.
From the sport’s highest highs to its nastiest lows, we’re in it with you. That said, you might have missed some things here and there. Wrapped up neatly for you, here are some of our greatest hits for the season, all available to you with a Meet at Midfield subscription.
EDIT: Now through Dec. 31, you can join Meet at Midfield for 40% off your first payment (monthly, semiannual or annual) with code JOLLY. No better time to join!
You’re not going to find better G5 coverage than you’ll find here from Patrick Mayhorn. Here’s an excerpt from his all-G5 and FCS version of Scheme Standouts, his weekly piece highlighting his favorite plays of the week across the sport.
A sample from Week 8 (Yellow = Decoy/QB; Blue = Block; Green = Route; Red = Designed ball carrier/intended receiver):
I don’t really have a ton to add to this [play], I just love that UTSA is so willing to play into the built-in misdirection of a left-handed quarterback. It sells a play fake to the field with a wash of blockers, including what looks to be a seventh in the H-back, before he cuts back against the play and flares into the flats as a short option if the downfield routes aren’t open.
Frank Harris rolls that way as well after faking the handoff, and has three options to throw to – the TE dump-off, a corner route from the playside wideout, and an over route from the opposite side of the field. FAU is without deep safety help on the latter route because of the heavy play fake, so Harris just trusts his receiver to go make a play with leverage against a cornerback on an island. It’s a beautiful throw, and six points for the Roadrunners.
He also looked ahead to the Playoff expansion horizon:
…a fascinating pattern has emerged within my neck of the woods in the Group of Five ranks – and it has everything to do with the upcoming expansion of the College Football Playoff, which will guarantee at least one spot to the top G5 team in America. I’ll refer to it loosely as the “run it back” maneuver.
It’s not a widespread phenomenon, and understandably so. There were plenty of bad teams at the G5 ranks this season with players who would much rather spend their time elsewhere. Other groups might have lost a coach, suffered a split in the locker room, or may just have too much of the normal form of collegiate attrition (eventually these guys do have to graduate).
It’s also not entirely new. Tulane and UTSA both entered the 2023 campaign with teams that looked a great deal like their tremendously successful 2022 groups, and they weren’t alone – Coastal Carolina, James Madison, Ohio, South Alabama, Toledo and Wyoming all rallied to retain a good chunk of their production for the sake of a run this year, to varying levels of success.
There’s a new tenor to this year’s wave of G5 teams running it back, though. They’re hoping to contend for a conference title run, as always, but the door is finally open to national competition from the Group of Five level – and teams that feel they have a shot are making their intentions known, as both a play for local support and a very strong recruiting pitch as coaches hit the road to further bolster their rosters.
The Best of College Football Previews So In Depth, It’s a Little Freaky
Before the season even started, the intrepid B1G_Ryan previewed every single Power Five football school, including even more in-depth preseason reviews and predictions for Playoff contenders. He may not have gotten everything right, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a publication that gave an exercise like this a serious, meaningful go.
Re: Alabama. Ryan was down on the Milroe-Rees offensive mind palace, but you can compare and contrast what he got right and wrong. Milroe and the offense did improve, but with a few close wins (that could have been close losses), it’s worth examining what they were working with before the season even started:
Basically, for this offense to become what Alabama fans expect it to be, they need a quarterback to fundamentally change who he’s been so far and look like a different player, a true freshman or oft-injured senior to immediately become elite, and/or a wide receiver group that’s been inconsistent to improve overnight into a special group because of a JUCO transfer with no experience. All of this while they downgrade at offensive coordinator with a coach who’s been utterly unimpressive to date in his career and has no track record of developing or building a passing game facing more pressure than he ever has before, by far. I just don’t see where the juice comes from for this offense.
Before you even say it, I’m smarter than that — no unlocked tidbits from Ryan’s Michigan predictions here. I thought he assessed the team remarkably fairly, but I’m also not going to highlight what he got right and wrong for you for free. If you want to know, you’ll have to subscribe.
What I will say, though — we were wrong about the defense. Both Ryan and I expected a regression on Jesse Minter’s side of the ball, and that, for the most part, did not really happen.
My confidence in the defense is stronger the closer you get to the line of scrimmage. The interior defensive line and linebackers stand out to me as the load-bearers of the group, with the safeties and Sainristil likely needing to take an elevated role supporting a thin corner group downfield. To that point, this is a defense that is capable of masking weaknesses, and Minter likely recognizes some of the positional deficiencies. If there were any major coaching shakeups and Michigan were without Minter, I’d have way more outright concerns.
Ryan is right: regression is to be expected. Quite frankly, I was prepared for it last year. With that in mind, I’m not overly concerned at this point; the defense will get Michigan solidly through to The Game, at least.
Ryan hedged on Washington and Texas, such that they didn’t receive their own Playoff-centric team previews. That said, he was as thorough as ever on both teams. On UW, a team about which he was hopeful, but doubtful:
Washington looks like an identical version of last year’s Tennessee – an explosive and dominant offense that has an interior line weaker than its tackles and a defense that it can’t trust to play big against the best opponents with some fundamental flaws. There’s no Georgia on the schedule for Washington and I think they have basically a three-game season. This group can elevate and push forward to the cusp of a playoff spot, but I just don’t know if I can trust them to advance all the way to actually making the dance.
[…]
I really like DeBoer, but I think the lack of aggression in the portal may cost his team a PAC-12 championship and playoff berth this year. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Luckily for us, he was, and we have fresh blood in the Playoff.
Steve Sarkisian is billed as an offensive mastermind and it’s put up or shut up time in that regard, likewise for Ewers in his role as starting quarterback with Arch Manning and Maalik Murphy breathing down his neck.
Despite my skepticism on Sark, there’s no reason to expect this to be less than a top-10 unit. The red zone problems are real and there needs to be a little more nastiness in the offensive line to solve those, but I doubt Ewers and Worthy continue to miss their connection so frequently.
Lastly, with a rematch possible, here’s a bit from Ryan’s Texas-Alabama preview from Week Two that felt pretty on the nose:
That Ole Miss win is essentially the blueprint for Texas’ path to victory. Hope that Alabama’s most mediocre quarterback since Jake Coker commits costly turnovers, hit explosive plays against an inexperienced defense, get lucky on a special teams play or two, and come up huge in situational football opportunities on key third and fourth downs or in the red zone. It sounds easy when you say it like that, but that’s exactly the kind of game Alabama has avoided playing for years. All the Tide have to do is lean on Texas: take care of the football, run the rock, win in the trenches, and let your five-stars win out as the game advances onwards.
Since the site’s first year, we’ve broadened our horizons to lean into being a national site; still, Kevin and I regularly speak to our roots as Ohio State and Michigan folk. The most freakishly thorough college football website you can find is also rooted in the sport’s most intense rivalry, because of course it is.
From Kevin: Still Arby’s, But Their Wagyu Burger In Terms of Quality (Really Good For Fast Food)
Back in the preseason, Kevin had a unique opportunity to chat with Chad Johnson. Ochocinco spoke effusive praise about Ohio State’s talented skill players:
Ohio State may be signing freak after freak who doesn’t need much help getting to the league, but [OC Brian] Hartline is the reason they’re coming. And his ability to “fine-tune” already-elite players to prepare them for the NFL game has not gone unnoticed by Johnson.
“Obviously getting with a coach like Brian Hartline who can fine-tune certain things in their game to where they’re already prepared and ready. Then they can hit the ground running once they get to the NFL,” Johnson said.
“There’s no learning curve. It’s pretty dope.”
While a lot of Johnson’s thoughts are still worthwhile and relevant, he did lose the McDonald’s bet he made with the world.
Unlike Ryan Day, Kevin knows what the rivalry means — specifically The Game, played at The Time It’s Played At, on That Specific Day. As Ohio State and Michigan will, more likely than not, play multiple times per season beginning next year, Kevin nailed what it means not just to play the game, but play The Game. The sentiment rings true heading into a year of drastic change in the sport.
Shameless promotion time:Meet at Midfield subscribers also get access to premium episodes of High Street Freaks, a Bucks podcast hosted by Kevin and Ryan, both unrelenting Ohio State fans and alums (survivors?) of the Buckeye media-sphere.The premium episodes have fuller breakdowns and juicier rumors. The good shit.
From Taylor: The Only Normal Michigan Fan
You get your in-depth ball knowledge from Patrick and Ryan, and one side of a classic football rivalry from Kevin. Though you don’t really get a ton by way of in-depth analysis from me, you’re still getting something largely unseen in Michigan circles: someone with good Michigan opinions.
I don’t mean to toot my own horn. I’m no paragon of morality or wisdom. That said, I’m never going to paint you some idyllic, unrealistic picture of the University of Michigan and its many warts. The alma mater I love is rife with failure, and a website that covers all of the sport should cover the less savory parts of fandom, too, right?
Doubtless this criticism can be said of any institution, but I always feel a responsibility to cover the parts of fandom people can find tricky. Take, for instance, my thoughts from this summer over the university regent that paints himself as a cool football guy:
From [U-M Regent Jordan] Acker’s perspective, he’s a mere volunteer. Existential labor disputes — in which the university seeks to exploit graduate students for their work while leeching its name onto their research — are just unpleasant Thanksgiving dinner politics that should stay civil. Please understand, he’s trying so, so hard to represent the place we love, but people are being mean to him! How is that fair to him? He’s just a little guy!
He isn’t, though. Michigan is one of three state schools that elects trustees politically and not via appointment. Acker was elected in 2018, and will serve unless he steps down or is not re-elected for another eight-year term. Sure, he’s a “volunteer,” but he’s also a politician. When you frame him that way, his words feel less and less genuine.
I will not take any moment of the rest of this season for granted. Michigan football is the best it’s ever been since I was a fan. I’m not going to forget that, Connor Stalions and his false mustache be damned.
There is no amount of this ridiculousness that will take away from the joy I have as a fan of this football team, whether I like it or not. I’m a self-loathing Wolverine, but a Wolverine nonetheless. When Corum breaks out a run with the technical precision so few have, when McCarthy makes some unbelievable throw, when Rod Moore puts on the Turnover Buffs… I’m there. I’m in it. Whatever outside noise the crew on the call is making, or whatever you philistines on the boards have to say, I simply do not care in the here and now.
As I alluded to a bit earlier, a college football website needs to navigate the realities of the entire sport. A prime example — sports betting.
Pat and Ryan put together both a written and audio history of sports gambling in the U.S., leading to the moment we’re in now, in college sports and beyond:
Podcasts, television, social media, sponsored content, company-affiliated media wings, deals with specific teams and leagues. Everything that can be advertised on is being advertised on, and at least some of it is being subsidized by the states that have legalized gambling.
Love it or hate it, a potentially dangerous vice is now neatly wrapped up in your phone, and in the minds of athletic departments, teams and athletes. The deep dive is worth your time in knowing your demons, and making educated decisions how you want to engage with increasingly gambler-pilled media.
We also focused in on the Mel Tucker scandal, and its ramifications at Michigan State. Meet at Midfield’s authors and guests are known to be glib, but on the boards, on the podcast and in writing, we took a serious look at the Tucker allegations and what they meant, both on and off the field.
Ryan and Pat’s breakdown of the Tucker situation:
And written thoughts from friend of the site ThiccStauskas:
It is incumbent on us, as fans, to hold the institutions that we root for accountable by… I guess, yelling at them online until they are so embarrassed that they have no choice but to act? That sounds ridiculous, and it is! But, increasingly it seems to be the only way that real change is affected by normal people who don’t give millions to their alma maters. Title IX and the Me Too movement has put at least some measure of fear in the administrators, coaches, and university presidents that would otherwise abuse their power to exploit the women over whom they hold workplace authority. But it is obviously not enough, because this keeps happening.
The only alternative is to stop being a fan, because I don’t care what team you root for, something like this is currently happening, already has happened, or will happen to your favorite team. It begs the question of whether it is morally correct to continue to support programs that do things like honor known enablers and abusers through statues and building names. But here’s the thing, I don’t have a choice. I couldn’t stop rooting for Michigan if I tried and chances are if you are reading this you feel the same way about your alma mater. All we can do is keep being hypocrites, yelling at Warde Manuel on Monday and cheering for Blake Corum on Saturday. If we, as people who care, stop yelling, that’s when they’ll stop caring what we think, and start exercising their power however they see fit.
We aren’t all fire and brimstone here, of course. This site is rooted in a deep, unwavering love for this game, even when it’s infinitely frustrating. We know the sport needs to modernize and its horizons must expand, but unlike the TV execs and national media who don’t fully get it, we’re here (and very vocal) about why we love this game.
Starting on a light note: I recently attempted, albeit loosely, to compare college football’s unique type of drama to another if-you-know-you-know cult phenomenon: the Real Housewives. As we’re looking for what differentiates college football from simply being “NFL Lite,” I see it in our sport’s most bombastic names and feuds.
In other words? College football is not always about what’s on the field; you can find the intrigue and entry points into the sport, if you know where (and how) to look at it.
My bullshit pales in comparison to what Patrick put together at the start of the season.
Featuring stories from our incredible community (and Patrick’s dad), this is our anchor, our “why” for loving college football in the intense, deep way college football fans do.
Everyone feels this sort of tenderness over something (at least, I hope they do), and I feel it for college football (and increasingly for college basketball, but that’s a different article). I’m far from the only one – look no further than the existence of this website and thousands of others dedicated to recording, arguing about, remembering, watching and enjoying college football. If you’re here, I’d wager the thought of a crisp fall morning spent in anticipation for the game(s) of the coming day sends the same shock of dopamine through your spine and puts that same perfect mixture of dull anxiety and excitement in your gut that it does mine.
[…]
“It’s the kid in me that comes out during the game. The person who cared deeply about the results. And now, I have the memories of you [Patrick] as a kid watching the games. And caring deeply. How upset you were when you thought we were about to lose to Wisconsin, me telling you we still have a chance, and then that pass. That beautiful pass. It’s the individual games. Win or lose. Not the other stuff. The real tradition is in my head.”
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