5 Things We Learned From The GLIAC's Football Media Day

The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is the home of football champions, so this year’s Media Day had its share of notable storylines.

Aug 1, 2023 by Briar Napier

5 Things We Learned From The GLIAC's Football Media Day

The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is the home of football champions, so this year’s Media Day especially had its share of storylines swirling around the confines of the Grand Rapids Airport Hotel earlier in the week.

The two-time reigning and defending Division II national champion plays in the league, after all. But an in-conference rival is right on its tail as probably its toughest competition in the way of a near-unprecedented three-peat, too.

Plus, over half of the GLIAC has a new head coach on the sideline for 2023, leaving the state of the league — especially beyond just the top two — as unpredictable as ever.

Intrigued yet? Then get informed by taking a look at this recap and stick around for the next few months while you’re at it.

Here are five things we learned after all that went down at the GLIAC’s Football Media Day on Monday:

Anchor-Bone Rivalry More Heated Than Ever

It’s one of the most storied and high-stakes games in D-II football, and few (if any) iterations in the Anchor-Bone Classic — the annual rivalry game between Ferris State and Grand Valley State — were bigger than the two games in which the two powerhouses met in 2022.

The then-No. 2 Lakers first stunned the No. 1 Bulldogs in a 22-21 regular-season war in Big Rapids on Oct. 15, snapping FSU’s 43-game regular-season winning streak as one of the most highly-anticipated games in recent D-II football history lived up to the hype. The rematch in the second round of the playoffs, however, was the Bulldogs’ day, with FSU kicking a go-ahead field goal with just over a minute left and holding 24-21 to advance en route to its second straight national title.

Entering the 2023 campaign, expectations remain sky-high for both programs — Ferris State is No. 1, Grand Valley State No. 2 in the Lindy’s Sports D-II preseason poll — but there is one important change as former Lakers coach Matt Mitchell, who had been on staff at GVSU since 2004, left to test the D-I level as an assistant at Wisconsin. In steps Scott Wooster to take change, having been promoted in-house after three years as the Lakers’ offensive line coach and run game coordinator, and the mission is clear for him in leading the defending GLIAC champs: cast Ferris aside and restore GVSU, which last won it all in 2006, to its former glory.

“You just look back at the tradition of Grand Valley State football … you’re walking those hallways on the backs of the Laker legends,” Wooster said. “The pride and tradition, we’ve got this thing going, let’s keep it going. And obviously, our task is to find those edges to take it back to the top.”

GVSU Football behind the scenes at @GLIACsports Media Day held in the 616! Hear from Cade Peterson and Abe Swanson, along with Coach Wooster! #AnchorUp pic.twitter.com/oQhIh273br
— GVSU Football (@gvsufootball) August 1, 2023

Bulldogs Have a Plan For Three-Peat Pressure

The aftermath of being the first team to win back-to-back D-II national championships since Northwest Missouri State in 2015 and 2016 means that for Ferris State in 2023, it doesn’t just have a target on its back to the rest of the GLIAC, but the rest of the country, too.

Yet the GLIAC favorite and the top-ranked program in D-II isn’t acting as if it’s intimidated by the many teams behind it on the chase, and with another loaded squad with veterans who know exactly what it's like to reach the peak, the Bulldogs are in serious contention to be the first D-II team to win three consecutive national titles since North Alabama from 1993-95.

In terms of keeping cool heads and staying focused on the ultimate goal throughout the season, FSU’s players, when asked about keeping motivated following two national titles in a row, seem to have a system in place that has paid dividends — and may continue to in the very near future. With a tough schedule ahead that includes a visit to D-I FCS Montana and playing the Anchor-Bone Classic on the road, that’s a good sign.

“Just looking at myself in the mirror and just being my own biggest critic,” senior receiver Xavier Wade, who missed much of this past year due to injury, said. “I just want to show up and just be the best I can be personally, and hopefully that energy feeds off to the next man. … Hopefully, we can all figure it out and just find our identity and just go out with a bang.”

WATCH: Behind the scenes at GLIAC Football Media Day on Monday in Grand Rapids! pic.twitter.com/zhIVreI28p
— Ferris St. Football (@FerrisFootball) August 1, 2023

Davenport Has Earned Its Spoiler Status

If you’re scanning the GLIAC Preseason Coaches Poll and think it’s a typo or a bit strange that Davenport picked up a first-place vote, just know that the Panthers earned it.

Under reigning GLIAC Coach of the Year Sparky McEwen, DU is coming off its best season in program history (since its inaugural 2016 season) in which it went 8-3, qualified for the D-II Playoffs for the first time, and ranked as high as 13th nationally, only losing to the mighty Ferris (twice, in the regular season and playoffs) and GVSU.

𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗖 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀' 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗹

3⃣ Davenport#WhereChampionsCompete pic.twitter.com/sHTXJD1cpe
— GLIAC (@GLIACsports) July 31, 2023

Stud ex-wideout Sy Barnett became the first Panther ever to sign with an NFL team — an undrafted free agent deal with the New Orleans Saints — this offseason, and if it wasn’t clear before that Davenport may very well be a program on the rise in the D-II ranks for years to come, it is now. Still, as the Panthers’ personnel Monday noted, they’re mostly done celebrating what they’ve accomplished and are instead looking for the next mountain to climb.

“We’re picked third this year; it means nothing to us,” McEwen said. “We don’t care what the media thinks, we don’t care what the student body thinks, we don’t care what anyone thinks. … (Players) lock into who they are. For us, we feel like if you get caught up in what happened last year, you will not be able to make that next step.”

Rising Cardinals Demand Your Attention

It’s hard to complain about winning eight games, beating two top-10 teams (first against then-No. 9 Bowie State on Sept. 10, then versus then-No. 8 Indianapolis on Oct. 15), and having the best total offense (373.7 yards per game in 2022) in the GLIAC outside of GVSU and FSU, right?

Well, Saginaw Valley State probably would’ve felt a lot better about it all if they hadn’t just missed out on a berth to the playoffs with it, especially considering that Davenport — which the Cardinals lost to by a point on Oct. 29 in a critical late-season clash — made it to the postseason as the result looked closer to a playoff decider in hindsight.

Still, it’s hard not to like the upward trajectory that fifth-year coach Ryan Brady seems to have SVSU on as he’s won more games in charge with each passing season and finished at least .500 in the GLIAC for the second straight year, as well. The schedule doesn’t get any easier in 2023 as tough nonconference games against Indianapolis, Winona State, and Truman State are on the docket (along with the GLIAC grind and all the potential landmines that accompany it), but as Brady noted at Media Day, “to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.”

The Cardinals can certainly take that challenge head-on, but getting through it with enough of a resume to guarantee postseason ball is another thing entirely. “It doesn’t matter who we’re going against, it’s us vs. us,” junior defensive back Michael Wooldridge said. “Every single week, we’re playing somebody good, so you’ve got to beat yourself first before you can beat these teams.”

𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗖 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀' 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗹

4⃣ Saginaw Valley State#WhereChampionsCompete pic.twitter.com/aIBA8fiG93
— GLIAC (@GLIACsports) July 31, 2023

It’s Sink or Swim for GLIAC’s New Coaches

The GLIAC, even with its two heavy favorites leading the way, has the potential for a lot of hijinks in 2023, especially toward the middle of the pecking order. That’s because of the seven teams in the league, four have first-year head coaches, meaning that a massive influx of new styles and strategies are going to be coming to over half of the league’s teams and the new eras will get underway all across the conference.

As mentioned previously, GVSU has a new boss in its program, but so does Michigan Tech (Dan Mettlach), Wayne State (Tyrone Wheatley), and Northern Michigan (Shane Richardson), the latter three of which were all hired in the offseason after their predecessors before them did not return for this upcoming season.

It’ll take a herculean effort to upend the Ferris-Grand Valley diarchy atop the GLIAC — of the schools still in the league, no one has done that since Tech shared the 2004 title with Northwood — but the excitement and passion were there and clearly apparent from every new leader who spoke at Media Day.

“Any time there’s a change in leadership, obviously there’s going to be differences,” Mettlach said. “Trying to have a new voice at the top and get everybody on the same page was a challenge at first, and thankfully we have a locker room that polices itself and is very mature in that way. … We’ve got a great group on campus and can’t say enough about the work these guys have done.”