CMU Raises the Curtain on 2023 Football Season at MAC Media Day

DETROIT – It's all smiles, optimism, and handshakes on media day. A little bit of acting, makeup and performance, if you will.
Fitting that's Detroit's historic Fox Theatre was the site on Thursday of the Mid-American Conference Football Media Day. On the famed stage that has hosted the likes of Elvis and Sinatra, there was a prove-it vibe emanating from coach Jim McElwain's Central Michigan program.
"We took our lumps a year ago," said McElwain, who is entering his fifth season in charge of the Chippewas. "Very disappointed in the season a year ago.
"This is a new team; every year's a new team. I really like what our guys have put in over the summer and now we'll find out when we get to camp just how far along we are."
The Chippewas, who open on Sept. 1 at Michigan State, finished 4-8, 3-5 MAC in 2022. They finished fourth in the preseason MAC West media poll, which was released on Thursday.
Certainly, McElwain could pick and choose the areas in which his Chippewas need to improve after last season. The cast and the script will change in 2023, as it does in any given year. The No. 1 priority? Toughness.
"More than anything we've got to increase our toughness and that starts up front and that's something that I've got to make sure happens," McElwain said.
CMU returns nine starters on defense, including middle linebackers Kyle Moretti and Justin Whiteside, and safety Trey Jones, a junior who made 11 starts a year ago and has ascended to a higher profile speaking role.
"I haven't always been the most vocal person … but now I've really become that vocal guy and it's even taken me by surprise," Jones said. "Sometimes, after I'm vocal, I'm like, 'Wow, that wasn't me a year ago.' I've seen myself evolve and change and become a better leader and even a better man in life from last season."
Jones, like so many on the veteran-laden defense, is looking to write a new script in 2023, and that process began almost immediately after last season, taking hold under Director of Strength and Conditioning Joel Welsh.
"He's been on it," Jones said. "You can tell that he has that extra, extra edge to him. He's really rubbed off on us as the leaders. We have that extra edge too in pushing the young guys."
On the other side of the ball, quite literally, is the offense, where few veterans return, though there are several players, including quarterbacks Jase Bauer and Bert Emanuel Jr., who saw significant playing time in 2023.
Senior Deiyanti Powell-Woods, a guard, has made 28 career starts on the offensive line and is one of the few veteran mainstays. Powell-Woods was mentored by the likes of tackles Luke Goedeke and Bernhard Raimann, both of whom are now in the NFL, and what Powell-Woods gleaned from them he now looks to employ as a leader of the '23 squad.
"Those guys, they really set the tone and really taught me what it was to be a Chippewa and how to work, what kind of person you want to be every day," Powell-Woods said. "You learn from those older guys, you take it all in, and now it's time for me, as the vet, to teach the younger guys and I've got to do that in my own way.
"You need to be strong in the weight room, you need to have good technique, you need to have the mentality. (But) sometimes you've just got to go out and play your butt off and that might be one thing I might need to preach to the younger guys. Of course for such a young team, especially on the offensive side of the ball, I think it's really important just to show them how we need to operate as a unit."
The Chippewas' nonleague slate includes visits to Notre Dame and to South Alabama, which last season finished 10-3 and shared the Southern Conference West Division title. CMU opens the MAC slate at home against Eastern Michigan on Sept. 30.
"A lot of those guys were disappointed," McElwain said, reflecting on the returnees from the 2022 team. "But they got good experience and now they know they what it is and we've got to do and take it with a (rugged) schedule, especially at the start of it – you could probably argue it's as tough a schedule as we've ever had in Central Michigan's history."