MAC Football Pod
39 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago -MAC Football Pod covers all things Mid-American Conference football. Hosted by Alex Alvarado, with friends.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
37. TRUE OR FALSE? | Harrison Waylee for MAC‘s RB1 | WMU can keep it up on offense | Kent State on defense
September 24, 2021 14:01 - 37 minutes - 44.3 MBEPISODE 37 Alex & Kaleb task each other to say whether each others' 10 MACtion statements for each other are either true or false. Such as: WMU's offense can definitely keep up the pace with its scoring offense. Kent State can keep creating turnovers on defense. Sean Lewis will spend six (6) years at Kent State before he takes on his next coaching job. Ohio's going 0-12 this year. BGSU's not finishing last in the MAC East this year. And more... JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to...
36. What‘s next? | Repeated clock management issues | Offenses should be playing better at Ohio, EMU
September 14, 2021 08:00 - 25 minutes - 30.5 MBEPISODE 36 Now that we're two weeks through the season, we've seen enough football to start learning some things about these squads. While we don't have the time to go over all 12 MAC schools, there are some "what's next?" questions that are probably worth spreading around. Toledo lost another game where it might've scored too quickly, and cost the team at Notre Dame. What's this to say about Jason Candle's coaching future? Ohio's offense looked bad, and it's time to give this group a mor...
35. NIU ran the beef offense | Ball State defense in question | Did we learn anything about the East teams?
September 09, 2021 04:34 - 23 minutes - 26.3 MBEPISODE 35 Week 1 overreactions? Never us. Week 1 learning experiences? Also never us. The games & storylines Alex & Kaleb hit on: NIU did the damn thing. I'm not going to type out the thing they want me to call it, but they did the thing at Georgia Tech. It only took one guy at Western Illinois for Ball State to feel nervous. Expected Buffalo to win big, but not *that* big. Did we even learn anything about the MAC East? Kent State barely scored at Texas A&M, but what else were you e...
34. Week 1 recap | Huskies pull off ACC upset | MAC champs get FCS scare
September 06, 2021 13:35 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBEPISODE 34 Way to go Huskies! NIU pulled off a Power 5 upset over Georgia Tech which was sealed by a gutsy 2-point conversion in the final seconds of regulation to avoid overtime. It's the first big win of Thomas Hammock's career, and gives his many, many freshmen a memory that they'll always be able to look back on. No other MAC team pulled off a P5 upset in Week 1, and nobody had the embarrassing loss to a visiting FCS team. But Ball State almost became that embarrassed team against Wes...
33. Week 1 preview | Game planning | Ohio hosts Syracuse | Broncos look for upset in Ann Arbor
August 31, 2021 20:08 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBEPISODE 33 Week 1! It's actually here! Going in reverse order from how I ranked these MAC teams in my most recent power rankings, we'll go down the list and gently talk about the 12 season-openers to keep an eye on over the weekend. Week 1 games: BGSU at Tennessee (Thursday, 8 p.m., SEC Network) Akron at Auburn (Sat., 7 p.m., SEC Network) NIU at Georgia Tech (Sat., 7 p.m., ACC Network) Syracuse at Ohio (Sat., 7 p.m., CBSSN) St. Francis at EMU (Fri., 7 p.m., ESPN3) Wagner at Buffalo...
32. Fantasy Draft recap
August 26, 2021 17:15 - 38 minutes - 45.6 MBEPISODE 32 It's that time of year again. With the upcoming football season right around the corner, it's time for us to do the draft for our MAC fantasy football league with our group of close friends. Alex's team, in order of draft pick: QB Carter Bradley, WR Yo'Heinz Tyler, WR Isaiah Winstead, RB Darius Boone, Miami D/ST (keeper), TE Bryson Cannon, WR Bryce Nunnelly, K Marshall Meeder, RB Clint Ratkovich, WR Devin Maddox, WR Khamron Laborn, TE Tommy Guajardo, QB Ben Bryant, WR Latrell F...
31. MAC Previews: NIU | Buffalo | WMU
August 20, 2021 13:23 - 44 minutes - 52.7 MBEPISODE 31 In our final MAC Previews episode of the offseason, we finish with three teams that have varying degrees of experience in the MAC Championship game: Northern Illinois, Buffalo, and Western Michigan. NIU (1:52) has 88 freshmen on its football roster right now. Yes, 88. Sure there are a good number of third-year, redshirt-freshmen lumped in there, but they’re going to be going up against sixth-year seniors and fifth-year juniors. Can we expect things to materialize into W’s? Buf...
30. MAC Previews: Ohio | Miami | WMU
August 12, 2021 17:53 - 44 minutes - 52.2 MBEPISODE 30 Another Mid-American Conference team previews episode! Here, Alex and Kaleb talk about the two most recent MAC champions, and one team that had to replace its historic, long-long-time tenured head coach in Frank Solich not too long ago. Ohio (6:10) has been a steady program in the Frank Solich era. But now Solich has retired from coaching the game, and long-time offensive coordinator Tim Albin is now in charge of things. We doubt things will change too drastically, for better o...
30. MAC Previews: Ohio | Miami | Ball State
August 12, 2021 17:53 - 44 minutes - 52.2 MBEPISODE 30 Another Mid-American Conference team previews episode! Here, Alex and Kaleb talk about the two most recent MAC champions, and one team that had to replace its historic, long-long-time tenured head coach in Frank Solich not too long ago. Ohio (6:10) has been a steady program in the Frank Solich era. But now Solich has retired from coaching the game, and long-time offensive coordinator Tim Albin is now in charge of things. We doubt things will change too drastically, for better o...
29. MAC Previews: Akron | CMU | Kent State
August 04, 2021 04:00 - 47 minutes - 52.3 MBEPISODE 29 Alex and Kaleb continue with Part 2 of 4 of the MAC Team Preview series with a distinct MAC East rivalry, and a MAC West team that may or may not spoil some championship dreams if all goes right. Akron (5:03) fans might not want to hear this: the back half of the schedule is a b s o l u t e l y b r u t a l and there’s just no chance things will look pretty for your team. I’m really, really rooting for QB Kato Nelson because he didn’t simply transfer out when things were startin...
28. MAC Previews: BGSU | EMU | Toledo
July 28, 2021 04:49 - 59 minutes - 68.4 MBEPISODE 28 It’s time for MACtion team previews! To start things off, we’ve got the Battle of I-75 on the brain with Bowling Green and Toledo. Eastern Michigan might have its limits, but that’s a team that’s fun to think big for. BGSU (4:17) just absolutely needs to provide something on the field to give us a reason to want to watch this team. It simply has not played well since last decade’s MAC East title stretch. Where’s the positivity of this group going to come from? EMU (19:17) has...
27. Texas & Oklahoma
July 25, 2021 13:24 - 47 minutes - 54.3 MBEPISODE 27 While neither Texas nor Oklahoma classify as either small schools or located in the midwest, the recent drama (which is a shitstorm, to be clear) with Oklahoma and Texas burning their bridges with the Big XII to join the Southeastern Conference. The MAC isn’t a neighbor of either of those leagues, but I’d be lying if I said that wouldn’t have an impact on the MAC. JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> https://discord.gg/GCK3TM2FZW THANK YOU FOR ...
26. Ball State vs. Kent State for preseason title game | Same 3 questions for everybody
July 22, 2021 13:16 - 41 minutes - 46.6 MBEPISODE 26 MAC Media Day happened on Tuesday, so I called Kaleb to talk about the event. It was just MAC Media Day, so it wasn’t all that great. We parse out the preseason poll (Kent State, Ball State favorites to go to Detroit) and I ask him the same three questions I asked everybody that I was able to get to at the media circus. JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> https://discord.gg/GCK3TM2FZW THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING YOUR FAVORITE MAC FOOTBALL PODCAST!...
25. Frank Solich forever | MAC divisional picks
July 15, 2021 12:26 - 40 minutes - 46 MBEPISODE 25 Frank Solich has officially retired as Ohio’s head coach on Wednesday after 16 and a half years in Athens. He’ll still be around the program, but his tenure-long offensive coordinator Tim Albin will step up to be the new head coach. After reflecting on his career, Alex and Kaleb Carter make our divisional picks. Alex’s picks: Toledo vs. Kent State makes a lot of sense for 2021’s MAC Championship matchup. JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> http...
24. An update on returning production
July 08, 2021 16:15 - 29 minutes - 35.2 MBEPISODE 24 New name, same game. Changed the name of the podcast because, in short, it felt right and I wanted to. So much to catch up on since there hasn't been a new episode here in a couple of weeks (sorry about that, just got busy). Let's have a relaxed, enjoyable refresher on some of the news around college football in the last couple of weeks. Normally this is the time to just relax and not read a lot about college football-sided news, but 2021 was never going to be a normal one. Al...
23. Early Preview: Ball State at Penn State (w/ Daniel Gallen — PennLive.com)
June 20, 2021 04:00 - 31 minutes - 28.1 MBEPISODE 23 Another interview to focus on a Power 5 program that may or may not be on upset alert for this MAC contest. This time, we’ve got Daniel Gallen (PennLive.com / @danieljtgallen on Twitter) to talk about what to expect from the Penn State Nittany Lions. Under more normal circumstances, Penn State vs. Ball State might sound like a regularly-scheduled blowout, but the Nittany Lions are going to have to prove that they’re better than the 4-5 team record it had last year (started 0-5, f...
22. 4 Things: Minnesota, Army
June 16, 2021 04:00 - 29 minutes - 31.5 MBEPISODE 22 More non-conference team look-ats with 4 Things focused on the Minnesota Gophers and Army Black Knights. Both of these squads will have two MAC teams to take on this season: Minnesota faces both Miami and Bowling Green while Army, which returns head coach Jeff Monken, will play Miami and Ball State. JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> https://discord.gg/GCK3TM2FZW THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING YOUR FAVORITE MAC FOOTBALL PODCAST! Matthew Hammond Se...
21. Expanded playoff reaction | 4 Things: Iowa, Northwestern
June 13, 2021 04:00 - 44 minutes - 61.7 MBEPISODE 21 The non-conference team previews continue with notes on both Iowa (vs. Kent State, Week 3) and Northwestern (vs. Ohio, Week 4). But first, the 12-team playoff model is made public and an instant reaction is only appropriate. It’s an initial nice back-door entry point for Group of 5 teams to make the playoff, and it still has a lot of area to improve. But we’ll take it I guess? JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> https://discord.gg/GCK3TM2FZW TH...
20. Early Preview: Coastal Carolina at Buffalo (w/ Alan Blondin — The Sun News)
June 09, 2021 08:00 - 30 minutes - 41.4 MBEPISODE 20 Today I’ve got a special guest for you. Alan Blondin from The Sun News in Myrtle Beach joins the show to talk about the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, and give an early preview for this season’s non-league game at Buffalo. One of the few good things from the 2020 season, on an entertainment level, was the excellent season that the Chants had. With so many returners back, this is a team that shouldn’t be overlooked, and is home to one of the most unique-looking offenses in the cou...
19. Early Preview: WMU at Pitt (w/ Mike Wilson — Cardiac Hill)
June 06, 2021 09:00 - 27 minutes - 37.8 MBEPISODE 19 Today I’ve got a special guest for you. Mike Wilson from SB Nation’s Cardiac Hill joins the program to talk about his Pitt Panthers, and give an early preview for this season’s non-league game against Western Michigan. Can the Broncos’ high-flying offense keep Pitt’s defensive secondary scrambling for answers? Or will QB Kenny Pickett lead his offense to a strong enough charge on the day? JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> https://discord.gg/GCK...
18. Non-conference confidence ranking
May 31, 2021 09:00 - 25 minutes - 34.6 MBEPISODE 18 As previously blogged on macfootballblog.com, I ranked teams in the MAC based on *my* confidence in each of them going up against their respective non-conference schedules in 2021. Here, I’ll talk about the thought processes behind my list a little bit more in-depth. JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> https://discord.gg/GCK3TM2FZW THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING YOUR FAVORITE MAC FOOTBALL PODCAST! Matthew Hammond Seth Slavin SUPPORT THE SHOW FO...
17. Best and worst 3-week starts (potentially!) for 2021 season
May 26, 2021 13:13 - 17 minutes - 24.5 MBEPISODE 17 Simple question that I’ll be tasked to answer this episode: Which MAC team will have the best three-game start to the 2021 season? Is anybody even capable of going 3-0? How many good MAC teams will start the year out with a 1-2 record? JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> https://discord.gg/GCK3TM2FZW THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING YOUR FAVORITE MAC FOOTBALL PODCAST! Matthew Hammond Seth Slavin SUPPORT THE SHOW FOR JUST $3/MONTH: Consider supporti...
16. A question from the Discord, Journalism without a paywall
May 23, 2021 14:10 - 24 minutes - 33.1 MBEPISODE 16 The initial plan for this episode was to talk about all of the Week 2 matchups, but we’ll instead kick the can on that until next week. Instead, we’re going to brush up on Buffalo’s finalized coaching staff, take a question from the Discord, and look at some hard-hitting journalism that doesn’t require a subscription fee to read. JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and say hi! --> https://discord.gg/GCK3TM2FZW THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING YOUR FAVORITE MAC FOOTBAL...
15. Week 1's | Wean on Me
May 19, 2021 12:13 - 24 minutes - 33.7 MBEPISODE 15 It’s May, which means I’m a little thankful for Buffalo giving us something new and current to keep up with here in mid-May: the boringest time in college football’s 12-month calendar year. There are mixed levels of optimism for this coaching staff + program moving forward, but why might 2021 be sloppy for the young Bulls? Also, non-conference previews will be coming up, so let’s take a quick look at the Week 1 contests. JOIN MY MACTION-SIDED DISCORD! Link to invite, join and s...
14. BUFFALO STAFF BUILDING | MY MT. RUSHMORE
May 16, 2021 12:16 - 20 minutes - 28.5 MBEPISODE 14 Buffalo, led by Maurice Linguist, is still in the rigorous process of hiring the rest of its assistant coach pool. So far Linguist has hired his first offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and recruiting coordinator. We’ll transition into transfer portal woes at Buffalo, Bowling Green, and Northern Illinois, but I really am excited to tell you why Tim Tebow is in my Mt. Rushmore. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING YOUR FAVORITE MAC FOOTBALL PODCAST! Matthew Hammond SUPPORT THE ...
13. MAURICE LINGUIST WILL BE BUFFALO’S 26TH HEAD COACH
May 09, 2021 13:10 - 24 minutes - 33.6 MBEPISODE 13 Buffalo’s search for a new head coach following Lance Leipold’s departure has come to a quick, and fairly impressive, end after just a week of the job opening up. Maurice Linguist is Buffalo’s new head coach and will be formally introduced Monday. While there’s still a lot of work left for him to still do between now and the start of the upcoming football season, this doesn’t seem like it’s the kind of hire Buffalo scrambled around aimlessly for at the last minute. Linguist is a...
12. BULLS IN PORTAL | 16-TEAM PLAYOFF?
May 05, 2021 21:18 - 27 minutes - 38.1 MBEPISODE 12 The biggest ongoing story in the world of MAC football right now is, of course, Lance Leipold’s transition from Buffalo to Kansas. He’s not the only one leaving of course. Leipold’s already taking a bunch of his coaches with him and some young starting players are already hitting the transfer portal. Both of those were expected to happen, but now we’re seeing who’s actually, also, going to be part of the big move. Also, how many playoff teams is actually necessary for an expansio...
11. 4 MAC GUYS DRAFTED | LANCE LEIPOLD TO KANSAS (AKA LANSAS)
May 02, 2021 12:08 - 27 minutes - 37.3 MBEPISODE 11 Finally, the NFL Draft is over and we have actual results (not just forecasts and opinions) to discuss. Two MAC guys were taken on Day 2, and two linemen went in the fifth round to round out this year's smaller draft class, but that's sort of to be expected with the odd pandemic year throwing a wrench in a lot of regular football plans. I talk about that, but not before we hit on a couple more bits of news that have come up during draft week. One life was nearly taken away last w...
10. NFL DRAFT PREVIEW (PT. 2) W/ KALEB CARTER
April 28, 2021 11:32 - 36 minutes - 50.6 MBEPISODE 10 It's NFL Draft week, which means that's literally the only thing we want to talk about this week. This is the second part of a two-part NFL Draft preview series that focuses entirely on the Mid-American Conference players in the draft pool. Joined with me to talk about these players is Kaleb Carter (@Kaleb_M_Carter on Twitter). I've created a 10-player "big board" so to speak, and this episode will cover the players listed at 7-10 since players listed at 1-6 were talked about in ...
9. NFL DRAFT PREVIEW (PT. 1) | BIG MAC BOARD
April 25, 2021 13:31 - 37 minutes - 51.9 MBEPISODE 9 It's NFL Draft week, which means that's literally the only thing we want to talk about this week. This is the first part of a two-part preview episode of the MAC players in this year's draft pool. Joined with me to talk about these players is Kaleb Carter (@Kaleb_M_Carter on Twitter). I've created a 10-player "big board" so-to-speak, and this episode will cover the top six players from that list. Wednesday's episode will cover the other players listed at 7-10, as well as the best ...
8. POSITIONAL PREVIEWS | KENT STATE WR | EASTERN MICHIGAN QB | OHIO DB
April 21, 2021 20:24 - 27 minutes - 38.4 MBEPISODE 8 We've got three positional previews to get to this episode! Kent State WR: Isaiah McKoy's gone, but the Flashes still bring in an All-ACC return man from Syracuse to help fill the gap. Nykeim Johnson doesn't have the size advantage McKoy had, but that speed is dangerous. EMU QB: Preston Hutchinson had his first season as the starter in 2020, and wasn't the most impressive (even though he scored 8 rushing TD). Ben Bryant comes in as a graduate transfer from Cincinnati, and he has...
7. GODZILLA VS. KONG | TOP 5 OL VS. TOP 5 DL
April 18, 2021 10:00 - 22 minutes - 31.5 MBEPISODE 7 Time to talk about some big guys. I had the pleasure of catching Godzilla vs. Kong in IMAX recently, and to celebrate, I want to look at how current MAC football linemen would stack up against one another. The new movie lightly gets discussed early on, but then (7:17) I rank my top 5 MAC offensive line units, rank my top 5 MAC defensive lines, then sort of imagine how the contrasting units would do in a battle against one another. SUPPORT THE PROGRAM VIA PATREON: If you enjoy t...
6. GEORGE BORK, AKA MR. 3000 | JULIAN EDELMAN (GUEST: KALEB CARTER)
April 14, 2021 12:58 - 25 minutes - 34.5 MBEPISODE 6 Did you know that college football's first-ever 3,000-yard passer came through Northern Illinois? Kaleb Carter (@Kaleb_M_Carter on Twitter), formerly of the DeKalb Daily Chronicle and Hustle Belt, currently 1/2 of MAC Football Forever on YouTube, joins the show to talk about the legend of George Bork and what his impact on NIU football has been ever since he played football there 50 years ago. Bork was the first player in CFB history at any level to throw for 3,000 yards in a sea...
5. TRANSFER POLICY NEWS | DRAFT-ELIGIBLE QB I FORGOT ABOUT
April 11, 2021 18:50 - 17 minutes - 23.9 MBEPISODE 5 The Mid-American Conference came out with some fairly big news on Thursday in regards to intraconference transfers. The old intraconference transfer policy which included a bunch of additional hoops for student-athletes to transfer was thrown out, and the MAC will now defer to the NCAA for its regulation on the matter. The transfer portal has helped speed things up for everybody and, while still imperfect, has been more progressive for the student-athletes. For the sake of making ...
4. JAMES PATTON | THE BEAST ON TOMMY DOYLE
April 07, 2021 18:01 - 31 minutes - 19.9 MBEPISODE 4 Today's episode of Alvarado on MACtion features a pre-recorded interview with newly-hired offensive line coach/run game coordinator for the Miami RedHawks: James Patton. Patton has over 20 years of coaching experience who has worked his way up to a top college program for years, and has since come back to coach in the league he graduated from. Miami is Patton's second MAC job since his days at the Power 5 level, and this new job also brings him and his family back to where he and ...
3. BUFFALO WR | IT'S DRAFT MONTH
April 04, 2021 13:02 - 25 minutes - 24.6 MBEPISODE 3 Buffalo's wide receivers were a big reason why the Bulls finally got back to the MAC Championship scene for the first time in a long time back in 2018. Anthony Johnson, K.J. Osborn, Charlie Jones all left after that year, but Antonio Nunn stuck around for his junior and senior seasons. The team threw the ball less, ran the rock more, and Nunn was used more than any of the other receivers on the few pass plays UB did call over those two years. Now that we're in 2021, Buffalo doesn'...
2. TOLEDO QBS | BGSU TRANSFERS OUT
March 31, 2021 17:21 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBEPISODE 2 With spring practices in our face, it's time to really look closer at how these Mid-American Conference teams have been built up over time, and what these groups might end up looking like once we get to playing games in a few months. Toledo's quarterbacks are very talented, and it's a position group that, when it plays super well, can take this team from barely bowl-eligible to potentially 9 or 10 wins in a single season. Foundationally, Toledo should always be in the conversatio...
1. INTRO | POWER RANKINGS
March 28, 2021 23:51 - 27 minutes - 31.6 MBWelcome to the first episode of Alvarado on MACtion! I've got a quick intro for this program (and myself by proxy), but I really want to just get into the main topic I have to start looking forward to the 2021 season, which is my current spring power rankings. My spring 2021 MAC football power rankings, which you're not allowed to be mad at: 1. Ball State 2. Western Michigan 3. Toledo 4. Buffalo 5. Miami 6. Central Michigan 7. Kent State 8. Ohio 9. Eastern Michigan 10. Northern I...
Trailer: Welcome to Alvarado on MACtion!
February 19, 2021 17:52 - 1 minute - 1.73 MBAlex Alvarado has blogged a bunch and talked a ton about Mid-American Conference football before, and he hasn't stopped yet. Alvarado on MACtion is a twice-a-week MAC football podcast with new episodes every Sunday and Wednesday. Subscribe now and never miss a beat! Links Medium blog: Alvarado on MACtion Music via: Prod. Riddiman Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/alvaradoonmaction Podbean: https://alvaradoonmaction.podbean.com/ Twitter: @ARAlvarado13 Twitter: @mactionpod Twitter: @mac...