Central Michigan Chippewas 2026 Season Preview

Drinkall's Deceptive 7-6

Matt Drinkall's first year at Central Michigan produced a 7-6 record and a 5-3 mark in conference play, but the underlying numbers say sell high. In league games, the Chippewas won at a 62.5% clip while their yardage margin against those same opponents only supported a 43.8% pace, and a plus-5 turnover margin over 13 games padded the ledger further. With just 27% production returning and both flattering factors unlikely to repeat, year two looks like the correction, not a continuation of the breakthrough.

Defense Carries, Offense Stalls

Central Michigan won seven games last year despite an offense that ranked 118th in passing yards per game and 115th on third down, propped up by a defense that generated 29 sacks and a 21.7% run-stuff rate good for 28th nationally. That imbalance defines 2026 too, since the fix has to come from Angel Flores, who threw for just 195 yards with 2 touchdowns against an interception in limited action but now owns the job outright. If Flores can push the offense past a 34.1% third-down rate, a defense that already forces enough short fields to rank 35th in turnover margin has the pieces to turn this into a real conference contender.

Joe Labas took 1,854 yards and 13 touchdowns out the door, and Central Michigan hands the offense to Angel Flores, who threw for just 195 yards in his limited 2025 look. That's a steep jump in workload for a passing attack that finished 118th in yards per game, so Flores won't be asked to replicate Labas through the air so much as avoid mistakes behind a run game that graded out 59th nationally. If Flores can protect the ball, Matt Drinkall's offense can lean on the ground attack; if he can't, a unit that already ranked 115th on third down has no margin for a shaky transition at quarterback.

Central Michigan replaces nearly its entire 2025 rushing production, with Nahree Biggins (540 yards) and Trey Cornist (469 yards) both gone, by going shopping in the portal. Jayden Clerveaux arrives from Holy Cross off a 762-yard, 5-touchdown season and projects as the lead back, with Vaughn Blue (234 yards at Liberty) adding a second proven option behind him. Brock Townsend is the only holdover with real carries (418 yards, 4 TD), and how quickly Clerveaux meshes with him will decide whether a run game that ranked 59th nationally can hold that level with almost entirely new faces in the backfield.

Central Michigan's top returning wideouts combined for gains that barely dent what walked out the door with Tommy McIntosh (31 catches, 422 yards, 3 TD) and Langston Lewis (43 catches, 596 yards, 3 TD) gone. Collin Payne (4 catches, 87 yards) and Nasir Williams (4 catches, 76 yards, 1 TD) are the closest thing to established options, while three-star arrivals Avin Robinson and DaShon Febres come in with no game production to point to yet. A passing game that finished 118th in yards per game last season now leans on unproven names to simply keep pace with 2025.

Central Michigan's leading receiving tight end, DeCorion Temple (17 catches, 143 yards, 2 TD), is gone, along with Henry Dryden's 8 catches, leaving Landon Swanson (6 tackles) as the only proven contributor at the position. The Chippewas didn't chase a portal fix here, instead restocking with high school signees Zack Wagner, Zander Barth and Gavin Spillers plus Sacramento State transfer Dontae Robinson, none of whom have logged a catch. That's a lot of unproven bodies for a passing game that ranked 118th in yards per game, and it points to Myles Peters or Swanson carrying the early load while the newcomers develop.

A line that produced only 167 passing yards per game and a 34.1% third-down rate (115th nationally) last season is now getting almost entirely reworked. Eight linemen are out the door, and Matt Drinkall is filling the gaps with a five-man class of three-star tackles and guards headlined by Jack Nolan, Jacob Timmer and Charlie Mandabach, alongside interior addition Wyatt Graffin. Seniors Brady Ploucha, John Iannuzzi and Martin Koivisto give the group some experience to lean on, but with no clear returning starters identified, 2026 is about whether the newcomers can push the ground game (59th in rushing yards per game) forward while the passing infrastructure gets rebuilt around them.

Korver Demma's 4 sacks and 9 TFL make him the closest thing Central Michigan has to a proven disruptor up front, and with JJ Douglas back alongside him the Chippewas keep their two most productive linemen from a group that ranked 28th in run-stuff rate. But the bigger question is depth behind them, since Jonathan Decker's 25 tackles and Kade Kostus's edge snaps are gone, leaving three-star additions Matthew Sexton, Matthew Plumb and Evan Walker to push for early roles as pass rushers. Demma and Douglas give this line a floor, but the 2026 ceiling depends on how fast that incoming edge trio translates into actual havoc plays.

Central Michigan just lost the heart of its front seven: Jordan Kwiatkowski (112 tackles, 13.5 TFL) and Dakota Cochran (81 tackles, 6 TFL) accounted for the bulk of the production behind a defense that ran 28th nationally in run-stuff rate. Nobody left on the roster comes close to replicating that box score, with Xavier White's 26 tackles the top mark among returners, so three-star arrivals Elijah Reynolds, Leon Howard Jr. and Joshua Atiemo will be pushed to contribute early. The scheme that made Central Michigan disruptive up front is intact, but the players who executed it are gone, and that gap is the real question for 2026.

Central Michigan lost almost its entire tackle sheet at defensive back, with Elijah Gordon, Kalen Carroll, Elijah Rikard and Maddix Blackwell all gone, and the group that finished 49th in passing yards allowed per game now leans on Jaion Jackson, whose 45 tackles and 4 TFL dwarf every other returning number in the room. Matt Drinkall answered the exodus by importing bodies rather than hoping depth chart leftovers sort it out, bringing in Wyoming's Justin Taylor and Campbell transfer Donavan Philord alongside a trio of high school safeties in Colton Benaitis, Trav Moore and JaJuan Jones. That's a secondary being reassembled almost entirely with outside pieces around Jackson, and how fast Taylor and Philord adjust to MAC receivers will decide whether last year's 53rd-ranked yardage defense holds steady or slips.

Cade Graham's departure strips away a kicker who hit 14 of 17 field goals and racked up 77 points, and nobody left on the roster has replicated that in games. Zac Chapeau has the only game snaps on file at placekicker, just 3 punts worth of action with a 40.3 average, while Caden VanHuis and incoming Green River recruit Braxton Doak carry no statistical track record at all. Declan Duley remains the steady piece, having punted 54 times at a 41.1 average, so the Chippewas' points-after-drives production rests on whether Chapeau can turn limited experience into a real job.

Rebuilding Skill, Same Arm

Central Michigan tore out its offensive backbone, sending Joe Labas's 1,854 passing yards, Nahree Biggins and Trey Cornist out of the backfield, and both Langston Lewis and Tommy McIntosh out of the receiving corps, while the defense lost Jordan Kwiatkowski's 112 tackles. The plan for replacing all that production leans on the portal rather than a true quarterback change: Angel Flores, who threw just 195 yards a year ago, now runs the show, and the ground game gets rebuilt around Holy Cross import Jayden Clerveaux (762 yards, 5 TD) and Liberty's Vaughn Blue. With 17 departures against a 95th-ranked class, this is a roster betting that transfer volume at running back and in the secondary, led by safeties Justin Taylor and Darrell Bryant Jr., can offset the talent it shipped out.

Jayden Clerveaux's carries

Central Michigan handed Joe Labas' passing offense to Angel Flores, who threw for just 195 yards a season ago, which means the run game has to cover for an unproven arm. That puts the weight on Jayden Clerveaux, the Holy Cross transfer who piled up 762 rushing yards, working alongside returner Brock Townsend and his 418 yards and 4 scores. If that duo controls the clock, Flores only has to manage games; if it stalls, a passing attack with 195 career yards has nowhere to hide.

Chippewas Cover

Matt Drinkall's second season arrives with a betting record that outran the win-loss line last fall: Central Michigan went 8-5 against the number overall and a spotless 4-0 as a home favorite, while conference play produced a 6-2 cover mark against a milder 5-3 straight-up mark in league games. That gap between actual results and market expectation is the story for 2026, home favorites and MAC games are where this program has been consistently undervalued. The one soft spot worth flagging is the single game against a ranked opponent, an 0-1 cover that suggests the market still doesn't trust this team once the competition level jumps.