Spring practice notes: CMU’s evolving offense, new vibes for MSU, UM

The Mitten — Spring practices for four of the five FBS schools in Michigan began last week, with Western Michigan set to begin on Tuesday, Mar. 24. 

Here are some notes after a week's worth of practice.

Central Michigan not sweating lack of passing reps

The Central Michigan quarterbacks returning to the team in 2026 are, collectively, not well established as college passers. 

Redshirt-sophomore Jadyn Glasser has the most attempts at the FBS level, most of which came as a true freshman in 2024 before the current coaching staff arrived. Angel Flores and Marcus Beamon are both largely unproven as regular passers. But asking around the Central Michigan coaching staff, they’re not concerned about a dearth of passing experience. 

And while the CMU quarterbacks might not be ready-made passers, the coaching staff views it as a luxury to return a trio of quarterbacks that have played some meaningful snaps, know the system, and have the trust of their coaches and teammates. 

That, in the current landscape of college football, can be a luxury. 

“It’s going to be hard to find guys who have played a whole bunch of football,” head coach Matt Drinkall said. “That are doing that. And it's certainly not a problem that's unique to us. But those guys, I mean, every single one of our quarterbacks we know is incredibly physically and mentally gifted. They are coached incredibly well by [offensive coordinator Jim] Chapin, and they're gonna all be ready to go and play.”

And given the options of riding with the quarterbacks they know and trust, and giving them time and space to develop or recruiting over their roster for a quarterback with more reps, it was an easy call. And, as Drinkall noted, a quarterback coming off a strong season passing for a G5 team would potentially get poached to transfer to a power conference team. 

Instead, Central Michigan enters the 2026 season with seasoned, known commodities at quarterback, with the chance that they continue to blossom into something more. 

Speaking of Central Michigan’s offense, expect it to evolve

With about a dozen spring practices remaining and a whole summer and fall camp, the exact nature of the Central Michigan offense is still being fleshed out. But Drinkall has been clear through the offseason that the offense will be a bit more open and closer to what the Chippewas ultimately want to do after playing a methodical, take-the-air-out-the-ball style in 2025. 

There isn’t a strictly defined scheme or school of thought that the offensive scheme for Central Michigan comes from, i.e. they’re not rigid in what it actually is. 

Drinkall has described it as a “power spread,” where the Chippewas will blend bigger personnel and staples of power football, particularly on the ground, with some of the more modern, sideline-to-sideline formations that allow easy distribution of the ball to the perimeter from the quarterback position. 

“All kinds of ways to get the ball distributed all over the place, and fun ways to do it,” Drinkall said. “Get the ball to the perimeter and where it won't be quite — it won't quite look as in a phone booth like it was last year. Now we'll start to be able to distribute the ball.”

It’s also a safe bet that the run game, which had plenty of diversity in looks and personnel in 2025, continues to be a weapon for Central Michigan. 

There are several players, both on the offensive line and at running back, such as OL Losini Maka, RB Vaughn Blue and RB John Stowers — who is in the ballpark of 250 pounds — that are already getting strong reviews from the offensive coaches. 

Maka projects as a potential starter at center, as the Georgetown transfer has repped there early in spring. Central Michigan also returns a pair of starting tackles in Jacob Russell and Martin Koivisto, a good set of building blocks for any offense. 

Also be on the lookout for more creativity and a deeper rolodex of looks for the quarterback run game and the option. All three quarterbacks are good runners in various capacities and are back for Year 2 in the system. 

Don’t be surprised if Drinkall, the former offensive line coach at Army, opens up that part of the playbook some. 

New sheriffs, new vibes in East Lansing, Ann Arbor

The Big Ten programs both hit major vibe shifts this offseason, albeit for very different reasons. 

In East Lansing, relatively new athletic director J Batt moved quickly after the football season to jettison head coach Jonathan Smith, leaving behind the underwhelming tenure to bring in Pat Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, despite his whatever baggage from his exit at Northwestern, has seemingly jolted the Spartan program into a higher gear since arriving. 

He, personally, has appeared energized by the work he’s taken on over the past months in assembling a staff — on and off the field — while re-recruiting the 2026 signing class, getting going on the 2027 group, recruiting transfers and molding the clay of his first team in East Lansing through the winter and early spring. 

Fitzgerald, by most accounts, has also been an energizing force amongst donors, the importance of which is probably hard to overstate given that Michigan State, as a university, is trying to raise several billion dollars over the next half decade. 

He’s also been a constant presence around campus, showing up at men’s basketball and ice hockey games, driving up the energy around the Spartans. 

Kyle Whittingham’s arrival in Ann Arbor has been slightly lower-key, which is probably welcome to many in Ann Arbor after several years of Jim Harbaugh antics under the NCAA spotlight and Sherrone Moore’s messy firing from the head coaching role in December. He’s still popped up at Michigan hockey games, much like his rivalry counterpart in East Lansing. 

And whereas Michigan State needed someone familiar with the landscape and a jumpstart, Michigan might benefit from a coach who might just be a little bit boring. That’s not to say Whittingham is dull or the Wolverines will become an afterthought — hardly likely — but various sideshows that defined the Michigan program off the field under the Harbaugh and Moore eras post pandemic seem more than likely to be a thing of the past. 

And Michigan’s pro day participants noted a differing level of seriousness and intensity to the offseason workouts and practices they got to catch a glimpse of under new leadership. 

“From what I’ve heard, the boys are working hard,” linebacker Jimmy Rolder said. “They’re loving the change, embracing the process and everything going on right now. It’s been great feedback.”

And if nothing else, these are both coaches trying to play some physical, mean football. If they execute their plans, the future of the Paul Bunyan trophy could be very hotly contested in years to come. 

MSU embracing early mornings

While it may have conveniently kept his players from getting into any St. Patrick’s Day related shenanigans, Fitzgerald and the Spartans are hitting early morning practices starting at 6:40 in the morning. 

It’s largely so the team can practice together without scheduling conflicts, Fitzgerald said. 

The move to get going first thing in the morning might not be what the players themselves would’ve picked, but they’ve been receptive to it all. And as they get going, they suspect they might start to appreciate starting their days with practice. 

If nothing else, their coach might make them. 

“It’s 6 o’clock in the morning and, you know, he’s jumping around and stuff. We got to match that energy,” linebacker Jordan Hall said. 

Hosting an offensive line vs. defensive line punt catching competition probably did help lighten things. 

Eastern Michigan making final staff moves

The Eagles hired a number of coaches in the last few days to fill out the coaching staff. 

Sean Dugan, who has been on the staff for a number of years in various roles, is now the full-time linebackers coach, the Eagles announced recently. 

The Eagles also hired former EMU analyst and staffer Grant Kurzner as the new special teams coordinator, after he spent two seasons at Michigan as an analyst. 

And lastly, EMU has hired Donnell Kirkwood as running backs coach. Kirkwood was most recently on staff at Washington State and played running back at Minnesota from 2010-14. 

They join the other hires that have been made to the EMU coaching staff this offseason, along with a shuffle of some retained coaches. 

Also joining the Eagles’ coaching staff this offseason have been Antreal Allen (cornerbacks), Erik ‘Soup’ Campbell (receivers) and Zac Sias (defensive tackles).