2022 Review

Cole Jacobson: With the end of the season having come, it’s time to reflect on another year of CSFL action. As always, I’ll start things off by looking back at my preseason predictions. At the team level, I got the CSFL champion right for the second time in my three seasons contributing to this website, as Navy took home the championship to become the first repeat winner since Army in 2012-2013. Not only did the Midshipmen bring home the championship, but they also did it by going 8-0 for the second consecutive season, which means they have won 16 consecutive games, the longest streak by any CSFL team since Army had 20 from 2012-14. I felt that Navy’s veteran-led offense featuring returning stars like QB Brandon Atwood, RB Alex Totta, and WR Andrew Margiotta would be what pushed the Mids over the edge, and that’s exactly how it played out, as Navy scored at least 26 points in all eight games. 

At the individual level, I took the easy route by picking Cahsid Raymond to win MVP, and while the award hasn’t been announced yet, it looks like I’ll miss the mark there. Alex Totta has to be the favorite, as he had the senior season that everyone who has ever played a down of high school or college ball has dreamed of. League champions, perfect 8-0 record, first 1,000-yard rusher the league has seen since 2014 (Eric Wellmon), all capped off with a thrilling 28-21 win over your biggest rival in the championship game in which you had two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter? The only way you could script more of a Cinderella story ending would be if he proposed to his girlfriend as soon as the clock hit zeroes — and for all I know, he might have done that too. Raymond certainly had an impressive season, one that was nearly a clone of his performance in 2021 as a freshman. In both seasons, he led the CSFL in yards/carry (min. 10 carries), averaged more than 100 rushing yards per game, and ranked top-3 in both passing yards and passing TD. But I think the award should and will go to Totta, who re-wrote the record books by being Navy’s workhorse all year long.

Looking more broadly at the league as a whole, I’d say the season went roughly as expected. In my 2021 season review, I discussed how the league had some emerging parity late in that year, but if anything, it seemed like that faded a bit this season. We had the same two teams in the championship that we had in each of the prior three seasons, and Caldwell was the only team that really threatened either of them during the regular season. Caldwell’s emergence in recent years has been a great asset for the league. This team was bad in my junior and senior seasons (2017 and 2018), but having more years to bring in recruits has paid off dividends, to the point where they are coming off consecutive 5-2 seasons and look like the clear 3rd-best team in the league. Their rise as a program has made it so that Army hasn’t had a complete cakewalk in the North division, the way it was in the late 2010s, which is a great thing for the sport. But as is the case in any sport, making the jump from bad to good isn’t as difficult as making the jump from good to elite, and it remains to be seen if Caldwell is capable of the latter. Until they, or someone else, does, the league’s true powers will be who they have been for the majority of the sport’s history.

One disappointing aspect of the 2022 season was the lack of a CSFL-MSFL interleague championship game. As I wrote in August 2022, it might have been ugly if there was such a game, as it’s very difficult to succeed with only one year of true recruits in a sport that demands roster depth the way that football does. But it still would have been nice to see the game be played. If the sport does want to become a national one, it should have the CSFL and MSFL operate like two conferences under the same umbrella (e.g., SEC and Big 12), rather than two entirely separate entities (e.g., NBA and NFL). I’m sure Kyle Johnson-Hackett is much more knowledgeable than I am on why the game wasn’t played, so it’s not my place to speculate, but all I will say is that I hope and expect that to change going forward.

As for another disappointment of this year, I have to go with my old Penn program. I knew that this wasn’t quite a championship-ready team based on what I saw in our annual alumni game in September, but I still said with conviction that their defensive talent would lead them to a winning season. Unfortunately, I was a bit too optimistic, as the Quakers finished 3-4 for their first losing season since 2012. The team allowed 36 sacks in seven games, which simply can’t happen at any level of football. Either for better or worse, a year like this will be a major inflection point for the program. Things can change quickly in this league; the last time Penn had a losing season, we were undefeated league champions only four years later, bringing home a ring in my sophomore year in 2016. A turnaround like that requires not only some great recruiting luck, but also a group of players really willing to commit to each other and their shared goal of winning. So from the “glass half-full” standpoint, the 2022 season doesn’t necessarily mean the program is cooked. But from the “glass half-empty” standpoint, the program’s recent trajectory is rough, plain and simple. Penn is a notoriously demanding school for reasons that go way beyond football, and it’s very realistic that some kids might say “fuck it, if we’re not a championship contender, then this isn’t worth the time I could be spending keeping my grades up, job-hunting, having a social life, etc. (not to mention avoiding the need to cut weight).” I could see it going either way, but I’ll always want the best for that program, and I’ll eagerly be following along to see the next steps. 
Going forward for the league as a whole, I believe there’s a lot to be excited about. As previously stated in this article, Caldwell’s growth is one source of optimism, as the CSFL (like any sport) is always better when there are more than two realistic title contenders. The concept of an interleague title game is another, as it would add a whole new allure to the sport if there was a true “national championship” on the line. And perhaps the biggest one is the notion of sprint football continuing to spread. Since the Midwest Sprint Football League was originally announced, there have been rumors of even further westward expansion, which would be incredible for all people involved with the sport. When I was recapping the 2019 season for this website, I wrote that “sprint football is likely never going to be a nationwide sport, with dozens of teams taking flights every week to compete across the country.” It looks like I might have been wrong in that sentiment, and I hope I was. Combine that potential geographic expansion with the ongoing rise of televised games, and the growing presence of a media outlet thanks to Kyle Johnson-Hackett’s tireless work, and the sport is in a great place moving forward.