CSFL Season Predictions

Cole Jacobson: I’ll start this thing off the same way I did in my 2022 season predictions, and probably the same way I’ll start off this same article in 2024: Cahsid Raymond for MVP.

He came up just short of winning the award last year, thanks to Alex Totta’s remarkable 1,112 rushing yards as part of Navy’s undefeated season, but Raymond’s body of work halfway through his sprint football career is still off the charts. In each of his two 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. His performances strictly as a runner already would have him in the MVP conversation in any given year, and when we factor in his legitimate dual-threat ability, he has to be the preseason favorite, as he can do things that no one else in this league does. Mansfield’s program is on the rise, having four consecutive .500+ seasons from 2018-22 after not doing so once from 2008-17, and if the Mounties can become a legit championship contender this year, that would send Raymond’s already promising MVP odds through the roof. 

Still, as always, there’s no guarantee that the favorite takes it home, and there are several other key names worth keeping an eye on. For starters, as Kyle Johnson-Hackett already touched on, this should be a strong year for quarterback play throughout the CSFL, with Army’s Mikal Willeke and Navy’s Brandon Atwood both having strong MVP chances (particularly if either one leads his team to a league championship). In terms of offensive skill players, Caldwell RB and reigning CSFL Rookie of the Year Devon Turner is a threat, as is Navy senior and returning first team All-CSFL WR Andrew Margiotta. If a defensive player wins it, my pick would be Army LB Luke Gigliotti, but Caldwell CB Kyle Readus is another name to watch, particularly if the Cougars can shut down the service academies. So while my money is on Raymond, there’s no shortage of proven veteran talent on his tail.

On the team side, I say this is Army’s year to win it after Navy became the first repeat champion since Army did it from 2012-13. While I do think it’s true that the South division is weaker than the North, particularly due to the CSFL’s puzzling move to move St. Thomas Aquinas to the South rather than Caldwell, the personnel on the field will always be the bigger factor than the schedule, and Army should be loaded this year. 

Make no mistake: while the Black Knights came very close to winning a championship in 2022, leading 14-0 at one point in the title game, they were not a team with a roster necessarily built to peak that year. Only eight seniors were on the roster, compared to 17 for Navy. While first team All-CSFL WR Donovan Mannion graduated, and fellow first team All-CSFL WR Traye Carson is not listed on Army’s 2023 roster, the team still returns Willeke, its top five rushers from 2022, two of its three All-CSFL offensive linemen, and a staggering 19 of its 21 top tacklers from a year ago — basically a full two-deep of returning players with meaningful defensive experience. 

The cupboard isn’t bare for Navy by any means, as the Midshipmen do return eight of their top 11 tacklers, not to mention the Atwood-Margiotta combination that played such a major role in last year’s title (Margiotta: 6 rec, 56 yards, 1 TD in the championship). But losing the reigning league MVP, along with two starting receivers and two starting offensive linemen, will provide some challenges. In general, due to the constant rotation of player personnel, it’s tough to three-peat even in a league as small as this one; the only instance of it in the 21st century is when Navy did so from 2007-2009. With this in mind, I’m going with the program with more proven returning talent for now, though both Navy and a rapidly improving Caldwell program are capable of shaking things up.

As for my old Penn program, morale is probably low following the team’s first Alumni Game loss since 2012 (though it’s certainly high for me and my fellow old men who took the field last Saturday). While the 22-7 loss to the Alumni isn’t a good sign, I sincerely do think that, excluding the QB position, Penn’s 2023 team is slightly better than its 2022 team was. Penn has four players in the front seven who earned some type of All-CSFL honors last year (Matt McKillop, Cameron Janock, Charles Tauckus, Jake Inserra), and the offensive line, while still young, has improved from where it was a year ago, when it allowed 36 sacks in seven games despite having a pretty mobile QB in Andrew Paolini. But of course, when evaluating any football team, you can’t just exclude the most important position on the field, and Paolini’s graduation combined with the departure from the program of presumptive starter Jack Annicelli has left Penn in tough circumstances there. Still, with a relatively easy schedule that doesn’t include Mansfield or Caldwell, I think a realistic best-case scenario here is that the Quakers ride their defense to a .500 season.