CSFL Season 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 am unfortunately now down to 2-for-4 in terms of predicting the CSFL champion during my time contributing to this website, as Navy took home the title to earn the league’s first three-peat since the Midshipmen also did it from 2007-09. 

More than anything, you simply have to tip your cap to a sustained run of dominance like this. Even in a league as small as the CSFL, which generally hovers from eight to 10 teams, three straight championships is a preposterous run given how much roster turnover exists in college sports on an annual basis. This year’s squad might not have been quite as dominant as the prior two, as 2023 was the only year out of the trio to feature a regular season loss, but Navy got it done when it counted yet again. In particular, the 28-point showing in the title game was extremely impressive, given that Army had only allowed 23 points combined during its 6-0 regular season (including only three to Navy on October 6). Because Navy has an unconventional rule where a head coach cannot be in that role for more than three consecutive seasons, this means that HC Alfonso Meidus’ tenure concluded with a 23-1 record and three CSFL titles in his three seasons running the show … not to mention the three championships Navy won in his four years as a player there. Winners find a way to win.

At the individual level, I took the easy route for the second straight year by picking Cahsid Raymond to win MVP, and it looks like I’ll be wrong for the second straight year. Of course, we should still acknowledge how ridiculous it is that a “down year” for Raymond’s standards entails leading the CSFL with 568 rushing yards and 6.2 yards/carry (min. 40 carries) — especially when his actual position is quarterback. But with how elite the QB play was across the league this year, it seems nearly certain that the award will go in another direction. Personally, I think there’s a very strong argument for Ryan Kenny of St. Thomas Aquinas, as he led STAC to its first winning season in school history while leading the CSFL in passing yards (1,460) and pass TD (17). But ultimately, I think the award should and will go to Navy QB Brandon Atwood. The senior’s passing numbers were at or near the top of the league across the board (64.2 completion percentage, 16 TD, 4 INT), not to mention that his 466 rushing yards were second-most in the CSFL behind Raymond. Throw in his stellar performance in the championship game (2 pass TD, 0 INT, 109 rushing yards), and you have all the ingredients for a hardware-winning year.

Looking more broadly at the league as a whole, a notable trend was just how evenly matched the middle tier of teams was. Army and Navy were on a different level, and Cornell was winless, but in between, anybody was capable of taking down anybody. Take this cycle, for example: Chestnut Hill swept Penn, who beat STAC, who beat Mansfield, who beat Caldwell, who beat Chestnut Hill. Any sport is at its best when the results aren’t a given ahead of time, and the CSFL exemplified that for much of this year.

Of course, it would be better if that concept applied at the top of the league, which was certainly not the case, as Army and Navy met in the title game for the fourth straight season. I wrote in last year’s season roundup that Caldwell appeared set to be the next team to sincerely challenge the academies, with the Cougars coming off consecutive 5-2 seasons, but this year was a notable step back, as Caldwell’s two wins on the field were its fewest since going winless in 2018. STAC gave Navy a pretty competitive 27-14 game to open the season, and with Kenny back for another season, perhaps the Spartans can build on this year’s winning season and vault into legit title contention in 2024. 

As for my old Penn program, maybe this is some homerism from my end, but I sincerely don’t believe things are quite as bad as they seem. Of course, the two most important numbers at the end of any season are the ones in the “W” and “L” columns, and Penn’s two wins this season were the program’s fewest since going 2-4 in 2006 … back when LaDainian Tomlinson won NFL MVP and Boise State took down Oklahoma thanks to the “Statue of Liberty.” But there are signs that the team’s recent downward trend could reverse direction. For starters, simply looking at the personnel, the Quakers ended this season with only four seniors on the roster (three on offense, one on defense). Just about any high school or college football team, at least on paper, should improve when facing that little turnover, unless all four of those guys happened to be named Derrick Henry. But going beyond the roster layout, and approaching things on a more conceptual level, I still see some fire in University City. I was in Philadelphia for the team’s season-ending loss to Navy, and while the final 33-7 score wasn’t close, that defense was making Navy work for everything it got. Throw the analytics out the window; the bottom line is that you don’t stop the eventual league champions on four straight runs starting on 1st-and-goal from the +3 unless you truly give a shit. Effort alone doesn’t bring anyone a championship, but it’s an important piece of the puzzle, and it provides reason to believe that this program isn’t cooked quite yet, despite what’s inarguably been a sharp decline in the standings in recent years.
Going forward for the CSFL, I believe there’s a lot to be excited about. The sudden dissolution of Alderson Broaddus as a school was a surprising hit, but the league managed to bounce back and add Molloy University (NY) for the 2024 season, which will add a new wrinkle. The concept of a CSFL-MSFL interleague title game is also alluring, as it would add a new element to the sport if there was a true “national championship” on the line. I expect this to be implemented soon, if not as quickly as next season. And of course, there’s no reason that the sport’s growth has to be limited to the Midwest, as there have been occasional rumors of even further westward expansion. When all is said and done, the lack of parity up top continues to be somewhat underwhelming. But on a larger scale, when we combine the sport’s 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, it’s hard to say the league isn’t in a strong place.