Courtesy of Midland Athletics
SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) has announced the preseason football coaches’ poll for the 2023 season. Midland University was picked to finish fourth in the conference after tying for third in 2022. Northwestern College, the defending NAIA National Champions was picked to finish atop the conference closely followed by Morningside University who won the conference crown a season ago.
“We are excited about the 2023 football campaign,” commented head coach Jeff Jamrog. “Our players have had a great spring and summer. Our fans will enjoy the five home games against quality GPAC competition, led by defending national champion Northwestern.”
The GPAC saw a pair of teams reach the NAIA Playoffs in 2022. In addition to the Raiders who won the title, Morningside made the field of 16 teams as the overall number-one seed. This year, the field grows to 20 teams with 13 automatic qualifiers from conference championships and 7 at-large bids. Midland will look to be one of those teams in 2023 with a solid core from last year’s 8-4 team returning. Two of those key pieces will be Gunnar Vanek, a senior offensive lineman, and Xavier Green, a senior linebacker.
“Guys have been pushing each other in the weight room and we’re looking for to fall camp and the start of the season,” commented Vanek. “Offensively, we look to go plus four every game in terms of touchdowns and turnovers. That’s something Coach [Caden] Murphy brought in during the spring. He brings a lot of energy to the team and we’re excited for the season.”
“Summer workouts have been really good for us,” added Green. “We’ve had hard workouts and we’ve had guys showing up every day, giving 110 percent. We’ve got great culture building in our program right now. We have great coaches in our program and our next-man-up mentality will be key this year with some of the veterans we lost.”
Midland opens the season on the road with a game at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa on Saturday, August 26. They’ll return home the following week to begin conference play with a game against the University of Jamestown on Saturday, September 2. For a complete look at the 2023 Midland Football Schedule, click here.
