'A game of musical chairs'
After a winning season under a first-year head coach, what's next for the Chippewas?
Senior defensive back Brenden Deasfernandes celebrates a solo pass breakup at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. Deasfernandes finished the game with one solo tackle and one defended pass. (CM-Life | Trevor Sparks)
The locker room was quiet long before the season officially ended.
Long after the final whistle echoed through Ford Field, Central Michigan football players could be seen giving autographs, while others took their final moments as a Chippewa. Despite the 34-7 loss to Northwestern, CMU football wasn’t stuck in disappointment — it was focused on reflection.
“This is just a preview of what it can be,” linebacker Jordan Kwiatkowski said.
For the football program, the 2025 season wasn’t defined by a bowl loss. It was defined by belief. Belief that was built through seven wins, a return to postseason football and a locker room that bought into a new standard under first-year head coach Matt Drinkall.
Looking back a year ago when we didn't even know where this thing was going to go," Kwiatkowski said. "You just really reflect and you just got to be grateful."
In the days following the bowl game, the Chippewas entered one of the most emotional and uncertain stretches of its year. The transfer portal opened, NFL Draft declarations followed and exit interviews began. A roster that had grown together for months began to shift.
“The landscape of college football right now is so different,” Drinkall said. “You’re playing in games where there might be kids that play today that meet with me tomorrow and say, ‘I’m going somewhere else.’”
Movement across the roster
That reality hit almost immediately.
Several Chippewas entered the transfer portal the days after the season ended, creating change across multiple position groups. In the secondary, defensive backs Kalen Carroll and Brenden Deasfernandes moved on after playing key roles in a defense that improved as the season progressed.
Carroll, who was previously at Cincinnati, has now committed to Texas Christian University with one year of eligibility left. Deasfernandes who was previously at Iowa prior to CMU, transferred to bowl-game opponent, Northwestern.
"Something I've done personally for the rest of the team is trying to be empathetic for the rest of the team and allow them to put themselves in my shoes and allow me to put myself in their shoes so they can understand when I say you don't have a lot of time left," Deasfernandes said. "This is exactly what the feeling is and this is the meaning of it."
Tight end DeCorion Temple, who spent the last four seasons with the Chippewas, found a new home at Oregon State. Running back Trey Cornist, the previous transfer from Tulane, committed to the University of Connecticut after seeing some action alongside Nahree Biggins throughout the season.
The movement extended throughout the locker room. Offensive linemen Jacob Saurbeck, Ryan Blum and Dane Sickler entered the portal as Central Michigan prepares to reshuffle its protection unit.
Wide receivers Tyson Davis and Langston Lewis, both who are veterans on the team, also entered the transfer portal. As of Jan. 6, Lewis has since removed his name from the portal via an Instagram announcement.
On the defensive line, Keshawn Hayden and Kade Kostus have both entered the portal but are currently uncommitted.
On paper, the list feels long. In reality, it reflects today’s game.
“It’s really kind of a game of musical chairs,” Drinkall said. “We’ve created an environment and a product now that a lot of people want to be a part of. So more people I think are going to want to stay.”
For some players, the portal offered a clearer path to playing time. For others, it offered a new role or system. For the program, it means responding quickly — balancing roster needs while protecting the culture built over the season.
“There’ll be all new kinds of challenges when you win seven games and go to a bowl,” Drinkall said. "Our kids are awesome. I love our players. They play their absolute tails off, and I think one of the things that makes our team so unique and so fun to be around is we talk all the time about being willing to do things that others are unwilling to do."
A different kind of goodbye
While the transfer portal creates one door, the NFL Draft declarations represent a different door.
Seven of CMU’s veterans declared for the NFL Draft: quarterback Joe Labas, safety Elijah Rikard, defensive lineman Dylan Fisher, defensive lineman Johnathan Decker, Biggins, Kwiatkowski and defensive lineman Michael Heldman. Their decisions officially closed the chapter on a senior class that helped steady the program during a major transition.
When Drinkall arrived in Mount Pleasant, there were no guarantees. The roster could have emptied overnight. Instead, the senior leaders stayed.
“If these guys leave, it’s over,” Drinkall said. “Everybody leaves with these guys.”
Kwiatkowski became one of the emotional anchors of the defense — a vocal leader whose toughness set the tone each week. Finishing with 117 total tackles and three sacks this season, Kwiatkowski leaves behind a legacy that he wants to be continued.
Alongside him was Heldman who has been a part of this team since 2021. In this year alone, he had 48 total tackles and 10.5 sacks for 48 yards.
"Now we look forward to what the Central Michigan team is going to be and the one thing we did as seniors I think is a really good job is internally...we led these guys in a way," Heldman said. "There were a lot of young guys. We led these guys in a way that they started to follow along. We had a certain attitude when it came to playing football. Coach Drinkall brought a lot of that philosophy in and guys started to form to just the philosophy we had as a senior class but also a philosophy he had."
Culture beyond the scoreboard
One of the clearest signs of Central Michigan’s growth didn’t show up in box scores.
The team’s GPA jumped from 2.63 to 3.43 in a single year; a statistic Kwiatkowski returned to often.
“We went to class. We did our homework,” he said. “The way you do everything is the way you do anything.”
That mindset carried over to football.
For the seniors, leadership meant modeling the right behaviors every day, whether that was in meetings, in workouts and in how they carried themselves. That example now has become their lasting impact.
“We've set the standard," Heldman said. "It just goes to show how these guys are dedicated to playing this game but also getting a degree. The standard is seven and five. That is their standard going into the offseason. That's what they're going to do. It's all about winning."
Navigating what comes next
CMU now faces the challenge of replacing production, leadership and experience while holding onto the identity that fueled its turnaround under Drinkall.
“We’ll recruit as hard as anyone in America,” Drinkall said. “The timeline is the hardest part.”
Unlike a year ago, the program isn’t set on a rebuild but an uprising of new possibilities.
“I think there's enough of a body of work now where when I say it it's not a leap of faith," Drinkall said. " Now there's enough evidence where everybody's looking for the same things at the same time and we now know kind of like which way to go together."
Younger players will be asked to step into bigger roles sooner than expected. New faces will arrive through the portal. Expectations will rise — inside the locker room and beyond it.
“(This is) one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever been through in my life. It’s one of those things that was really neat because I came from West Point where I wasn’t the head coach...to where I come into this environment where now I am the head coach,” Drinkall said. “I really lean heavily on these guys’ leadership for advice...and the coolest part was the team did such a great job this year because our most talented, productive players are our hardest working and best people.”
