The Mid-American Conference is starting to come to form as we hit the home stretch of the 2023 season. Here is a look at some of the top storylines from around the MAC from last weekend.

1. Buffalo is now heating up as they get to 2-0 in MAC play: Buffalo faced off against Central Michigan on Saturday for their home opener in the MAC. Buffalo started the season off 0-4 before entering MAC play last week against Akron. Since then, they are 2-0 and have outscored opponents 50-23 in that span. A big part of their success in recent weeks is in their defense, especially safety Devin Grant, who was named this week’s national defensive player of the week. On Saturday against Central Michigan, Grant became the first Bull to ever record two pick-sixes in the same game. “With the defense going out there and setting the statement, setting a tone, after putting points on the board, that just brings the whole team alive,” said Grant after the game on Saturday. They sit atop the MAC East, sharing the lead with Miami-OH and Ohio as they all are 2-0 in conference play. The Buffalo Bulls face off against Bowling Green this Saturday for their homecoming game.

2. Three teams push their win streak to five wins: Ohio, Miami, and Toledo all earned victories on Saturday. With those three wins by each team, it puts them not only at the top of the MAC leaderboards but it makes them red hot as they all are on five-game win streaks. Ohio continues to slam the hammer as they defeated in-state rival Kent State on Saturday 42-17. Bryce Houston added another interception to his stat sheet. Their defense moves up to 4th in the country after that win. For Miami, they throttled Bowling Green in a 27-0 victory. Miami looked sharp against Bowling Green to move themselves to 2-0 in MAC play and 5-1 overall. Quarterback Brett Gabbert led the way with 170 yards and two touchdowns. Toledo traveled to their final out-of-conference game with UMass and defeated the Minutemen 41-24. Junior quarterback Dequan Finn set a school record in rushing yards as he rushed for 172 yards. He also threw for three touchdowns in the victory. All three teams have advanced to go for six straight wins this upcoming week. All teams are on the road this week. Ohio travels to face off against Northern Illinois, Miami travels to Western Michigan and Toledo travels to Ball State. 

3. Antario Brown has record-setting day in Northern Illinois win versus Akron: Antario Brown had himself a day on Saturday in his team’s win against Akron. Northern Illinois defeated Akron 55-14. Brown rushed for 280 yards which ties the FBS record in 2023. He left the game 6 minutes into the second half as well. Brown also posted four touchdowns in his historic day. His efforts earned him MAC West Offensive Player of the Week. Brown is second in the MAC with 616 rushing yards and 13th in all of FBS.

Here’s the current standings after this past weekend (courtesy of getsomemaction.com): 

Here is a look at the weekend schedule (courtesy of getsomemaction.com):

Saturday, October 14, 2023 Football

	Away	Home	Time	Location	Links
	Kent State	Eastern Michigan	12:00 P.M.	Ypsilanti, MI (Conf.)	Stats CBS Sports Network
	Toledo	Ball State	2:00 P.M.	Muncie, IN (Conf.)	Stats ESPN+
	Miami	Western Michigan	3:30 P.M.	Kalamazoo, Mich. (Conf.)	Stats Audio ESPN+
	Bowling Green	Buffalo	3:30 P.M.	Buffalo, N.Y. (Conf.)	Stats ESPN+
	Akron	Central Michigan	3:30 P.M.	Mount Pleasant, Mich. (Conf.)	Stats ESPN+
	Ohio	Northern Illinois	4:00 P.M.	DeKalb, IL (Conf.)	Stats ESPNU