“I had a couple of mistakes and I kind of let that get to my head, I guess,” Meeder said. “And so, this offseason, I’ve just been working out and staying mentally strong. Obviously, things aren’t always gonna go your way and you got to be able to bounce back from those situations.”

Meeder managed to connect on 17 of his 26 field goal attempts in 2021, good for about a 65% success rate. For Meeder, though, part of finding consistency is raising that percentage a bit.

When asked about personal goals, Meeder offered a number he would like to see from himself: “Personally, I would say 85% on field goals throughout the season.”

On top of working towards improving his accuracy, Meeder is locked into a position battle with sophomore Josh Rolston, who exclusively handled kickoff duties for the Chippewas last season.

Hailing from Eagle River, Alaska, Rolston is looking to expand upon his responsibilities this season, and has provided some healthy competition for Meeder during the offseason.

“I love it,” Meeder said. “We both go head to head each and every day. We’re out there to make each other better. We’re good friends in the locker room, and out on the field. He’s a good guy, so that competition really helps both of us.”

Murphy said the same of the two kickers, noting that Rolston has certainly made things interesting.

“He’s done a good job, obviously, as our starter,” Murphy said of Meeder. “He’s come in and he’s had a good fall camp so far. We’re hoping he can just continue to keep that roll going and go with that.

“(Meeder) has been pushed very hard by (Rolston), a very strong-legged kicker from Alaska. Josh was more of just our kickoff specialist last year, getting his feet wet. But he’s coming in, a very talented kicker. And so he’s been able to provide that competition. So those two guys have been battling it out. We still got another week of camp to go, but Marshall has the experience in games and things like that, and I know there’s a trust from the players as well. But Josh has been right there with him all camp.”

The punter position has much less drama surrounding it, as returning punter Luke Elzinga is all but locked into that role. He was named to the Ray Guy Award preseason watchlist, which is awarded annually to the nation’s best collegiate punter. Elzinga’s also coming off a 2021 campaign that saw him earn All-Mid-American Conference honors from both Pro Football Focus and Phil Steele.

But of course, the work doesn’t stop there.

“I’ve been working with (Murphy) to perfect every part of my game,” Elzinga said. “Whether it’s pooch punts, distance punts. I think I’m gonna give my team the best chance possible to win the game. When it comes to pooch, we’ve been working with that a lot, pinning them down. I think we had success last year and I think that can help us again this year.”

Unfortunately, CMU doesn’t return every specialist, which includes last year’s MAC Specialist of the Year in returner Kalil Pimpleton, who has spent NFL’s training camp with the Detroit Lions.

Head coach Jim McElwain and staff will instead look to running back Marion Lukes to assume the return duties after handling the primary kick return duties for Central Michigan last season.

“Obviously, a few missing pieces in the return game in regards to 88 (Pimpleton), very explosive player, but we’re working hard on that,” said Murphy.

Indeed, having Pimpleton deep to field punts was a luxury last season, but it was no secret that he wouldn’t be here forever. With that in mind, the coaching staff made sure that they would have a successor for Pimpleton and began training guys when he was still in Mt. Pleasant. That all starts with Lukes.

“Training a few guys last year as the others that were catching punts and stuff like that,” Murphy said. “You know, Marion Lukes obviously kickoff return wise has done that. But he’s been working hard at returning punts as well.

“The other guy that we kind of worked for a while there until we redshirted him was DJ Stepney. We got a newcomer in here, JD (Jordyn) Williams who caught some punts at Indiana and was a guy that was in place there to be a punt returner.”

By all accounts, Lukes has the inside track to be the primary returner due to his performance last season. However, if injuries hit at some point during the season, Coach Murphy is working to ensure that there will be a contingency plan by preparing his guys for all scenarios.