(* Mid-Eastern Football Conference game)

Friday, Aug. 25 — at Westwood, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 2 — at St. Ignace, 1 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 8 — * LAKE LINDEN-HUBBELL, 7 p.m.

Munising’s Alec Blank, right, knocks away a pass attempt by West Iron County intended for the Wykons’ AJ Wesinicht, left, in the season opener in Iron River on Aug. 25, 2016. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Burt Angeli)

Friday, Sept. 15 — * at Newberry, 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 22 — at Manistique, 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 29 — * NORWAY, 7 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 6 — CHARLEVOIX, 7 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 13 — OPEN DATE

Friday, Oct. 20 — * BARK RIVER-HARRIS, 7 p.m.

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MUNISING — Last season was a rough one for the Munising football team.

The Mustangs had to deal with a difficult schedule and just couldn’t seem to get things going offensively.

However, Munising head coach Jeff Seaberg said one positive out of 2016 was that a lot of this year’s players got some much-needed playing time.

“We had some young sophomores get on the field and did pretty well,” he said. “With that full year of experience under their belts, we think that will help us a lot.”

Now with 2016 in the past, Munising is looking forward and one of the strong points this fall is its stability at quarterback as Alec Blank returns for his third season.

“I think we’re in good shape there,” Seaberg said. “It’s tough when you have a young quarterback because you take your lumps early, but Alec has grown a lot and with his leadership capabilities, we’re expecting some big things this year out of him.”

In addition to Blank, the Mustangs have some talented skill players that will probably play on both sides of the ball, including Christian Cole and Mason Schieding. Each will be in the offensive backfield and in the secondary on defense.

The question mark lies with the offensive line, which lacks both experience and depth.

“We’re going to be young team overall with only six seniors coming back,” Seaberg said. “We’re playing the numbers game with 20 or so guys and we’re going to have a lot of new guys. Our skill guys are the ones with experience, so the line guys will be learning as they go.”

The season will also be interesting in that the future is up in the air for the Mustangs. Not as a program, though, but in conference alignment. Munising’s Mid-Eastern Football Conference will probably break up after this season and the Mustangs were left as the league’s only team not able to join another league.

As it is, Munising has to add new teams to its schedule almost every year and now it won’t be any different.

“It’s going to be interesting this year with a lot of new teams,” Seaberg said about the current campaign. “There’s some constant change going on and we have four new teams on our schedule like Westwood and Charlevoix, so we’ve got teams in the U.P. and the Lower Peninsula. There’s going to be a lot of new things happening that we will have to study up for.”

Even though there’s some things in the future that might need to be worked out, Seaberg says that the team is excited for the season to start.

“We have some good skill players and some other ones coming up, so we’re really optimistic,” he said.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.