Saginaw County — Kickoff is Thursday. Nobody in this county made a statewide preseason Top 25. MaxPreps left every local program out of its Michigan 25. Frankenmuth is the only name that shows up on a regional board, at No. 46, and the only one a Detroit writer picked to win a state title.
So this is a county list. It is built on 2025 results, 2026 divisions, and who is actually back. It will look wrong by Week 3. That is the point.
1. Frankenmuth Eagles
10-2 last year. District title. Lost the Division 5 regional to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, 42-28, and ended a five-year run of semifinals and finals. The year before that they were 13-1 and the D5 runner-up.
Phil Martin is in year 14, 138-22, with 14 straight TVC titles and a 72-game league win streak. The 2025 senior class is gone: Lleyton Hoard, Cash Tedford, Christian Paige, and the rest of that list. Sixteen players with game experience are back. They open Friday against Goodrich at Michigan Stadium, 3 p.m., a sixth straight opener in a series that is 3-3. Goodrich won last year's meeting 17-14.
If you are taking a county favorite, you are still taking the Eagles.
2. Swan Valley Vikings
Also 10-2. Also a district champion. Lost the D5 regional to Ogemaw Heights, 34-14. A year after 6-4, Kevin Gavenda's club (11th season, 76-35) took the King of the Mountain from Freeland, 31-7, and lost only to Frankenmuth in the regular season, 21-14.
Kamdyn Reynolds is back: AP first-team all-state defensive back, 7 interceptions, 30 catches, 882 yards, 9 scores. Keller Bedford is the junior quarterback. Fischer Stoney already has a 1,000-yard season. They open Thursday at home against Detroit Country Day.
3. Valley Lutheran Chargers
9-2. First TVC Blue title. Ended Ithaca's 16-year league streak. First wins over Nouvel (27-20) and Ithaca (23-22) in the same year, then lost the Division 7 district semifinal rematch to Ithaca, 24-12.
Paul Reid is coaching one more season and then retiring. The Strieter brothers are off to college. Aiden Herzberger is the senior quarterback coming back. They open Thursday against Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest. Last year was the best league season in program history. Defending that is the whole story.
4. Merrill Vandals
8-3 in 8-player. Beat Central Lake 60-20, then lost the Division 1 regional final to Montabella, 26-0. Christian Wiley is in year 12, 70-39, still chasing the 2022 state-final run.
Harry Ayotte is back (second-team all-state linebacker, 152 tackles). Robert Kral, the all-state quarterback, is not. They open Saturday at Newberry. Different sport than the 11-player bracket. Same county. They won more games than Heritage, Freeland's playoff team if you count the bruises, and everybody under .500.
5. Heritage Hawks
4-5. Missed the playoffs and ended a five-year streak. That is the floor. The ceiling is still Division 2.
Justin Thelen is in year 7. Jase Behmlander was the SVL's leading receiver (57-857-7) and ran it too. Kingston Wright is back (39-842-13). Kingston Ware is a Grand Valley commit on the line. They have to run to win. They open Saturday at the Big House against Mount Pleasant, which beat them 35-13 a year ago and went 13-1. A five-day turnaround to Midland Dow follows. If the Hawks start 0-2, this number looks high. If they don't, it looks low.
6. Freeland Falcons
7-3. Lost a Division 4 district semifinal to Escanaba, 17-13. Kevin Townsend is in year 21, 165-61. The program is not the question.
The roster is. Twenty-seven seniors graduated. The coach said he has zero returning offensive starters and two defensive starters. Swan Valley already ended the five-year King of the Mountain streak. They open Friday at Ogemaw Heights, the same club that ended Swan Valley's year. This ranking is respect for the building, not a prediction they stay at 7-3.
7. Michigan Lutheran Seminary Cardinals
6-4. Lost to Nouvel twice last year, including 34-28 in the Division 8 district semifinal. Karl Schmugge is in year 18, 107-66. Josiah Naumann and Eli Lewis are the named senior backs. They open Friday against Fowler. A year after beating Nouvel in the 2024 playoffs, they spent 2025 chasing the Panthers. The line in front of those Panthers is gone. That is why MLS sits here and Nouvel sits one spot lower.
8. Nouvel Catholic Central Panthers
8-3. Beat MLS 34-28 in a Division 8 district semifinal, then lost the district final to Beal City, 41-13. First district final since 2019.
Drew Weigl is in year 8, 40-26. Owen Vance and Parker Kingsbury are the named senior returners. The entire starting offensive line graduated. They open Thursday at Allen Park Cabrini. Smallest 11-player enrollment in the county (145, Class D). Last year's seed does not travel with a new line. That is the drop.
9. Birch Run Panthers
4-5. Missed the playoffs. Nick Maksimchuk has never finished worse than 4-5 in five seasons. Garett Martinus is the senior quarterback. They open Thursday at Grosse Ile. Not sexy. Not 0-9. In a county with two winless 11-player teams, that is a real line.
10. St. Charles Bulldogs
4-5 in 8-player, missed the playoffs. Dave Adams is in year 2. Charlie Cornford and Elijah Alvarado are back, both all-league. They open Friday against Whittemore-Prescott. Merrill is the 8-player standard in the county. St. Charles is the other one with a pulse.
Out of the 10, not out of the county
Hemlock was 2-7 again. Drew Genow and Gavin Schmidt are back. Chesaning cratered from 9-1 in 2024 to 1-8; Jacob Price, the former defensive coordinator, has the job and opens at home against the only team Chesaning beat (Standish-Sterling). United is 2-7 in both years of the merger; James King called this a playoff year and opens Thursday against Bay City Western. Carrollton is on a 29-game losing streak, last win in 2022. Bridgeport is 0-9 with a 25-game skid and a new coach, Walter Mulligan, who opens at Caro against the man he replaced.
SASA does not have its own football team.
Thursday is the first legal MHSAA Friday-night-that-is-a-Thursday. Re-rank after Labor Day.
