The 2017 Grand Valley State football season opener is less than 100 days away and nothing spells out college football more than the preseason football magazines that are currently hitting the news stands. Street and Smith's tabbed the Lakers No. 2 behind two-time defending NCAA DII National Champion Northwest Missouri State, while Lindy's picked GVSU as the No. 3 team. This marks the second consecutive year and the 14th  in the last 16 years that the Grand Valley State football programs has been a consensus top six team in preseason publications. Grand Valley State is coming off a 2016 campaign in which they completed regular season and GLIAC action undefeated and advanced to the NCAA Division II quarterfinals. GVSU finished with a 12-1 overall mark in 2016. 

In addition to preseason team accolades, Grand Valley State junior running back Marty Carter Marty Carter is a consensus preseason all-american. Carter is coming off a sophomore season in which he was a consensus postseason all-american after finishing fifth in the Harlon Hill voting as the DII Player of the Year. Marty led the nation in rushing with 1,908 yards and 20 TDs.

Head coach Matt Mitchell will welcome back 41 letterwinners for the 2017 season, including a host of preseason honor candidates on both sides of the ball. Junior QB Bart Williams passed for 3,334 yards and 33 touchdowns as a sophomore and is 24-4 as a starting QB with 7,549 passing yards and 79 TDs. A deep and talented receiving unit returns, highlighted by seniors Brandon Bean (33-560, 3 TD) and Urston Smith(34-769, 8 TD), while junior Nick Dodson (58-864, 13 TD) is a game changer. In addition, two proven tight ends (Nick Keizer and Pete Cender) and four starters on the offensive line will be coming back in 2017. 

Defensively, senior LB Collin Schlosser led the team in tackles a year ago with 108 stops and 10.5 tackles for loss. Senior safety Garrett Pougnet chipped in 60 tackles and junior DL Dylan Carroll added 39 tackles, 14.5 TFL (-82) and 7.5 QB sacks (-61). Senior interior defensive tackle Keane Belcher is a proven performer on the defensive line and will be looking for a big senior campaign. Tre Walton, Kalen Dunham, Jacob Studdard, Grant Postma, Jailyn Harden, Brendan McMahon, Thad Little and Kyle Short will all battle for playing time in the secondary, while Dae'Shaun Hurley, Isaiah Nkansah and Michael Pettis will push for time at linebacker. 

Grand Valley State will open the 2017 season at Indianapolis in a non-conference contest set for Aug. 31, then open the home portion of its schedule on Sept. 9 versus Davenport.