Western Michigan football is right around the corner! What’s new in Kalamazoo?
College football has never been a stable sport, but two announcements in the summer of 2021 kicked the sport into overdrive. The Supreme Court’s ruling that gave athletes control of their name, image and likeness and the Red River Rivalry headed to the SEC a month later started a chain of events that probably isn’t finished.
This is the first season since the flurry of realignment announcements where the majority of the conference movements are in effect— though UMass has not joined the MAC quite yet. This is also the first year of the 12-team playoff with a guaranteed spot for the highest-ranked Group of Five champion.
The start of the 2024 college football season is just around the corner and to kick off the Western Michigan preview series, we look at what is new in Kalamazoo.
Both coordinators turned over from 2023
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Offensive coordinator Billy Cosh and defensive coordinator Lou Esposito took new jobs after the final game of the 2023 season. By February both positions had been filled, and detailed in a beautifully written article here, but the carousel set in motion by the retirement of Nick Saban changed Lance Taylor’s plans.
Robert Bala was set to take over the defensive coordinator position but he has since been hired to the new Washington staff as the linebackers coach. In his place, Scott Power will take over the role. He was the defensive coordinator for Louisiana Tech in 2023 where it just didn’t seem to work out. He was a successful defensive coordinator at multiple levels of college football before two seasons in Ruston where his defenses struggled.
Lance Taylor and the Broncos hope that the situation in Kalamazoo is different enough for a better result.
Billy Cosh left after one season in Kalamazoo to take the head coach position at FCS Stony Brook. Cosh took the running backs coach Anthony Davis with him, and Western Michigan hired Walt Bell as their new offensive coordinator. Walt Bell was the offensive coordinator at Indiana under Tom Allen and was fired on October 1st in a desperate move to save his own job. Curt Cignetti is the new head coach at Indiana this fall.
Bell is not afraid of a difficult job. He was the head coach at UMass prior to being the offensive coordinator at Indiana. Being Western Michigan’s offensive coordinator is easier than the same job at Indiana and the head coach job at UMass, so Bell could find success in Kalamazoo.
Whenever a pair of coordinators leave the same university, it can raise some eyebrows. In this case, I think each makes sense. Lou Esposito was a rare coordinator holdover from the previous staff and crucial to keeping the roster from totally flipping. Moving on after a year under Lance Taylor could be the realization that he’s ready for something new after seven seasons in Kalamazoo. Plus, a defensive coordinator job in the American Athletic Conference is a step up. That’s the job he left for, but he’s going to be on the sideline at the University of Michigan as the defensive line coach.
Billy Cosh took an opportunity to be a head coach. It’s hard to blame a coach for taking the top spot at a Division I program, it’s also hard to extrapolate any meaning about the health of the Western Michigan program under Lance Taylor.
New support staff, organization and assistant coaches
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Coaching regulations have changed this season and now, in addition to the 10 coaches that are allowed to recruit off the field, an unlimited number of coaches and analysts are allowed to coach during practice. This change hasn’t been reflected in the staff size but the Broncos did change some titles.
One student assistant position has been eliminated and two defensive quality control positions have been removed. In their place, the support staff went from three to four graduate assistants, added a Director of Football Operations, an assistant Strength and Conditioning coach, a Director of Football Nutrition and a player from last year’s squad became a Student Assistant Coach.
The roster page lists 18 support staff positions and there are 10 new titles and 12 new people. I’m not going to list them role by role, they are important to the program but their weekly performance has less to do with the wins and losses than the ten on-field coaches.
Drew Moulton comes on to replace Eric Evans as the tight ends coach, Darren Paige takes over as the running backs coach and Brandon Lacy is the new defensive ends coach. The 2023 coaching staff did not have a defensive ends coach, and Lacy replaced Tim Cooper the safeties coach.
Moulton brings offensive coordinator experience from Division II Slippery Rock where his offense averaged 40.9 points per game. That’s not bad!
Darren Paige comes from Army where he was the running backs coach there and they run the ball a ton. It’s going to be an important position group there.
Brandon Lacy was the defensive line coach for Southern Miss last season and that position was a productive group.
Roster Additions
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The Bronco coaching staff finished the 2024 class with a flurry of signings and eleven transfers were added to the roster between the winter and spring transfer windows. Each position group will get a thorough review in the lead-up to the 2024 season, but Western Michigan has focused on defense in the offseason.
Per the positions listed on 247Sports, 19 of the 32 new players are on the defensive side of the ball, not including the three recruits listed as “Athletes”. The defense was the statistically weaker unit and six of the 11 transfers are looking to make an immediate impact for the Bronco defense.
Carlos Mitchell Jr. is the top get in the Broncos high school recruiting class. He’s an athlete according to 247Sports but projects as a defensive back. His offer sheet is impressive for any MAC recruit and includes North Carolina, Kentucky, Nebraska, Penn State, West Virginia and Purdue from the P4 ranks.
On the transfer side, Popeye Williams (incredible name) comes to Kalamazoo after two seasons at Louisville. He was a four-star edge rusher who saw the field more as a true freshman than as a sophomore. His second season was year one under head coach Jeff Brohm and he subsequently entered the transfer portal. If he plays to the four-star potential, he could immediately be a force for the MAC offenses to gameplan around.
Technically new and minor changes
The offseason before the 2023 season saw Western Michigan change the head coach. They didn’t do that this year so, technically, stability at the top is new. In that same vein, the team had a regular off-season. There wasn’t uncertainty about the head coach or reason and the offseason schedule could be routine for the first time under Lance Taylor.
It’s the little things like continuity that can make a big difference in a team’s season.
If you’re able to get into the press box, the Presidents’s Suite has been remodeled. The university is aiming to use it as a hosting space for any event as well as it’s normal football game functions. The remodel was started prior to the 2023 season and it is open this fall.