Head Coach: Lance Taylor is in his 2nd year with the program he has a 4-8 record. Year 1 was a bit of a reset year so we’ll begin to see his impact this season.
Program Outlook: Western Michigan is an interesting program. They see themselves as capable of winning MAC championships, and they’ve competed for them before and even made a Cotton Bowl appearance not too long ago. The Broncos often hire inexperienced assistant and position coaches here so this is often where names are made.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: Western Michigan leads the MAC in returning production, that should help for starters. The offense wasn’t consistent last year, they had a 4 game stretch where they put up 31 on Toledo, 42 on Ball State, 28 on Mississippi State and 21 on Miami, but they also ended the season being shutout by Northern Illinois and only putting up 10 on Bowling Green. RB Jalen Buckley is a nice place to start, he ran for over 1,000 yards last year and at least the line in front of him will be more experienced, Center Jacob Gideon is the leader of the bunch up there. 5th year Senior Hayden Wolff returns, he took over the job late in the year and chased away his competition, he’s a pocket passer and Western Michigan will be hoping he can develop more consistent accuracy. It’s going to help having an experienced group back led by Kenneth Womack who led the MAC in receptions last year, the Broncos emphasized adding speed via the portal grabbing Devaughn “Bugs” Mortimer from UL-Monroe and Jordin Parker from New Mexico State. Western Michigan deployed a similar strategy on defense combining a lot of returning starters with some transfers to hopefully add a boost on each level. It’s going to be tough to replace Marshawn Kneeland who was a 2nd round pick but Corey Walker was a stud as well.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: Western Michigan’s non-conference schedule is absolutely brutal with games to open at Wisconsin, Ohio State and Marshall. Fortunately Bethune-Cookman shouldn’t pose too much of a threat, fun fact Ed Reed was their head coach for a Bobby Petrino minute in 2023. The good news? Western Michigan might have the most favorable draw for conference play. They avoid Toledo, Miami and Ohio along with playing a lot of other teams who are also trying to find their footing.
Vegas Projection: Western Michigan’s win total is set at 6.5 with the odds geared toward the under. Still it shines a positive light that Vegas sees a return to bowl eligibility for the Broncos.
2024 Best Case: Western Michigan takes their lumps but is competitive in losing to Wisconsin and Ohio State but where the Broncos really take off is winning at Marshall a couple weeks later. That momentum carries the Broncos into a 4-0 start into conference play and overall they only lose one conference game to finish the regular season 9-3! The Broncos make the MAC championship and lose a tight game with a really good Miami team, but they win their bowl game to hit 10 wins and make it clear that there’s a great future for Lance Taylor’s program.
2024 Worst Case: Western Michigan is uncompetitive from the start against Wisconsin and Ohio State, and they are blown out by Marshall a couple weeks later. It doesn’t get much better to start conference play as the Broncos only win one of the first 4 games and it only gets more difficult from there. An extremely disappointing 2-10 season forces Broncos fans to wonder if they’ll ever get back into conference title contention, at least as long as their university tries to use a Washington Commanders copycat as their primary logo.
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