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2007 MAC Football Recruiting - WMU Broncos

Overview
The Broncos signed 21 players from six different states with a heavy emphasis on acquiring prospects from the Southeast. Eleven players signed are from Florida and four are from Georgia. The remaining players are from Wisconsin (3) and one each from Ohio, Illinois and Michigan. Within this class there are no players listed as either QB or RB but there are several skilled position players throughout the class with four WRs and five DBs signed. Both lines were addressed in this class and one punter was added. WMU also signed the highest rated MAC JUCO prospect in WR Schneider Julien.

Below is a list of WMU football recruits with their listed position, height, weight, hometown and high school.

Alvin Amilcar DE 6-3 235 Belle Glade, Fla./ Palm Beach Central High School

Ben Armer P 5-10 201 Janesville, Wis./ Parker High School

Mario Armstrong SS 6-0 188 Warner Robbins, Ga./ Northside High School

Kevin Cyrille DT 6-3 255 Miami, Fla./ North Miami Beach High School

Keith Dixon CB 6-1 185 Flint, Mich./ Harmony Prep School

Nick Hunter SS 6-1 210 College Park, Ga./ Benjamin E. Banneker High School

Jonathan Jack OL 6-6 305 Matteson, Ill./ Marian Catholic High School

Schneider Julien WR 5-10 175 Miami, Fla./ Foothill College ( Calif.)

Deshon Lawrence WR 6-0 175 College Park, Ga./ Westlake High School

David Lewis CB 5-10 170 Deerfi eld Beach, Fla./Deerfi eld Beach High School

Jacoby Love DT 6-0 285 Pahokee, Fla./ Pahokee High School

Kyle McDowell WR 6-0 185 Doral, Fla./Christopher Columbus High School

Anthony Middleton TE 6-4 215 Deerfi eld Beach, Fla./Monarc High School

Juan Nunez WR 6-1 215 Miami, Fla./ Miami Carol City High School

Anthony Parker OL 6-5 305 Miami, Fla./ North Miami Beach High School

Lee Pethan OL 6-4 285 Hilbert, Wis./ Hilbert High School

Harrison Porter OLB 6-0 200 Fort Lauderdale, Fla./ Dillard High School

Rudy Robinson ILB 5-11 225 Canal Point, Fla./ Pahokee High School

Dervon Wallace CB 6-0 180 Stone Mountain, Ga./ Tower High School

Andrew Wersel DE 6-0 240 Mason, Ohio/ Moeller High School

Andrew Yuds OL 6-4 285 Delafi eld, Wis./Kettle Moraine Public School

Receivers
Four players were added to the WR unit and one TE. Miami (FL) native Schneider Julien may be the next great wide out coming out of the WMU program. Julien is the #39 rated JUCO prospect in the country from Foothill CC in California and splendid wide out had over 1,200 all purpose yards last year as a receiver and return specialist. He received offers from PAC-10, Mountain West and Big 12 schools. He should be an immediate impact player. Two other Dade County (FL) residents were added into the Bronco receiving corps. Juan Nunez received a lot of recruiting attention from ACC and C-USA schools after participating in the Dade County North/South game. Kyle McDowell earned honorable mention all-county honors. Both have excellent speed. The final wide out added is Georgia native DeShon Lawrence who averaged almost 25-yards per catch during his junior and senior seasons. He was a top-40 rated player in the ‘peach state.’ TE Anthony Middleton is a WR in the TE body and may be the real steal within this overall recruiting class. Middleton was rated as the #3 TE in Florida and earned 1 st team all state honors. He is the highest rated TE prospect in the MAC this year.

Offensive Line
Western signed four impressive offensive linemen led by Andrew Yuds, the #8 rated player in Wisconsin. Anthony Parker is another Miami (FL) area player who garnered prep accolades earning first team all-county honors as a senior and drew offers from several mid-level DI-A schools. Jonathan Jack is a top-50 rated player from Illinois and brings a lot of size (6-6, 305) as a true freshman. Lee Pethan from Hilbert (WI) rounds out this group. All four incoming players have very good size and athletic abilities.

Defensive Line
Andy Wersel the headliner of the incoming freshmen. The Cincinnati native had 18 QB sacks as a senior and 35 for his career against some of the best high school competition in the country. He was a top-60 rated player in Ohio and picked the Broncos over Ball St, BG & Cincinnati. No player may have a bigger upside in the class than Belle Glade’s (FL) Alvin Almicar. A 4.6/40 speedster, he raised havoc on high school QBs in the Palm Beach County area. To other Florida recruits are listed as DT prospects, Jacoby Love and Kevin Cyrille. Love is a true NG/Dt at 6-0 285 and excelled against tremendous competition in south Florida while Cyrille was named 2 nd team all Dade County as a senior.

Linebackers
More Florida prospects were added in this area. Rudy Robinson is a solid playmaker at the ILB position and starred this past season in the Outback All-Star Game. Harrison Porter is an OLB prospect who earned all-county honors in Fort Lauderdale. Each has a lot of speed for their respected areas.

Defensive Backs
Keith Dixon is the lone Michigan native and played last year at Cincinnati’s Harmony Prep last season. Mario Armstrong and Nick Hunter are top-100 rated players from Georgia. Each brings a lot of size to the safety position. Another Georgia native, Dervon Wallace is listed as a CB while David Lewis from Deerfield Beach (FL) may be the best of these DBs. Lewis was a first team all-state CB in Florida’s big-school division and drew interest from several C-USA, ACC and Sun Belt schools.

Specialists
Ben Armer of Janesville (WI) was added as a punter. He averaged over 40-yards per kick during his prep career and is a fine overall athlete. Playing OLB in high school, he earned all conference honors.

Final Analysis
After their near upset in Tallahassee this past season, should we begin to call Western Michigan "FSU North?" Considering how hard and how successful they recruited Florida and Georgia, you could make a solid argument. WMU needed to add more receivers and linemen and they did just that. Their historical recruiting efforts were to hit the Chicago area hard along with their home state of Michigan, a few from nearby Midwest states, and then fill in players from other areas like Florida. This year almost 75% of the class comes from the Southeast and the Broncos look to have landed some real show stoppers. On paper this is a very talented group that easily rates in the upper third of the MAC. Overall this class rates as EXCELLENT by this publication compared to the league this year.

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