MAC Football

MAC Basketball

The View: Western Michigan signed a class of 23 student athletes from nine different states, which includes 11 JUCOs. Looking for upper-classmen leadership, Coach Darnell thought It was necessary to add players who could contribute right away, especially on the defensive lines and at quarterback. The impact high school players are WR Joe Chapple who has terrific speed and break away moves; SS Jonathan Hall who was regarded as one of the best prospects from the Chicago area; Dominic Moran, who is high profile lineman who gave a verbal to Eastern Michigan, but signed with WMU; and Duane Robinson, an extremely talented DE from Wisconsin who had a few Big Ten offers on his plate. It’s too bad Western did not sign more of these types of players. Two JUCO QBs will be vying for the starting job this fall. Both Chad Munson & Robbie Haas did well on that level and hope to lead the Broncos as the signal caller this season. DT Jonathan Jones had offers from a few MAC schools and Indiana, should be a starter for the first game this season along with massive Jason Grigsby on the offensive line. Eugene Childs and Maurice Hart look to continue Western’s recent trend of quality DBs in both coverage and against the run. WR Justin LeMay is the sleeper in this class with his speed and big-play potential.

Analysis: Last year I had Western Michigan listed as the top recruiting class in the MAC. This class is nowhere near that caliber. I am not always fond of classes with lots of JUCOs, although I do understand replacing a large group of departed seniors. With that said, the JUCOs here are not anywhere near the talent that UCF brought in this year so these eleven players are really going to need to play well right away for this class to be any kind of success. A few players do stick out like Jon Hall, Justin LeMay, Duane Robinson & Dominic Moran, but WMU really lost out on talent within their own state and in the Chicago area, their usual recruiting mainstays. Part of the problem may be Coach Darnell always looking to leave for another coaching job at a bigger school, I don’t know? One thing for sure, this class rates as AVERAGE compared to other MAC schools and these JUCOs will be under fire to produce right away.