Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order.
After a 9-4 2008 campaign, Western Michigan was expected to be among the best in the MAC last year, but ultimately they weren’t at the level of Northern Illinois and Central Michigan. The losses piled up at the end of the year, leaving the Broncos at 5-7 and home for the postseason.
I feel like I’ve written this 30 times in the last three weeks, but the Broncos are back with a lot of returning players, but lose talented QB Tim Hiller and 1100 yard rusher Brandon West. If they can find replacements there, then the other 8 players who do return on offense (and seven on defense) could be enough to keep WMU in the hunt this year.
Schedule
9/11/2010 Nichols State
9/18/2010 Toledo
10/2/2010 Idaho
10/9/2010 at Ball State
10/16/2010 at Notre Dame
10/23/2010 at Akron
10/30/2010 Northern Illinois
11/5/2010 at Central Michigan
11/13/2010 Eastern Michigan
11/20/2010 Kent State
11/26/2010 at Bowling Green
Western Michigan’s schedule is loaded with games that, from this standpoint, could go either way- all depends on how well they come together. Michigan State and Notre Dame would be remarkable upsets, but nobody else on the schedule should be head and shoulders better than the Broncos. The Toledo and Idaho games could help establish just what the output at WMU is going to be this year.
Coaching
Bill Cubit is in his sixth season as coach at Western Michigan, and signed a contract extension in 2008 that has him locked up there through 2013. His name hasn’t seemed to come up much yet for bigger jobs, but if the overall trend of success continues, that’s going to change eventually.
Rankings
The MAC media picked the Broncos to finish third in the West, but WMU did not grab any national votes.
Outlook
I think Western will slug it out with Toledo for third in the division, which makes their week 3 appointment that much more important. Bowl eligibility will hinge on winning some games against the eastern half, and I think the Broncos should wind up 6-6 this year.
Western Michigan Connections
Message board- the Rivals board is dead and there doesn’t seem to be much else out there. Anybody?
Kalamazoo Gazette – local coverage of the Broncos on a terrible website, much like the one for UAB.