Western Michigan was selected in the MAC Preseason Poll to finish second in the West Division, one point behind Toledo. Julia Ferry/The Pit
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Western Michigan football team has seen its share of disappointment in their history and up until 2014, the outlook seemed to be no different. But after finishing with an 8-5 record overall, a 6-2 record in the MAC and a berth in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl; head coach P. J. Fleck engineered the single greatest turnaround in WMU football history and the second-best turnaround in MAC history.
Now expectations have come full circle as the 2015 with the recent release of the 2015 MAC Preseason Football poll, as the Broncos are projected to finish second to win the MAC West division, falling one point behind Toledo.
The Broncos return 17 starters on offense and defense, including nine of their 11 2014 All-MAC honorees and First Team selections Corey Davis and Jarvion Franklin.
Along with that, Western has 13 preseason nominations for the 2015 College Football Watch Lists that honor the best players from around the country. That list includes junior quarterback Zach Terrell as well as Franklin, both of whom are nominated for pretty prestigious awards.
Even with their newfound attention and success, WMU will not allow itself to believe the hype.
“We’re not focused on any of that to be honest,” Franklin said. “I mean it’s cool to know that our hard work is paying off, but doesn’t mean anything if we don’t win.”
The Tinley Park, Ill., native broke the WMU rushing touchdown record after recording 24 touchdowns during his first season.
His 1,551 rushing yards ranked second in the nation among freshmen and he finished third in the nation in rushing touchdowns. Franklin also earned MAC West Offensive Player of the Week four times during the regular season and was named First Team All-MAC and a USA Today Freshman All-American.
This season the sophomore tailback has hit the national radar as a early candidate for the Walter Camp Award given to the player of the year, the Maxwell Award for outstanding college football player along with fellow MAC running back Toledo’s Kareem Hunt and the Doak Walker Award for best running back along with Hunt, Anthone Taylor of Buffalo, Travis Greene of Bowling Green and Darius Jackson from Eastern Michigan.
Meanwhile, Terrell had a career-best season as one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the nation in 2014 that has garnered the junior QB early season notoriety amongst the best around the country as well.
The Fort Wayne, Ind., native completed 67.9-percent of his passes, throwing 26 touchdowns and 3,443 yards. He was named Second Team All-MAC and had the most efficient game for a quarterback in the past 10 seasons after going 17-for-19 for 357 yards and four touchdowns in a win over Eastern Michigan.
With those stats, Terrell earned nods for the Manning Award for Best quarterback, Davey O’Brien Award for Nation’s top QB and the Wuerffel Trophy for best community service. In each category, he is joined by fellow MAC signal caller Blake Frohnapfel from UMass.
“It’s really just been about the hard work,” Terrell said. “Coach has done a really great job of preaching a team and family mindset that has rubbed off on everybody. And no matter the position, you can’t do it without the next guy.”
In a way, the story of Western Michigan football is one that literally has started from the bottom.
Following a disappointing 2012 season that saw the Western Michigan football team finish 4-8 and 2-6 in the MAC, the Broncos felt there was a change in direction. With that came the hiring of Coach Fleck, who spent the previous season as Wide Receivers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Fleck, a graduate of MAC rival Northern Illinois brought with him a sense of energy and toughness needed to breathe life into a program that hasn’t experienced much success.
However, his first season would prove to be a test of patience, as Western finished with one win in 2013 and it all seemed like the same old song.
“That year was necessary in a sense,” Fleck said. “In a way it brought a lot of our leaders we have now together and once you’ve been to that point, mentally you have to tell yourself this isn’t it.”
After following that up and giving life to the Broncos program, Fleck was named Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year and was also a semifinalist for the Maxwell National Coach of the Year award.
Terrell, who was a redshirt freshman and reserve during that single win season has seen both sides of the spectrum, believes that his team must keep an edge to them to take that next leap forward.
“Just got to stay hungry really,” Terrell said. “We want more and we believe that there is that chance to be one of the best teams out there. And to do that, you have to be able to compete at a high level consistently.”
With success breeds bigger challenges and the Broncos have set themselves up for two big early season tests to gauge their progress.
WMU opens the season on Sept. 4th as they host the nation’s 8th-ranked team in the Michigan State Spartans. The Broncos last faced MSU back in its 2013 1-win campaign, losing to the Spartans 26-13.
They follow that up two weeks later with a matchup against the top ranked team in the country, as they travel to Columbus to face the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Even as they open the season against two national title contenders and upset alert will be in full effect, the Broncos are pretty even keel about their chances.
“We aren’t buying into any of that,” Franklin said. “As you get better as a team comes tougher competition. These are the type of games that can serve as a learning curve to see where you stack up and we just have to come out and take care of business.”
The Broncos will then kick off conference play Oct. 10th as they bring in Central Michigan. To fulfill their goal of winning the division to get a shot at the MAC title, Western will need to be at its best as it closes the season with matchups against Bowling Green, Northern Illinois and Toledo.
And with the standards for success now raised within the program, coach Fleck has given his team one task at hand.
“The message is just do your job and do it with energy,” Fleck said. “The two things we continue to harp on are remaining focus and completing the task at hand and just having fun playing the game. This is such a close knit group and with the passion these kids play with, it drives them to want to be great.”
