National Signing Day 2015: Western Michigan Football Recruiting Class 1st in MAC
Dec 20, 2014; Boise, ID, USA; Western Michigan Broncos wide receiver Corey Davis (84) catches a touchdown pass during the first half of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl verses the Air Force Falcons at Albertsons Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Losness-USA TODAY Sports
Western Michigan recruiting class last season saw a nice rise both in conference and overall nationally. In 2013 they were ranked 112 nationally, while they sat 8th in the Mid-American Conference. When the 2014 season came around Western Michigan jumped to 71st in the country and 1st in the MAC. The big change for the Broncos? The head coach, P.J. Fleck. Even after a one win season, Western Michigan is managed to get ranked 1st in the MAC and moved up to 70th nationally.
When signing day happens this Wednesday, the Broncos will be expecting to sign 20 players. At the moment there are 26 players that are verbally committed to Western Michigan. While Western Michigan is returning a lot of their players from last season, they are building for depth and that is a good thing.
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Some big names on the signing block for Western Michigan Football are LeVante Bellamy, who is a three-star player according to 247sports.com. He is also ranked as the 7th best player in the state of Indiana. Bellamy had offers from MAC rivals Ohio, Miami (OH), Ball State, and Toledo.
Another Indy kid Justin Tranquill is also expected to sing with the Broncos on Wednesday. Tranquill is ranked 30th at his position of safety in the country while he is 5th in his state. He was also sought by Central Michigan, Toledo, Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan before committing to Western Michigan in October.
The Broncos however will not be joined by Junior McMullen who decommitted to Western Michigan in January. McMullen committed to Western last March but decommitted in an announcement on his twitter account. He was ranked as the 17th best prospect in Michigan according to Rivals.com.
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A big thing that has changed with recruiting since the hiring of Fleck has been where he recruits players from. More and more Michigan players are being brought to Western Michigan due to Fleck seeing the talent around the state of Michigan. 12 of this years 28 hard recruits are from Michigan, which is a good thing.
Players from the state of Michigan have a higher chance of staying all four years and not bolting for bigger schools. The players are close enough that family can see them play at every home game if they wanted to, they aren’t a million miles away missing home and playing for a school in your state is something as an athlete you take like playing for your country in the Olympics.
Fleck says that he is excited about recruiting and all the work that goes into it.
"“It’s the No. 1 thing that fires me up about my job, is recruiting, and not just high school athletes, but our own players and getting kids to believe in themselves and believe in a vision.”"
The turnaround that Western Michigan Football recruiting has seen can be mostly credited to Fleck, it says something that even after you go a season with one win you can still get kids to commit to your program and what you are trying to make happen. It is hard to say this team won’t be a force to be reckoned with in the future, due to their hard-working recruiting force.