Laying out the optimistic, pessimistic cases for Western Michigan in 2026
The Broncos are reigning MAC champs and bring a good chunk of that team back, but will look quite different in 2026.
Editor’s note: Mitten Football will dig into the rosier and dimmer potential outlooks for all five of the FBS teams in Michigan over the summer, with installments coming each weekend. This week, beginning in reverse alphabetical order, things start with Western Michigan.
After climbing out of an 0-3 hole and rolling to a 10-4 season with a MAC championship and bowl win to boot, Western Michigan entered the offseason riding high after the 2025 campaign.
But head coach Lance Taylor and Co. also didn’t mince words when it comes to the Broncos’ collective approach to the 2026 offseason and season.
“To say, you know, we're MAC champions, or defending MAC champions, or we want to run it back, those are dirty words around our program,” Taylor said at the start of spring practices. “You know, I think every year it's a new challenge. And I think that this team has embraced that.”
Taylor and the Broncos will approach the offseason and 2026 campaign as a new team, keeping the past in the past, but plenty of players who steered WMU to a MAC title in 2025 are back for 2026. And that gives rooms for plenty of optimism.
Let’s dig in.
The optimistic case for Western Michigan
- Big time continuity on offense
This starts with what the Broncos return from a conference championship team, particularly on offense.
Starting with the offensive line, the Western Michigan has four lineman who started games in 2025 returning to block for quarterback Broc Lowry, the reigning MAC offensive player of the year and tailback Jalen Buckley, among others. Western Michigan’s second and third most productive receivers, Aveion Chenault and Baylin Brooks, are also both returning.
With that core, Western Michigan should be able to maintain a strong floor for the offense via the rushing game. Lowry and Buckley both finished Top 10 in the conference in 2025 in rushing attempts, yards and touchdowns.
Add in Ofa ‘Lolo’ Mataele returning, a healthy Cole Cabana and the addition of A.J. Green in the transfer portal and the running game should be the core of an offense that really hopes to take flight in the passing game.
And that’s where much of the optimism lies for WMU’s offense in 2026, and where the Broncos themselves want to see growth.
- The passing game grows as advertised
Lowry was among the most accurate quarterbacks in the MAC in 2025, but also among the lowest volume passers. He made up for it with his rushing, but the Broncos would like to get more out of its crop of receivers.
A big sell during spring for Lowry’s improvement has been his ability to work with the receivers and pass catchers throughout the winter as the known starter, building chemistry and confidence to get ahead of a curve the WMU passing offense was certainly behind in 2025.
With Chenault and Brooks returning alongside a handful of depth pieces hoping to emerge into more consistent targets, plus South Carolina transfer Emazon Littlejohn, the makings of a varied passing offense that can take on more volume and stay efficient and explosive are there.
If Lowry can grow his game and take on more volume in the passing attack while not sacrificing efficiency, this offense has room to run.
- Transfers, new coordinator hit on defense
On defense, it’s more of the same continuity play but constrained to the secondary where Western Michigan returns safeties Joey Pope and Micah Davis, corners Jarvarius Sims and John Peters and nickel Josh Franklin.
That’s a good place to start, but on defense the best case for Western Michigan will involve transfers hitting, returning players stepping into bigger roles and thriving, and defensive coordinator Greer Martini finding his own version of whatever magic dust Chris O’Leary had to supercharge the WMU defense in 2025..
The template is there, at least as far as the transfers and first-year coordinator are concerned, after Nadame Tucker’s 21 tackles for loss and 14.5 sacks under O’Leary last year.
Though it’s quite unlikely Western Michigan will have another national sack leader contender, imagine transfers like Dejuan Echoles Jr. and Scoop Gardner Jr. seize on their opportunities. Rather than one focal point for the pass rush, this unit believes it can come at the opposition in waves.
It’ll be a different look, but Western Michigan restocked the defense know it’d have a lot of production to make up for and took plenty of bites at the apple to make sure they’re not left out to dry.
Andrew Graham
Andrew Graham
The pessimistic case for Western Michigan
- The defense falls off
It’s not a crazy thought that without Tucker and, perhaps more importantly, Chris O’Leary, the Western Michigan defense takes a notable step back. And if that step back is too big, it would undercut much of the promise for what Western Michigan can do in 2026.
The front seven will be a vastly different array of players, most without much experience playing at Western Michigan and Greer Martini, promoted from his role coaching linebackers, is unknown as a defensive play caller.
The plan for WMU is to keep much of the scheme from O’Leary’s defense — in essence what the Los Angeles Chargers have run since Jesse Minter took over that unit a few years ago — while making the sort of natural tweaks and evolutions that come with new personnel and a new voice calling plays.
But if Martini doesn’t quite have the same play calling magic as O’Leary and the defensive restock doesn’t pan out as planned, there’s a very real chance that the unit which defined so much of Western Michigan’s success in winning a MAC title last year isn’t a difference making one this season.
- The pass offense doesn’t progress
The bets that Western Michigan is making around Lowry and the receiving corps isn’t a bad one, per se — he’s an entrenched starter, showed some real promise late last year, and has had all offseason to work on this stuff — but it’s a bet, nonetheless.
And bets, often, do not pan out. And whatever floor this offense might have rushing, it likely needs more consistent production and some explosive play possibilities out of the passing offense to ascend to a new realm.
The Broncos are bullish on the receiver core as it’s currently comprised, but it’s quite possible that either collectively or on an individual level it just doesn’t take a leap. Right now, WMU needs one of Aveion Chenault of Baylin Brooks, in all likelihood, to take a notable step in their game to eat up lots of targets. That’s another bet.
Plus, the tight end position returns very few catches. That’s a wildcard, which could pan out great, or could be another bust.
A lot needs to go right for WMU’s passing game, and it’s not hard to see the future where one or two things don’t pan out and the passing offense doesn’t take a necessary step forward.
- Good luck and bounces dry up
This might seem out of pocket for a team that lost its first three games, including one against North Texas that the Broncos lost on some self-inflicted mistakes late, but a lot of luck broke WMU’s way in 2025.
WMU recovered 12 of the 13 opponent fumbles it forced and came up with a dozen interceptions, including a pair of pick sixes.
And while Tucker’s heater as an edge rusher was a result of his abilities and WMU weaponizing them properly, it was still a big break that a transfer came in for a year and immediately produced at an elite level as an edge rusher.
The Broncos also created a share of good luck, embodying the old “when preparation meets opportunity” maxim. But there was a ton of opportunity that WMU capitalized on in 2025, and there’s no guarantee that goes the same way in 2026.
Plus, statistical regression to the mean holds up for a reason.
