Three takeaways from Western Michigan’s spring game

Kalamazoo — The gold team bested the brown team, 8-6, in Western Michigan’s spring scrimmage on Saturday afternoon at Waldo Stadium as the defense largely controlled proceedings across four 10 minute quarters. 

True freshman Jaxson Dosh ran for a touchdown for the gold team and completed a two-point conversion pass from the five to tight end Nate Levicki. The Broncos played with some alternate rules, not using special teams and offering chances to score one, two or three points on tries by going from the 2, 5 or 10 yard line. The brown team got a touchdown late from Cole Cabana, but Broc Lowry’s three-point pass for the win got broken up in the end zone. 

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Quarterback has become deep in just a years time

Last year, Western Michigan was starting down the barrel of rolling out a new starter at quarterback without much by way of experienced depth behind them. Broc Lowry, who ended up as the full-time starter, had played some in 2024, but room wasn’t deep. 

Exiting this spring, the Broncos are feeling bullish about the depth in the quarterback room, headlined by Lowry returning after earning MAC offensive player of the year honors in 2025. Behind him is Illinois transfer Trey Petty, who flashed real running ability on Saturday. 

Mason Reynolds and Dosh are likely jockeying to be QB3 at this point. 

“I'm really excited about where our quarterback room is,” Taylor said post scrimmage. “You saw Trey Petty come in today, make a ton of plays. I'm really excited about Trey. And really the depth that we have at quarterback. I think Trey, being a transfer from Illinois, really came in and from day one has become a Bronco. What it takes to be a Bronco to, you know, live the standard, be a great teammate.”

While Lowry is the undoubted, entrenched starter, it was Petty and Dosh who flashed the most playmaking on Saturday. 

Petty showed off what he can do with his legs, extending plays and scampering for chunk gains here and there. After the game, he said he likes to avoid sacks and using his legs to do so, but also wants to work at getting better and more intentional with his pocket presence, movement and reads. 

And since arriving this offseason, Petty has made it a point to understudy Lowry. 

“Just shadowing him every day in the weight room, in the film room, asking him questions and he's answering them, helping me every day,” Petty said. “I feel like that also helped.”

Dosh might’ve had the best throw of the whole day, layering in a throw down the right sideline that Terence Marshall ran under for a chunk gain. Dosh also showed off some solid mobility, even earning an admonishment from head coach Lance Taylor for sliding short of the sticks on a 3rd down scramble. 

Western Michigan played with the quarterbacks live on Saturday, something that Petty and Co. appreciated and a measure that Taylor said is about walking the walk to go with the talk about “grit” in the WMU program. 

“I've never seen a school make their quarterbacks live in the spring game,” Petty said. “So the grit is like, it's very, it's intentional. There's not something they just say. So just knowing that it's a tough program, I'm gonna have tough teammates, tough coaches, and I feel like that's the biggest thing for me, just the gritty players and coaches I got on my team.”

Secondary shines leading “deep” defense

For much of 2025, edge rusher Nadame Tucker was the Gladys Knight to the Pips that were the rest of the Broncos’ defenders. Such is the case when one ends up leading the nation in sacks and tackles for loss. 

The 2026 Broncos will be a different formula, if not a similar scheme. That’s driven by the roster construction, as the Western Michigan defense appears to be ready to throw waves of depth at opposing offenses, rather than leaning on a handful of the top players to produce the most. 

Leading that charge will be the secondary, which returns five players who started games in 2025 in cornerbacks John Peters and Jarvarius Sims, nickel Josh Franklin and safeties Micah Davis and Joey Pope. That group was a big reason for the defensive dominance for most of Saturday’s scrimmage. 

“And I think that that group, in particular, I'm really excited about because when you have pieces on the back end that one have played well together, can communicate well together, but play at a high level,” Taylor said. “It allows us to do so much with a coverage variation on the back end.”

The front seven might be where the depth shows up most, though, as a blend of returning talent and transfers like DeJuan Echoles Jr. and Scoop Gardner Jr. are expected to contribute. 

It also means the Broncos can be multiple, as defensive coordinator Greer Martini and head coach Lance Taylor can dial up various packages that exploit what their defenders do best. 

“I think Coach Martini, you know, who went from our linebackers coach, we elevated into defensive coordinator, I think he's done an excellent job,” Taylor said. “One, the consistency and carry over there we talked about with our defensive scheme, he's done a great job. But he's also taken it and he's made it his own. He's found ways to elevate the defensive scheme and defensive players and use what we have this year, which has been exciting.”

On Saturday, it was interior defensive lineman Dalton Gustwiller who looked dominant, coming up with a few run stuffs in the backfield and, in the later portion of the scrimmage, he bullied his way through the middle of the line for a quick pressure and a sack. 

“I'm glad I can finally start to show it and I'm developing it more,” Gustwiller said. “That was a big thing this offseason, really trying to develop my pass rush and continue to get better at that.”

Passing game still needs polish

This isn’t a surprise, but the passing game is still an area where the Broncos will need to keep pushing through the summer and fall to improve. 

It was a relatively low-volume approach through the air in 2025 and with Lowry returning for 2026 along with a bevy of pass catchers, plus some new additions, the Broncos hope to evolve the aerial attack. 

Saturday wasn’t a great showing in that regard, though there were flashes of a better passing feel and deeper menu of looks at times. 

Lowry completed a few solid throws outside the numbers, including a nice completion on the right sideline to one of his tight ends, hitting him in a hole in the zone. Lowry had some misses, though, too, sailing a pass over Emazon Littlejohn across the middle and not giving Egypt Nelson much of a chance on the go-ahead three-point attempt at the end. 

Dosh’s bomb to Marshall was probably the best ball of the day. 

It’s probably true that playing against the WMU secondary didn’t help, as that group held a bit of an upper hand all day. But it’s also evident that the passing game still has some work to do before clicking into a higher gear for the Broncos.