Western Michigan caps turnaround from 0-3 start with historic 10th win, drubs Kennesaw State in bowl

With a 41-6 demolition of Kennesaw State in the Myrtle Beach Bowl, Western Michigan capped off one of the best seasons in program history on Friday afternoon. 

And the 0-3 start to the season in Kalamazoo feels like a quaint past after the last three months. 

The Broncos (10-4, 7-1 MAC) finish the year with 10 wins, just the second time in program history that WMU has won double digit games.

They won a MAC championship after going 7-1 in conference play, rebounding from an 0-3 start to the season to reel off a 10-1 record in the final 11 games. And while it might not be quite the heights that the 2016 team reached, going 13-1 and reaching the Cotton Bowl, it’s quite the summit for the Broncos to reach after starting the season in a serious hole.

“When we started 0-3, everybody counted us out,” Head coach Lance Taylor said after WMU’s MAC title win. “They buried us. We were dead. Nobody counted us in. But these guys kept believing in each other, kept playing for each other and that's what showed up again and again and again."

Western Michigan lost on the road at Michigan State and Illinois, with a brutal home loss to North Texas sandwiched between, to open the 2025 campaign.

The Broncos led that game at the half and for most of the afternoon, taking a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter. But a number of miscues cost the Broncos in that Week 2 game, as they let the Mean Green back into the game and eventually lost, 33-30, in overtime. 

After that loss, and a subsequent drubbing at Illinois, the Broncos returned home for a make-or-break MAC opener against Toledo.

That also happened to be the first time Broc Lowry started at quarterback. As he led the Broncos to a win that afternoon, completing a clutch pass on “4th and season” to Talique Williams, the tides of the season altered for Western Michigan. 

With a win against Toledo that day, the Broncos kickstarted a rapid run through MAC play, going 7-1 and losing to Miami (OH) on Oct. 25 as the lone blemish in conference play. 

And the Broncos did it this season behind a Lowry-led offense and a Nadame Tucker-led defense (who did not play on Friday). 

Lowry set a modern WMU mark for rushing touchdowns in a season by a quarterback, and led the team in rushing for much of the year. He steadily developed as a passer throughout the year, and the Broncos offensive line group grew as much as any unit on the team in 2025, Taylor said at the end of the regular season, the root of a punishing rushing attack. 

The Broncos entered Friday against Kennesaw State No. 22 nationally in rushing offense, averaging 196 yards per game. The rushing attack flourished in the final weeks of the season and, to follow up a blistering MAC title performance, Jalen Buckley led the way for the Broncos against the Owls, earning game MVP in the process. 

Buckley carried eight times for 172 yards and a touchdown. He scored the touchdown on the first series of the game, as he did against Miami (OH) in the MAC title game. 

Western Michigan finished the game with 303 rushing yards. 

And the defense that has been arguably the defining unit for Western Michigan all season showed up again in force on Friday. 

WMU pitched a first half shutout, created four turnovers (including a pair of defensive scores) and at one point the Broncos had five touchdowns when Kennesaw State had five first downs.

By the end of the day, Western Michigan came up with five sacks and seven tackles for loss and six passes defensed to go with the four takeaways. 

It was a smothering, ruthless performance that saw Chris O’Leary’s defense contribute to a 21-0 lead halfway through the first quarter. 

The whole outing fit with what Taylor has said he wants this team to be all season.

“Fast and physical,” he said during his halftime TV interview, reiterating what he saw from his team. 

Now, the Myrtle Beach Bowl trophy is just one of several tokens to remember what is the second-best season in program history in Kalamazoo.

The Broncos beat in-state rivals Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan, retaining the Michigan MAC trophy and winning back the Victory Cannon from the Chippewas. WMU won a MAC title, and avenged its lone conference loss by beating Miami (OH) soundly in the title game. Lowry earned MAC offensive player of the year, Tucker finished Top 5 nationally in sacks and tackles for loss and earned MAC defensive player of the year. Taylor won MAC coach of the year. 

And Friday’s win showed why, as the Broncos left a slow start to the season in the past and raced away from the competition for the last three months.