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Looks like no other portal defections to speak of. Roster still shows Tyler, Fiske, and Kneeland but we all know that is not correct. Galloway, Allen, and Campbell still surprisingly listed on roster as Grad students. 4 incoming portal kids, 2 CC kids and 3 freshmen enrolled in school for this winter semester.

(01-22-2023 10:14 PM)ru4wmu Wrote:  Looks like no other portal defections to speak of. Roster still shows Tyler, Fiske, and Kneeland but we all know that is not correct. Galloway, Allen, and Campbell still surprisingly listed on roster as Grad students. 4 incoming portal kids, 2 CC kids and 3 freshmen enrolled in school for this winter semester.

Thanks for posting. I’m taking the updated roster with a grain of salt. Not sure how a couple guys you mentioned (Galloway, Campbell) are still listed but sure wouldn’t hurt if they have another year. I think I also saw that Elijah Hawk was in the portal at one point but maybe that’s changed or something. I see a couple glaring depth issues (excluding the D line which has been gutted but at least does have some younger guys returning along with the JC adds). I’d love to see us get a backup P5 QB or an under the radar JC QB that can compete for at least the backup QB spot. Maybe an undersized JC QB kid that’s super quick and elusive that the P5 schools are passing on for whatever reason. Also, I think we really need to add some depth at Safety. Not much returning at all. It remains to be seen but I think we have some guys that can play at LB. We’re certainly gonna need them!

I was trying to get a sense of what the roster will look like next year, and..well...it ain't looking good. I know the roster will likely change more before the fall, but as it stands there are 7 seniors with one more transfer on the way. So potentially 8 seniors on the team in the fall. We're very thin at DL, LB, WR, TE, RB, S, QB...just about everything really. We lost 5 of our top 6 D-linemen, all 3 starting LBs, both starting safeties, top 2 RBs, best WR, best O-lineman, and starting punter and long snapper on top of everything else. There's going to be a serious youth movement on this team. Year 1 under Coach Taylor might be rough, but all that youth could pay dividends down the road as Taylor builds his program.

For comparison, I looked at EMU's roster. A reminder that they won 9 games last year and have a VERY easy non-con schedule this season (Howard, @Minnesota, UMass, @Jacksonville State). The Hurons have 44(!) seniors and 27 juniors on their roster as of this post. That's 71 upperclassmen! We only have 88 players on our roster TOTAL. EMU has always made extensive use of transfers, especially JuCo guys, so that makes up a good chunk of those numbers. I'm just shocked at the different composition of these two rosters though. Creighton is really building something in Ypsi. It's sad that WMU Football has been surpassed by EMU of all programs.

Thanks for the update Colin. Hockey will need to get us through for a while, I guess. Both football and basketball seem to be bottoming out at the same time before we see upswings. But I guess you never know with football... Darnell and Cubit had outperformed expectations by a mile in their Year 1s.

My hunch is when the betting sites release their W/L futures, they'll have WMU pegged around 4 wins.

Given EMU's class makeup, it feels like it's gotta be this season for Creighton to finally make it to Ford Field. Their OOC was definitely tailor-made to get a bowl bid, with what's basically an equivalent of 3 FCS level squads. Although they're not going to get pushed very hard.

On the flip side for us, the timing for 3 P5 road trips sure wasn't good...

In the world of increasing MAC parity and transfer portals, the days of a decades-long bottom feeder (like EMU was) is likely gone. Even if EMU never hired Creighton, I don't think they would've continued to sit in the basement all this time, but who knows.

(02-23-2023 05:00 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  In the world of increasing MAC parity and transfer portals, the days of a decades-long bottom feeder (like EMU was) is likely gone.

NO JINX!!!

(02-23-2023 05:00 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  Thanks for the update Colin. Hockey will need to get us through for a while, I guess. Both football and basketball seem to be bottoming out at the same time before we see upswings. But I guess you never know with football... Darnell and Cubit had outperformed expectations by a mile in their Year 1s.

My hunch is when the betting sites release their W/L futures, they'll have WMU pegged around 4 wins.

Given EMU's class makeup, it feels like it's gotta be this season for Creighton to finally make it to Ford Field. Their OOC was definitely tailor-made to get a bowl bid, with what's basically an equivalent of 3 FCS level squads. Although they're not going to get pushed very hard.

On the flip side for us, the timing for 3 P5 road trips sure wasn't good...

In the world of increasing MAC parity and transfer portals, the days of a decades-long bottom feeder (like EMU was) is likely gone. Even if EMU never hired Creighton, I don't think they would've continued to sit in the basement all this time, but who knows.

With the transfer portal, it is a new game and I suspect you are correct. Those staffs who are deft at using the portal to fill weak spots on their rosters and find diamonds in the rough in the process will likely prosper.

Dear ColinApocalypse,
I have always appreciated your comments as matter of fact, and at times insightful. You are a loyal Bronco fan, and I can appreciate that as well. Just as I am a loyal Eastern fan.
However, stating that lowly Eastern is passing Western, is what eventually happens. I've said it before on other sites and other threads, nothing stays the same. We may wish it to be that way, forever, but it never does.
If, Eastern truly competes for the title this year, that will show how things have changed. As far as the non-conference schedule is concerned, that was somewhat dictated by Liberty University accepting a league affiliation, and dropping us off their schedule. So, we had to pick-up someone available and it turned out to be Jacksonville State. One never knows how good some school may be until they are played.

(02-24-2023 10:46 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear ColinApocalypse,
I have always appreciated your comments as matter of fact, and at times insightful. You are a loyal Bronco fan, and I can appreciate that as well. Just as I am a loyal Eastern fan.
However, stating that lowly Eastern is passing Western, is what eventually happens. I've said it before on other sites and other threads, nothing stays the same. We may wish it to be that way, forever, but it never does.
If, Eastern truly competes for the title this year, that will show how things have changed. As far as the non-conference schedule is concerned, that was somewhat dictated by Liberty University accepting a league affiliation, and dropping us off their schedule. So, we had to pick-up someone available and it turned out to be Jacksonville State. One never knows how good some school may be until they are played.

Thanks for the kind words, and I do want to clarify that I mean no disrespect to EMU with my comments, in fact I have great respect for what Creighton has been able to do there. EMU had something like 3 winning seasons in 3 decades before Creighton. And those few winning seasons were the 7-6 type of record. EMU was a very difficult place to win for a long time. So for EMU to pass WMU by, when by all accounts WMU has more athletic resources, says a lot about the leadership of our respective football programs and athletic departments.

You're right that nobody stays on top forever, especially in the MAC. It's a league of incredible parity right now. Which I suppose can be a source of hope for us!

Current review of the roster shows one deletion since January: DE Elijah Hawk, So. He was one of our young DL with much potential.

After studying our current roster, I make these observations:
1. Very young, only 7 seniors!
2. Lack playing experience at most positions
3. Lack depth at many positions
4. Probably have 6-8 scholarships left to give and it looks like we have several holes to fill from the portal between now and August.

Elijah Hawk at Campbell University.

Time to overcome roster problems and just get a group together who plays well as a group and wins some damn games.

(03-18-2023 01:05 PM)floridabronco Wrote:  Elijah Hawk at Campbell University.

The Fighting Camels!!!

Donald Willis LB