KALAMAZOO – The Western Michigan football program announced its 24-member recruiting class to the media on National Signing Day during a press conference held at the Bill Brown Alumni Football Center.

It is the second largest class of the Bill Cubit era and is comprised of student-athletes from six different states and spanning across 10 positional units, most notably on the offensive and defensive lines, as well as in the defensive backfield.

“We wanted to recruit speed and athleticism with this class and I feel our coaching staff has done a great job of finding high character student-athletes that meet both of those on-the-field qualities,” commented Cubit.  “We had needs on the line on both sides of the ball, at running back and on the back end of our defense, and I am very happy with who we are welcoming into the Bronco family. ”

This year’s signing class spans over six different states with 12 signees calling the state of Florida home.

For the third year in a row, the state of Illinois is the home state for the second highest total of signees with six.  Michigan and Ohio rank third with two recruits from each of the bordering states, while one signee hails from Maryland and Mississippi, respectively.

The 2010 National Signing Day class is comprised of 14 student-athletes from the defensive side of the ball (58.3 percent) and 10 from the offensive side (41.7 percent).
There are six defensive linemen (four interior linemen) and three offensive linemen who average 304.3 pounds and stand 6-6, 6-5 and 6-6, respectively. WMU returns nearly its entire starting offensive line from 2009 with the exception of Paul Wasikowski.

This trio, plus the addition of Dann O’Neill who sat out last season after transferring from Michigan, will help to bolster that group from tackle to tackle and provide much needed support in the run block and pass protection game.

The Broncos were also able to solidify their corps of inside linebackers in this class, which was a must in order to have success in many of the nickel packages WMU runs defensively. The Broncos have signed six defensive backs, three safeties and three cornerbacks. This will add depth to the back end of WMU’s defense that returns Jamail Berry, Mario Armstrong, David Lewis and Doug Wiggins as starters.

There are six three-star recruits in this class according to Rivals.com, Scout.com and ESPN.com. Thirteen of the student-athletes coming to Western Michigan were nationally ranked in their respective positions by Scout.com, while 11 were nationally ranked in their respective positions by ESPN.com.  The Broncos’ two in-state signees both ranked on the Detroit Free Press Top 50 list in the state, ranking 25th and 42nd, respectively.

Despite all 24 signees being newcomers, this is a relatively “young” class as only one is coming to Western Michigan from a junior college and entering 2010 as a junior.  The other signee that will not be coming directly from high school and spent on year in a prep school, which does not draw from the student-athlete’s eligibility according to the NCAA.  Two signees signed during the early signing period and have already enrolled at Western Michigan University and are currently taking classes this semester.

Every year Rivals.com ranks the signing classes by position throughout each conference.  As of National Signing Day Western Michigan’s quarterback class was tied for tops in the Mid-American Conference, while its running backs group tied for second, athletes ranked third, the offensive line and defensive tackles ranked fourth and tight ends ranked fifth.

Western Michigan opens the 2010 campaign at Michigan State on Sept. 4 and welcomes Nichols State to Waldo Stadium for CommUniverCity Night on Sept. 11.