KALAMAZOO — Western Michigan football welcomed 17 new signees to the program on National Signing Day with the bulk of the class hailing from Michigan and Illinois.

The class broke down rather evenly into nine defensive players and eight offensive players.  All five of the signees from the state of Michigan appear in both the Detroit Free Press Fab 50 and Detroit News Blue Chip 60 Lists.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the staff that we have representing this program.  To do what we were able to accomplish, to get 17 young men that truly want to be Broncos and to put this class in the upper echelon of the MAC says a lot about this staff, what they believe and our core values, putting in the work of 14 months into six weeks or less in some cases,” commented head coach P.J. Fleck.

The class of 17 is broken out among five different states with five coming from the states of Michigan and Illinois, each and four coming from the state of Florida.  Indiana is the home of two recruits, while the Broncos’ lone junior college signee is a native of California.  WMU bolstered its defense with five defensive linemen, including two defensive ends.  The Broncos added depth with three linebackers and one cornerback to learn from the already talented defensive backfield.

“I think the plan came to be exactly how I wanted it to.  When I came here I said I wanted to recruit within six hours and I meant it.  We will continue to recruit Florida but we are also also going to embed ourselves in the Midwest and especially our home state of Michigan as well as Illinois and the surrounding states,” added Fleck.

WMU added a pair of wide receivers in this class.  One comes to campus at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds while the other is under 6-foot and will be key in the return game for the Broncos.  Western Michigan added two more offensive linemen including a Southwest Michigan native out of Battle Creek.  The Broncos added a pro style quarterback and two running backs.  The running backs will complement what WMU already has in the backfield as well as on special teams and in the retun game.  As Coach Fleck describes them, they are all “Football Players.”

“I think all of these kids are football players, period.  You take all of the rankings and the ‘stars’ out of it and you look at the tape and we needed to find football players.  That is what we found.  These 17 guys are the ones that believed in our mentality.  They believed in F.A.M.I.L.Y., they believed in Row the Boat, Nektons, Prefontaine Pace, Farmers Alliance.  They believed in it and that’s why they are here,” concluded Fleck.