There is a saying in sports that you never want to be the man to follow the man.

New Western Michigan University football coach Tim Lester is going to learn that lesson the hard way.

A week after P.J. Fleck left the Broncos to take over the helm of the Minnesota football program, Western Michigan announced the hiring of Lester, a former quarterback at the school.

To say this hiring did not “wow” me is an understatement. In fact, when I heard of the hiring during the Dowagiac girls basketball game last Friday night I was floored.

I heard a lot of good names of coaches that Western Michigan was looking at. The biggest and perhaps the most implausible was Les Miles, the former LSU coach.

But I never in my wildest dreams would have thought Lester would be the pick.

His coaching resume is not going to inspire too many recruits, which is what the Broncos are going to need after at least nine of this year’s class have announced they would be following Fleck to Minnesota.

Lester was the offensive coordinator at Syracuse from 2013 through 2015. The Orangemen were 7-6, 3-9 and 4-8 those three years.

He spent this past season as the quarterbacks coach at Purdue. The Boilermakers were 3-9.

In Division II, Lester coached St. Joseph’s (Indiana) to a 7-4 record and in five years as Elmhurst (Illinois) he was 33-19.

When Western hired Fleck he was one of those up and coming “hot” coaching names.

After going 1-11 his first year with the Broncos, Fleck turned the program around and finished with a 13-1 mark and a trip to the Cotton Bowl earlier this month.

Fleck was 30-22 in four years in Kalamazoo.

Those numbers are going to be hard for Lester to match.

Not only is Fleck and several members of his staff in Minnesota, two of the Broncos’ best players are both graduating — quarterback Zack Terrell and wide receiver Corey Davis.

I am not sure if Lester can draw those types of players with his limited success. He is going to have to win early to keep Western’s momentum moving forward.

One thing is for sure; the Broncos are going to be paying him a lot less.

Fleck was the highest paid coach in the Mid-American Conference and was making $800,000 this past season with Western.

Prior to Fleck’s arrival and revival of the Broncos, Western Michigan was not more than an afterthought in the Mid-American Conference. I would hate to see them go back to being just that.

Fleck brought “Row the Boat” to Kalamazoo and Western was smart enough to copyright the saying.

Negotiations may or may not already be under way to see who keeps the slogan.

Either way, Western Michigan and Lester better start paddling as fast as they can to keep the wave of success flowing.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.