Western Michigan has been a ton of fun to watch in the past couple years, but the team is looking to put together a few extra wins this year. The team lost a 66-63 shootout to Toledo on national television last year. They then lost a heart breaking 37-32 decision to Purdue in the Motor City Bowl. There\u2019s plenty of returning talent for this team to make a serious run at the MAC title in 2012. <\/p>\n
MAC 2012-2013 College Football Previews: Western Michigan
\nHead Coach: Bill Cubit
\n2011 Record: 7-6
\nWestern Michigan Gambling Odds from JustBet to win BCS Championship: (Part of Field) +1,800
\nWestern Michigan Gambling Odds from 5Dimes to win MAC: +400
\nWestern Michigan Gambling Odds from 5Dimes to win MAC West: +180<\/strong>
\nWestern Michigan Team Page \u2013 Players Stats \u2013 Roster \u2013 2012 Schedule \u2013><\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nYou won\u2019t see many teams air it out as often as Western Michigan. The Broncos threw the ball 554 times in 2011. The team lost four games by five points or less in 2011. It\u2019s time for the running game or the defense to step it up a little so this team isn\u2019t just exciting, but they can also win against the best teams in the MAC.<\/p>\n
Team Strengths:<\/h3>\n
Alex Carder is a tremendous quarterback for this spread offense. Carder has great arm strength and he is more than willing to sling it around to anyone who is open. He set a single-season school record with 3,873 passing yards last year. He also threw 31 touchdown passes. He is the team leader and he should have a big season.<\/p>\n
The strength of the defense should be the secondary. Western Michigan runs a 4-2-5 defense and they are fortunate to have lots of depth in this unit in 2012. Lewis Toler is a terrific cover corner and Johnnie Simon is a leader for the defense from his safety position. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n
The offensive line should be much better in 2012. Four of five starters remain from a group that was looking pretty solid at the end of last season. Western Michigan has 17 offensive linemen on the roster, so depth is a major positive here.<\/p>\n
Team Weaknesses:<\/h3>\n
Can this defense learn to stop the run? They were brutally bad at stopping the run in 2011. Opponents ran for 220 yards per game and 5.4 yards per carry. The worst news is that they lost Drew Nowak from the 2011 team, and Nowak was the MAC Defensive Player of the Year on the line. This will be a major problem area again for the Broncos.<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s going to run the ball or catch it for Western Michigan? Having a great quarterback and great line is terrific, but this team is lacking play makers in the other skill positions. Western Michigan isn\u2019t balanced at all on offense because they have no stars in the running game. In addition, the team lost its top three wide receivers from last season.<\/p>\n
2012-2013 Western Michigan Football Prediction: 8-5<\/h3>\n
Western Michigan is a tough team to get a read on for this season. The team certainly has the potential to win the MAC and pick up ten wins or more. On the other hand, if the run defense doesn\u2019t improve at all they won\u2019t improve from last season\u2019s win total. Carder should carry the team to several wins, but it will be up to the running backs to do a little more this year.<\/p>\n
Look for a solid season from Western Michigan, but the team has too many holes to be spectacular right now.<\/p>\n
2012 Western Michigan Schedule<\/h3>\n
9\/1\/12\t 12:00 PM ET\t @ILL
\n9\/8\/12\t 7:00 PM ET\t EILL
\n9\/15\/12\t 12:00 PM ET\t @MINN
\n9\/22\/12\t 2:00 PM ET\tCONN
\n9\/29\/12\t TBD\tTOL
\n10\/6\/12\t 2:00 PM ET\tMASS
\n10\/13\/12\t TBD\t @BALST
\n10\/20\/12\t 3:30 PM ET\t @KENST
\n10\/27\/12\t 12:00 PM ET\tNOILL
\n11\/3\/12\t 1:00 PM ET\t @CMICH
\n11\/10\/12\t 12:00 PM ET\t @BUFF
\n11\/17\/12\t TBD\tEMICH<\/p>\nGRAB OUR BEST Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2012-13 Football Previews \u2013 (MAC) \u2013 Western Michigan Western Michigan has been a ton of fun to watch in the past couple years, but the team is looking to put together a few extra wins this year. The team lost a 66-63 shootout to Toledo on national television last year. They then lost a heart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":40653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[44530,56043,49957,50558,14898,50553,50518,50519,3555,56064,50555,50556,50557],"class_list":["post-53804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2012-bcs-lines","tag-2012-mac-conference-football-previews","tag-bcs-sportsbook-odds","tag-broncos-bcs-futures","tag-broncos-predictions","tag-mac-conference-football-predictions","tag-mac-conference-odds","tag-mac-conference-picks","tag-western-michigan-broncos","tag-western-michigan-football","tag-western-michigan-football-predictions","tag-western-michigan-gambling-odds","tag-western-michigan-schedule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53804"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53960,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53804\/revisions\/53960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}