Football | January 25, 2017

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Western Michigan football head coach Tim Lester has announced the coaching staff and support staff for the Bronco football program. The on-field staff includes seven new assistants including three with head coaching experience.

Offense
Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach – Kevin Johns
Co-Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach – Jake Moreland
Running Backs Coach – Eric Evans
Wide Receivers Coach – Ashton Aikens
Tight Ends/Tackles Coach – Bill Kenney

Defense
Defensive Coordinator – Tim Daoust
Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach – Lou Esposito
Linebackers/Special Teams Coordinator – David Duggan
Defensive Backs – Cory Sanders

Johns comes to Western Michigan after serving as the offensive coordinator at Indiana and has also been the wide receivers coach at Northwestern. While with the Hoosiers, he led his offense to becoming just the fourth team in FBS history with a 3,500-yard passer, two 1,000-yard rushers and one 1,000-yard receiver in 2015. Those accolades came a year after he oversaw Indiana's single-season team rushing record with 3,163 yards.

Evans also has offensive coordinating experience, serving as the OC at Dayton after being the running backs coach at UAB. His offense with the Fliers ranked inside the top-10 nationally in numerous offensive categories last season. Prior to going to Dayton, he was able to work with Jordan Howard at UAB, and saw him finish second in FBS among freshmen in rushing in the 2013 season.

Aikens is another coach familiar to the Midwest, spending time at Southern Illinois as the wide receivers coach and also a special teams assistant at Northwestern. At SIU, the Salukis led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring in 2015 and 2016 while the passing offense alone also ranked inside the top-10 nationally in each of the last two seasons.

Moreland is no stranger to Kalamazoo, as he played with Lester from 1996-99 and ranks second all-time among Bronco tight ends with 1,414 career receiving yards. He also coached the Broncos as the tight ends coach from 2004-12, when he coached another WMU legend Tony Scheffler. Aside from his stints in Kalamazoo Moreland also was the receivers/tight ends coach at Air Force and spent a season with Lester as the tight ends coach at Syracuse.

Kenney is a holdover from the previous coaching staff and has been at Western Michigan since 2013, working with tight ends and tackles. Last year he was named Football Scoop's Co-Offensive Line Coach of the Year. He has coached three All-MAC First-Team tackles the last two seasons and seen two of them get Senior Bowl invitations (Taylor Moton and Willie Beavers). With the tight ends, Donnie Ernsberger was named to the All-MAC team as well in 2016 and regarded as one of the best run blockers in the league.

On the defensive side of the ball, the two men in charge of coordinating the defense are returning to Western Michigan after previous coaching stops here. Tim Daoust coached the defensive line and secondary at WMU from 2006-09. During the 2006 seaosn the team led the country in both interceptions (24) and sacks (46). After leaving WMU he went on to coach at Syracuse and was most recently the defensive coordinator at Ball State.

The other man that is no stranger to the Broncos is Lou Esposito. Lou was with Western Michigan from 2010-12 when he coached the defensive line. While here, he coached Drew Nowak who was the MAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2011 after leading the league in sacks with 8.5. He went on to be the defensive coordinator at Ferris State and most recently was the first head coach in the history of Davenport University where the team went 6-5 in its inaugural year in 2016.

The coach on the defensive side of the ball who is staying from the previous staff is David Duggan. Duggan led the Bronco linebackers to a breakout year in 2016, highlighted by the play of Robert Spillane and Asantay Brown who were both All-MAC Second-Team selections. Overall the Broncos led the MAC in scoring defense and were No. 2 in total defense last year.

The brand new face on the defensive side of the ball is Cory Sanders who has defensive coordinator experience at West Florida. He was also a head coach at St. Joseph's College and a defensive backs coach at Elmhurst under Lester. At West Florida he was part of the school's first coaching staff in 2014. He hit the ground running as he coached the Gulf South Conference Freshman of the Year.

Support Staff
Director of Football Operations – Drew Robinson
Director of Player Personnel – Kyle Derickson
Director of Strength & Conditioning – Grant Geib
Assistant Director of Strength & Conditioning – Gavin Roberts
Athletic Trainer – Arno Rheinberger
Equipment Manager – Taylor Jorgensen

Helping the coaches off the field will be a number of people in support roles. Drew Robinson will handle all the logistics of the day-to-day operations. He was the director of football operations at Syracuse. Robinson has managed recruiting operations and also has a background in branding a program, serving as the director of branding for Rutgers and creating recruiting graphics for Wake Forest.

Handling all the recruiting operations will be Kyle Derickson. Derickson comes to Kalamazoo after serving as the offensive coordinator at Allegheny College and Elmhurst. As the offensive coordinator, he had two players named All-American in 2014. He has demonstrated a great recruiting prowess, recruiting areas from all over the country including Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Chicago and St. Louis.

The man in charge of getting the student-athletes in peak condition will be Grant Geib. Geib was the assistant director of football performance at Purdue. He also has served as a consultant for the training program for the NFL Referees Association. He originally graduated from Tennessee where he served as a strength and conditioning assistant as a student.

Assisting Geib with strength and conditioning will be Gavin Roberts. He also comes from Purdue where he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach. He played for the Boilermakers from 2008-12. Roberts also worked with Bommarito's Performance where he helped train aspiring NFL stars prepare for the combine such as Leveon Bell, Jordan Reed, Tyrod Taylor, Ezekiel Elliot and Lawrence Timmons among others.

Two staff members that are familiar to the Bronco family are Arno Rheinberger and Taylor Jorgensen. Rheinberger joined the Broncos before the 2014 season. Last year the team had 10 players start every game on offense and six players start every game on defense, a tribute to the great health Arno kept the Broncos in.

Jorgensen has been with the Broncos since 2012. He is tasked with the duty of acquiring all the new uniforms and apparel the team displays, along with fitting the student-athletes with the necessary equipment to keep them safe in addition to his other duties such as setting up practice. This season the Broncos were chosen by Adidas to display two new uniforms not available to the general Adidas line, first at Kent State and also at the 2017 Goodyear Cotton Bowl.