Football | August 08, 2019

Western Michigan's football team has had just six practices this fall, but new defensive coordinator Lou Esposito is a happy camper already because his players have been introduced to virtually the entire new defense.

"Coach Lester [WMU head coach Tim Lester] and I like to give the guys a bunch of things early, then we can go back and work on things,'' Esposito said. ''All we really have left is the red zone defense, and we've actually done a few things there, too.

"It's maybe a little bit more than normal with the older kids we have, but still," Esposito continued. "It's the first year running this defense and we haven't run the whole package in a game.''

A defensive coordinator who can install that much so early when he has the vast number of returning starters and backups Esposito does. For the Broncos (7-6 overall, 5-3 in the Mid-American Conference West Division last season), that returning number is big.

Such as, Western returns 13 of its top 14 players on the Broncos' 2018 individual tackles list. They are led by senior linebackers Drake Spears (86 tackles) and Alex Grace (83), senior safeties Justin Tranquill (82 tackles, one interception) and Stefan Claiborne (56 tackles, four passes broken up), sophomore linebacker Corvin Moment (who played in all 13 games with 52 tackles and two forced fumbles) and junior defensive lineman Ali Fayad (34 tackles, 12 tackles for losses, 7.5 sacks and five quarterback pressures).

While this is Esposito's first full season as defensive coordinator, he's no stranger to the program. He was the defensive line coach for much of last season before moving into the interim DC job prior to the Northern Illinois game on Nov. 20. The Broncos held off the Huskies, 28-21, in that contest as WMU sacked Husky quarterback Marcus Childers seven times. Spears and sophomore safety Harrison Taylor each had an interception.

It was a game Western Michigan needed to win to ensure it would go to a bowl game, which it did, playing Brigham Young in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

''I feel good about where we are this fall,'' Esposito said. ''We are able to go faster because of our depth, and the majority of the guys in the two deep were here in the spring.''

There was no hesitation from Esposito when he was asked what the defense's strength will be this season.

''It's the leadership,'' he said. ''At every level, there are good leaders.

''You have Tranquill, Claiborne and A.J. Thomas in the middle who have all played," Esposito said. "[D'Wayne] Eskridge has played a bunch of football here and been super successful, but he hasn't played much defense. Anton Curtis [senior cornerback] is back and then there are some kids who redshirted last year who have come on and done a good job.''

Eskridge will play on both sides of the football. He came to Western Michigan as a wide receiver, where he will also play this fall.

Esposito also lauds the efforts of Director of Strength & Conditioning Grant Geib.

''The players are just more physical, bigger and faster than last season,'' the coach said. ''G2 [Geib] and his staff have done an unbelievable job getting kids where they need to be. Now we just have to go out and play.''

The play starts on August 31 with a home game against Monmouth with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. The Broncos then travel to Michigan State for a 7:30 p.m. game.

It's interesting how Esposito has made the transition from a former offensive lineman at the University of Memphis (1997-2000, four-year letterman) to a defensive coordinator at Western Michigan.

After Memphis, Esposito went to the Arena Football League, where his roommate was Lester.

''When he got the head coaching job at St. Joseph's, he called me up and said he had a defensive coordinator's job open,'' Esposito said. ''I didn't hesitate because I was done playing and he knew I wanted to get into coaching. I knew as an offensive lineman what gave us issues from the opponent's defense, so we ran that type of stuff and it's evolved from there.''

His philosophy isn't different from many other coaches in that he plays to his players' strengths.

''If a guy is a good blitzer, you have him blitz," Esposito said. "If a guy is a good at coverage, you have him cover while creating an atmosphere where we confuse the offense. You have to be able to throw the other team a curveball once in a while to keep him off balance. It's like an offense that will run the same play out of a bunch of different formations – we're doing the same blitz out of different sets. As long as we can do that and create confusion with the quarterback, we have a pretty good chance.''

Like all the Western Michigan football coaches, Esposito treats his players like family. After the sixth practice, a particularly tough one in pads on a hot and steamy day, he went around and gave defensive players a drink of water while they stretched.

''Coach Lester does a great job of being honest, so it's to the point where you don't want to let him down,'' Esposito said. ''Our families hang out together, and I tell recruits, if they come and visit and it's an off day, you won't go three hours without hearing footsteps in the hallway because of us having the families be around. Our players know us as fathers, which is extremely important. We don't have kids on our team who don't know their position coach's family.''