Timing is everything.

That timing for Western Michigan University football head coach Tim Lester allowed him to hire his new offensive coordinator one day after his previous coordinator decided to move on to the Big Ten. And the other two new hires were coaches he interviewed previously.

"This was one of the easier years because I didn't have to hire anyone I didn't know,'' he says. "I usually interview five or six people for a position only because I want to know them if something comes up in the future.

''You follow them and see them at events and I think we've done a good job of making sure who we are getting.''

The new coaches are offensive coordinator Jeff Thorne, tight ends coach Greg Whalen and cornerbacks coach Donald Celiscar. Also, Chris Chestnut has moved to wide receivers coach from tight ends. Lester has brought in Ian Fried to be the director of recruiting.

Thorne was the easiest of the hires as Lester has been trying to bring him on board since WMU hired Lester in 2017. The two coaches have known each other since Lester was in middle school and he would go to quarterback camps in the Chicago area where Thorne was one of the instructors.

''I put the full-court press on him right when I got the job,'' Lester says with a laugh. "We had Jeff and his family in here, like an official visit, but at that time his son, Payton, was a sophomore at a great high school in Chicago and his other children were in high school so the timing wasn't right.''

Payton Thorne is now the starting quarterback at Michigan State (11-2 overall, 7-2 Big Ten in 2021), who the Broncos (8-5 overall, 4-4 Mid-American Conference in 2021) open the season with on Friday, Sept. 2 in East Lansing.

That timing-thing for Lester and Thorne kicked in after the 2021 season had ended. Thorne had won the NCAA Division III national championship as the head coach at North Central College and was named the D3 national coach of the year.

''I was at our national coaches convention (Lester is a trustee for the organization) in San Antonio and Jeff called me to say he was ready to give it a shot at a high division and if I heard of any openings to give him a call. At that time, I didn't have any coaching openings.'

The next morning, that situation changed.

''At 8:30 the next morning, I get a phone call from my offensive coordinator, Greg Harbaugh, that he is returning to the University of Minnesota as its tight ends coach,'' Lester says. ''I called Jeff back and said, 'Guess what?' And he said, 'Well that happened fast.'''

Thorne was born to be a football coach. His father, John, was a successful coach in high school and college at North Central. Jeff Thorne was an outstanding quarterback at Eastern Illinois and is fourth all-time in total offense, passing yards and completions behind NFL quarterbacks Tony Romo, Sean Payton and Jimmy Garoppolo.

In fact, both Lester and Thorne were on John Thorne's 2007 North Central staff when Lester was the defensive coordinator and Jeff was the offensive coordinator. The next season, Lester took over the head coaching position at Elmhurst College and Jeff would become the head coach at North Central, which was in the same league as Elmhurst.

And how many times did Lester's Elmhurst team beat Thorne's North Central squad?

"Never,'' Lester says. ''We went 9-1 in the 2012 regular season and our only loss was to North Central.''

Now the two have teamed up at WMU to meld Lester's offense with Thorne's offense. Thorne likes the way the players have quickly picked up the changes.

''We have a few more pass concepts which were in the playbook last year, but weren't run so we're bring those out,'' Thorne said. ''Overall, it's a lot to pick up, formationally, run game, terminology and
I give the players all the credit in the world because they are really working hard to learn it."

"We have such a great group of young men who are a pleasure to work with every day. When that happens, it doesn't feel like a job…it's just playing football games.''
Chestnut knew he had a lot of work to do with the many new faces at wide receiver, Junior Corey Crooms (44 receptions, 768 yards, six touchdowns) was the top returning receiver from last season.  Two other returners totaled just 17 receptions in 2021, and that was it. WMU picked up some veterans in transfers Jelani Galloway and A.J Abbott. Several other receivers are in the mix, too.

''It will be exciting to see what all the wide receivers will do this year,'' Chestnut, who was a WMU wideout in 2002-03, says. ''This school is like home to me, though, and to come back in 2021 and serve the Bronco community is great.''

The cornerbacks are learning the position from one of WMU's all-time greats. Celiscar lead the nation in 2014 with 1.6 passes defended. That season, he had four of his career 10 interceptions and 17 pass breakups to earn All-Mid-American Conference First Team honors.

Last season, Celiscar was at Division II Lake Erie College as the assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and secondary coach.

''I think this group of cornerbacks is more athletic than when I played here,'' he says. ''They really care for their position and went to be better.''

There is no doubt the way Celiscar wants his corners to play.

''We want to play man-to-man coverage as much as possible,'' he says. ''It can put them in tough positions, but so far they have responded well.''

Whelan comes to WMU after spending the past three seasons at Marian University as the offensive line coach. He also coached with Thorne at North Central.

''I tried to hire Greg when I was at Elmhurst, but he went North Central,'' Lester says. ''He moved up to D2 and was killing it. I wanted Jeff to bring in one of his guys who knew the names so there would be two people who know the offensive system. We did a good job in the offseason of merging the two systems.''

Timing…it really is everything.