Western Michigan is staying in-house to fill their offensive coordinator vacancy and dipping into the FCS ranks to complete Tim Lester’s 2018 coaching staff.
The school announced on Thursday that Jake Moreland was being promoted to the Broncos’ full-time offensive coordinator and would remain as the team’s offensive line coach as well. Eric Evans will move from coaching the running backs to handling the quarterbacks while Terry Malone will shift to coaching Evans’ old spot with the running backs. Dontae Wright heads to Kalamazoo from Tennessee Tech and was named co-special teams coordinator and safeties coach to round out the staff.
“After evaluation of our staff heading into year two with the program, we wanted to keep as much continuity as possible as we continue to build towards MAC Championships,” Lester said. “Following the departure of Kevin Johns, Coach Moreland was the right fit to step in and coordinate our offense.”
Johns left late last month to become the new Texas Tech offensive coordinator after spending a season with WMU and guiding them into the top 25 in scoring offense despite a host of injuries.
The promotion of Moreland to OC probably isn’t too surprising considering he was an All-MAC tight end at the school back in the late 90’s and was a frequent target of the now-head coach when he was a quarterback for the Broncos. The internal promotions and shifts will certainly help continuity within the program and make the transition from Johns to Moreland much easier when Western Michigan starts spring practice in just a few days on February 20th.
