After losing 21 players to season-ending injuries in 2017, WMU opened fall camp at full strength Thursday.
KALAMAZOO, MI – After losing 21 players to season-ending injuries in 2017, the start of Western Michigan fall camp Thursday felt like a family reunion on the football field.
Quarterback Jon Wassink, running backs Jamauri Bogan and LeVante Bellamy and safety Justin Tranquill were just a few of players flying around Waldo Stadium for the first time since having their seasons cut short a year ago.
„It’s always fun when you get out here for the first time,“ WMU head coach Tim Lester said. „I hadn’t seen Bellamy or Bogan run in a long time, so it was good to see them out here again.“
Tranquill’s return was 11 months in the making, after the junior safety tore his right ACL for the second time in his career on Sept. 9 against Michigan State.
The former four-star recruit looked full strength in his first practice, intercepting freshman quarterback Kaleb Eleby and looking comfortable in the back of the Broncos‘ defense.
„He looked good,“ Lester said of Tranquill. „I was proud of the way he ran and moved. He made a pick, the freshman quarterback threw it right to him. He read him like a book, like a veteran does to a rookie, and then smiled afterwards.
„It was fun to watch him out there. It’s been a long time.“
Beneath a dark mustache Tranquill calls his „Trash Stache,“ the veteran safety was all smiles when talking about his favorite part of fall camp.
„I think it’s just finally getting out here with all the new guys and getting show them the ropes,“ he said. „I remember coming in my first year, you don’t know what to expect and you’re kind of nervous. You’re almost like a lost dog or a deer in the headlights.
„Coaches are blowing the whistles and saying all this stuff over the speakers, and you have no idea what’s going on, so to make it fun, make it exciting, make it fresh for the younger guys is exciting because we were all in their shoes.
„Being able to make it exciting and fun for them makes it fun for them and fun for the rest of the guys because no one want to come out and practice if everyone is just in a terrible mood.“
While Tranquill is entering his fourth fall camp, Jamauri Bogan is on his fifth, and the thought of Thursday serving as his final first practice made him emotional as he took the field with fellow fifth-year senior running back Leo Ekwoge.
„Me and me and one of my good buddies, Leo, looked at each other before practice and kind of got a little sad because it’s our last go around, but it was fun today to get after it and be around the young guys, fun to do it for one last time,“ Bogan said.
Addressing the injuries
Offensive tackle Zach Novoselsky, who broke his leg in the season finale against Toledo, is the only player still recovering from an injury in 2017, but the senior was a full participant in Thursday’s helmets-only practice and should be ready for the season opener against Syracuse on Friday, Aug. 31.
As for the other people who didn’t make it out of 2017 in one piece, Lester said he and his training staff spent the offseason analyzing his team’s injuries and working on ways to prevent a similar scenario from affecting his club.
„The foot injuries were really the only ones that were elevated,“ he said. „Everything else was on par. We had one head, two knees, one clavicle and two or three labrums, which is on par for everything.
The foot injuries were up to six or seven, which is higher than normal, so we addressed that with some orthotics and talked to a lot of different people about what could have caused that and what we can do because there were a lot of lisfrancs, and it’s a common injury, but not to the level it got.
„We debrief everything, so I have notes of every single thing we did last year, so when we came around to planning this year, I had all the things I didn’t like from last year.“
Wassink progressing
After struggling in early-season losses against USC and Michigan State, quarterback, Jon Wassink settled down and showed signs of a confident field general until a broken collarbone ended his sophomore campaign in Week 8.
His recovery allowed him to throw during spring practice, and he was impressing Lester by showing an ability to scan the defense and look off defensive backs.
„He looked good today,“ Lester said of Wassink. „He was really comfortable. I think he made one or two decisions that I want to watch with him on film to see what he was doing, but he’s starting to control his eyes a lot better, which is huge for a quarterback.
„It makes his job a lot easier because he doesn’t have to throw around so many people, he’s opening his receivers, which is something we’ve talked about since spring.“
Now in his second fall camp as WMU’s No. 1 quarterback, Wassink said his familiarity with Lester’s system allows him to be more comfortable in the pocket.
“ The experience last year definitely helps, but Id‘ say the bigger thing is getting used to this coaching staff even more,“ he said. „We had the spring where coach Lester took over the offense, and now at camp, it’s our second time running it, so Id‘ say that is what makes me even more comfortable, building that chemistry with the coaches and my teammates.“
First look at freshmen
WMU signed one of the top recruiting classes in Mid-American Conference history in 2018, and Thursday marked the first time for the coaching staff to get an on-field look at the promising group.
“ (Grant Geib) our strength coach does an unbelievable job, and he’s very impressed with the athleticism of this group,“ Lester said. „We have some long kids who can move, and we’ll see on the film how they did.
„Some of the young quarterbacks got lost a little bit in what they did, and I’m sure there were some (missed assignments) out there, but the thing about early in camp is that everyone gets reps.
