Michigan State successfully flips 3-star RB Zion Gist from Western Michigan
Back in June, 3-star running back Zion Gist committed to Western Michigan. However, the Spartans hosted Gist for an official visit this weekend for the Purdue game, and he must have liked what he saw, because on Monday, Gist flipped his committed from Western Michigan to Michigan State football.
Gist is the No. 141 ranked running back in the 2025 class by 247Sports and their No. 58 ranked player in the state of Illinois.
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Green Bay and Iowa have something in common for Tim Lester: His focus is back on the football itself.
On Tuesday, first-year Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester spoke on what he has learned about himself and the game of football from his previous coaching experiences.
While Lester has 22 years of coaching experience, he was asked to reflect on his journey over the past two years, starting with his 2022 dismissal as head coach from his alma mater, Western Michigan.
“It’s been wild to be honest with you,” Lester said. “People don’t understand when you get to be the head coach of your alma mater, you think you never want to leave. You have opportunities to leave and you don’t plan on it, and then you don’t have a choice. You have to leave. So, those were dark days.”
Lester, a member of the WMU Athletic Hall of Fame, threw for 11,299 passing yards with 87 touchdowns during his four-year Broncos career.
Unfortunately for Lester, he took the head coaching reins in 2017, a year removed from Western Michigan’s 13-1 season and Rose Bowl appearance under then-head coach P.J. Fleck. Lester would be fired in 2022 with a 37-32 record in six seasons as head coach.
Kimberly Moss-USA TODAY Sports
Following his dismissal from Western Michigan, Lester joined the Green Bay Packers as a senior analyst under head coach Matt LaFleur’s staff. LaFleur and Lester were teammates at Western Michigan during LaFleur’s two seasons in Kalamazoo from 1998-99.
Lester continued his reflection by stating that his lone season in Green Bay was refreshing as it reintroduced him to a familiar system of plays.
“Having a chance to go with Matt in Green Bay was refreshing. To coach in the NFL, to kind of reintroduce myself to this system, which has always been my favorite system. I ran it for years early on in my career, which is really unique to get back,” Lester said.
He added that his six seasons as a head coach in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) showed him that head coaches don’t just get to coach football.
“The one thing that I’ve learned about coaching, at least in the MAC—I don’t know how many places are like this—but you do a lot, you wear a lot of hats, so you get further and further away from football, which is what I love to do. Sitting in a room with the quarterbacks talking ball, trying to teach is why we do what we do,” Lester said.
In his time with Green Bay, Lester’s focus was able to return solely to football.
“As a head coach at least at that level—I know there’s coaches, like in the NFL, they only want head coaches that are play callers. In college they don’t. They want you to go raise money. So, it was refreshing to get back to all about the ball.
“That’s what you do in the NFL and to be in a place at Green Bay with Matt and all the coaches really, that was an enlightening year for me. Even though I was there until 1 in the morning. I was the grunt guy. I’d get somebody coffee if they needed it. They didn’t make me do it, but I would have. It was a lot of fun.”
At Iowa, it’s similar to Green Bay. Lester’s focus is on the teaching.
“And then coming here and getting to be a football coach and be around these guys and introduce something brand new that they’ve never heard of or seen and watch the way they’ve worked at it.
“I’m glad they’ve had a little bit of success and not even close to what we need to be, but it’s been a great journey. Learning a lot about what makes me happy and what makes me feel fulfilled and have better relationships and so it’s been a journey, but it’s been fun,” Lester said.
Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Lester and the Hawkeyes (6-4, 4-3 Big Ten) are currently on their bye week but will resume play on Nov. 23 from SECU Stadium in College Park, Md., when they take on the Maryland Terrapins (4-5, 1-5 Big Ten).
Kickoff for next week’s game is slated for 11 a.m. CT and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network and on the Hawkeyes Radio Network.
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Lady Vols defeat Western Michigan volleyball in four sets.
No. 15 Tennessee( 7-3) defeated Western Michigan (4-7), 25-20, 25-11, 22-25, 25-19, Friday at Food City Center in its final nonconference game of the season.
Graduate student Nina Cajic totaled 16 kills, eight digs and two blocks for the Lady Vols, who posted a .370 hitting percentage in the match against the Broncos. She also totaled eight digs and two blocks.
Freshman Paityn Chapman recorded 12 kills, three blocks, three aces, two digs and one assist, while recording a .429 hitting percentage. Eryn Jones totaled 11 kills, 11 digs and four blocks.
Redshirt sophomore Caroline Kerr was the Lady Vols’ leading passer as she finished with 44 assists. She also totaled three blocks, three digs and two kills for Tennessee, which held Western Michigan to a .143 hitting percentage.
Will Ohio State have success in this area vs. Western Michigan? #GoBucks
Ohio State football beat up on the Akron Zips Saturday in Week 1 action, winning 52-6. While it didn’t cover the spread, it did dominate in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
The Buckeyes gave five or more carries to three different running backs, using TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins the most.
The former ended with 65 yards on 8 carries, an 8.1 yards-per-carry average. The latter went for 13 carries and 55 yards, a 4.2 yards-per-carry average. James Peoples was the third back who ended with 6 carries for 30 yards.
Ryan Day praised Chip Kelly, who called his first game as the Buckeyes offensive coordinator, for sticking to the run throughout the game. However, that might be more difficult to do against Western Michigan.
The Broncos, who lost 28-14 to the Wisconsin Badgers in their Week 1 battle, allowed 196 rushing yards. However, for the most part, they still did a good job against the run. The Badgers ran the ball an incredible 46 times with two players getting at least 15 carries.
Ohio State should be more effective, but Western Michigan held Chez Mellusi, the top Wisconsin back, to just 3.9 yards per carry. The Broncos also had five tackles for a loss which compared favorably to the Badgers just one.
The Buckeyes want to run the ball, and Kelly is going to push that. However, the Broncos held up well against the onslaught against Wisconsin, and it’s unlikely the Buckeyes are going to get 45-plus carries Saturday.
Ohio State is back in The Shoe for primetime on Saturday 🔥🏈
This will be the first time since 2015 that the teams have played one another. The Buckeyes were coming off of a National Championship title 🏆 and beat Western Michigan 38-12‼️
While they have a strong offensive line and talented running backs, getting quarterback Will Howard going early to avoid difficult third downs like Wisconsin had many of will be ideal for the Buckeyes.
Western Michigan can at least limit big plays on the ground and did so against Wisconsin. Either Ohio State will have to pound like Wisconsin or find a way to succeed with Howard through the air.
ESPN SP+ thinks Wisconsin’s Week 2 opponent is better than Western Michigan
ESPN SP+ thinks Wisconsin is up against a tougher test in Week 2 after its less-than-convincing Week 1 win over Western Michigan.
The metric ranks Wisconsin’s Week 2 opponent South Dakota No. 102 overall in its full college football top 764 ranking. Western Michigan, meanwhile, is down at No. 127.
Bill Connelly’s SP+ metric is the only one that compiles a ranking for every college football program in the country: FBS, FCS and beyond. That creates the mentioned 764-team ranking. It’s the best point of comparison between FCS and FBS teams, as they are rarely judged against each other aside from the games on the field.
In simpler terms, SP+ thinks South Dakota is a better all-around team than Western Michigan — a Western Michigan team that gave Wisconsin trouble for 3 1/2 quarters in Week 1.
The only takeaway from Connelly’s ranking is that Wisconsin needs a better showing on Saturday afternoon when the Coyotes visit Madison. The Badgers are by far the more talented team, ranked 36 in the latest SP+ update. They badly need a complete, all-around, decisive victory before a Week 3 showdown with top-ranked Alabama (No. 2 in SP+).
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Wisconsin tallied 388 yards of total offense (192 passing, 196 rushing), gained 27 first downs, was an impressive 11/17 on third and fourth down and traveled into the Western Michigan red zone a total of six times. It moved the ball at will.
But with 10 minutes left in the game, the Badgers somehow trailed 14-13.
One easy ‘one stat that must change’ is the team’s red zone efficiency. It reached the red zone in each of its first four drives, though scored only 13 points. The drives went: Missed field goal, touchdown, field goal, field goal. Scoring touchdowns on all of those trips would be a great place to start.
But Wisconsin’s biggest problem on offense was separate from its red zone struggles. The problem was a lack of explosiveness. The unit did not register a play longer than 17 yards.
That gets to the central problem facing the team, or at least the reason it failed to score 40+ against a poor MAC opponent. What is Phil Longo’s air raid offense if not explosive? That is a rhetorical question. The answer is not that good.
Longo’s attack works when it can hit big strikes, whether on the ground or through the air. Luke Fickell said on Monday that Western Michigan presented some unique looks, taking the Badgers out of their original plan. But whichever looks the offense saw, it should be able to hit on plays longer than 17 yards.
That failure to create explosive plays led the team to run far too many plays to drive the field. As seen in some of its first-half drives, too many plays often leads to trouble — missed field goals, turnovers, timely penalties, etc.
Wisconsin’s first four drives were 16 plays, 16 plays, 14 plays and 14 plays. That works to wear down a defense, but it also gives the opponent far too many opportunities to stall the drive’s progress.
The Badgers’ drives were of that length because the team went 11/17 on third and fourth down, an unsustainable rate of success. A team facing 16 third downs in a game typically means it is punting 7-8 times, at least. So the key to offensive success, especially in Longo’s scheme, is avoiding those situations. To do that, a team must create explosive, field-flipping plays.
The Badgers supposedly have the playmakers to stretch opposing defenses in the pass-happy offensive scheme. Week 2 vs. South Dakota will be about connecting on those plays and flashing the explosive potential of the offense. Otherwise, things won’t look good entering Week 3 vs. Alabama.
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Luke Fickell shares the biggest reason the Badgers struggled in Week 1:
The Wisconsin Badgers, fresh off a 28-14 Week 1 win over Western Michigan, have turned the page to their Week 2 matchup with South Dakota.
Head coach Luke Fickell met with the media on Monday to preview the upcoming contest, plus reflect back on his team’s performance against the Broncos and why the Badgers struggled to pull away.
“Obviously every game you go into, you got a plan. And there are some things that, yeah, you don’t want to do everything in Week 1. But you also don’t know exactly what it is that you’re gonna get,” Fickell explained. “The thing that probably changed as we got into the game as much as anything is, whether we had some other things that we didn’t end up doing, we got a lot of things that we didn’t expect. And credit to them. Defensively they changed up a lot from what we had expected they would be in. And offensively, they really did a lot of different things that we didn’t expect to see as well. Which limits you.”
Fickell dispelled the notion that his staff was saving its true game plan for Week 3’s matchup with Alabama. He went on to sum up why he thought the game remained competitive into the fourth quarter, despite Wisconsin having the clear talent and skill advantage:
“Unfortunately, we played into the hands of the way they were playing. And we weren’t able to take advantage of some of the other things that we need to do a better job of. And I put that on myself.”
In his words: coaching.
Western Michigan head coach Lance Taylor brought in a new OC-DC pairing this offseason in Walt Bell and Scott Power respectively. The trio, in Fickell’s words, surprised the Badgers with their game plan and execution. That led to Wisconsin being limited to only 13 points in the first three quarters and needing a 15-point fourth-quarter surge to win the game.
Fickell did go on to highlight the Badgers’ fourth-quarter performance, citing as the biggest area for improvement from 2023 to this year.
“We knew that the number one thing for our program is we have to be able to win fourth quarters. We were challenged in the fourth quarter that’s for sure. But we found a way and played our best ball in the fourth quarter…There’s a lot of things that we are going to be very glad that we’ve been through as we continue to move forward.”
While the team’s performance did not build much confidence in its rest-of-season outlook, the fourth-quarter performance is a legitimate sticking point. In Wisconsin entered the fourth quarter in the lead or within a score in five of its six losses in 2023. It then lost nearly all of those periods — 7-0 against Washington State, 8-0 against Iowa, 3-0 against Indiana and 7-0 against LSU.
The fourth-quarter performance was one of the main factors in several close losses last season. If there any positives to take from an uncomfortable Week 1 win over a low-level MAC opponent, it’s that the Badgers played their best football late.
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Fourqurean, first, finished the contest tied for the team lead with seven tackles, three of them solo. He played a significant role in the Badgers holding Western Michigan to only 141 passing yards and zero passing touchdowns.
Mellusi was the Badgers’ primary engine on offense. He finished the game with 19 carries for 74 rushing yards and a touchdown. His nine-yard score in the second quarter opened the scoring for the Badgers and officially marked his impressive return from another season-ending injury in 2023.
Lahm, finally, had touchbacks on four of five kickoffs. The fifth was only returned to the 22 yard-line.
Here are some of the other potential candidates who were not mentioned:
CB Ricardo Hallman (not targeted in the contest)
P Atticus Bertrams (fumbled punt was turning point in the game)
RB Tawee Walker (impressive debut, averaged 4.4 yards per carry)
Wisconsin now begins preparation for next Saturday against South Dakota. That game will be a Saturday afternoon kickoff at 3:30 p.m ET, 2:30 p.m. CT.
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Western Michigan defensive back Nyquann Washington has gone viral, or at least a moment involving him has. It came as Wisconsin was completing a two-point conversion to WR Trech Kekahuna in the back of the end zone to extend its lead to 21-14.
After Kekahuna caught the pass, Washington played leap frog with the referee on the baseline.
The move looks more and more puzzling the slower you play the video. Washington is a full 7-8 feet behind the back judge as Kekahuna catches the pass. He then jogs forward and jumps over the referee, who had his eyes trained on whether the Wisconsin receiver completed the process of the catch.
There isn’t much else to share about this moment other than it has gotten millions of views on X since the game concluded. Of all the viral moments that can happen during a game, at least this one happened while Wisconsin was scoring points.
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The drop makes sense given the context. Wisconsin struggled to defeat a Western Michigan team that entered the game No. 119 in the FPI (out of 134 Football Bowl Subdivision programs). The Broncos have risen with their strong performance. But much of that can be attributed to the Badgers’ struggles on both sides of the football.
FPI and SP+ ratings are not the end-all for evaluating a team. Wisconsin moves into Week 2 with a 1-0 record, which is technically all that matters. But in a week where Iowa won 40-0 and Nebraska won 40-7, both against lesser competition, it’s hard not to look at Wisconsin’s performance with a critical eye.
The Badgers are back on the field next Saturday against South Dakota. That game serves as the final warmup before No. 5 Alabama visits Madison on Sept. 14.
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