National Signing Day Press Conference Quotes - Bill Cubit

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Western Michigan University’s head football coach Bill Cubit announced the 25-member signing class of 2009 at a press conference held on campus on Wednesday afternoon, capping a year-long recruiting process embarked upon by his coaching staff and himself. The 25 signees match the largest National Signing Day class for Cubit, equaling last year’s total.

These Broncos hail from 11 different states, matching the largest geographic footprint for one class, and are spread out among nine different positional units. Four student-athletes are coming to WMU from junior colleges with Georgia Military College (the former stomping grounds of All-Mid-American Conference linebacker Boston McCornell), while another comes to campus from Hargrave Military Academy, while 21 will be incoming freshmen.

“Having graduated 25 seniors this past season, we knew we had a tough job ahead of us to fill out this recruiting class and I feel we have done that. The quality of student-athletes that make up this list of 25 goes to show the work our coaching staff puts in each and every year,” commented Cubit. “I am very happy with the distribution among the positional units and across the country of this class, including the seven kids from the state of Michigan, which I really feel good about. I am extremely proud of the quality of kids we are bringing onto our campus. Every year we recruit on character, passion, intelligence and then talent, and I feel we did exactly what we set out to do.”

Speaking to one aspect of the Cubit recruiting philosophy, intelligence, this year’s signing class has an average GPA of 3.2 with one of its members carrying a 4.27 GPA. On the field this class has something to boast as well. The 2009 signing class represents four state titles, a pair of regional championships, five sectional championships, seven district titles and 12 conference championships. A pair of signees also participated in two National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) bowl games during their JuCo careers.

The football recruiting pundits also gave praise not only to the student-athletes joining the Bronco family, but to Western Michigan’s entire recruiting class as well. Eleven recruits appear in the rankings by overall/position/state according to ESPN.com. Six more are ranked by position and/or state by Scouts.com and four are ranked by Rivals.com, including a pair who are rated as “Three Star” recruits. WisconsinPreps.com and MaxPreps each ranked one recruit apiece highly at their respective positions.

As of the morning of National Signing Day, Rivals.com had Western Michigan’s 2009 recruiting class ranked third in the MAC. Two positional units, tight end and wide receiver, were rated the best in the conference by the site, ranking 31st and 18th in the nation, respectively. In all, WMU had three positional units (OL, TE, WR) rank in the top three in the MAC.

The Broncos’ home state of Michigan garnered the highest number of signees in this year’s class with seven. Six of those appear on the Detroit Free Press’ Fab 50 List. For the second year in a row, the state of Illinois follows the Great Lakes State in terms of the number of signees, accounting for three in 2009. Proving Coach Cubit’s point about the geographical diversity of the 2009 signing class, five states account for two signees apiece (Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina). Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin round out the geographic tally sheet with one each.

The positional breakdown also shows the success Cubit and his staff had in diversifying this class and filling in the needs at certain positions. Of the 25 signees, 16 are on the offensive side of the ball (64.0 percent), while nine are defensive. Even though four-fifths of the starting offensive line returns in 2009, the Broncos wanted to provide depth at that position, signing five offensive linemen. This quintet averages 303.8 lbs., with the two largest tipping the scales at 330 and 345. Matching that total is the wide receiver position, ranging in height from 6’0” to 6’4”. With the losses of Jamarko Simmons and Schneider Julien and the fact that Juan Nunez is the only receiver returning with a vast amount of experience, WMU will look to again provide depth for quarterback Tim Hiller at the receiver position.

The Broncos bring in a trio of tight ends, reaching heights of 6’3”, 6’4” and 6’5”, to help replace the output of the program’s most prolific TD-catching tight end, Branden Ledbetter. A pair of running backs will join a diverse group of runners already in the Brown & Gold, namely Brandon West and rising sophomore Aaron Winchester. Western Michigan kept its string of 15-straight seasons of signing at least one quarterback alive, bringing in a recruit from Holland, Mich. (home of former Bronco linebacker and Associated Press All-American Ameer Ismail). The last recruiting class to not sign at least one signal caller came in 1994.

Five signees, three of whom are defensive ends, will join a defensive line that loses two interior linemen (Cory Flom and Nick Varcadipane) and two ends (Zach Davidson and Greg Marshall). The Broncos welcome three cornerbacks to a defensive backfield that loses the primary starter at each position in 2009. E.J. Biggers, Louis Delmas, Londen Fryar and C.J. Wilson have moved on, but these three signees join a group of young Broncos (Mario Armstrong, David Lewis, Josh Price, Andy Dorcely) who all have playing experience and will hope to continue the progress and success of WMU’s back-end defense. Western Michigan brings one linebacker into the fold and, again, will look to add depth to help key returnees Austin Pritchard (All-MAC selection) and Mitch Zajac.

Three signees signed early and are already enrolled at Western Michigan University and are taking classes as of the 2009 spring semester. This trio includes junior college transfers T.J. Lynch (DE), Ansel Ponder (WR) and incoming freshman Ben Samson (OL).

Western Michigan, coming off the third nine-win season in program history and the second postseason bowl game in the past three years, opens its spring practice sessions on Thursday, March 12 with the annual spring game taking place on Saturday, April 11. WMU opens the 2009 campaign at the University of Michigan on Sept. 5.