Western Michigan opens its home slate as the reigning MAC champion and the league's preseason favorite. Monmouth shows up with the best offense in the entire FCS and a first-year head coach with nothing to lose.
Bush’s Picks
MONMWMU
MONMWMU
OverUnder
Best BetWestern Michigan
Western Michigan is the far superior roster here — a defending MAC champion retaining almost its entire title-winning core plus a loaded transfer class, hosting an FCS opponent in a scheduled buy game. Monmouth has real talent, especially on offense, but jumping up in competition level against a favorite of this caliber is a tall order. Take the Broncos to win this one comfortably.
Monmouth
+9-3 in 2025, best season since 2019
+No. 1 total offense in the FCS returning
+Jaeden Jones a preseason FCS All-American
−First-year head coach in Jeff Gallo
−Missed FCS playoffs despite the record
−Lost 48-13 in only prior meeting with WMU
Western Michigan
+Reigning MAC champions, Coach of the Year in Taylor
+Kept nearly entire title roster plus transfer additions
+10 returning starters, most in the MAC
−Comes off a road trip at Michigan
−New defensive coordinator in Greer Martini
−No MAC team has repeated as champ since 2011-12
This is Western Michigan's first home game of the 2026 season, sandwiched right after a trip to Ann Arbor to open the year, and Lance Taylor's roster looks like the deepest one he's had in Kalamazoo. QB Broc Lowry returns as the clear starter, RB Jalen Buckley is back in the backfield, and 4 returning starters up front give the Broncos as much continuity as anyone in the MAC after a title-winning 2025.
Monmouth isn't your typical September money-game opponent, either. Jeff Gallo takes over as head coach after 33 years under Kevin Callahan, but Gallo built this attack himself as offensive coordinator — an offense that finished No. 1 in the FCS in total yards and No. 2 in passing a season ago. Junior safety Jaeden Jones, a preseason All-American, gives the defense a legitimate anchor too, so this isn't a roster the Broncos can simply overlook.
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5:30 PM CT
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MONM Monmouth
WMU Western Michigan
The only previous meeting between these two programs came in 2019, when Western Michigan rolled Monmouth 48-13 in Kalamazoo behind 5 touchdown passes from Jon Wassink. That result lines up with how these FBS-FCS scheduling games usually go, and the market treats this one the same way — WMU as a heavy favorite hosting a paid visitor before conference play starts in earnest.
Monmouth Hawks
Western Michigan Broncos
Sep 5?@ Michigan—
Recent form.
What makes this one slightly less predictable than the standard buy game is the gap between rosters isn't as lopsided as the records suggest. Monmouth went 9-3 last year, its best season since 2019, and was ranked nationally for most of the year before an FCS playoff snub. Western Michigan, meanwhile, is coming off a Michigan trip to open the season and is breaking in Greer Martini as its new defensive coordinator after Chris O'Leary left for the NFL.
Add in that this is billed as WMU's CommUniverCity community event and a MAC-champion team trying to build early-season habits, and you get a game that should be lopsided on paper but has just enough intrigue in Monmouth's passing attack to keep it from feeling like a total formality.
