Detroit Free Press

Tim Lester is the next football coach for Western Michigan, the school announced Friday night.

He replaces P.J. Fleck, who left last week to coach Minnesota.

Lester, 39, served as Purdue's quarterbacks coach this past season. Before that he was offensive coordinator for two seasons at Syracuse, where he also coached quarterbacks in 2013-15.

Lester will be introduced to the media during an 11 a.m. news conference Saturday.

Lester, from Wheaton, Ill., was a four-year starting quarterback for Western Michigan in 1996-99. He passed for 11,299 yards, which ranked him fourth in FBS history at the time, and 89 touchdowns, setting 17 program and Mid-American Conference records.

He played in the XFL, Arena Football League and Arena League 2 before starting his coaching career.

Lester returned to WMU in 2005 as quarterbacks coach. He has had two stints as a Division II head coach: one year at St. Joseph's (Ind.), where he went 7-4, and five years at Division II Elmhurst (Ill.), where he compiled a 33-19 record.

At Purdue this season, Lester coached David Blough and the Boilermakers, averaging 295 passing yards per game, which ranked 21st in the country.

A September story by the Lafayette Journal & Courier spotlighted how Lester brought technological tools he used from his days at Syracuse as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator to Purdue, having quarterbacks wear GoPro helmets in practice at times so Lester could observe more closely, and "implemented a virtual reality simulator that allows the quarterbacks to run thousands of realistic game reps."

Purdue running backs coach DeAndre Smith, who coached with Lester at Syracuse, told the Journal & Courier he was excited to experience that intelligence and creativity again and that his ability to relate to players was what sets Lester apart.

"A lot of guys will get up on the board and they'll draw up a play and tell you where you should be going with the ball," Purdue coach Darrell Hazell said of Lester, according to the Journal & Courier.

"But those highs and lows and things that a quarterback has to go through, he seems to share that with them. That's why he shares such a tight bond with those guys."

Fleck led WMU to a 13-1 record this season and a spot in the Cotton Bowl, where it lost, 24-16, to Wisconsin on Jan. 2. Fleck, 36, was 30-22 in four years in Kalamazoo. Fleck signed a five-year, $18-million contract with Minnesota. The school also agreed to pay up to $600,000 toward his buyout at WMU.

Related:

Western Michigan reacts to loss of P.J. Fleck

Windsor: P.J. Fleck will be tough for Western Michigan to top

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