Jalen Buckley to return to Western Michigan for 2026

The MAC champions are running it back, and that includes the running back.

Fresh off a storybook 2025 season featuring 10 wins (second-most in program history), a MAC championship, and a Myrtle Beach Bowl domination, Western Michigan is gearing up for a repeat of its success in 2026. The Broncos already announced the return of starting quarterback Broc Lowry, and now things are even sweeter in Kalamazoo with the return of starting running back Jalen Buckley.

Buckley originally walked onto Western Michigan in 2022, arriving a season before the dawn of the Lance Taylor era. When Taylor took over in 2023, Buckley was placed on scholarship in fall camp and rose into a No. 1 running back role. He thrived as a redshirt freshman, generating 1,003 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns en route to MAC Freshman of the Year honors.

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Buckley’s production dipped in 2024 as he battled a slew of injuries. He still produced 683 yards and nine touchdowns on a 5.3 average, but the running back understood he had much more left in the tank. Injury adversity also stung through the 2025 campaign, but Buckley overcame a slow start to a tremendous finish. He posted eight of his nine rushing touchdowns in his final six games and concluded the year with 133, 193, and 174 yard outbursts across his final four outings.

The 193-yard explosion transpired in the MAC Championship Game, where he won Offensive MVP honors in a 23-13 victory over Miami (OH), delivering a pair of 60+ yard touchdown runs at Ford Field. In the ensuing Myrtle Beach Bowl, Buckley needed 171 yards to reach the 1,000-yard threshold on the season, and he accomplished that feat in the first quarter. The All-MAC running back totaled 172 yards in the first 10 minutes of action, cementing the MVP award in basically a quarter. Buckley ultimately finished with 174 yards on eight carries in Western Michigan’s 41-6 thrashing of Conference USA champion Kennesaw State, concluding 2025 with 1,003 rushing yards — an identical output to two years ago.

With one more year of eligibility, Buckley decided to exhaust it in Kalamazoo, the school that turned him from a walk-on to a scholarship player and the home where he produced two 1,000-yard seasons. With quarterback Broc Lowry also back in the fold, Western Michigan retains to 950+ yard rushers from the 17th-ranked ground offense in the FBS. With that amount of talent returning to the backfield, the Broncos are well set for a repeat of a MAC title in 2026 — something no MAC program has attained since Northern Illinois in 2011 and 2012.