By Rick Schneider

December 8, 2009

When thinking about franchise quarterbacks a few come to mind, the Colts’
Peyton Manning, the Giants’ Eli Manning and the reigning Super Bowl Champs the Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger.  It is expected for these quarterbacks to be in the top 10 rankings in NCAA history. 

But current Elmhurst College head football coach Tim Lester ranks higher than these quarterbacks in certain NCAA categories.

Recently Lester has been receiving some national attention as Western Michigan University senior quarterback Tim Hiller was busy breaking records that Lester had set during his college career.  

“Records are always going to be broken,” said Lester.  “If anyone was going to break them I was happy it was him. It was a lot of fun for me just because he was the kid that I recruited and brought into Western Michigan and had a chance to coach him a little bit.”

While at Western Michigan Lester finished as the school’s all-time leading passer, setting 17 school records.  He ranked fifth in NCAA history in passing yards with 11, 299 which is higher than Peyton Manning who had 11, 201.  He also finished with 89 touchdown passes, better than Ben Roethlisberger’s 84 and Eli Manning’s 81.  

“I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to play for multiple years.  I got to play four years,” said Lester.  “One of the main reasons why I held a lot of those records was because I had the chance to play for so long, at least the career ones.  A lot of the single game ones I was surrounded by great teammates and great coaches and had a lot of receivers that made me look good a lot of times.”

What Lester enjoyed most was how the program grew in the years that he played football at Western Michigan. 

“We weren’t a very strong program when I got there,” Lester said.  “It was fun to see the transformation in the school and how much support we got in our last two or three years where we went from 2-9 the first year to eventually winning the MAC West [Conference] my senior year.”
Hiller broke WMU’s single-season records for passing attempts (522), completions (339), yards (3,725) and touchdowns (36) last season.

This season Hiller advanced past Lester in WMU’s career passing touchdowns and career pass completions.   

Back in 2004 Lester was named Western Michigan’s quarterback coach.  It was Lester that got Hiller interested in WMU.  

“The kid is like a son to me,” said Lester about Hiller. “I found him out of nowhere in Orrville, Ohio and drove down to meet him and his family.  I got him to consider Western Michigan University.”

With Lester’s direction, Hiller, who as a freshman was the signal caller, was able to step in when WMU’s senior quarterback went down due to an injury.  Hiller earned MAC Freshman of the Year honors, finished the season with an efficiency rating of 178.85 and tossed 20 touchdowns with only three interceptions in the seven games that he played.  

Despite his dedication to his football career Hiller has been recognized for his efforts off the field.  He is one of three members of his class to have a 4.0 GPA.  He also founded the WMU chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and went on a faith-based mission trip to Trinidad last spring.  

“He graduated college in three years,” said Lester. “He is almost done with his masters.  He has been there five years.  He always had the work ethic.”
Hiller was recently named to the 2009 National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete Class, the first in WMU’s history.  Other players that received this honor were Colt McCoy of the University of Texas and Tim Tebow of the University of Florida.  

Although Lester moved back to Chicago to accept the job at Elmhurst College he has not lost touch with Hiller.  

“I talk to him every week,” said Lester.  “I talked to Tim a lot this year as he honed in on a lot of my records and passed a lot of them.”

Lester has taken on many roles in his relationship with Hiller.  

“I got to first be his recruiter, then be his mentor.   I was his coach and now I am kind of a sounding board for him,” Lester said. “I am helping him right now with the process of trying to find an agent. I had fun walking him through that process, having been through it myself.”

Lester played professionally for the Nashville Kats and Carolina Cobras of the Arena Football League.  He also played for the Memphis Xplorers of the Arena Football League 2 and the Chicago Enforcers of the XFL and thinks Hiller has what it takes to make it to the next level.  

“He is definitely going to have the opportunity to get drafted,” said Lester.  “He makes quick decisions.  He can handle a huge game plan.  He can handle everything that an NFL quarterback needs to handle.”