DETROIT -- P.J. Fleck may have been the youngest coach in the room at the Mid-American Conference Media Day, but he talks like he's been a coach as long as Frank Solich.
At 32, Fleck is the youngest in the Football Bowl Subdivision tasked with turning around a Western Michigan team that finished 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the MAC last season.
Fleck has a simple answer to rebuild: change.
"Everybody wants change until they get it," Fleck said. "You have to change. That's hard for a lot of people. But if you want to get to where you want to be you have to change yourself on a daily basis."
Fleck's vision of changing the Western Michigan program includes everything. The lobby at the football center, to the locker room at Waldo Stadium and even the light switches. Fleck wants a complete makeover for the Broncos.
He's one of three new coaches in the MAC in 2013. But unlike Paul Haynes at Kent State and Rod Carey at Northern Illinois, Fleck has to rebuild a program. Haynes and Carey take over programs that appeared in the 2012 MAC Championship game.
That's the way Fleck would prefer to have it.
"I'm a firm believer in taking something and breaking it, whether it needs to be fixed or not, and put it back together," Fleck said. "If you take a horse, break it and build it back into a horse, at least you took the chance."
Haynes won't have to rebuild Kent State for the future. His job is to replicate the success from an 11-3 record that earned former coach Darrell Hazell at job at Purdue.
But Hazell didn't take off for Purdue until after Kent State's 17-13 loss to Arkansas State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Haynes was named Kent State's coach before the bowl game, giving him time to assemble a coaching staff for 2013.
"It was a unique situation and (Hazell) wanted to finish it out," Haynes said. "I didn't have to rush and get ready for a bowl game. It helped me out in that way."
Haynes will have personal experience at Kent State to build on. He played four seasons for the Golden Flashes from 1987-91, and was an assistant from 1999-2000.
Carey in a sense had to scramble for a bowl game after former Northern Illinois coach Dave Doeren took the coaching job at North Carolina State following the Huskies' MAC Championship win.
Having a game under his belt, along with being the offensive line coach at Northern Illinois the past two seasons has slightly helped Carey transition in to head coach role.
"It's an advantage if you're comparing it to P.J. (Fleck) and Paul (Haynes)," Carey said. "But it's really not that much."
All three coaches will have their challenges at their respective programs in 2013 and the future. Whether its maintaining success from previous seasons or starting over, all three are more than prepared for the challenge.
