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The high-scoring extravaganza saw more than 1, total yards thanks to Western Kentucky quarterback Bailey Zappe throwing for yards and UTSA running back Sincere McCormick going for yards on the ground.
Western Kentucky and UTSA are both straight up and against the spread, and the Roadrunners have gone over the total in all five of their games. Despite three turnovers vs. Meanwhile, Western Kentucky comes off of a loss to Troy, as it allowed the Trojans to score 34 points on seven trips beyond the yard line.
Although the Hilltoppers are still an elite passing offense — similar to last season — there are cracks in the armor worn by Big Red.
The loss of Zappe — along with offensive coordinator Zach Kittley — has forced a drop off in several areas. In 77 red-zone trips, the Hilltoppers offense scored in all but seven tries. This season, Western Kentucky has failed to score in the red zone on six of 26 attempts, with a drop in touchdown rate. It’s all WKUFootball so far in this one pic.
The numbers for transfer quarterback Austin Reed look great on the surface only four interceptions with 17 touchdowns , but a closer look exposes 11 Big Time Throws against 10 Turnover Worthy Plays. Helton is fielding similar numbers in stopping opposing offenses, a long shot from the menacing Group of Five units from just a few years ago.
While Western Kentucky has fallen off in generating Havoc and tackling fundamentals, Kahlef Hailassie has been ambiguous at the corner position. Hailassie has been targeted 38 times so far this season, forcing five incompletions but also giving up yards. The corner is second among all players in FBS when it comes to pass-play stops , a tackle that constitutes a failure for the offense, per PFF.
Head coach Jeff Traylor was tasked with replacing one of the most productive running backs in the nation in McCormick. Arkansas transfer Trelon Smith and fifth-year senior Brenden Brady have yet to fill that role. The running back tandem has produced just 21 missed tackles, with neither averaging more than 2.
Thankfully, quarterback Frank Harris supplies more productivity on the ground than almost any quarterback in the nation. The focus of the offense has moved to a pass-heavy attack without explosiveness on the ground. The defense has maintained a top Success Rate mark from a season ago, but UTSA continues to be shelled by explosive plays. The Roadrunners are outside the top in opponent yard plays from scrimmage , with the biggest portion of those issues coming on Standard Downs.
Most defenses that struggle with tackling are prone to explosive plays, but with a mid-FBS ranking in tackle grading, these issues fall upon missed assignments from the secondary.
UTSA has scored more points in the second quarter than any other quarter in all FBS games so far, as each attempt to establish the ground game has been relegated to Harris keeping the ball on zone reads for designed rushing attempts or deep passes. Western Kentucky is a top defense in terms of Line Yards, which means Harris will take it to the skies often.
And the defense has played strong competition—Houston, Texas, and Middle Tennessee—that partially skews the statistics. But against an explosive offense like WKU if the defense cannot find a way to make a stop, it will become that much more important for the offense to pick up the slack. Even so, running backs Brendan Brady and Trelon Smith have been consistent, and with the probable return of offensive lineman Makai Hart the Roadrunners could find some success running the ball.
Quarterback Austin Reed has stepped up in place of Zappe and has, in just five games, thrown for over yards and 17 touchdowns. That is good for fifth and fourth, respectively, in the country. Reed also does well spreading the ball, with wide receiver Daewood Davis as his main target. Reed rarely makes mistakes, having thrown just four interceptions on the year. And while he is not as potent with his feet, Reed has been able to score twice and extend plays when protection breaks down. Sophomore running back Kye Robichaux averages 6.
However, it remains to be seen how the defense stacks up in conference play long term. The Hilltoppers have not won in the Alamodome, albeit the one game was the conference championship. The question, however, is whether that offense can stay potent through all four quarters. Against FIU, another conference opponent, the answer was a resounding yes after the Hilltoppers scored 73 points. It will require, however, a complete came.
WKU cannot play lackluster if the Hilltoppers wish to leave Texas with the victory. The margin of error for both teams is small. Compared to last year, it is more than probable that we see another offensive duel than a defensive one. The problem that WKU faces, however, is battling an elite passing offense that has already won a championship against the Hilltoppers. I expect both teams to come out strong, with the deciding moment coming in the fourth quarter. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.
By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Filed under:. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Prediction The margin of error for both teams is small.
Western kentucky football –
Smith Stadium. This was 20 years after the “Save the Program” season and 10 years after the championship season. After serving on Harbaugh ‘s coaching staff seven seasons, David Elson was promoted to head coach where he led the Hilltoppers for seven seasons. On Nov. The Hilltoppers were not eligible to participate in a Sun Belt Conference Championship or a berth in a bowl game until the season. Knowing it wasn’t going to be easy, and without the motivation of being eligible to compete for a championship, Elson and the Hilltoppers set two team goals that season; to win seven games and to go undefeated at home.
Both goals required at least one win over an FBS team. If the Hilltoppers won seven games, they got rings. Things only got worse for the Hilltoppers in after they finally became full members of the Sun Belt Conference.
WKU lost every game that season, going 0—12, posting their worst record in school history. Elson was hopeful to survive the transition as he asked for patience in building the program, but on Nov. WKU Quarterback Legend, Willie Taggart , returned to his alma mater as head football coach in after leaving his position as Stanford running backs coach, [16] where he served under Jack Harbaugh ‘s son Jim Harbaugh.
The Hilltoppers finished 2—10 that season. From there, Taggart is credited with getting WKU’s football program back on track after posting back to back 7—5 regular seasons that included an upset of Kentucky in Lexington in Despite the surprising 7—5 record in , a season in which the Hilltoppers went 7—1 in their final eight games, they were not invited to a bowl game.
It wasn’t until the following year, , that the Hilltoppers were invited to their first FBS-level bowl game, the Little Caesar’s Bowl. Former Louisville , Atlanta Falcons and Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino was hired as the new head football coach following Taggart’s departure.
WKU became the first school in league history to sweep the top three honors with just two players. After one season as offensive coordinator for the Hilltoppers, Jeff Brohm was promoted to the program’s head football coach, replacing Petrino. Highlights of the season include upsetting undefeated and No. The Hilltoppers went on to defeat South Florida , who was coached by former Hilltopper quarterback and coach Willie Taggart , in the Miami Beach Bowl 45—35, ending the season with a 12—2 record and ranked 24th in the nation.
Doughty was named the C-USA Most Valuable Player for a second straight year becoming the first player in league history to win the award in back-to-back seasons. On December 5, it was announced that Jeff Brohm would be leaving to take the head coach position at Purdue and that defensive coordinator Nick Holt would be filling in as interim head coach leading into their bowl game.
In his three seasons as head coach Jeff Brohm posted an outstanding 30—10 record, 17—2 at home, and 20—5 against Conference USA opponents. With the bowl win under Coach Holt, that brought their total wins over three years to 31 becoming a dominant force in Conference USA and among the Group of Five.
Leaving his job as offensive coordinator at Notre Dame , Mike Sanford returned to WKU, this time as head coach, after serving as quarterbacks coach under Willie Taggart in The following are the head coaches of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Western Kentucky has won 13 conference titles, ten outright and three shared.
In addition to conference championships, Western Kentucky has won 3 conference divisional titles. The Hilltoppers competed in two “College Division” bowl games prior to the NCAA instituting playoffs for lower division teams in , with a record of 2—0.
The Hilltoppers’ overall playoff record is 12—9. The primary logo was switched in to a red towel with an embossed “WKU” wordmark in white. The Hilltoppers have a long relationship with Russell Athletic for their uniforms and the contract was renewed through Red and white are the primary colors of the football uniforms with an occasional gray or black uniform. On August 13, , WKU released 2 new red home and white away jerseys with 3 pants red, white, and black.
The houndstooth design from legendary coach, Jimmy Feix’s fedora is used on team shirts and down the stripe of the helmet. The university’s cupola is inscribed on the chest plate and the line from the school’s alma mater “We shall never fail thee” is written on the bottom of the jersey. On the pants, visibility of “Hilltoppers” lettering down the side of the pants increases with intensity of the game.
Western Kentucky has retired four jersey numbers. Since WKU’s transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision in , two of these rivalry games are no longer played on an annual basis. The name comes from the fact that the two universities are separated by about miles. WKU has an inactive rivalry with Eastern Kentucky. The two programs have met 84 times in football since WKU has an inactive rivalry with nearby Murray State.
The two programs have met 67 times since the rivalry began in The Red Belt trophy was introduced to the rivalry series in when Murray’s athletic trainer failed to pack a belt for the Racers’ road trip and was loaned one by legendary WKU athletic trainer Bill “Doc E” Edwards.
Announced schedules as of August 9, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. College football team that represents Western Kentucky University. This section may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Please consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article’s talk page. Hilltopper field goal. Hilltopper FG. One more. Indiana vs.
Western Kentucky football game By Scout Staff. SAT P. IND -7, o Season Leaders passing. While Evans causes problems on the defensive side of the ball, quarterback Austin Reed is attacking opposing defenses through the air.
Reed comes into the game with 1, passing yards and 17 touchdowns. He is averaging On the year, Harris has thrown for 1, yards and 12 touchdowns and rushed for yards and four touchdowns.
Troy beat Marshall last week. Most of the squad’s points came courtesy of special teams, which contributed ten. K Brooks Buce delivered a perfect 3-for-3 game. WKU is the favorite in this one, with an expected 5-point margin of victory. They have been consistent moneymakers against the spread when favored , so they might be worth a quick bet.
The Hilltoppers are now while the Trojans sit at A pair of offensive stats to keep an eye on: WKU ranks sixth in the nation when it comes to passing touchdowns, with 15 on the season.
Western kentucky football
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers football program is a college football team that represents Western Kentucky University. The team was the FCS national champion. The Hilltoppers play their home games at Houchens Industries—L.
Western Kentucky first fielded a football team in but did not start playing sanctioned games until the season. The two men teamed up to coach the Hilltoppers for their inaugural season which solely consisted of a 20—0 win over Elizabethtown.
Arthur then took over the program for three years from to , coaching a total of 14 games, 6 of which were against Eastern Kentucky. From to the Hilltoppers didn’t compete in football from due to World War I. In , L. Smith, whose name bears the Hilltoppers’ home stadium, took the reins and coached the team for two seasons. From to , the Hilltoppers saw their first success as Coach E. Diddle took over the football program for seven seasons leading them to four winning seasons while also coaching the WKU Hilltoppers basketball team.
Diddle, who was a dual-athlete himself, encouraged his players to participate in multiple sports so they could stay in shape. His first team set a school record for wins that would stand for 41 years and his last team claimed to be state champions. The Hilltoppers outscored opponents —7 in Diddle’s final year of coaching the program.
After Diddle left the football program to focus on coaching basketball, WKU football went through a series of instability in coaching but also a series of 9 winning seasons. In , Carl “Swede” Anderson took over as head coach leading the Hilltoppers to a 7—3 record before leaving to take the head coach job over the Kansas State freshman football team.
In , Carl Anderson returned for a second stint with the Hilltoppers where he served as head coach through the season posting a 24—9—3 record with wins over EKU in all four seasons. The Hilltoppers were very successful in this era posting an outstanding a 60—20—4 record. After Anderson left the hill once again, this time to be an assistant coach at Indiana , the Hilltoppers selected Gander Terry to lead the program.
In their four seasons under Terry, the Hilltoppers went 25—9—3 beating rivals Middle Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky in every game they played. Terry left the program after the season following a 4—5—1 record, the Hilltopper’s first losing season since Arnold Winkenhofer took over in coaching the Toppers for one season before the program was stopped from to due to World War II.
In , Jesse Thomas returned to the Hill for his second stint as head coach. Thomas only stuck around WKU two more seasons with much less success than his first go around posting a 5—10—2 record. Jack Clayton provided some much-needed stability to the WKU football program where he served as head coach for 9 seasons. In , after losing the first two games to start the season, Clayton started a freshman quarterback by the name of Jimmy Feix winning 5 of the last 7 games that season.
By , with Feix now in his senior year, Clayton coached WKU to their first Ohio Valley Conference championship, tied the school record for wins, and the school’s first bowl appearance, winning 34—19 over Arkansas State in the Refrigerator Bowl , finishing the season 9—1.
Feix became the first WKU football athlete ever to earn All-America honors after posting the highest pass completion percentage in the nation. Under Clayton, the Hilltoppers posted a record of 50—33—2 before he left to coach at Northwestern Louisiana State College , his alma mater.
In his time on the Hill, Denes compiled a 57—39—7 record for a. In , Denes led the Hilltoppers to their second bowl game victory, defeating Coast Guard 27—0 in the Tangerine Bowl , a season where the Hilltoppers went 10—0—1 and set a new school record for wins. Denes retired after the season following a 42—19 win over Murray State. After serving under Nick Denes as an assistant coach for all 11 seasons, Jimmy Feix was promoted to head coach. In his 16 seasons at the helm, Feix compiled an impressive —56—6 record.
His 14 teams that competed in the Ohio Valley Conference went 67—28—2. The Hilltoppers won six Ohio Valley Conference championships between and They made it to the championship game against Louisiana Tech coming up just short and finishing the season 12—1, setting a new school record for wins that still stands. In , the Hilltoppers made the playoff field again advancing to the title game for the second time, but once again having to settle for runner-up honors finishing their season with an 11—2 record.
Feix retired as head coach moving to work in Alumni Affairs for two years before taking over as Director of Athletics in In his vacancy, the Hilltoppers hired former Vanderbilt assistant Dave Roberts to be the head coach with hopes of continuing what Feix started. Roberts struggled through his first three seasons posting a record 10—22—1 before turning things around.
Though going 16—8 in his last two season, Roberts left with a 26—30—1 record becoming the first Hilltopper coach to leave with a losing record in over 60 years. Harbaugh was notified of the plans to shut down the program just before spring practice was about to begin. Having already made up his mind that he was not going to quit, he talked with his players left them a choice: accept defeat and leave, or fight to stay.
Now known as the “Save the Program” team, every player decided to stay, fight, and work to save WKU football. All the efforts paid off and on April 30, , the WKU Board of Regents voted to allow football to stay but with a reduced budget. As the budget remained tight over the next few years WKU managed an record in before having back-to-back losing seasons. No one ever doubted Harbaugh’s ability to coach but he clearly needed better players. In , with unwavering faith in their father, both of his sons, Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh , decided to help however they could.
John, on the other hand, was a coach at Cincinnati and could rely on his scouting services, deep contacts, and endless high school game footage to help out.
Jack and his wife Jackie are credited with saving the program which led to being honored in with naming rights to the stadium club at L. Smith Stadium. This was 20 years after the “Save the Program” season and 10 years after the championship season. After serving on Harbaugh ‘s coaching staff seven seasons, David Elson was promoted to head coach where he led the Hilltoppers for seven seasons. On Nov. The Hilltoppers were not eligible to participate in a Sun Belt Conference Championship or a berth in a bowl game until the season.
Knowing it wasn’t going to be easy, and without the motivation of being eligible to compete for a championship, Elson and the Hilltoppers set two team goals that season; to win seven games and to go undefeated at home.
Both goals required at least one win over an FBS team. If the Hilltoppers won seven games, they got rings. Things only got worse for the Hilltoppers in after they finally became full members of the Sun Belt Conference. WKU lost every game that season, going 0—12, posting their worst record in school history.
Elson was hopeful to survive the transition as he asked for patience in building the program, but on Nov. WKU Quarterback Legend, Willie Taggart , returned to his alma mater as head football coach in after leaving his position as Stanford running backs coach, [16] where he served under Jack Harbaugh ‘s son Jim Harbaugh. The Hilltoppers finished 2—10 that season. From there, Taggart is credited with getting WKU’s football program back on track after posting back to back 7—5 regular seasons that included an upset of Kentucky in Lexington in Despite the surprising 7—5 record in , a season in which the Hilltoppers went 7—1 in their final eight games, they were not invited to a bowl game.
It wasn’t until the following year, , that the Hilltoppers were invited to their first FBS-level bowl game, the Little Caesar’s Bowl. Former Louisville , Atlanta Falcons and Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino was hired as the new head football coach following Taggart’s departure. WKU became the first school in league history to sweep the top three honors with just two players. After one season as offensive coordinator for the Hilltoppers, Jeff Brohm was promoted to the program’s head football coach, replacing Petrino.
Highlights of the season include upsetting undefeated and No. The Hilltoppers went on to defeat South Florida , who was coached by former Hilltopper quarterback and coach Willie Taggart , in the Miami Beach Bowl 45—35, ending the season with a 12—2 record and ranked 24th in the nation. Doughty was named the C-USA Most Valuable Player for a second straight year becoming the first player in league history to win the award in back-to-back seasons. On December 5, it was announced that Jeff Brohm would be leaving to take the head coach position at Purdue and that defensive coordinator Nick Holt would be filling in as interim head coach leading into their bowl game.
In his three seasons as head coach Jeff Brohm posted an outstanding 30—10 record, 17—2 at home, and 20—5 against Conference USA opponents.
With the bowl win under Coach Holt, that brought their total wins over three years to 31 becoming a dominant force in Conference USA and among the Group of Five. Leaving his job as offensive coordinator at Notre Dame , Mike Sanford returned to WKU, this time as head coach, after serving as quarterbacks coach under Willie Taggart in The following are the head coaches of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.
Western Kentucky has won 13 conference titles, ten outright and three shared. In addition to conference championships, Western Kentucky has won 3 conference divisional titles. The Hilltoppers competed in two “College Division” bowl games prior to the NCAA instituting playoffs for lower division teams in , with a record of 2—0.
The Hilltoppers’ overall playoff record is 12—9. The primary logo was switched in to a red towel with an embossed “WKU” wordmark in white. The Hilltoppers have a long relationship with Russell Athletic for their uniforms and the contract was renewed through Red and white are the primary colors of the football uniforms with an occasional gray or black uniform. On August 13, , WKU released 2 new red home and white away jerseys with 3 pants red, white, and black.
The houndstooth design from legendary coach, Jimmy Feix’s fedora is used on team shirts and down the stripe of the helmet. The university’s cupola is inscribed on the chest plate and the line from the school’s alma mater “We shall never fail thee” is written on the bottom of the jersey. On the pants, visibility of “Hilltoppers” lettering down the side of the pants increases with intensity of the game. Western Kentucky has retired four jersey numbers. Since WKU’s transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision in , two of these rivalry games are no longer played on an annual basis.
The name comes from the fact that the two universities are separated by about miles. WKU has an inactive rivalry with Eastern Kentucky. The two programs have met 84 times in football since WKU has an inactive rivalry with nearby Murray State. The two programs have met 67 times since the rivalry began in The Red Belt trophy was introduced to the rivalry series in when Murray’s athletic trainer failed to pack a belt for the Racers’ road trip and was loaned one by legendary WKU athletic trainer Bill “Doc E” Edwards.
Announced schedules as of August 9, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.