Jim Mashek

WKU WILL FACE GAMECOCKS AGAIN ON FRIDAY NIGHT IN ALABAMA

Western Kentucky University’s football team was fading, and fast.

Back-to-back losses to Conference USA opponents Louisiana Tech and Liberty University left the Hilltoppers in a scramble mode, but Sam Houston State’s 20-18 victory over Liberty on Friday in Huntsville, Texas, gave a sudden jolt of life in the WKU football complex.

“Thank you, Sam Houston,” WKU safety Demarko Williams said with a wide smile after the Hilltoppers played their way into the C-USA championship game on a chilly Saturday night at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

Western Kentucky sophomore place-kicker Lucas Carneiro delivered a 50-yard field goal with three seconds left against league-leading Jacksonville State, his second field goal from that distance, and the one that sent the Hilltoppers back to the Conference USA title tilt for the first time since 2021.

Western Kentucky 19, Jacksonville State 17.

The Hilltoppers (8-4 overall, 6-2 in C-USA) needed a clutch defensive performance down the stretch and Carneiro’s trusted right foot to knock off the visiting Gamecocks before a scant crowd of 6,547 at Houchens-Smith Stadium. The game winner was Carneiro’s fourth field goal of the night. Jax State watched its eight-game winning streak come to a stunning halt, dropping to 8-4 overall and 7-1 in C-USA play.

“In my eyes, he’s the best kicker in college football,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said. “He is clutch, he is clutch … when you have a guy that runs out there, whether he makes the kick or not, (it) gives you a comfort level you have, going, ‘If anybody’s going to make it, it’s going to be this guy.'”

This guy, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound sidewinder from Cornelius, North Carolina, broke a WKU school record with his 15th consecutive successful field-goal attempt. Carneiro has been a valuable weapon for the Tops in his two seasons on The Hill, and he’s certain to draw possible interest from Power Four schools in the impending NCAA Transfer Portal.

For the moment, though, he’s the toast of the town, in Bowling Green, as the Hilltoppers get ready to play in their first Conference USA championship game in three years.

The best part, of course, is that it’ll be a rematch between the Hilltoppers and Jax State, on Friday night at the Gamecocks’ home stadium in Jacksonville, Alabama, 24,000-seat AmFirst Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. CST.

“”Our work is not done,” Helton said. “We’ve got to find a way to win this championship.”

WKU won back-to-back C-USA football championships in 2016 and ’17, after joining the league in 2014. The Hilltoppers have shown a flair for the dramatic this season, but the back-to-back losses to conference opponents Louisiana Tech and Liberty had taken considerable starch out of a promising WKU season.

Former South Warren High School star Caden Veltkamp, in his first season as WKU’s starting quarterback, got his team in position for the winning points in the final two minutes, after Veltkamp had stopped the clock by spiking the ball at the JSU 37-yard line with 12 seconds left in the game.

The Hilltoppers would get just four yards closer before summoning Carneiro from the WKU sideline, but Carneiro’s 50-yard kick sailed through the uprights with plenty of distance to spare. Young Western fans seated on the berm behind the goal posts began celebrating the clutch field goal the moment it came off Carneiro’s foot, and before long, the Hilltoppers were mobbing him as he ambled off the field.

“As soon as I hit it,” Carneiro said, “I was like, ‘That one’s going in’ … I think I can just feel it, off my foot. Really good contact, and the ball got up there and I was like, ‘That’s it.'”

Veltkamp carefully guided the Tops down the field, using the sideline to preserve the little time that was remaining and punching out one 14-yard gain on a screen pass to WKU running back Elijah Young. I’m

“I think we found something in the second half,” Veltkamp said. “We started moving the ball, but we’ve got to finish better.”

A Veltkamp fumble wiped out one fourth-quarter scoring opportunity, and the WKU defense was caught out of position when Jax State’s backup quarterback, Logan Smothers, scored on a 17-yard bootleg along the left sideline with 9:44 left in the game. JSU place-kicker Garrison Rippa added the PAT, putting the Gamecocks in front, 17-16.

Veltkamp had to throw the ball a lot, but the Hilltoppers had a 13-minute bulge in time of possession, and Young had a big night with 19 carries for a game-high 91 yards. Veltkamp, meanwhile, completed 28 of 47 passes for 301 yards and the Tops’ only touchdown of the game.

Veltkamp took WKU 76 yards in seven plays on its opening series, with Veltkamp getting the ball to WKU running back Elijah Young on a screen pass that covered 21 yards midway through the first quarter.

Jax State coach Rich Rodriguez, who plied his trade as the head coach at West Virginia (2001-07), Michigan (2008-10), Arizona (2012-17) and Louisiana-Monroe (2022), was none too pleased when it was over.

“I’m very disappointed in how we played, in all three phases,” Rodriguez told reporters outside the visitors’ locker room. “Give them credit, because they won the game. We’ve got to have a better plan. We did some uncharacteristic stuff, throughout the game.”

Tyler Huff, the Gamecocks’ starting quarterback, was injured in the opening moments of the fourth quarter and did not return. WKU coach Tyson Helton was more than a little familiar with Logan Smothers, Huff’s backup QB, and it was Smothers’ 17-yard touchdown run on a bootleg that put his team in front early in the fourth quarter.

WKU linebacker Sebastian Benjamin made the defensive play of the game when the Gamecocks were trying to kill the clock. Benjamin caught Smothers behind the line of scrimmage for a 4-yard loss on a third-down play.

“That was the play of the game, to give us the opportunity,” Helton said.

Helton was quick to point out the contributions of WKU long-snapper Rex Rodich and Carneiro’s holder, Hilltoppers punter Cole Maynard, on the 50-yard field goal that sent his squad back to the Conference USA championship game.

The Hilltoppers lost on the road to former C-USA member Texas-San Antonio in their last appearance in the league’s title contest. The Roadrunners would win that game, 49-41, at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Western will be going back on the road this time, their championship hopes revived after Lucas Carneiro drilled the 50-yard field goal that changed the narrative on University Blvd.

“Our long-snapper, our holder … I mean, they’re the best of the best,” Helton said. “They’re fantastic. I had a lot of confidence, felt so good about them going out there and making that kick.”

And consequently, of course, it means the Hilltoppers are alive and kicking in pursuit of a conference championship. In December.

“This is the best group I’ve coached since I’ve been here,” Helton said. “And I love every team I’ve ever had. But this team is a bunch of honorable men, a bunch of competitive men. They’re the definition of team. They get the ‘big picture,’ the ups and downs, they understand.

“They knew it was probably going to be a game like this. I just have so much respect for them.”