Jim Mashek

WESTERN KENTUCKY COACH TYSON HELTON: ‘THERE’s GOING TO BE A LOT OF GREAT MEMORIES …’

NEW ORLEANS — It was a first half to forget, and a second half Western Kentucky’s football team will remember for a long, long time.

Limited to 84 yards total offense before halftime, in Tuesday night’s R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, the Hilltoppers turned to senior quarterback Maverick McIvor to find an offensive groove against an aggressive Southern Miss defense in the 25th annual bowl game at the Caesars Superdome.

Redshirt freshman Rodney Tisdale, Jr., who took over for an injured McIvor in October before holding on to the starting job, gave way to McIvor just before halftime, taking a big hit in the open field. The Hilltoppers had 20 minutes in their locker room to talk about that first half, to dissect it, to find a way out of it.

And they did that. And a lot more.

In a rock ’em/sock ’em slugfest, on the floor of the glimmering stadium on Poydras Street, the Hilltoppers proved to be a resilient bunch. McIvor ignited a gritty second-half comeback, tying the game on a nifty 11-yard scramble for a score midway through the third quarter, and the Tops turned it on from there, storming to a 27-16 victory before a paid crowd of 16,693 in the cavernous Superdome.

Western Kentucky finished its seventh season under head coach Tyson Helton with a 9-4 record, while the Golden Eagles bowed out at 7-6. Helton has compiled a 5-2 record in bowl games since succeeding Mike Sanford for the 2019 season.

Next year’s WKU roster figures to look significantly different, from the one that went out in such dramatic fashion on Tuesday night, but Helton has long been comfortable with that reality, and this team’s sense of camaraderie has never been questioned.

Even when nothing was going right, which was certainly the case for some time in this game.

Helton was a little emotional, even 30, 45 minutes after receiving the New Orleans Bowl champion’s trophy and waiting on Southern Miss coach Blake Anderson and his players to finish their press conference in the bowels of the Superdome.

“When Rodney got dinged up, and we went into halftime, I said, ‘What better an opportunity, for Maverick to go out there, and be a rock star, and go lead this team,'” Helton said. “When we said that at halftime — ‘Hey, Mav, you’ve got it, you’re up, babe’ — you just saw the light. The locker room lit up.

“We love Rodney. Rodney is awesome, too. It says a lot about how the guys feel about them, and it gave us that spark.”

A spark seen from N’Awlins to Bowling Green and all points in between.

McIvor, the graduate transfer from Abilene Christian University, accepted his MVP hardware on the platform for the trophy presentation and was joined at the press conference by Helton and WKU teammates Jaylen Wester and Matthew Henry.

Henry, a senior transfer from Western Illinois University, had a game-high seven receptions for 126 yards. The charismatic senior from Miami, Florida, was targeted 12 times, between WKU quarterbacks Maverick McIvor and Rodney Tisdale, and he figures to get plenty of attention over the next few months from NFL scouts.

For awhile, it looked like the Tops were haunted by their final regular-season game, when Jacksonville State used a torrid second-half comeback to slip past WKU, 37-34, on its way to the Conference USA championship game.

McIvor changed all of that, or so it seems.

“I would just say it was a blessing to come back,” Henry said. “It was a tough loss, last game, but as Coach (Tyson Helton) says, ‘Bowl games matter.’ Everything is on the line.

“We just had to come back, come out here and win.”

Western Kentucky took no prisoners in its last New Orleans Bowl appearance, a 44-23 rout of South Alabama on December 21, 2022. Southern Miss was just as feisty as the Hilltoppers, however, as the medical staffs for both squads were often summoned to the field to tend to injured players.

WKU center Elijah Williams left the field on the medical cart with a leg injury in the final minutes of the second quarter.

“We just had to embrace the grind,” WKU linebacker Jaylen Westen said.

That’s what the Hilltoppers have done, over the course of the 2025 season. They’ve had disappointing losses — games against Toledo and Florida International, for instance — and they’ve had pulsating victories, like Rodney Tisdale’s electrifying debut at Louisiana Tech, when his pass to WKU teammate Moussah Barry for a successful two-point conversion beat the Bulldogs, 28-27, in overtime.

They’ve learned to embrace them all.

“Our defense, they played so hard,” WKU quarterback Maverick McIvor said. “When you’re time’s called, you’ve got to be ready to play.”

Helton accepted the New Orleans Bowl Trophy with McIvor, WKU athletics director Todd Stewart and university president Timothy Caboni on the platform after the game.

“College bowl games are magical,” Helton said. “Things happen in bowl games that don’t happen in the regular season … “

McIvor, the son of former University of Texas quarterback Rick McIvor, was quick to second that notion.

“There’s no greater feeling than stepping out, and playing with your brothers,” he said.

The Hilltoppers put the game away on Marvis Parrish’s 54-yard gallop to the end zone with 3:38 left in the game. The Golden Eagles were a tough customer, to be sure, but the Tops came out on top. And that’ll be a big boost going into recruiting — particularly, these days, with the NCAA Transfer Portal — and the 2026 season.

As McIvor, Henry and Wester got up from the news conference podium, leaving the floor to their head coach, Tyson Helton smiled and said:

“If y’all want to come back another year …”

That was the WKU way in 2026. Some tough losses, but even more memorable comebacks.

“There’s going to be a lot of great memories from tonight,” Helton said.

Embrace the grind, reap the rewards. Move on to the next challenge. The Hilltoppers have done that, and more.