Jim Mashek

TOPS LEAD WIRE-TO-WIRE WHILE EVENING CONFERENCE USA RECORD AT 1-1

Western Kentucky’s football team needed a jolt of mojo. A reason for optimism. A chance to turn the page on a rough 1-4 start.

Enter junior WKU quarterback Brock Glenn, a transfer from tradition-rich Florida State University.

“We felt like this was a Brock-type game,” WKU head coach Tyson Helton said after the Hilltoppers trampled Missouri State University, 34-13, before a paid crowd of 11,102 on Thursday night at Houchens-Smith Stadium. “He brought a spark to us … Now we’ve got to take this momentum on the road.”

The road has been littered with potholes — for the Tops, at least — over the first six weeks of the college football season. Glenn has been sharing the QB duties with redshirt sophomore Rodney Tisdale, Jr., since Opening Night in Reno, Nevada, when the Hilltoppers stumbled to a 49-14 defeat at the hands of the Nevada Wolf Pack.

Tisdale was “dinged up,” as Helton likes to say, in Western Kentucky’s last road game, a disheartening 34-13 loss to New Mexico State last week in Las Cruces. He was available to play, against Missouri State, but Glenn’s skill set seemed to dictate the Tops’ strategy in splintering the Bears’ defense.

Senior WKU running back Ajay Allen rushed for a game-high 105 yards and the game’s final touchdown — a deft 39-yard dash to paydirt midway through the fourth quarter — but it was Glenn’s tough yards between the tackles that kept the Hilltoppers in control. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior from Covington, Tennessee, passed for 231 yards and a second-quarter touchdown, while carrying the ball 15 times for 95 yards and the game’s first score, as the Tops improved to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in Conference USA.

Helton, a former college quarterback himself, seems to like Glenn’s intangibles, and the WKU offensive line responded in kind, too.

“I was prepared to be the starter,” Glenn said. “We had a great week of work on the practice field … I’m proud of the guys. I think we battled hard.

“(The WKU offensive line) made the game a lot easier for me. The (running) lanes were wide open.”

The Hilltoppers will have a short work week, for the second time this season, before squaring off with Sam Houston State next Wednesday in Huntsville, Texas. Then they’ll have an open date before another mid-week home game, this time against Delaware on October 27, before opening November with a road trip to traditional rival Middle Tennessee State.

The Tops have dug themselves a big hole, but they took a big step in getting out of it against Missouri State, a second-year Conference USA member still in its infancy of playing FCS competition. The Bears dropped to 1-4 overall in their C-USA opener, and they’ll play host to Kennesaw State next Wednesday in Springfield, Missouri.

“I thought our guys came out fast,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said. “We made a lot of explosive plays tonight … The defense did a great job.

“Just a good team win.”

The Hilltoppers converted nine of 17 third-down plays — a marked improvement from their first five games — while controlling the clock and keeping Missouri State at arm’s length for the entire game. Freshman wideout Jonathan Stafford, Jr., led the Tops with six receptions for 72 yards, and a second-quarter TD that covered 42 yards, while junior tight end Lofton Howard, the former Greenwood High School star, had three catches for 61 yards.

Defensively, senior WKU safety Jaylen Lewis led the way with 14 total tackles, while inside linebacker Western Ard — a true freshman from Warner Robbins, Georgia, had nine stops, several of them at the point of attack.

“To be a true freshman, (Ard) has a bright future here,” Helton said.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals dissolved an NCAA eligibility injunction that kept three WKU defensive starters, including star linebacker Jaylen Wester, on the sideline for Thursday night’s game. The Hilltoppers defense kept Missouri State out of the end zone until midway through the third quarter, when MSU’s Isaiah Meyers made a sensational TD catch at the goal line that covered 36 yards that made it 21-13.

“We’ve got good depth on defense. It was a ‘next-man up’ mentality,” Helton said.

WKU placekicker Karl Campbell, a freshman import from Ireland, delivered field goals of 34 and 42 yards before the Hilltoppers’ Ajay Allen closed the scoring with a 39-yard touchdown dash down the right sideline with 5:46 left in the game.

“We kept feeding off each other,” Helton said.

The Hilltoppers have made seven consecutive bowl game appearances under Helton, including last year’s 27-16 victory over Southern Miss in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. They’ll need a winning streak to make that happen again, as the final three weeks of the season includes top-flight Conference USA opponents Jacksonville State, Liberty University and Kennesaw State.