FOR 4,247 YARDS AND 37 TOUCHDOWNS.
WKU (8-5) SQUARES OFF WITH SOUTH ALABAMA (10-2) IN NEW ORLEANS BOWL
NEW ORLEANS — Western Kentucky’s football team has had an up-and-down season, one of considerable promise but one that took definitive shape one month into the 2022 regular season.
Tonight’s R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, pitting Western Kentucky (8-5) and South Alabama, a relatively new program from the Sun Belt Conference, begins at 8:15 Central time, on Wednesday night. The Jaguars (10-2) rely on defense and are rated a 4.5-point favorite.
The Hilltoppers had Indiana University beat, two or three times — maybe more — on September 17 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. They were 2-0, after the lackluster opener against Austin Peay State and the road trip to the Pacific, the impressive 49-17 victory over the University of Hawaii.
All they needed was a stop, or a first down. Or even a break. We won’t get into the missed field-goal, because the kicking game can be a tricky factor. But the victory was theirs for the taking.
Instead, the Hilltoppers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, losing 33-30 to the Hoosiers on that picturesque day in September. Indiana would lose its next six games, and finish a dismal 4-8, but Western arguably had the more talented team.
And the Hilltoppers lost, almost inexplicably.
AT WKU, INCLUDING 2-1 IN BOWL GAMES.
It took Tyson Helton and the WKU coaching staff awhile to get the team back on track, which included missed opportunities in losses to Troy University and Texas-San Antonio by a single score. First-year WKU quarterback Austin Reed was keeping the ‘Toppers in games, but they lacked a killer instinct.
Western recovered with back-to-back victories over Middle Tennessee State and UAB, but the ‘Toppers laid a giant egg in a 40-13 loss to North Texas on homecoming weekend at Houchens-Smith Stadium.
Reed’s arm carried Western to three wins they should have won — victories over North Carolina Charlotte, Rice University and Florida Atlantic, in a 32-31 thriller down in Boca Raton, Florida — and the Hilltoppers were competitive for a while at Jordan-Hare Stadium, before losing, predictably, to the Auburn Tigers 41-17.
IN A 40-13 LOSS TO NORTH TEXAS.
Texas-San Antonio repeated as Conference USA champions, and the Roadrunners finished an 11-3 season with an 18-12 loss in last week’s bowl game against Troy. I’ve seen Troy State beat Jackie Sherrill and Mississippi State in Starkvegas, and the Trojans are always a lot to contend with, defensively.
Western finished 8-5 and Austin Reed proved to be a worthy successor to the New England Patriots’ Bailey Zeppe, who like Reed transferred to WKU from an obscure school in much warmer climes.
Then, bam, the bottom fell out, when Reed entered the transfer portal on December 5, the day after the Hilltoppers learned they’d be coming to the New Orleans Bowl.
Likewise, his backup, Darius Ocean.
CADEN VELTKAMP IS LIKELY TO BE REDSHIRTED.
On the surface, that would have meant 6-foot-5 WKU freshman Caden Veltkamp, who guided South Warren to the KHSAA Class 5A state championship last season, would have assumed the starting role at quarterback. But just as quickly, Reed disclosed that he planned to play for the Hilltoppers, in their bowl game, and after a week or so, Reed decided he’d return to the Hilltoppers, with a sweetened NIL deal from WKU boosters, according to published reports.
That meant Western could market the 2023 season around a returning star, much like the Hilltoppers did in men’s basketball with Jamarion Sharp and Davyion McKnight.
With Reed coming back, after throwing for 4,247 yards and 36 touchdowns in his first year of NCAA FBS football, the Hilltoppers have cause for optimism, for the immediate future.
The disintegrating Conference USA affiliation hurts the Hilltoppers, but they’re pretty much a free agent on that front, anyway. Conferences change all the time, even in the case of the SEC and the Big Ten, and Conference USA isn’t the only league in college athletics with no sense of a regional feel.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Reed has several capable receivers, but the Hilltoppers were up and down, defensively. I’m of the opinion that if they could have won that game, up in Bloomington, they’d now be on the edge of something really special.
IS A CAPABLE RECEIVER.
College football is the most top-heavy sport known to man, with the rich — Alabama, Ohio State and Southern California — getting richer all the time, leaving the scraps for everyone else.
It’s a little more complicated in Bowling Green, or Murfreesboro, or, on the FCS level, at Eastern Kentucky or Murray State and Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Reed told Ted Lewis in a story for the Times-Picayune/Morning Advocate newspaper that he wanted to take a look at larger schools before deciding to return to the Hilltoppers.
DEFENSIVE CONSISTENCY IN 2022.
Which means tonight’s game against the South Alabama Jaguars is the launching point for the 2023 season. A victory over Indiana, in September, could have made all the difference for WKU coach Tyson Helton’s team in December.
Monumental upsets like that can make all the difference.
Case in point:
The AAC champion Tulane Green Wave, sporting an 11-2 record under well traveled coach Willie Fritz, is playing Southern Cal in the Cotton Bowl on January 2.
Opportunity awaits the Hilltoppers tonight.
A SIGNIFICANT BUILDING BLOCK.
IN BOWLING GREEN …
KEEPIN’ IT REAL IN NEW ORLEANS.