FOR A BREAKOUT SEASON IN 2023.
HILLTOPPERS OPEN SEASON ON SATURDAY AGAINST SOUTH FLORIDA; WKU LOOMS AS C-USA FAVORITE
There’s always a lot of unknowns with Opening Day in college football.
Particularly in the era of Name/Image/Likeness, the NCAA Transfer Portal, conference realignment and an expanded 12-team college football championship tournament on the horizon.
Change is perpetual. Witness Tyson Helton’s Western Kentucky University program.
The Hilltoppers stayed busy in the NCAA transfer portal, and caught a major break when senior WKU quarterback Austin Reed chose to return to Western, after dipping his toe in the portal last December. Helton, WKU’s personable fifth-year head coach, is adept at rolling with the punches, and the Tops took a few of them last year …
(North Texas’ 40-13 drubbing of the Hilltoppers on October 29 at WKU’s Houchens-Smith Stadium immediately comes to mind.)
Helton kept the Tops moving forward, over the winter and into spring football drills. They’ll play on the ESPN family of networks more times this season, and almost put the irrelevant CBS Sports Network in the rear-view mirror. The makeup of Conference USA remains a problem, both geographically and as it relates to the team’s identity, but you’ve got to make SOME allowances with Group of Five football, anyway.
Western Kentucky opens its fifth season of the Tyson Helton Era on Saturday afternoon, squaring off against the University of South Florida Bulls at WKU’s Houchens-Smith Stadium. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m., CDT.
WITH WKU FOOTBALL THESE DAYS …
The sturdy 6-foot-2, 230-pound Reed seems poised to follow WKU quarterbacks Bailey Zappe, Mike White and Brandon Doughty to the NFL Draft, and he put up some impressive numbers for the Hilltoppers in his first season in Bowling Green.
“It should be a great game, a fourth-quarter type of football game,” Helton said on Monday during the WKU press conference at Diddle Arena. “I’m really excited, opening at home, and we should have a great crowd …
“(South Florida) is a great ‘tempo’ team, offensively. They can throw, and they can run. It’s tough to defend.”
Western Kentucky is listed as a 12.5-point favorite, but one of the unknowns is South Florida will be making its debut under first-year coach Alex Golesh, who was the offensive coordinator last season at Tennessee. The Bulls also have added more than 25 players via the transfer portal, so Golesh has had his hands full since taking over in Tampa last winter.
Western Kentucky also is the odds/on favorite in Conference USA, which lost teams such as Charlotte, Florida Atlantic and Texas-San Antonio, while adding the likes of Jacksonville State, a former Sun Belt school in Alabama, along with Liberty (Virginia) University and Sam Houston State, a former NCAA Division II power in Huntsville, Texas.
SHOULD HAVE GOOD TEAM SPEED.
FIRST-YEAR DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR.
South Florida went a dismal 1-11 last year, with former coach Jeff Scott fired with three games remaining in the regular season. The Bulls gave up 40 points or more in each of their last five games, but they figure to have a different identity, on both sides of the ball, under Golesh.
“We expect (South Florida) to bring Tennessee’s offense with them,” WKU defensive coordinator Tyson Summers said. “We’re hoping our (defensive) identity carries over from last year.”
The Hilltoppers went 9-5 last year, including a rousing 44-23 rout of South Alabama in the R&L Carriers/New Orleans Bowl on December 21, inside the massive Caesars Superdome.
The 1973 WKU football squad, which finished 12-1 after a 34-0 loss to Louisiana Tech in the inaugural NCAA Division II season, will be honored before the game and at halftime.
WILL BE HONORED BEFOREHAND AND AT HALFTIME.
SPENT FIVE YEARS WITH THE NFL’s CHICAGO BEARS.
SPENT 9 YEARS WITH THE NFL’s OILERS AND SAINTS.
Reed, the 23-year-old WKU quarterback from San Augustine, Florida, has taken a roundabout journey to get to his final season with the Hilltoppers. He’s already had stops at Southern Illinois and West Florida at the NCAA FCS and NCAA Division II levels before his arrival in Bowling Green.
Up front, the Tops had significant losses to the portal, in the departed Rusty Staats (Texas Tech) and Gunner Litton (Auburn). But returning starters inside, guard Quantavious Leslie and center Vincent Murphy have provided protection for Reed, and tackle Mark Goode is returning from injury after six starts last season.
Reed completed 64.6 percent of his passes for 4,744 and 40 touchdowns in 2022, adding eight rushing touchdowns while throwing 11 interceptions. Malachi Corley, a 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior from Campbellsville, Kentucky, had a breakthrough campaign last season, with a team-high 101 receptions for 1,295 yards and 11 touchdowns. Michael Mathison had his moments as a complementary receiver (52 catches, three TDs) and Helton has added the likes of former SEC wide receivers in Jimmy Holiday (Tennessee) and Za’Vian Capers (Auburn).
Running back Davion Ervin-Poindexter, WKU’s rushing leader in 2022, returns to the Hilltoppers, but former teammate Kyle Robichaux left for Boston College via the portal. The Hilltoppers have added former Missouri back Elijah Young, however, and Reed should have plenty of options in 2023.
The Hilltoppers have a defensive stars in Jaques Evans, who had nine sacks in 2022, and cornerback Upton Stouts, who led WKU with four interceptions. They’ve got a decent schedule, including a September 16 road trip to Ohio State, for a Group of Five program. Troy is a solid squad in the Sun Belt Conference and the Tops open Conference USA play at home against longtime rival Middle Tennessee State on September 28.
It’s the bulk of the Conference USA schedule, however, that’s a difficult slate to market.
Gone are solid Group of Five teams such as former C-USA members Texas-San Antonio and Marshall, Florida Atlantic and Southern Miss. There’s still the nightmare road trip to face UTEP in El Paso, Texas — the Tops will face that team on November 4, in the Sun Bowl — but the number of newcomers is almost a blur.
We’re talkin’ Jacksonville (Alabama) State, Liberty University (Lynchburg, Virginia), Sam Houston State and New Mexico State.
It’s just shy of 1,400 miles — one way, mind you — from Bowling Green to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where the Aggies of New Mexico State toil less than an hour’s drive from the Texas/Mexico border.
Fortunately, for the Hilltoppers, they’ll be playing host to Sam Houston State (Huntsville, Texas) and New Mexico State, before closing the regular season on the road against Florida International on November 25 in Miami.
Tyson Helton, of course, is focused on the here and now, and that means Saturday’s home game in the heat of the day — stay hydrated, y’all — at Houchens-Smith Stadium. Never mind that South Florida went 1-11 last year.
Everything is fluid, in college football these days.
“I expect this to be a fourth-quarter football game,” Helton said. “I say all the time, ‘Get to the last five minutes, try to win it.’ The first game is always tough … You have a good idea about (both teams) who and who you’re going to face at each position.
“But we’ll have to get out there and get a couple series under our belt and try to figure things out.”
Helton has compiled a 32-21 record in his four seasons at WKU, including a 3-1 mark in bowl games.
FOR WKU QUARTERBACK AUSTIN REED.
IN FOUR SEASONS AT WKU.
WKU’s FIRST-YEAR LINEBACKERS COACH,
DURING HIS PLAYING DAYS AT MISSISSIPPI STATE.