Jim Mashek

HILLTOPPERS OVERCOME SLOW START; REED PASSES FOR 336 YARDS, TWO TDs

Western Kentucky’s football team had forged a 31-24 lead, but the visitors from Tampa, the South Florida Bulls, weren’t going anywhere.

It was in the game’s final 10 minutes, on a brutally hot Opening Day at WKU’s Houchens-Smith Stadium, and the Hilltoppers needed to gain the upper hand to put this one away. They faced a third-and-nine situation, from the WKU 14-yard line.

With Austin Reed at the controls, well, the senior WKU quarterback was ready. Ready to do it with his legs.

“Austin’s a throw first kind of guy,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said. “He did an unbelievable job there …”

Reed, the senior QB from St. Augustin, Florida, took the snap from WKU center Vincent Murphy in shotgun formation. He paused, as though he was going to fade in the pocket, and then seemed to pick a spot on the perimeter. He needed nine critical yards for a first down.

And that’s exactly what he got.

Reed would take the Hilltoppers 63 yards downfield, consuming more than six minutes of time on the clock, before WKU redshirt freshman Lucas Carniero drilled a 42-yard field goal from the left hash mark. That was all the momentum the Tops would need, as they churned their way to a workmanlike 41-24 victory over South Florida — a 12.5-point underdog, but a feisty bunch, nonetheless — before a paid crowd of 15,438 at The Houch.

By the time star linebacker JaQues Evans added a defensive touchdown, a 27-yard return of a South Florida fumble for the game’s final score, the Hilltoppers were savoring every moment.

“I knew I had to go out there, and close out the game,” said Evans, an All-Conference USA outside linebacker from Dublin, Georgia. “It’s a four-quarter game. You make adjustments at halftime, like we did … You have to trust your brothers.

“Keep playing.”

Evans returned to the WKU bench and was greeted by teammates Austin Reed and Blue Smith. Smith, a senior wideout and transfer from Ohio State, was one of four Hilltoppers receivers with four receptions or more. The Tops had lost star receiver Malachi Corley to a chest injury midway through the first quarter, but it proved to be a speed bump, rather than another mountain to climb.

Reed called the shots last year after succeeding the New England Patriots’ Bailey Zappe. He guided the Tops to a 9-5 season, including an impressive 44-23 victory over South Alabama in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Western Kentucky has more grand ambitions for Reed’s senior year, and the Hilltoppers are the favorite in Conference USA. They needed to make a statement.

It took them awhile to do it, but that’s exactly what they did.

WKU coach Tyson Helton said Corley’s injury doesn’t appear to be serious — “I think he’ll be fine,” Helton said — but it certainly created opportunities for other Hilltoppers receivers.

“USF gave us a good first punch, which we expected,” Reed said when it was over. “In the first game, it’s always going to be pretty sloppy … We haven’t played since December 21 (in New Orleans). Football’s a violent sport. Guys are going to get hurt, so it’s ‘Next man up.'”

The game moved at a snail’s pace, in the excessive heat, and took nearly five hours to complete. (No overtime(s) required.) Reed overcame a slow start himself — completing 4 of 8 passes for 55 yards in the first quarter — but once the Tops found a sense of rhythm, they were going to be hard to stop.

The Bulls couldn’t do it.

Tyson Helton was definitely encouraged after the fact.

“Really good win, very proud of our football team,” Helton said. “A lot of adversity today, that we fought through … You’re going to have ups and downs, in Game One, but to see how our team responded was fantastic. I can’t be more proud of our guys, too, because a lot of men had to step up today.

“Going into this game, we had several injuries that we didn’t disclose. There were a lot of , that weren’t going to play in this game, and the next man stepped up, and got it done.”

Reed showed a steady hand while completing 29 of 50 passes for 336 yards and two touchdowns. He added the final score of the first half, on a 16-yard run to tie the score at 17, and the Hilltoppers finished with 465 yards total offense.

They’d need all of them, on account of the fact that South Florida rushed for a sobering 374 yards, including 160 from dual threat quarterback Byrum Brown. Brown burned the WKU secondary with an 84-yard touchdown pass to USF teammate Khafre Brown, a deep ball on the right sideline, to put the Bulls in front 14-7 with 4:28 left in the first quarter.

By the same token, WKU LINEBACKERS Aaron Key and Desmyn Baker came up with critical interceptions of Byrum Brown passes, while JaQues Evans made plays all over the field, finishing the day with a game-high seven tackles, one sack, a forced fumble and the game’s final score on the 27-yard dash to the end zone in the fourth quarter.

South Florida went 1-11 last year, but first-year USF coach Alex Golesh came to Tampa from the University of Tennessee with a fast-paced offense and stayed active in the NCAA Transfer Portal, giving the Bulls a brand-new look for the 2023 season in the American Athletic Conference.

“There’s a lot of areas where we’ve got to get better,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said. “We’ve been in those situations a lot … I don’t think anybody blinked.

“We knew we had to weather the storm.”

Reed found WKU teammate Dalvin Smith on a hitch route in the opening moments of the second half, and Smith used a strong block upfield to find the left sideline and score on a 42-yard touchdown pass. The TD put the Hilltoppers in front for the first time, 24-17, but Byrum Brown’s 28-yard scoring run tied it up again, at the 10:11 mark of the third quarter.

The Hilltoppers went ahead, for good, on their next offensive series.

Reed looked off a WKU receiver to the right side of the field, before finding freshman wide receiver Moussa Barry on the left sideline. Barry beat the Bulls’ pursuit to the goal line, scoring on a 51-yard touchdown reception that put the Hilltoppers in front, 31-24.

“We have a lot of dawgs in that (WKU) receivers room,” Hilltoppers wideout Dalvin Smith said. “That’s our job … Catch the ball, make plays. I love seeing the young guys, getting a chance.

“This offense lives on (gaining) first downs. Everyone came out, and knew what the task was, and got it done.”

Another WKU freshman, Lucas Carniero, added two critical field goals, and senior running back Davion Ervin-Poindexter had 10 carries for 45 yards on the ground, enough to give the Hilltoppers a sense of offensive balance.

Now they’ll turn their attention to Saturday’s home game, against Houston Christian, formerly known as Houston Baptist University. Kickoff for that game is at 6 p.m., and one week later, the Tops will make the road trip to face one of college football’s premier teams, Ohio State University, at the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio.

South Florida’s fast-break offense, spending next to no time in the huddle, wasn’t an easy assignment on Opening Day.

“(South Florida is) a big, physical football team. Very talented,” WKU’s Tyson Helton said. “I thought (WKU defensive coordinator) Coach (Tyson) Summers did a good job, kind of rolling the dice, saying we’ve got to let it all hang out, and get after this quarterback (USF’s Byrum Brown) … because if we don’t, they’re just going to drive the football, up and down the field.

“Their offense is going Mach Two and you’ve got to get the signals (from the sideline) and run the blitzes, play the coverages. It’s not easy. And so to watch our defense go out there and perform, it was really cool to see.”