Jim Mashek

WKU’s CORLEY HAS MONSTER GAME; HILLTOPPERS WILL MAKE FIFTH CONSECUTIVE BOWL APPEARANCE

Once again, it took on the feel of a prizefight.

Sam Houston State, the Conference USA outlier from Huntsville, Texas, had nothing to lose in Saturday afternoon’s league game against a teetering Western Kentucky University squad.

The Bearkats landed some early haymakers, and senior WKU quarterback Austin Reed and the Hilltoppers’ offense struggled to find its footing. Sam Houston State’s Keegan Shoemaker and the Bearkats stayed within striking distance, and an uneven first half seemed to have the Hilltoppers on the path to disaster.

“We had our backs against the wall,” WKU defensive lineman Deante McCray said.

But the Hilltoppers kept lifting themselves up, off the canvas. They plodded, at times, illustrated by Reed’s four interceptions in the first half. Ultimately, though, they never backed down. After four lead changes, Western Kentucky survived one last-gasp drive by the Bearkats, claiming a dramatic 28-23 victory over Sam Houston State on a chilly Saturday evening.

The Tops completed the task at hand on an iinterception by WKU linebacker Desmyn Baker at the goal line on a chilly Saturday evening at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

A season of great expectations was hanging in the balance, but the Hilltoppers found the resolve to become bowl eligible for the fifth straight year. WKU improved to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the retooled Conference USA, while SHSU dropped to 2-9 and 1-6, respectively.

WKU head coach Tyson Helton unfurled a “Bowl Bound/WKU” T-shirt during the postgame press conference, and Reed went ahead and pulled his T-shirt over his uniform shell before meeting with the media.

Western Kentucky had dropped three of its previous four games, all against Conference USA opponents, and that hurt the Hilltoppers at the gate on Saturday, as WKU drew a paid crowd of 11,041 in its home finale. The Tops will close regular season play next Saturday against Florida International (4-7 overall, 1-6 in C-USA), and within a few days, they’ll learn of their bowl destination for the fifth consecutive season.

“Our team just kept battling. I cannot say enough about our defense,” Helton said. “For them to go out there, and get the turnovers, get the stops — we had five turnovers on offense tonight, and you’re not supposed to win when that happens …

“It says everything about our defense. It was a great team win.”

K.C. Keeler, the Bearkats’ 10th-year head coach, said his team used a multi-faceted defensive approach to keep Reed and the Hilltoppers’ passing game in check for most of the game, particularly in the first half.

“We gave them some disguised looks, defensively,” Keeler said. “We played very physical. It shows you how close we are, but at the same time, this isn’t intramurals. It’s college football …

“We just couldn’t make that one play, on offense, at the end of the game.”

Sam Houston State, a longtime powerhouse at the NCAA’s FCS level, was one of four teams — Liberty University, New Mexico State and Jacksonville State were the others — playing in Conference USA for the first time this season. The Bearkats led for nearly the entire second half, but WKU’s trusted tandem of senior QB Austin Reed and junior wide receiver Malachi Corley struck when the Tops need it most.

The Hilltoppers went in front, 28-23, in the early moments of the fourth quarter.

Reed stepped up in the pocket and found Corley, a muscular 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior receiver, on the right sideline. Reed caught the Bearkats’ secondary out of position and got the ball to Corley, who scored on a 75-yard touchdown reception with 11:53 left in the game.

It was the fourth and final lead change of the game, but SHSU quarterback Keegan Shoemaker and the Bearkats offense got in position to pull out the victory in the game’s final minute.

Sam Houston State reached the WKU 8-yard line before facing a fourth-and-goal play with the game on the line.

WKU defensive coordinator Tyson Summers, who took an aggressive approach for most of the game, used an “umbrella-type” zone scheme to keep the Bearkats out of the end zone when it counted.

WKU linebacker Desmyn Baker intercepted Shoemaker’s pass, just short of the goal line, setting off a celebration embraced on the field and the scant Smith-Houchens Stadium crowd. Summers was seen individually embracing WKU defenders outside the stadium, after the game, as the Hilltoppers could finally take a deep breath and move on to Florida International.

“There’s been a lot of one-play games in this league,” SHSU coach K.C. Keeler said.

WKU coach Tyson Helton was impressed with the Bearkats’ poise — “they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with, in our conference,” he said — but he seemed particularly happy for senior WKU quarterback Austin Reed, who had stops at FCS Southern Illinois and NCAA Division II West Florida before arriving in Bowling Green in January 2022.

“We celebrated our seniors tonight,” Helton said. “Austin Reed had a good look in his eye, late in the game … We had some explosive plays, and we needed that. That says a lot about (Reed), a lot about these guys.

“We just kept playing football.”

The Bearkats made a couple outstanding plays on the sideline on two of Reed’s four of interceptions, and the final one, by SHSU’s Demarcus Crosby, might have gone for a pick six if not for the hustling play of Austin Reed and WKU teammate Elijah Young.

Still, the Bearkats cashed in on the opportunity, with sophomore running back John Gentry finding the end zone from seven yards out for Sam Houston’s final touchdown with 12:13 left in the third quarter.

The Bearkats wouldn’t score again, in large part to WKU defenders such as sophomore lineman Deante McCray and junior cornerback Austin Johnson. Johnson came up with an interception of SHSU’s Keegan Shoemaker on a deep pass in the second quarter, but the Bearkats would pull to within 21-16 on the final play of the half, when Colby Sessums delivered a 53-yard field goal from the middle of the field.

Reed finished the game with decent numbers, outside the interceptions, of course. The sturdy 6-foot-2, 220-pound QB completed 28 of 41 passes for 392 yards and four touchdowns.

WKU’s Dalvin Smith had a 45-yard touchdown reception on the game’s first series, and Reed found the Tops’ Craig Burt Jr. in the right corner of the end zone, in the final minute of the first half, on a 29-yard scoring pass.

Ultimately, though, the night belonged to WKU’s Malachi Corley, a junior from Campbellsville, Kentucky, who plans to enter the NFL Draft next spring. Corley had 10 receptions for a game-high 171 yards — on 12 targeted passes from Reed — and the game’s final touchdown.

It will be a memorable moment for the entire program, which was riding so high after last year’s dominant 43-22 victory over South Alabama in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

The Hilltoppers are likely to be headed to the Bahamas Bowl, against a Mid-American Conference opponent, the New Mexico Bowl (against a Mountain West squad) or the Armed Forces Bowl, in Fort Worth, Texas, against a team from the American Athletic Conference. The Bahamas Bowl will be played in Charlotte, North Carolina, this year because of stadium improvements in Nassau.

A rash of serious injuries has riddled the Hilltoppers throughout what’s been a trying season, but the pressure will be off when they travel to Miami to take on the struggling Panthers of Florida International University.

“We found a way to win,” Reed said. “Our defense played really well … It was kind of a weird game, and I had some mixed emotions (playing at home for the final time).

“Getting bowl eligible is a big deal for guys like me and Malachi.”

WKU defensive end Deantre McCray, a strapping 6-foot-4, 270-pound sophomore from Jacksonville, Florida, said the team was on a mission to send its seniors out with a victory.

“The defense always sets the tone,” McCray said. “There’s still a lot we can do, for our seniors, next week against Florida International.”