Who are the Hilltoppers?
We have seen the Hilltoppers take the gridiron twice and play two very different games so far to start the 2014 season.
On the one hand, they hosted defending MAC champion Bowling Green State on a Friday night, and ran them out of the stadium, setting numerous school records in the process, and leading Brandon Doughty to garner some pretty serious national recognition, and a nice little Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week award.
Then, come last weekend, we saw a first half that took WKU into the halftime with a lead, but another faulty second half – one of many in the past three years – lead to a whole lot of “if only” and “what if” statements and questions. As we approach the MTSU game, and the opening of Conference USA play, there’s one simple question on the mind of Tops’ fans everywhere – who/what exactly is this team?
Three coaching changes in three years can’t be, and isn’t, easy on anyone. That statement in and of itself leads to a whole other set of questions – would Willie Taggart have won the Little Caesar’s Bowl? Where would the Tops be if Taggart had stayed? Did the team simply not play hard last year because they didn’t respect Bobby Petrino? But, when all is said and done, WKU has actually done a pretty good job amidst all the turnover; they had a chance at the end of the game to knock off Central Michigan, they were bowl eligible a year ago and ran the table in impressive fashion in the final month of the year, and they’ve started this year well.
To answer the question – who are the Hilltoppers this year – the answer is simple; we simply don’t know. If we were in another year of Taggart or a second year of Petrino, we might have a better picture, but Jeff Brohm is only two games in, and it’s just too small of a sample size.
Is this going to be the team of the beginning and middle of last year who continuously blows games in the fourth quarter? Or, will they be able to hold people off and win in the last moments (i.e. the 2011 home game against FIU, or last year’s finale against Arkansas State)? The one thing we know for sure is that the Tops’ are going to give up a lot of points – they’re 111th in the nation after two weeks – but if the high powered offense is playing to it’s potential week in and week out, that shouldn’t be an issue.
Who or what do you think the Tops are this year? Let us know below or on twitter @WaveTheRedTowel.