Hilltoppers seek bowl eligibility as UTSA comes to tango
The more I say it to myself, the more ridiculous it sounds; with a victory today against UTSA, the Hilltoppers will be bowl eligible for the fourth year in a row, under three different head coaches. What in the world?
Anyway, as crazy as it sounds, it’s 100% true, and regardless of any other outcomes outside of Bowling Green today, the Tops will be, at worst, the sixth C-USA team to become bowl eligible, which should give them just a little bit of leverage to begin talking to bowls about potential.
But, I digress as I’m getting way ahead of myself. There is a football game to be played today, and WKU will welcome in a UTSA team that, as Jared Kalmus of CoolerChronicles.com told us, really has nothing more to play for this year. Yes, they’re coming off a (rather ugly) victory over Southern Miss, but aside from that, there hasn’t been much to cheer for from Roadrunner camp after an early season near defeat of Arizona.
The Hilltoppers will look to exploit any and all weaknesses the Runners come in with, but this could be a very backwards matchup. The ‘Runners are probably one of the better defenses (maybe second, statistically, to Louisiana Tech) that WKU have on their schedule, as they’re 45th in the nation in points allowed, averaging just under points per game to opposing offenses. We all know what Brandon Doughty, Leon Allen and the rest of the Tops’ offense can do, so this will be one of the more intriguing matchups of the season.
However, on the flip side of the ball, while the WKU defense has struggled this year (but, granted, are playing much better of late), so has the ‘Runners’ offense, who are 111th in the country in both passing yards (170.8) and rushing yards (117.6) per game, and are even further down in points per game at 124th (16.4). For either team to win, something is going to have to give on someone’s side of the ball, and with everything riding on the line for the Tops’ season today (because, as great as it’d be, who really think’s Marshall is going down next week?) I bet you they’ll be coming out with a new level of fire that we haven’t seen yet this year.
The thing I’m going to be keeping an eye on is how is Leon Allen going to be used today? He broke the C-USA rushing record last week, and rushed for more yards than both Bobby Rainey and Antonio Andrews ever did in a Hilltoppers jersey. Was last week Allen’s coming out party? Or did he just have a fantastic game against a so-so defense? I’m hoping it’s the latter, and I’m hoping he closes out this year strong and picks up next where right where he left off.
How do you see today’s game going? Do the Tops’ make it to that fourth straight year of bowl eligibility? Let us know below in a comment or tweet to us @WaveTheRedTowel.