Red Towel Roundtable: Key Hilltoppers victories

Nov 22, 2014; Bowling Green, KY, USA; Western Kentucky Hilltoppers linebacker Branden Leston (45) celebrates with defensive back Leverick Johnson (29) and linebacker Terran Williams (31) after scoring a touchdown against UTSA Roadrunners during the second half at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium. Joshua Lindsey-USA TODAY Sports

Will Puckett: Many questioned at the beginning of this season why the WKU/MTSU game wasn’t positioned as the last game of the season like all rivalries in college football seem to be. For WKU, they took their talents to West Virginia to face the 24th ranked and undefeated Marshall Thundering Herd. The Herd were over 21 point favorites entering the game and all expected them to run away with it. However in a crazy season full of interesting WKU story lines, the Tops thundered to a 67-66 victory in overtime.

Now, Fletcher has asked us to try and rank this WKU win and what it means to Hilltopper FBS history, while its a short one which my skew the results a bit, I rank this win as number two on the list.

Now, I know many of you will say “why number two?” They beat a ranked opponent for the first time in program history on their home turf in a nationally trending game the day after thanksgiving. Well, here my argument: For WKU, their greatest moment in their FBS history is becoming part of C-USA. With out being a part of CUSA this never would have been possible. WKU would have played Troy or some other low-life Sun Belt school. The Tops would have dominated and in all reality it would have been no fun to watch. For the Tops, the ability to play teams like Marshall and Louisiana Tech – even though WKU lost big – is bigger than winning the game itself. With WKU now having the ability – and I call it an expectation now – to play and over and over knock of ranked teams, to me that’s bigger than beating a ranked team in itself. All of that being said, WKU managed to get a trademark win early in their CUSA history all I’m saying is the possibility to have more, is greater that the thought of having just one.

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