Western Kentucky

[jpfalcon09]

I really don't see us being set up for a let down considering it's Homecoming and we all know how last year's went...a 38-3 drubbing from the Flashes.

Homecoming wasn't against Kent, that was Family Weekend, played EMU for HC last year

My bad, I do remember now, thanks!

[Falconfreak90]

Yes, they are for real. They played Florida closer than most people expected, slaughtered some sucky team and beat an improving MTSU team. Relatively speaking I'm impressed with WKU. We need this win OOC, because its unlikely that we will beat BC on the road. BC might be the toughest team in the ACC right now!

They lost by 46 to Florida. I am sure Florida called off the dogs.

Also, the game was called with over 8 minutes left due to lightning, IIRC.

[OptionQB]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbc ... 002/SPORTS

[jpfalcon09]

Their players and fans seem pretty confident. Our guys need to be ready to stem any momentum they get...a team like them can be opportunistic and look to score on big plays.

[ffejfalcon]

Their players and fans seem pretty confident. Our guys need to be ready to stem any momentum they get...a team like them can be opportunistic and look to score on big plays.

I didn't want to start a new thread on this...I don't know really anything about WKU as an instititution. Maybe the folks who have been visiting our board lately can educate us...How big is the school? what kind of history is there? How big is the campus? et....Just wondering.......

[Schadenfreude]

I didn't want to start a new thread on this...I don't know really anything about WKU as an instititution. Maybe the folks who have been visiting our board lately can educate us...How big is the school? what kind of history is there? How big is the campus? et....Just wondering.......

They were founded as a teachers college in 1906 and it is now home to about 18,000 students (sound familiar?) Here's a bit more history:

http://www.wku.edu/history.html

One important difference between Western Kentucky and the typical MAC school is that WKU has relatively few graduate-level offerings. There are nine masters degrees and just one doctoral degree (offered in cooperation with the University of Louisville).

It's a fine school -- arguably one of the best of its kind in the south. But it's focused almost exclusively on undergraduates.

WKU aspires to be more, and I think that's a big part of the reason for the move to I-A. The Kentucky legislature may not be keen on growing graduate degrees at WKU, but there wasn't much they could do to stop this.

This lack of graduate programs may be the reason why the MAC didn't seriously explore inviting Western Kentucky to the MAC when they decided to go I-A. Western Kentucky publicly expressed some interest. My guess is that the university presidents weren't too interested.

Here is a list of universities that Western Kentucky benchmarks itself against: Ball State, California State Chico, Fresho State, Central Missouri State, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Indiana State, Middle Tennessee State, Missouri State, Montclair State, Northern Arizona, Oakland U., Stephen F. Austin State, Towson, Northern Iowa, Western Illinois, Witchita State and Youngstown State.

[Rojogrande]

I am not saying this just because I am a WKU fan. But I think the Florida game was a lot closer then the 49-3 score indicates. Tebow is who killed us. But opening drive of the game we took it 60+ yards down the field on florida to the 10 yard line where we got a horrible spot on a 4th and inches. During that drive our starting QB Wolke suffered a concussion and didn't return the rest of the game. When he got to the sidelines he didn't even remember the drive. KJ Black entered the game. This was his first ever college game. And to come in for your first appearance infront of 90,000+ can be nerve racking. He did ok...not bad at all for a first game. But he went out in the 3rd quarter with a leg cramp. So enter our third string QB. We contained florida's run game pretty well other then Tebow. But Tebow is just unreal. You rush him he beats you through the air. You fall back in coverage and he runs for 10-15 yards.

I am not sure where to gauge this WKU team yet. Everyone says we ran up the score on WV TECH. But we only attempted 12...that is right 12 pass attempts the whole game. We ran the ball on them and our def and special teams had 3 touchdowns. We even took a knee on a 4th and inches in order to give them the ball back.

I hope a rivalry builds between our schools. I like your fan base. You all seem like nice people. I would love to get a yearly series going. We could do "The Battle for the green Bowling Ball".


--Rojogrande

[jpfalcon09]

I am not saying this just because I am a WKU fan. But I think the Florida game was a lot closer then the 49-3 score indicates. Tebow is who killed us. But opening drive of the game we took it 60+ yards down the field on florida to the 10 yard line where we got a horrible spot on a 4th and inches. During that drive our starting QB Wolke suffered a concussion and didn't return the rest of the game. When he got to the sidelines he didn't even remember the drive. KJ Black entered the game. This was his first ever college game. And to come in for your first appearance infront of 90,000+ can be nerve racking. He did ok...not bad at all for a first game. But he went out in the 3rd quarter with a leg cramp. So enter our third string QB. We contained florida's run game pretty well other then Tebow. But Tebow is just unreal. You rush him he beats you through the air. You fall back in coverage and he runs for 10-15 yards.

I am not sure where to gauge this WKU team yet. Everyone says we ran up the score on WV TECH. But we only attempted 12...that is right 12 pass attempts the whole game. We ran the ball on them and our def and special teams had 3 touchdowns. We even took a knee on a 4th and inches in order to give them the ball back.

I hope a rivalry builds between our schools. I like your fan base. You all seem like nice people. I would love to get a yearly series going. We could do "The Battle for the green Bowling Ball".


--Rojogrande

Saw you'll be down a safety and corner, that's gonna have an impact tomorrow. There's no denying our game plan, we'll throw the ball 60+ times if we have to. I think our mentality right now is just prove you can stop us. We had good success against Minnesota and Michigan State throwing the ball, and 4 scores through the air last week. This game will basically come down to if your defense can stop us. If not, I don't really see how the Toppers can pull it out without giving up a good deal of points.

However, you guys do have something great going on down there. At the start of the season, many of us, me included, laughed this game off figuring it wouldn't be much of a test. Now that we've reached game week though, we are happy we are playing you guys, I think it'll be a good challenge for both teams. You guys will be well off with the experience you'll gain this season.

Here's to a well played game with no injuries!

[Rojogrande]

I agree...we have to stop your passing game to win. I am sure you all will see a lot of nickel and dime packages from us on defense. As well as mixing up a lot of zone and blitz packages. I saw somewhere where our coach said that he was going to switch out some of the line backers and bring in two more CB's. So we will have coverage on all of your recievers. We have been pretty decent at defending the pass this year. The only thing that has hurt is 3rd down conversions and little short slant or post passes underneath our zone coverage for 5-10 yard gains.

And yes our starting safety that is out has never missed a start since his first day as a topper and he is a senior. So this will be the first game he has ever missed. He has led the team in tackles the last two seasons as well. I am worried about how much that will affect our defense. As for the CB....I have heard he will be ready to go on gameday. But we will see.

But as you said...here is to a well played and good game with NO injuries for either team.


--Rojogrande

[cowboyjoe]

Why would anyone ever have "laughed" this game off against Western Kentucky? Shoot...we won 4 games last year and have 40 under classmen on the 2 deep roster. We shouldn't be "laughing" any game off. If it's ok for Florida to have them on their schedule then it should be ok for us to have them on ours.

[Dayons_Den]

If WKU goes to the additional DBs I hope we switch it up and mix in some R U N S ! We led the league in rushing in 2003 in the spread, we led the league last year, why not get some yardage on the ground THIS year!!

[BGSUFootballFan]

Why is there no spread on this game? Why do all the ESPNs still say there are only 119 D1A teams? I thought for sure this was a D1A Independent team this year, but why no spread? I need my easy money for the week!

[jpfalcon09]

I believe since WKU is in transition this year, there cannot be a line. As far as I know, it requires 2 full years at D-1A to be up for the betting line.