Since the conference part is in the books for basketball it's about time for football talk to start up. I know most of you can't wait to revenge some bad losses to Western. You have a lot of ground to make up to do just that. But this could be the year to do it....

lots of unknowns for Western to start the season.

While I like to believe Western has built up the program to where a step down is still 8+ wins and in the conference championship race late in the season. This year is a compete unknown to me and that is scary coming off back to back CUSA championships.

Can't wait for spring practice to start and will make the 70 mile drive to BG at least once to watch it and of course the spring game. Wished it was late Aug already! Anyways here's a great article about Western.


A real long and in depth article

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football...ule-roster

Quote:Regardless of whether they were excellent or merely quite good, the Hilltoppers were by far the class of Conference USA each year. They were 30 spots ahead of any conference mate in the 2015 Massey Composite and 32 spots ahead of No. 2 in 2016. They went 17-1 against conference foes in these two years, and of the 17 wins, 12 were by at least 21 points. And the game they lost — a 55-52 shootout at Louisiana Tech last October — they avenged in the C-USA title game.

That is a level of sustained dominance you rarely see. And it’s incredible to step back and realize how quickly the Hilltoppers came to this point. Including their provisional year of 2007, WKU has only been in FBS for a decade. And the first half didn’t go so well.

We will start the chest beating as soon as basketball is over.

(03-14-2017 11:30 AM)nastybunch Wrote:  We will start the chest beating as soon as basketball is over.

Well. In our case basketball was over the day we lost to Detroit Mercy. So we got football.

Basketball isn't over just yet...

(03-14-2017 02:22 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  Basketball isn't over just yet...

Never would I thought to hear that from a MTSU fan. Also pretty funny WKU is rushing the start of football season.

The world is a crazy place right now.

Cannot wait for football but agreed could see a "down season" with 7 or 8 wins....However it does help with a good QB coming back....

Congratulations! WKU has dominated CUSA. I hope you build on these past seasons and start getting WKU into the Access Bowl conversation.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football...ule-roster

Didn't realize how easy of a schedule you guys have this year. Legitimately could win 9-10 games.

Congratulations! WKU has dominated CUSA. I hope you build on these past seasons and start getting WKU into the Access Bowl conversation.

Dominating CUSA isn't much of a feather in ones cap of late for any sport

Its funny to me that ODU is listed as the most likely to slip up conference game and we are the new homecoming game haha

I understand the premise of the article but it's really hard to feel like you were dominated when last time out you lost the game head-to-head by one point because of a missed extra point. And probably should have won the game in regulation if it weren't for a terrible coaching/game management in the last two minutes of the game.

That said even with basketball I'm pretty excited about football this year too. We finally have a good OC and good DC at the same time.

BTW, what is the wkcc offense going to look like next year? I have no idea what the new guy runs. Brohm was a tactician of magical quality. Like a virtual surgeon. No matter how good your new guy it's hard to imagine him being as good as Brohm. I almost feel like dahbeed could play QB and pull some wins with Brohm at helm.

(03-14-2017 03:17 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  Dominating CUSA isn't much of a feather in ones cap of late for any sport

Guess you did not read the article? It compared what others did vs Western's schedule (conference and OOC) then how Western did....

I'm not going back to reread it but I believe Western was tops vs everyone on our schedule. Other words if the teams Middle played averaged 4 ypp (just a example) Western beat that average. I believe the only one that Western did not top was Bama. And there average was 4yyp and Western had the same.

I recall seeing .9 yards per play against 1 but most were well over 1.5

But that wast year...

If Leon Allen makes it all the way back I expect the offense will still be one of the best in CUSA. But still a lot of unknowns...with new staff. New system. Mostly new offensive line.

I expect to struggle early as any team with a new coach would. But the offense will be a little different this season. Boise St liked to go down the field a lot more than Western has the last couple years. Also coach has said he would like to see more dual threat at QB. So while White will be the man...

I think we will see a QB that can run at some point.

(03-14-2017 03:34 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  I understand the premise of the article but it's really hard to feel like you were dominated when last time out you lost the game head-to-head by one point because of a missed extra point. And probably should have won the game in regulation if it weren't for a terrible coaching/game management in the last two minutes of the game.

That said even with basketball I'm pretty excited about football this year too. We finally have a good OC and good DC at the same time.

That would be a blocked extra point. And somehow your crack TV crew was able to overturn our QB's touchdown run to win the game even though they couldn't replay anything the entire game.




But yea, what an awful play call to try to throw a screen. How does your QB throw that thing into the dirt?

(03-14-2017 09:12 PM)topperfan84 Wrote:  

(03-14-2017 03:34 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  I understand the premise of the article but it's really hard to feel like you were dominated when last time out you lost the game head-to-head by one point because of a missed extra point. And probably should have won the game in regulation if it weren't for a terrible coaching/game management in the last two minutes of the game.

That said even with basketball I'm pretty excited about football this year too. We finally have a good OC and good DC at the same time.

That would be a blocked extra point. And somehow your crack TV crew was able to overturn our QB's touchdown run to win the game even though they couldn't replay anything the entire game.




But yea, what an awful play call to try to throw a screen. How does your QB throw that thing into the dirt?

I think it slipped out of his hand as he was trying to throw it. Which is exactly why you you hand the damn ball off to the running back in that situation.

It's good that you have a light schedule. You SHOULD beat Illinois and Vanderbilt, if Brohm was still there. However.

"When you achieve a level far beyond what your recruiting rankings suggest you should, and then you have to replace your head coach, things usually regress. Accordingly, WKU will likely fall back toward the C-USA field. But the Hilltoppers have a long way to fall before they become anything other than the conference's best team."

Any new coach is a roll of the dice. Brohm left a solid foundation. White gives Sanford a year to find his own QB and build on that foundation. Hope he can increase you season ticket sales too.

(03-14-2017 03:34 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  I understand the premise of the article but it's really hard to feel like you were dominated when last time out you lost the game head-to-head by one point because of a missed extra point. And probably should have won the game in regulation if it weren't for a terrible coaching/game management in the last two minutes of the game.

That said even with basketball I'm pretty excited about football this year too. We finally have a good OC and good DC at the same time.

Sanford being so young I think he will try not to add a completely new system to what our returning QB is used to..I know we signed a bunch of Tight ends, so I do think offense will want to get the TIght Ends involved a lot more then last season...To be fair though we really didn't have a standout tight end like Higbee year before.....Notre Dame, Boise in which Sanford called the plays were your normal fast pace offenses, I really don't think Sanford is all of that different from Brohm in calling offense, but we will see for sure coming up soon what he is planning....

WKU offense will be more balanced from what I have heard. Sanford will implement more running and there will be closer to a 50/50 split on the run/pass. With Brohm it was closer to about 65% pass to 35% run. WKU will have more pro style sets under center. Will still likely be shotgun most of the time. But with Brohm we were in shotgun about 99% of the time.