Family Dinner Table: After Mediocre Start, Tops control Kennesaw State Wednesday Night, 31-14
FB: Western Kentucky sits at 6-2 and 4-0 in Conference USA, standing alone with Jacksonville State atop the standings.
Western Kentucky Football is firing on nearly all cylinders. Although WKU comes out of each game with several things to work on, the Tops look like the best team in CUSA, and the standings corroborate that. WKU’s (CUSA) undefeated counterpart, Jacksonville State, may have something to say about that, but Jacksonville State looked terrible for the first part of the year and has come on strong in the middle third of the season. WKU has looked good all year with the exception of a blowout at Alabama.
Kennesaw State (1-7, 1-3 CUSA) came in with plenty of momentum, having just gotten off the schneid with a big win against Liberty. That all came to a screeching (like a dying owl, if you will) halt as WKU (6-2, 4-0 CUSA) dominated the Owls after a 7-7 start.
WKU would lead 24-7 at halftime and end up winning 31-14. The score doesn’t indicate how dominant the Tops were, but we’ll get into that as we go.
If you’re a sports fan, hopefully you have someone you can talk about your favorite team with. Well, for father-son duo David and Matt McCay, they are each other’s backboard to see if any of their ideas are of any account. Every once in a while, those bricks clank against the backboard and find their way into the bucket. Most often, it probably looks like you in your backyard shooting it off of the gutters of your house, Jackie Moon.
Heated battles may happen around the dinner table at your home, so in honor of those tense moments when you nearly roll into a fight about long snapper depth, we salute you with this series from the McCay’s. Hopefully they won’t roll into a public argument, but hey things happen.
Before and after each game, Matt and David will put their own spins on their thoughts on the matchup. In a preview article, they’ll talk about what they see, whatever that may be, whether it’s about the food at the stadium, fan experience, roster depth, or big picture football thoughts. One will go and then the other. In a postgame article, they will react with whatever vitriol or euphoria they feel at the time.
In honor of the Monday morning quarterbacks, the heated debates, the differing opinions, and the people screaming from the upper deck and their wives grabbing their arm telling them to shut up because you’re embarrassing them, this one’s for you.
Papa McCay’s Thoughts
Well son, if slow start means you score 21 points in the first quarter, may the rest of WKU’s season start that way. I believe the rest of the game was mediocre, with WKU only scoring a field goal in the second, neither team scoring in the third quarter and each team scoring a touchdown in the fourth. There were some bad pass and run plays that stopped Western drives.
For some reason over the past few weeks, Western has not been able to pick up outside blindside blitzes well or change the plays to something that will work against that defense. To make it worse, Caden also has a tendency to hold the ball on those plays. But on some of those plays, there are no shallow or outlet receivers for him to get the ball to.
I also will say again, WKU’s defense has a tendency to blitz on the wrong plays or at least blitz the wrong players. Kennesaw only scores in this game because of this fact again. On the first Kennesaw State TD, Western blitzed a linebacker and the single deep safety. The running back got through the line and no one was there to stop him from scoring. The second TD was scored on a read zone play outside where a corner and a linebacker blitz (the rest of linebackers are on the left side), the play goes outside and to the left. The safety takes a bad angle and Bryson takes the ball into the end zone for his first TD of the season.
Anyway that will be something that Matthew and I will dispute for the entire season, but look back at all the games and you will see that teams mostly score on those bad blitzes.
Zero Penalties
On a more positive note, when was the last time WKU had zero penalties in a game prior to this game against Kennesaw State? October 10, 2020 against Marshall. That is a span of 57 games. By the way the Toppers lost that game to the Thundering Herd 38-14. Western also had zero turnovers to make this game even more strange.
By The Numbers
Western outgained Kennesaw State 467 to 262 in total yardage. WKU had 276 yards passing and Kennesaw had only 96. Rushing was a little more even with the Toppers outgaining the Owls 191 to 176. This is also the seventh straight game that Western had more than 100 yards rushing.
Caden Veltkamp #10 had one of his better games this season with 276 yards on 17/22 passing, 26 yards rushing, three TDs and zero turnovers.
Elijah Young #3 had the best game of his career and was the leading rusher in the game with 15 carries for 114 yards. Elijah also added 2 catches for 20 yards. This was an exceptional game for the WKU running back.
George Hart III #9 made the most of his 9 carries for 36 yards and scored a TD on a powerful run, where he plowed over the safety on way to the endzone. It was a thing of beauty.
Easton Messer #8 had the most yardage receiving this game with 68 yards and a TD on two catches. Kisean Johnson #0 had the most receptions (4) for 64 yards. That gives him 41 receptions for 557 yards and four TDs on the season so far.
Junior Tight End River Helms #87 was injured late in the game against Sam Houston and did not play in this game against Kennesaw State. It was very nice to see Trevor Borland #86 and freshman Noah Meyers #81 come in and contribute two catches for two TDs and very good blocking in River’s absence.
Former walk-on Chandler Matthew #12 led WKU’s defense with 9 tackles, including one for a loss. Darius Thomas #3 had two beautiful sacks in the fourth quarter to help close out the game. Kent Robertson #11 grabbed the only turnover of the game, an interception.
Final Thoughts
I am glad WKU won the game. I was disappointed that Western did not run much tempo in the game and continue to find open receivers and run up the score. I think Western has a tendency to get an early lead and try to take the air out of the ball too early and just hold on for the win. Against some teams that is OK, but it failed against Boston College and we need to be careful against LA Tech, Liberty, and Jacksonville State, three teams that have and will cause WKU some difficulty, unless I miss my guess.
Western is next up against 2-6 (CUSA 1-4) New Mexico State on November 9th at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, NM @5pm on ESPN+. GO TOPS!!!
Young Buck McCay
Wow. So first of all, heck of a victory. Against a team that is playing much better football, the Tops continue to be dominant. Yes, it wasn’t as gorgeous, but honestly, give KSU’s defense some credit. They are not that bad of a defense considering how anemic their offense is (one game over 300 total yards from scrimmage).
KSU has very good special teams, and I think that allowed them to minimize some damage in this one. In fact, one of KSU’s two scores came with a short field, as WKU’s Cole Maynard continues to struggle with his punt length, setting up the Owls at the WKU 44 yard line after a 31 yard punt. Credit them for having a really good third unit. That probably swung the score by 10 or so points, in my opinion. KSU’s Jacob Ulrich had eight punts, averaged 41 yards per punt, and more importantly pinned WKU inside the 20 six times! Yes, WKU should have capitalized a few more times than they did, but Kennesaw State won the field position battle with its elite special teams.
I would say this was an above average performance. Yeah, there was a huge lull, and after the Tops busted out to a 21-7 lead after the first quarter, the two teams scored 17 total points after that. Yeah there’s a lot to unpack there, but suffice it to say WKU did what it was supposed to. WKU controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, keeping KSU from big plays on most drives. The Owls had two explosive plays all game and didn’t really flirt with 300 yards despite being down at least 14 for three quarters.
Responding to the Old Man
I know many people question why WKU just doesn’t magically change the play and realize that the opposing team is blitzing on one side, or that the Tops should not blitz certain players or whatever. Sorry to whoever believes this, but it’s more complicated than that. More forwardly, Dad, you’re wrong on this! WKU, first of all, is doing a heck of a job defensively this season, so let’s not complain too much. Second of all, the point of blitzing is to create some chaos, take a calculated risk, and get some extra pressure. If you can disguise the blitz and make the offensive lineman do math while wrestling 300 pound men, you have a good chance of busting a guy loose into the backfield and busting up a play, forcing the QB to panic, or best case scenario, force a turnover.
Sometimes you trade the positives for a negative play against your defense, because the quarterback makes a good read, realizes your guy left a hole, and he throws into it. WKU has blitzed from the left side of the defense a couple of times and gotten burned on a pass play. It happened in this game. KSU got one of its longer pass plays and a first down right by the WKU sideline, and that play could have busted for a touchdown if a tackle was broken. Against UTEP, the defense gave up a monster gain on a zone clearing route with traffic, the Tops happened to blitz from that side to make it even worse, and UTEP happened to be calling a curl with a blocker in front, a safety overhelps to the wrong side, and UTEP busts one down the sideline into the H*** W***** Zone (We’ve been reprimanded for not using his name with permission #HankerPankers).
It happens, but you have to do some crazy stuff and take a risk here and there or your defense is vanilla and it’s basically the QB reading “Is it man, is it Cover 2, is it Cover 3, or Cover 4?” and then he throws the ball easily towards the correct read and they march down the field.
As far as a slow start, what I was referring to in our intro was the fact that both teams started tied 7-7 before WKU busted it open. There were a couple of drives before WKU really clicked in and took the lead and never relinquished.
Anyway, you are only allowed three timeouts. Well, you can’t waste all of your timeouts because you have a bad play call. It’s up to the line and the QB to recognize the problem, minimize it, and try to save the play as best as you can. Sometimes it’s a couple of inches here or there, or a missed assignment there, and a play looks stupid despite it being a decent play call.
Shoutout to the Tight Ends
Man, I cannot believe the incredible performance of WKU’s backup tight ends. Finally, Western has a really, really good set of tight ends, and frankly, I think Will Friend and Tyson Helton would be remiss not to give these guys the ball more. It’s not just River Helms, who is out for a shoulder injury. Trevor Borland can ball. Noah Meyers can make plays. These guys are big, athletic, and playmakers. Give them more touches, and watch this offense excel. Not only did they score two touchdowns, but they also had several key blocks that sprung bigger plays. I remember seeing Borland seal the edge and get in the way of another guy to spring an outside run play heading down WKU’s sideline. These guys stepped the heck up and got it done.
Why Did KSU Score at All?
WKU did a really good job all night holding KSU to pretty much nothing, but this play got them. So what happened? First of all, Kennesaw State ran a lot of pistol formation. One thing about the pistol is that you really cannot tell which side the running back will go to on each play. On this play, the ball is in the middle of the field, so this play could be run to either side of the field. KSU lined up in the pistol with a tight end to the left, two receivers wide left, and one right. WKU has seven guys in the box and one looming just outside of the box next to the umpire in the middle of the field.
KSU immediately protects to the right, the opposite of the strong side, WKU’s Sebastian Benjamin is ignored (he is on the left hash at the line of scrimmage), and the tight end goes up and blocks the outside linebacker. The left guard pulls right and leaves a hole in the left side of the line. Notice a second into the play that if maybe one tackle is broken, there is a lot of green out there for the running back to run.
As the back crosses the line of scrimmage, all he has to do is avoid Sebastian Benjamin and he has something. Well, WKU’s entire interior defense gets pushed/drawn to the right, and the RB goes from the picture below and cuts back left and he’s gone. After I broke it down, I really respected the play design. KSU made it look like a standard pistol run to the strong side, or maybe some kind of little out route by the slot receiver to the left, or a read option.
No. They didn’t do any of that. They ran their guy to the right, drew the defense to the right, and jump cut left into wide open manufactured turf grass for a touchdown. Although the Tops lost their gap integrity on this one, credit Kennesaw State for what I think was a brilliant design. It may not be super complicated, but the intricacies made this play bust for a big one.
On the second touchdown, WKU shows up with a light box, likely expecting a pass. As they did most of the game, they’re still showing a bear front with only one linebacker in the middle of the field. The ball is on the left-middle hash, so it’s likely this play runs to the right. KSU is in the pistol with five Topper defenders defending three guys to the strong side of the field.
KSU snaps the ball, and immediately the Tops are in trouble. First of all if the ball did go up the middle, that could have been decent as well. The QB correctly pulls it.
Now you have a mess, because the QB and the RB pulled off an incredible fake, and maybe 20 percent of the stadium knew who had the ball. If the RB had the ball, he’s probably got a gain of 2-5 yards, depending on the details. If the QB has the ball right now, WKU is mega screwed. Look at all of that space. Well, he had the ball. The defensive end has his back turned, convinced the running back has the ball. There is not one WKU defender outside the KSU O-Line besides the cornerback, who is running up the field defending his receiver, who he thinks is running a route. This is how big plays happen. Seven seconds into the play, WKU is definitely giving up a first down, and they will need a shoestring tackle to save a touchdown.
This final one really tells the tale. Once WKU got sucked in to the middle, there were maybe three players who had a shot once they realized the RB didn’t have the ball.
Evaluating the QB
Caden Veltkamp continues to learn on the job. He had a couple of plays early that were questionable, and he continues to hold on to the ball a little bit. He also went somersaulting into a defender in one of the most unathletic athletic plays you’ll ever see a 6’6” man make.
Caden: Don’t EVER do that again, son.
Anyway, other than that, I have no serious complaint about his efforts against Kennesaw State. He really does need to have more awareness of when his guys have whiffed on a block and sense pressure a little more, though
Caden Veltkamp Needs to Be WKU’s Starter, Even if TJ Finley is Healthy
The kid (Caden) is marvelous and it’s exciting to know he has two more years on The Hill after this if he wants to. And with the way he’s played, it just seems impossible to think TJ Finley comes back healthy with the starting job. WKU’s offense has improved tremendously under Caden Veltkamp, and TJ Finley would be coming in cold and out of rhythm with everybody anyway.
In my opinion, TJ Finley needs to be backup until Caden Veltkamp starts sucking it up or gets injured. Then you have an incredibly capable backup with a massive arm that can do everything Caden can.
And by the way, I’m certain zero fans (including me at this point) will be ok with TJ Finley starting unless Veltkamp just can’t go at some point.
Going for it on 4th-and-1 up 17 in the Red Zone
I’m sorry, but this needs to be said…
This was a poor decision, let alone a risky play call.
The decision is frustrating. Think about this: You are up three scores with about 20 minutes remaining. To be precise, you’re up 17. Isn’t it incredibly valuable to force your opponent to have no choice but to score three touchdowns? With 17, it allows KSU to have a mulligan on any of three scoring drives and kick a field goal. With a world class kicker, you have the opportunity to take points and extend your lead, and at the same time, you have the ability to complete take “field goal” out as an option for KSU to kick and at some point come back and win the game. They would not have that option the rest of the game. KSU had not been to the red zone at that point. Imagine if when they finally got there, they weren’t allowed to kick a chip shot. They had to ram it all the way into the end zone. Isn’t that incredibly valuable?
Now, on top of that, once again for the thousandth time, what is the value in getting a first down in the red zone when you’re not on the doorstep of the end zone? You are going to probably need another first down after you get this one before you have a chance to improve on the points you just turned down. This means you are now forcing your offense to feel obligated to ram it into the end zone and take five more risks at turning the ball over, all for the likelihood that you say, “Ahh heck let’s just kick the field goal!” in three to six plays anyway. It’s not a high percentage play. Stop doing it! Take. The. Points.
Then, the call you make on 4th-and-1…
You run a fake dive (better than what you did) and run a jet sweep to the boundary? WHY?!?
Steve Addazio, ESPN2’s analyst, said it perfectly (paraphrased): “Don’t run sideways. If you want to win a championship, you need to line it up and go get the yard you need to continue your drive.”
Thanks, Steve. Exactly correct. And yes, if the left side of the line didn’t miss an assignment, that play possibly goes for a touchdown. However, it didn’t. And you wasted points. And you could have just ran your 6’6” QB for a sneak or given your RB with 135 total yards the football. You could have told the O-Line that you were putting it on their shoulders. Instead, you overthink it and call your tiny speedster (KD Hutchinson) to whiz around the edge of the left side of the line. Instead, he gets stuffed, and you look silly.
Grading Keys to Victory
Reload Last Week’s Defensive Game Plan: A+
Although Sam Houston is a little different than Kennesaw State, the principle was still the same: Stop the run, play assignment football, and wait for the right down and distance to shut down the drive. WKU was phenomenal at this. The Tops didn’t allow a pass play to go over 17 yards while holding Kennesaw State’s very respectable rushing attack to an amount that would not make a difference. Yes, the Tops gave up some yardage on the ground (176), but they absolutely stifled the pass and Kennesaw at one point was looking like it may not get much over 200 total yards. Job well done, Tops.
Score 30: A
I mean obviously the Tops scored 31 and accomplished this goal, but there were definitely some points left out there. WKU had three three-and-outs where the offense just completely stalled. And see below on special teams, but points were lost in the third phase Wednesday night against the Owls.
Keep Everybody Under 50 Yards Receiving: A+
This was exactly my point. KSU didn’t even muster 100 yards passing, no receiver got a pass for more than 17 yards, and no one had more than 34 yards receiving. You could not ask for a better performance from the secondary in this one. They were outstanding. See below for the RB info, but Qua Ashley, a legitimate threat out of the backfield in the air and still KSU’s leading receiver, had two catches for three yards. Magnificent.
Stop RB’s Qua Ashley and Michael Benefield: C+
I almost solely said Qua Ashley in this key and I would have looked like a genius, but it does turn out that my gut was right. As Qua Ashley goes, so does KSU. Ashley is their leading receiver and second leading rusher. He had a 38 yard kick return in this game, as well. Other than that gaff, the Tops did a good job against him. However, Benefield was able to go for 100 yards rushing on the night. So yeah, these guys had a decent night. They were still contained, and they were not allowed to bust loose. Benefield did average over six per carry, but everyone else was held to 3.5 yards or less per run.
Don’t Let Kennesaw State Win Special Teams: F
Yeah you want to know why WKU didn’t score more points? Special teams. WKU’s punting unit continues to struggle, averaging 37 yards per punt in this one. He did get a nice spiral off to put KSU inside the 20, but until that point, the last two full games, the WKU punting game has been extremely off.
Meanwhile, Kennesaw State’s punting game was amazing, averaging five more yards per punt despite kicking many of their punts from the 50 yard line, not giving up a single touchback on a punt and forcing WKU to start inside its 20 yard line six times because of a punt. In fact, WKU did not start a drive outside of its own 25 until the last two drives of the game. That, my friends, is how you produce a bunch of yards and only score 31 points.
In addition to the punting, KSU had some nice returns, and WKU’s were average to below average. All of that combines to argue that WKU left multiple scores out on the field due to special teams.
Conclusion: Nice Win, But Plenty to Work on
WKU now has an incredible chance to not only win CUSA, but to go undefeated. Although the schedule is tough, despite a significant amount of improvement needed, the Tops look to be favorites in every single remaining game on the schedule.
WKU played against a fairly decent defense. Much like Sam Houston last year, whose offense completely crippled them for the first half of their season, the Owls have an anemic offense that holds back a pretty good defense and a really good special teams unit. If KSU could pass the ball at all…my goodness, they would be a decent football team.
That being said, WKU has plenty to work on. Caden Veltkamp can improve. WKU’s offensive line could definitely tighten itself up. WKU’s defense allowed a few more first downs than Topper fans may be accustomed to. Special teams. Play calling. Wasting timeouts. Halftime management. Late game clock management. Not yelling at officials all the way off the field in a game you won by 17.
Ya know. Things like that.
But overall, is it not awesome to see a WKU team that’s frickin legit? This team is not a juggernaut offensively, or this team would be hanging with Boise and Army in the rankings. But this team can run and pass equally well. They have a QB that can run the ball that is tough. They can protect. The receivers can go two or three strings deep. The running back room compliments each other. The defense is absolutely shutting everyone down, only allowing one team to score more than 21 points. They can rush the passer, stop the run, cover deep, and tackle. And the defensive coordinator is a genius. On special teams, the punter is above average, the kicker is exceptional, and the returners can make plays.
Where is the weakness? There really isn’t one, other than a lack of an elite pass rusher and a young quarterback that’s still learning how to manage the game.
It’s an exciting time in Topper land. Lots of sports are really good, basketball is starting, and football is not only in it but is the odds-on favorite to win Conference USA.
It’s now the home stretch of Conference USA season in football, basketball is now beginning its regular season, Volleyball is about to start prepping for the CUSA Tournament, and the Topper fall calendar is now at full “go”. Don’t you want to be connected with the only WKU outlet that provides real, unbiased perspective with live tweeting, breaking news, a podcast, and full-length articles? No one else does exactly what we do, and it’s all for FREE! There’s no charge for the one stop shop that is The Towel Rack!
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GO TOPS!!!!