WKU Football: Gameday Information for Tops vs. FIU
Your guide for everything you need to know to enjoy the Tops' conference opener vs. the Golden Panthers
The 2022 campaign isn’t only shaping up like the 2021 one, it’s better. An offense that, while not scoring at record pace, is still doing whatever it wants through the air and may have found it’s consistent rushing attack all while seeing an improved defense, making this year’s team more balanced than last year.
Anyone hoping to see WKU compete for another C-USA title has to be happy through the first three games of the season, even if the taste of last Saturday’s loss still tastes sour.
WKU (2-1, 0-0 C-USA) takes on Florida International (1-1, 0-0 C-USA) in each team’s conference opener. Western should be undefeated, but gave up opportunities to take a three-score lead over Indiana last week and piddled away a respectable 11-point lead in the second half, losing in overtime, 33-30. FIU should probably be winless, but they did show tremendous grit, coming back on Bryant in Week 1. They were blasted by a borderline bowl team from the Sun Belt at Texas State 41-12 in a game that was never close on September 10.
Now that all college football teams are settling in to their identity (whether they like it or not), we have enough information to have educated guesses. You start to see more definitive betting lines in Vegas, and this matchup is no different. Although I think this is an absurd line, Vegas usually knows what it’s doing. Vegas has WKU as a 31-point favorite as of 10 a.m. Wednesday. That line has moved five points in a few days, so we’ll see where it ends up.
WKU is a team that looks to be very balanced and capable of winning in multiple ways. If the Tops need to grind it out, they can hold opponents to a reasonable number defensively, and they’re very good at turning the ball over. Offensively, WKU has been adequate in the running game, and against a nationally decent front seven for Indiana, WKU ran for almost 200 yards. Austin Reed has a pretty decent arsenal of weapons and is nearly averaging 300 yards per game. Perhaps Special Teams has been the Achilles heel for the Tops, though. Western has muffed punts, allowed a few big returns, has a punter with inconsistent distance and has a kicker making barely 50% of his kicks on the young season.
FIU is a team struggling to find itself, still reeling post-Butch Davis. The Golden Panthers were 1-11 last year, he resigned midyear, and FIU has seemed completely lost even before he left. Even against Bryant, FIU was statistically dominated, mainly winning because of two forced fumbles in the red zone as the main difference maker. Against Texas State, FIU was outmatched in every way. What does that mean? There are only two games under their belt, and they have had a bye week. So frankly, I would treat it like they’re going to bring a talented Florida native-laden team motivated by an opportunity to start fresh in conference play against one of the conference favorites. They should be highly motivated.
So let’s set the stage for WKU and FIU, shall we?
Location
Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium
Capacity: 22,113
Set near the bottom of a steep hill, Houchens Industries-LT Smith Stadium has housed the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers since 1968. WKU renovated “The Houch” as it transitioned to the FBS, adding 7,000 more seats and moving all WKU Football Operations into the new side of the stadium, finishing construction in 2009.
Time
Saturday, September 24, 2:30 P.M. CST
Weather Forecast
Gametime temperatures look to be hovering in the upper 70s to low 80s. By the end of the game, the temperature may get down to the mid-70s. Very little chance of rain, but if you were at the Austin Peay game, you know you can’t trust Bowling Green weather when the north side of town got drenched for an hour and the south side of Warren County saw absolutely nothing.
TV
CBS Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Chick Hernandez
Analyst: Randy Cross
Radio
Randy Lee (Play by Play), Terry Obee (Analyst), Lexi Schweinert (Analyst), Jared Holland (Sideline)
Tune in to your local Hilltopper Sports Network station.
Also, you can listen to the radio call anywhere in the world on the WKU Gameday App!
Gameday Information
WKU
WKU Head Coach Tyson Helton FIU Press Conference
FIU
Around C-USA
C-USA Week 3: What They’re Saying (Since C-USA is late posting the Week 4 article)
C-USA Players of the Week: Week 3
Betting Lines from Sportsline.com
WKU -31
O/U 65.5
ESPN.com Match-up Predictor
WKU: 96.7% chance to win
Current Records
WKU: 2-1 (0-0 C-USA)
FIU: 1-1 (0-0 C-USA)
Last Time Out…
WKU controlled the entire game against Indiana after allowing the Hoosiers to kick an early field goal. From that point, WKU took control and had multiple opportunities to score touchdowns. Instead, the Tops had to settle for field goals. WKU also turned the ball over in the end zone to Indiana, as well. Much like FIU vs. Bryant, where FIU was behind and came back, WKU really won the statistical battle, but Indiana won the scoreboard.
FIU had a bye week last week, but on September 10, they were blasted by Texas State, 41-12. The game was never close, and Texas State had a lead of at least 14 five minutes into the second quarter. FIU did have several players produce double-digit tackles against Texas State. However, that was one of the few bright spots.
Coaches
Tyson Helton- 4th Season- 25-17 (25-17 Overall)
Mike MacIntyre- 1st Season- 1-1 (47-66 Overall)
Series
9-6 WKU (5-2 in Bowling Green)
The FIU series started later than most, with the first game coming in 2002. WKU was in 1-AA (now FCS) and FIU was just getting its program off the ground, actually starting in the year 2002. The series has been remarkably even, but WKU has recently dominated, winning 7-of-9 and three in a row.
Last Meeting
WKU and FIU met last season in Miami. Western was still finding itself on its way to a 9-5 record and a conference championship appearance. The Toppers moved the ball but struggled to finish things off, dominating FIU statistically but only winning 34-19. Inexplicably, WKU only turned it over once in the game, outgained FIU by nearly 300 yards, held FIU to 28 yards rushing, and still only won by 15.
Injury Report
WKU
CB A.J. Brathwaite-Knee. Status: Questionable
Brathwaite has been injured since the first game against Austin Peay and by all sources has not seemed ready to go. However, he did practice last week and they felt like he just wasn’t quite ready to go. With how cryptic the WKU staff can be, it’s difficult to guess at some of these injury statuses.
WR Josh Sterns-Knee. Status: Questionable
Sterns, brother of Jerreth, was a contributor last year as an underclassman. He has been out all season, but Helton has been increasingly saying the past few weeks that Josh is getting close to ready to go. It stands to reason that he should be ready sooner rather than later.
FIU
No known injuries; however, Tyson Helton did say several of their players are “getting healthy”.
Excitement Level —6
This would be in the 8-10 range if WKU had beat Indiana. Without question, that would have charged campus more than anything since probably beating Wisconsin in Diddle Arena a few years ago, or as much as beating UK in overtime over 10 years ago. WKU would have been 3-0 and would have been favored in every game except Auburn until they lost a game. Heck, by Auburn, if they were undefeated, they may have been favored then.
Pipe dreams, right?
Well, it almost became reality. However, the season is young, and WKU has a tough conference schedule, but given how solid the Tops are, people should be excited. This is the first game of the conference season, it’s at 2:30 on a Saturday, and it should be good weather.
However, FIU sucks, man. And no one gives a crap about beating FIU. Sorry to be so blunt and crass, but that communicated why this is such a low excitement rating for an opening conference game. The only time an FIU game matters is if you lose. It’s honestly a big deal for recruiting, but fans don’t really care week to week about how a few stray recruiting battles might be assisted in terms of their emotions heading into a game.
Western is favored by 30+, depending on the final line. Hopefully people show the heck up this week. 13,000+ at Austin Peay was frankly unacceptable, and I hope people choose to come to see a team that could really be special this year.
Seriously, people.
Go look at ESPN’s FPI and tell me WKU couldn’t go 11-2 or so in the regular season. 96.7% this week; 71.4%; 42% (at UTSA); 65.7%; 52.5% (UAB); 88.3%; 85.9%; 86%; 33.6% (at Auburn); 51.5% (at FAU). Did you get that? ESPN currently sees WKU as likely to finish with a better record than last season!
Regardless of the opponent, it’s time to get on the Topper Train and get excited. Do you love WKU or not? Do you like winning or not? Do you care about the well-being of the economy in South Central Kentucky or not?
Support the Tops. This could be a special year, and I’m getting excited thinking about it.
We’ll lock excitement in at a 6, because it’s the first conference game and people should know WKU is going to be good. But the fact that it’s FIU and Western suffered its first loss last week, some excitement that would have been there will be gone. Frankly, I think people should be more excited, but if we’re trying to be honest, it doesn’t seem like people really are locked into this team yet. Give it a few weeks. Hopefully, BG will wake up and realize what a special program this is and what an amazing job Tyson Helton is doing.
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