Red Towel Roundtable: Favorite Moments of the Decade Part I
The 2010s are drawing to a close. Yesterday we discussed the Top Stories of the decade, over the next two days we are going to discuss our…
The 2010s are drawing to a close. Yesterday we discussed the Top Stories of the decade, over the next two days we are going to discuss our favorite moments from the 2010s. Here’s part one of our favorite moments:
Jared Rosdeutscher- 2015 Conference USA Title
As someone who has lived in the Bowling Green area my whole life, I’ve witnessed the highs and lows of WKU’s football program. From the high of winning the FCS national title in 2002 to the 0–12 season in their early FBS years, it’s had a lot of ups and downs since I’ve been alive.
But none of those moments, to me personally, were as sweet as WKU’s historic season in 2015 where they went 12–2 on the season and finished as C-USA champions and #24 in the country. I was a senior at WKU during this season which is partly what made it so special to me knowing my time as a student at WKU was coming to a close. But I was thankful the Tops were able to have such an amazing year. And while I could probably write several articles on this entire season I’ll look back to the C-USA title game against Southern Miss.
Everything about this game was going to be a heavyweight battle. The Tops with Brandon Doughty and their high powered offense vs. Nick Mullens and the Golden Eagle’s record-breaking team. Looking back at that quarterback matchup alone shows how much fun this game would be to watch. Doughty shattered just about every passing record at WKU in 2015 with 5,055 passing yards and 48 touchdowns on the season. Meanwhile, Mullens broke several records at USM including most single-season yards with 4,476 and 38 touchdowns which were more than Brett Favre’s long-standing record.
The game definitely lived up to the hype. It was a beautiful early December day on the Hill with not a cloud in the sky and you could feel the excitement in the Houch. One of the cool things was seeing the huge moving camera that ESPN brought with them. Knowing it was a nationally televised home game with a conference title on the line got everyone in attendance excited.
This game had a lot of back and forth to it. When Doughty and the Tops would score, Mullens and the Golden Eagles would answer. The first two quarters were identical and it was tied at the half at 21.
In the third quarter, things still were too close but WKU went into the fourth quarter with a field goal lead. And as the fourth quarter would progress, the Tops finally pulled away scoring 14 unanswered points to win the game, 45–28. WKU’s defense was able to contain Mullens to just 181 yards and a touchdown and intercepted him three times while Doughty completed 34 passes and had 410 yards and three touchdowns.
And just like that, WKU won their very first Conference USA title in football. The game itself was great but I definitely enjoyed rushing the field along with everyone else to celebrate after the game was over. It was pure chaos but it was nice to interact with some of the players and congratulate them on a great season as well as briefly talking to then-head coach Jeff Brohm as the chant of many students echoed in the background saying “one more year!” hoping that he wouldn’t be gone after that game.
One of the funniest things was me accidentally photobombing Brandon Doughty during an interview after the game. I was walking around trying to figure out what was going on and I found a clearing in the crowd and as I started looking around I saw a bright light and a camera and felt someone give me a tug to pull me out of view of the camera but it was too late. Here I am at the bottom left looking completely clueless to everything going on.
But this picture and the whole experience is something I’ll never forget. The 2015 season was extremely memorable and I’m thankful I got to experience it all as a student. I tried to experience as much as I could while I only had one semester left in school and even took off to Miami with Matt McCay and his wife Stephanie (who I barely knew at the time) for the Miami Beach Bowl in another unforgettable experience.
Even though I’ve always been more of a basketball fan than football the 2015 season and championship game will be some of my favorite WKU sports memories. Everyone once in a while you get to see history from a distance but it’s not every day you get to fully experience it and I’m thankful that I did.
Alex Sherfield- The Birth of Harpermania
If I had to choose at least one favorite of the decade for WKU athletics, this one would have to be WKU basketball related. The thrilling sequence of events that happened between March 3rd-March 15th, 2012. The early part of the decade for Hilltoppers basketball was very frustrating, to say the least. After closing out the previous decade with consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, which the 2007–2008 season under Darrin Horn (Including “The Shot” by Ty Rogers against Drake), expectations ran high in the years of his tenure.
However, this didn’t translate into similar results that we were anticipating. The decade started rocky with a 16–16 record including 8–8 in Sun Belt Conference play during the 2010–2011 season. The next year, in 2011–2012, Ken McDonald’s Hilltoppers started 5–11 and battled attendance issues with the team’s performances. He was fired following an overtime loss to Louisiana-Lafayette (which holds the controversial 6 men on the court play in overtime). Shortly after, Ray Harper who was an assistant coach was promoted to interim head coach for the remainder of the year.
Harper, who was a head coach for Kentucky Wesleyan previously, built a reputation for being successful in his own right in Division II. These feats included two national championships at KWC and being a seven-time national coach of the year. After Harper took control of the team, the Hilltoppers finished the regular season 11–18 with a 7–9 SBC record. They entered the SBC Championship tournament as the seventh seed with a first-round appearance. In the stretch of four games, the Toppers created a huge streak by beating FIU, Little-Rock Arkansas, Denver, and North Texas in the championship round to win the tournament. This was an automatic bid into the NCAA TOURNAMENT, being one of the first teams to play in the opening round of 68.
This was a game that took place in Dayton, Ohio against fellow 16th seeded Mississippi Valley State. In the second half of the game, the Tops were down 53–37 facing a 16 point deficit with 4:52 to go. Somehow, HARPERMANIA was born into this very moment. The Tops rallied on a run that took advantage of a flustered MVSU defense, to take their first lead in the game with just 33.8 seconds left to go. The Tops were victorious 59–58, stunning the country with their come from behind win. They advanced to the second round where they lost to eventual national champion Kentucky 81–66.
With the crazy sequence of events lasting almost two weeks, the Tops finished the year at 16–19, leading up to an extension for Ray Harper to remain as head coach. The next season, the same results continued as the Tops were SBC Champs once again, qualifying for the 2012–2013 NCAA TOURNAMENT. They would go on to lose to Kansas in the first round.
Sam Gormley- The Birth of the Moonshine Throwdown
When looking back at this decade, there are plenty of options to pick as the top moment. Whether it was the NCAA tournament win in Dayton with President Barack Obama watching, the multiple Power Five wins by the basketball program over recent years or the back-to-back Conference USA Championship run, there is a multitude of worthy adversaries.
To me, the best moment of the decade is actually the most underrated one. I take you back to November of 2014 to a packed house in Huntington. More specifically, we can go to the score of Willie McNeal to give WKU the thrilling 67–66 win over Marshall.
Little did we know at the time, that this was the true birth of the #BrohmSquad. Sure, that season we saw moments but didn’t have a win anywhere near that of Marshall. That win began the most memorable two years run by a team in recent C-USA football history.
If WKU doesn’t score on the two-point conversion attempt, would they have still won the ’15 and ’16 championships? It’s definitely possible, but slaying an unbeaten on their home field adds a sense of confidence that can’t be coached.
How could I actually go through and mention this without talking about what else this game birthed? The Moonshine Throwdown. Our friends @MoonshineTD on Twitter have done an unbelievable job at turning this into one of the top rivalries in the entire conference. This bad blood, too, helped spark the rise to greatness that WKU had in the coming years.
It might have been the year after, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t link the hype video for the rematch at the Houch in 2015. It has loads of highlights from this 2014 game with an awesome narration. It’s been four years and I am still ready to run through a brick wall when I watch it.
Devin Stewart- The Hiring of Bobby Petrino
Of all the things that may have been memorable during the 2010s, the hiring of Bobby Petrino led to the catalyst that elevated WKU to two conference titles and (with some exception) the success that WKU football has seen.
When Willie Taggart went to get his metaphorical cigarettes and never came back. AD Todd Stewart reached in his back pocket and made a few phone calls and called the then (and now) damaged Bobby Petrino. At the time, it was a controversial hire due to Bobby having been fired from Arkansas. After a motorcycle wreck revealed an affair, Arkansas’s AD, Jeff Long, suspended and then fired Petrino.
On December 10, 2012, WKU called. The contract guaranteed WKU would make money with the contract. The Buy-out on his contract was $1.2 million, making his contract a win-win for WKU and an opportunity for Petrino to do his “community service”.
With the hiring of Bobby Petrino, he “cleaned house” and brought in a completely new staff. With the hiring, Bobby hired Jeff Brohm to “assistant head coach and Offensive coordinator”. Brohm came from UAB where he would be taking a pay cut in order to take the WKU job. He may have known or sensed the fact that Bobby Petrino was going to leave within one season. It would set Jeff up to become the next head coach for WKU.
For those of you who think Bobby Petrino was a “stone-cold A-Hole” ( you’re not wrong) but let’s just say WKU/ Todd Stewart hires someone else and this person fails miserably. Does WKU recover and win both Conference titles? Who knows.
The only thing Bobby Petrino had to do was continue the winning that Willie Taggart had started. This was the last year WKU would be in the Sun Belt with the Brohm era beginning in Conference USA. He had the weapons with Brandon Doughty and Antonio Andrews. He had the best manager with Matt McCay. (Check out the podcast with Matt McCay and Casey Tinius link below). He led WKU over UK, Navy, and several other Sun Belt teams. WKU finished the season in second place in the conference.
At the end of the season, Bobby got called by Louisville and went to coach there. No one mourned his leaving, most cheered, and with that Jeff Brohm took the helm. The rest is history.
RedOUT interview: Casey Tinius
The Towelrack and RedOUT are at it again, bringing you Hilltopper news, and in this summer episode, Matt McCay sits…www.podbean.com
We’re just halfway through our favorite moments, tune back tomorrow for more trips down memory lane from an eventful decade.