Red Towel Roundtable: Most Memorable Moments From the 2022/23 Athletic Season
Before we look full-steam ahead for the seasons to come, we take one final look back at the year that was for the Hilltoppers, both good and bad.
We are at the halfway point in the month of June, which means in 15 days, the beginning of the 2023/24 athletic seasons officially begin.
In 15 days, we’ll say “see ya” to the likes of UTSA, Charlotte, FAU and others as we welcome in Liberty, Jacksonville State, Sam Houston State and New Mexico State into Conference USA.
We’ll also start truly turning the page and focusing our efforts on looking at what lies ahead for WKU in the 2023/24 athletics season (something we’ve already kind of done with our basketball coverage as the excitement continues to build ahead of the first year of the Steve Lutz era).
But, before we do all that, today we’re taking one last look back at the year that was for the Hilltoppers. I asked the rest of the staff to think about what their most memorable moment from the 2022/23 athletic year was.
Fletcher Keel - WKU’s 73-point demolishing over FIU
Let’s hop back in the time machine: It’s the last weekend of September and the Hilltoppers are a blown second-half lead away from a 3-0 start, with the program’s first-ever win against a Big 10 team, in their back pocket. They roll into Smith Stadium, the second home game of the season, and they’re mad. Angry, even. And standing in their way? An FIU team that doesn’t know what’s about to hit them.
The ensuing game is a 73-0 throttling, not only the biggest win in WKU history but the worse loss in FIU history. Austin Reed threw for 381 yards in two and a half quarters, a total he’d only surpass on four occasions in four (sometimes more) quarters of football and in many ways cemented Reed and the Hilltoppers’ offense as the real deal.
While that momentum didn’t necessarily carry over the rest of the season - what quickly felt like would be a fast-track to the conference title game turned into a stretch where the Tops failed to score 30 or more points in four of their next five games - it did establish what the Hilltoppers offense was capable of and what we ultimately saw in the final three conference games + the bowl game vs. South Alabama, when the Tops scored at least 44 points in three of those four contests.
Matt McCay - Greg Collins Takes a Bunch of Youngsters and Nearly Makes the Big Dance
The Lady Toppers deserve some love here. I know no one else will pick this subject, unless they do it just to spite me! But the Lady Toppers have, frankly, disappointed under Greg Collins’ tutelage. He took over a thriving program about to break through on the national stage and is yet to make an NCAA Tournament.
He has always generally shown that he knows what he’s doing in the X’s and O’s department, but he has not necessarily excelled getting players, especially women over 6-feet tall, to show up on The Hill.
This past season, WKU was incredibly small, incredibly young, and incredibly inconsistent shooting the basketball. However, despite all of that, WKU was one win away from dancing and actually backed up the championship appearance with an incredible performance in the WNIT.
At Kansas, the Lady Tops held a lead for most of the game before the eventual champion Jayhawks pulled away late, winning by double digits.
But the job he did, to start out 3-6 and looking awful to nearly winning 20 games and finishing second in a quality league, was nothing short of magnificent.
Alex Sherfield - Demolishing South Alabama in the New Orleans Bowl
My favorite moment of the 2022/23 WKU sports year is the Tops winning the New Orleans Bowl in massive fashion. After a challenging season of growing pains & embattled Power 5 losses to Indiana & Auburn, the Tops were able to close out the season on the national stage. Prior to their contest with Sun Belt representative South Alabama, they were among the nation’s best in terms of passing and total offense per game.
Buoyed by a monster record-breaking performance by quarterback Austin Reed, the Tops blew past the Jaguars 44-23, which included one of the most dominant passing attacks we’ve seen from Reed to date. With three touchdown passes in the first half alone, Reed propelled himself with ease to the no-doubt MVP of the game.
The Hilltopper offense arrived into the game averaging 339 yards per contest, but they reached 355 yards at halftime alone, bringing a 31-3 lead with them. Joey Beljan, Dalvin Smith (including a passing touchdown of his own), Jaylen Hall, & Malachi Corley (TWICE) scored five touchdowns for the impressive wide receivers corps in what was a swan song for some (Beljan, Hall) and a preview of what’s to come for others (Smith, Corley).
By the end of the game, Reed threw for 497 yards and four touchdowns, breaking the single-game passing record in New Orleans Bowl history. Even with the impending C-USA conference realignment, all eyes are set to be on WKU moving forward, especially with Reed returning and being ranked among an extensive list of highly touted quarterback prospects for 2023.
Jake Gary - Rick Stansbury Resigns as Head Men’s Basketball Coach
This past year for the Hilltoppers was filled with a lot of ups, as have been documented above.
Sadly, despite all of those amazing things happening on the Hill, the most memorable moment of the season comes in the form of a down. My most memorable moment is Rick Stansbury’s resignation as head coach of the men’s basketball team.
His tenure was filled with excitement and potential, but over time, it just never worked.
Stansbury’s exit from the program, and the fan base’s split on the action, was definitely the most memorable part of the athletic season., with some faction of WKU fans being more engaged after his leaving than they had in quite some time.
Devin Stewart - Austin Reed Stays on the Hill
The most memorable, and important thing, for me from the past athletic season would be the return of Hilltopper quarterback Austin Reed.
Reed had an amazing year, and it can only go up from here. Can you imagine having Bailey Zappe for an extra year? Ty Storey? Or even Brandon Doughty for a 15th season? We’ve still got the portal master as head coach; we’ve lost some players (here’s our handy dandy roster tracker for you to see who) but hopefully Tyson Helton will be able to pull in some more talent to fill the holes left behind.
So here’s hoping to a great season for football and a not-as-painful rebuilding season for basketball.
What was your most memorable moment from the 2022/23 season? Let us know below.