Throwback Thursday: WKU Snaps Home Skid, Defeats ULL, Sparks Current Run

Regardless of your history with WKU athletics, if you were a Hilltopper fan during the 2011 football season, it’s a special year for you.

Regardless of your history with WKU athletics, if you were a Hilltopper fan during the 2011 football season, it’s a special year for you.

For me, personally, it’s the first season I experienced in any capacity. It was my freshman year, I was steeping myself into the history and experience of Western Kentucky and, at that time, part of that was learning how to lose on the football field.

Upper classmen kept trying to tell me how, regardless of how things are looking, it wont happen. The team was for whatever reason doomed.

I learned that first-hand to open the month of October, when the Tops dropped a four-point decision to Arkansas State, and got screwed out of a late-game first-down review. All seemed lost.

But then, the Tops went to Murfreesboro and beat the Raiders on ESPNU in two overtimes. Then, they went to FAU and blanked the Owls.

A two game winning streak, the team’s third at the FBS level and first since entering the Sun Belt. And then, the Tops returned home to really show what they could do.

Louisiana-Lafayette came into town and the Tops were about to show the world what they were ready to become.

In a game the Hilltoppers never trailed, they defeated the Cajuns decisively, 42–23, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Bobby Rainey rushed for 206 yards on 32 attempts, scoring thirce, and Kawaun Jakes — yes, Kawaun Jakes — completed 15 of 18 passes for 242 yards with a touchdown. Oh, and some bloke named Jack Doyle hauled in 106 passes on just seven catches.

While this game is special in and of itself, it’s extra special for me — and those who attended WKU at the time — because RUSH THE FIELD!

Yes, I rushed the field, and it’s something I’ll never forget.

After that point, the Tops won four of their last five games — as part of a greater stretch of winning seven of their final eight contests — before being snubbed for a bowl game, a move that garnered attention from national outlets.

Who’s to say when the turning point for the football program really was — the OT win against MTSU, the road shutout of FAU or the home victory to snap the losing streak — but it’s hard to argue how important it was to finally, finally, win a game at home as a member of the Sun Belt. (Remember, just four weeks prior, the Tops lost to FCS Indiana State on the same field.)

Since that victory, the momentum really hasn’t slowed down. As WKU ushers in their fourth head coach since this game in a month, it’s fun to remember where we’ve come from to help us further appreciate where we are.