WKU Football: Reliving WKU’s Previous Games Against Big Ten Teams
On Saturday, the Hilltoppers travel to Champaign, Illinois trying to break their 0–6 mark against Big Ten teams. As of Wednesday night, the…
On Saturday, the Hilltoppers travel to Champaign, Illinois trying to break their 0–6 mark against Big Ten teams. As of Wednesday night, the Hilltoppers are eight point favorites over the Illini. Should they Raise the W, they will make history.
Today, we explore those six losses and see if we can find any takeaways from their previous attempts to knock off the midwest’s top league.
2001: Wisconsin, 24–6
Way back in 2001, six years before the Hilltoppers started their transition to FBS, Jack Harbaugh led the Hilltoppers to Madison for a paycheck game during the first month of the season. In a game that was originally suspended due to 9/11, the Tops played the Badgers tough throughout, trailing by a respectable 17–6 score at the half. The defense played Wisconsin tough throughout, picking off future Indianapolis Colt Jim Sorgi twice. The Tops ran the triple option back then and were stifled for 115 yards rushing and just 28 yards passing on just one completion. Never the less, the Tops held their own in a very respectable 24–6 defeat.
Future National Champion Jason Michael wrote this about the game in his Red Towel Diary
I wish we could have taken greater advantage of some opportunities we had. Our defense played really well and we limited our mistakes, but we failed to make enough big plays to pull off the upset. I am still proud of our efforts. There are no moral victories and a loss is still a loss. We must learn from our mistakes and continue to work hard to realize our goals of a conference championship and another playoff run. I feel confident that we can do just that.
Years later, Land of 10 ranked the 2001 game, Wisconsin’s 6th most competitive game against a FCS squad (out of 12).
Wisconsin would go on to finish 2001 a disappointing 5–7, their only bowl-less season since 1995. WKU would rally to an 8–4 record and a spot in the 1-AA playoffs before losing to Furman. A significant part of the 2001 team came back next season and lead WKU to the 2002 1-AA National Championship.
The Tops will travel to Madison again for the 2018 season opener.
2008: Indiana, 31–13
By 2008, the Hilltoppers were in their second FBS transition season. The Hilltoppers played four Power 5 opponents that year to raise revenue for the transition. They opened up with a trip to Bloomington against a team coming off their first bowl season since the 90’s. WKU did some nice things with KJ Black having a solid day, passing for 219 yards and a touchdown on while completng 19 of 31 attempts. The Tops also picked off starting quarterback Kellen Lewis but those were the highlights of the day as IU outgained WKU 450-282 and forced WKU to punt seven times on the day. Overall the 31–13 final was slightly better than expected given the circumstances.
Indiana would go on to take a major step back in 2008, finishing just 3–9, the first of eight straight losing season in Bloomington. WKU would finish just 2–10 in their second FBS transition season that would go on to be head coach David Elson’s second-to-last season on the Hill.
2010: Nebraska, 49–10
By 2010, the Tops had moved on from Elson and turned to a Hilltopper legend to turnaround the fledgling program. Willie Taggart took a program on a 20 game losing streak into a hostile crowd of 85,555 fans for his head coaching debut. The result was predictable. The #8 Cornhuskers quickly jumped to a 21–0 halftime lead. They out gained WKU 536-299 in total yards. The lone bright spot on the day for WKU was Bobby Rainey. The Hilltoppers’ all-time leading rusher ran for 155 yards and also caught three passes for 36 yards. Rainey scored WKU’s lone touchdown as well. This was WKU’s most lopsided game against a current Big Ten team with the final margin finishing at 49–10.
Nebraska would go on to have a good season, making it to the Big 12 title game (the Huskers joined the Big Ten in 2011) before losing that game to Oklahoma and its bowl game to Washington to a finish a very Bo Pelini like 10–4. WKU would also play IU a few weeks later.
2010: Indiana, 38–21
Two weeks later, the Hilltoppers hosted the Hoosiers in their first game against a Power 5 opponent in Bowling Green. 20,772 witnessed WKU jump out to a 7–0 lead on the strength of a Rainey touchdown run. IU quickly rebounded with quarterback Ben Chappel connecting on 11 straight passes leading IU to a 17–7 half time lead. IU would score 21 more points as they quickly outclassed the Tops. Rainey did finish the day with 110 yards rushing and Kawaun Jakes threw a touchdown pass to Marquez Vazquez with 5:24 remaining making the final score a respectable 38–21.
Here is a crowd time-lapse of the game that I found on Vimeo.
IU went on to start the year 3–0 but finnished just 5–7. WKU would later snap their 26 game losing streak three games later against Lousiana-Lafayette. The Hilltoppers picked up one more win over Arkansas State to finish 2–10 in Taggart’s first season
2014: Illinois, 42–34
By 2014 WKU’s program was night and day from the previous Hilltopper squads that had competed against Big Ten teams. Taggart had turned around his alma mater prior to leaving for South Florida after a pair of sevin-win seasons. Following the successful eight-win cameo of Bobby Petrino, WKU entered their trip to Champaign riding the high of Jeff Brohm’s 59–31 debut win over Bowling Green.
What ensued was equal parts exciting and frustrating. After giving up an opening touchdown drive to Illinois, the Hilltoppers exploded for a 17–0 run over the next 15 minutes capped off by a Brandon Doughty touchdown pass to Tyler Higbee. The Tops then allowed a two touchdown swing as Wes Lunt fell into a rhythm. After a Wondeful Terry pick six and Garrett Schwettman field goal, WKU led 27–21 heading into the fourth quarter. (Ed. note — that Wonderful Terry pick six is one of my favorite football plays I’ve ever seen with my own eyes.)
Alas, the Illini depth proved too much for the Tops. After another Lunt touchdown pass gave the Illini a one point lead and Brandon Doughty threw a debilitating pick six to Taylor Barton to push the Illini margin up to eight. After tacking on one more touchdown, the game was out of reach. Doughty would throw one last touchdown to Antwane Grant with 26 seconds left to close a tough eight-point defeat.
Illinois went on to finish their season a middling 6–7, losing to Louisiana Tech in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Head coach Tim Beckman was fired the following preseason after player mistreatment accusations. WKU would go on to start the season just 3–5. Brohm would rally the troops including memorable wins over Marshall and a Bahamas Bowl survival to finish 8–5 and would use 2014 to pave the way for two consecutive Conference USA championships.
2015: Indiana, 38–35
The following season, WKU would have their closet call yet against a Big Ten opponent. WKU was riding high into Bloomington with a seven game winning streak. They did suffer a crucial loss the previous week as All-Conference running back Leon Allen tore up his knee against Louisiana Tech. Heading into the game with Ace Wales also nursing an injury, the Tops had to lean on freshman D’Andre Ferby to carry the running load.
The Hoosiers quickly jumped out to a 7–0 lead on a 91-yard punt return from Mitchell Page. After that, Doughty was at his best, leading the Tops down the field for drives of 65 and 90 yards with Ferby finishing both drives with touchdown runs. Both teams then traded scores and the Tops went confidently into the half up 28–17.
From there, the Hoosiers took control of the second half on the strength of UAB transfer Jordan Howard’s unstoppable rushing attack and two crucial Brandon Doughty interceptions, as IU scored the next 21 points in the game. The Hilltoppers did cut the lead back down to three on a Doughty to Jared Dangerfield touchdown with 5:56 left but couldn’t stop Howard and the Hoosiers as they ran out the clock ending a very frustrating 38–35 defeat.
Indiana would use that game as a springboard to their first bowl berth since 2007. The Hoosiers finished 6–7 after losing to Duke in the Pinstripe Bowl, their first of two consecutive bowl appearances. In Brohm’s second season the Hilltoppers lived up to preseason expectations claiming their Conference USA crown and capping the season off with a Miami Beach Bowl win over Taggart’s South Florida Bulls finishing a program best 12–2.
Takeaways From Seasons Past
Respectable Margins
All of these games were scheduled to be paycheck games for WKU. They were expected to provide an easy win towards bowl eligibility and help their opponents fine tune themselves before a grueling conference slate, all while collecting valuable paychecks that help fund the football program. Over the course of the six games, the Tops lost by a respectable 17.16 average margin.
When you take into consideration that four of those game came before WKU became the solid and stable program that they are today, it’s even more impressive. WKU was only significantly blown out by Nebraska, when they were a Top 10 team. When you take that game out, WKU average margin of defeat is only 12.8 point margin in those five games (plus, Nebraska was a Big 12 member anyway at the time). Despite not winning a single game, WKU has represented itself well when traveling to the Midwest.
Getting Closer Each Game
After losing margins of 18, 18 and 39 points, WKU has gotten closer each time they’ve played a Big Ten opponent. The 39-point margin shrunk down to 17 just two weeks after playing the Huskers. When the program got going, the Tops put significant scares in the Illini and Hoosiers in two games they could have easily won. Let’s hope that WKU’s minus three point margin from 2015 turns to a positive victory margin on Saturday.
Saturday’s game is the first of five upcoming games against Big Ten teams, including Wisconsin in the 2018 opener and another three game series with IU from 2019–2021 which includes a return trip to Bowling Green by the Hoosiers on September 25, 2021. With WKU’s scheduling strategy of playing regional Power 5 teams, we should expect the Tops to schedule more Big Ten teams down the road.
What do you remember from WKU’s previous games against the Big Ten? Do they break the streak in 2017? Are you excited about the Wisconsin trip next season? Let us know in a comment below, via Twitter at @TheTowelRackWKU or on our Facebook page.