WKU Football: Remembering the 2010 Victory Over Louisiana-Lafayette, The Turning Point For…
Entering the 2019 season, WKU Football is at a critical juncture for the program. After seven straight seasons of bowl eligibility…
Entering the 2019 season, WKU Football is at a critical juncture for the program. After seven straight seasons of bowl eligibility (2011–2017) that included back to back Conference USA Championships, the program has found itself in its worst position since the winless season of 2009 during the FBS transition. While a 3–9 down season doesn’t compare to 26 straight losses, the program still must overcome a malaise that took over in the two years of the Sanford era.
With the season still 70 days away it is fun to explore pivotal wins over the last decade. With the program in a similar position that it was a decade ago, we’ll explore the 2010 victory over Louisiana Lafayette, a game that not only ended the long losing streak but changed the direction for the fledgling Hilltopper program. Here are the first-hand accounts from two members of the program, they’ll tell you what happened on October 10th, 2010 in Lafayette, Louisiana and why it was so important for the WKU program.
Devin Stewart- Student Trainer (2006–2011)
Like all football fans counting down the days till the season starts, I sit and reminisce about the good old days. In particular, my “good ole days” were between fall 2006 to fall 2011.
It was a crazy time to be with WKU Football. WKU had already decided to transition from FCS to FBS and WKU was in the fourth year of the Head coach David Elson. Fast forward a year (2007) and Coach Elson has gone 7–5 against a watered down FBS schedule; he receives a contract extension from the University and everything was going great. Or so we thought.
Enter the 26-game losing streak. One of the hardest parts of my job was to watch WKU get beat down week after week. It’s easy to work with a team that wins, but its the losses that teach you who you can depend on. Week after week the coaches would try and implement game plans that failed. It was disheartening to watch the struggle.
Matt McCay- Student Equipment Manager (2009–2014)
Sure, it was the time of my life. I was living the dream, working for the Tops after following them faithfully, even when we lived in Nashville and had to listen to the (then free) radio broadcast over the Internet. We followed them to Chattanooga in 2002 for the Division 1-AA National Championship Game.
We are Tops through and through.
For WKU Football, 2009 was absolutely brutal. After showing some promise in the first two years of the FBS transition, Western took a huge step backwards. Being on the sideline and in the locker room for that was brutal.
Devin
Finally, November 9, 2009, WKU fired Coach Elson who had gone 1–23 against FBS schools. Morale for the team was at an all-time low. Then the whispers began.
Matt
No one likes to lose, and losing every game in 2009 was just miserable, especially after losing the last three by a single possession. Regardless of the team’s improvement at the end of the season, Coach Elson was already fired with three games left, and Hilltopper legend Willie Taggart officially took over as head coach immediately following the loss on December 3, 2009, to Arkansas State, 24–20.
Devin
Who’s the next coach? Willie T? Willie is coming back to the Hill?
Coach Taggart was hired as the next head coach on November 23, 2009, and with a new head coach comes a new mentality. The old regime was gone and was Taggart was going to get Western back to winning. WKU was in his DNA. The mood of the team had changed 180 degrees. At best, the excitement and focus were teetering at the end of Elson’s tenure. The guys were excited that things were going to change with Taggart.
But the change was slow. WKU would struggle in 2010.
Matt
After this point, WKU had lost 20 games in a row. That’s right. Heading into the 2010 season, we were 20 losses deep. It would take us six more games to get into the W column, when we traveled to Louisiana-Lafayette and trounced the Cajuns 54–21.
Prior to that historic win, we had put up decent performances (but ultimately got trounced) at Nebraska and at Kentucky.
Fun side note: I had mono the week of the Kentucky game. Didn’t miss a practice and didn’t infect anyone. You’re welcome, Tops.
After the UK game, we came home to play Indiana, again ultimately getting beat by three possessions, but this game was actually much closer than that.
Another side note: Apparently I was seen on the team’s video session running down the sideline as Bobby Rainey busted a big play. Coach Sanford was the quarterback coach at the time, and he steps up in his surfer boy accent and says, “That’s my dude, Mono Matt!”
A testament to how freaking awesome Willie T was, he allowed me to give the team the “Wise Words of the Day”, which I royally screwed up, went blank, and said “uhh” about a thousand times and screamed, “LET’S GO TOPS!” at the end. Appreciate how rare a head coach would first notice an equipment manager and then allow that person to speak in front of the team as an equal.
Willie=THE MAN.
After Indiana, the Tops went to (a pretty good) USF and hung with the Bulls in a loss at Raymond James 24–12. Here’s where we started to believe a little bit. At 0–4, it was still early enough that we knew we just had to make something happen in the conference season. However, each of those games was extremely encouraging.
Anyone who’s ever been on or part of a high-level team knows exactly what this is like: Conference time came around, and it was a brand new season. Here we go, Tops! Let’s go win conference. Things are different this year.
A close loss to FIU.
An even closer loss to ULM.
So now the Tops stand at 0–6 (0–2 in the Sun Belt), and reality is sinking in here a little bit. We’re not winning the conference. We’re very unlikely to make a bowl game. We just played FIU (T.Y. Hilton was on that team), who ended up sharing the conference title with Troy, but ultimately ended up losing by a touchdown.
ULM was a pretty good team that year (for ULM), nearly making a bowl game at 5–7.
It’s interesting, looking back at it. Lafayette was actually supposed to be a loss. They were picked in the top half of the league (with one first-place vote), and they were 2–2 in the conference heading into this game. I really, sincerely don’t think anyone in the program went in thinking, “This is the game we break the streak.”
Devin
Game Day. October 23, 2010. Lafayette, LA.
For those of you who have never been to the “The Swamp” where Lafayette plays. Their stadium is literally two feet below sea level, so I call it the “Pit”. With the stadium being below sea level, it provides more humidity for the athletes and can cause more cramps and other heat-related illnesses. Since I worked with the support staff, we were taken to the field four hours prior to kick off. So we prepared water, set up the training room, etc. After we were finished we have treated with authentic Cajun gumbo thanks to the support staff at ULL who were extremely hospitable to us. This is when I completely fell in love with gumbo.
Matt
I COMPLETELY AGREE that that gumbo was unbelievable. I still talk about it! I don’t even like corn or okra and whatever Cajun secret sauce they put in there, my lord it was THE best thing I ever tasted.
Devin
A couple of hours before the game the players arrive. Complete focus. It’s time to end the 26-game losing streak and get the “monkey off our backs”. We were tired of losing, the ridicule, and the shame that came with a 26-game losing streak.
Matt
All I can say about the game (somewhat sarcastically) is it was the Lord's will. It was a game of destiny. WKU led 3–0 after one quarter but held the ball for over 11 minutes of the first 15. Honestly, after a quarter, it looked like we had just played a perfect quarter and came out of it with only a 3–0 lead. Not good.
Perhaps the first quarter wore down the Cajuns because the second quarter proved to snap most of the elastic.
Devin
The biggest spark that ignited the guys was a defensive play, when Quanterus Smith sacked Lafayette quarterback Chris Masson; he fumbles and WKU defensive tackle Jamarcus Allen recovers and runs it back 69 yards for a TD.
Matt
That play was one of the most comical, slow frickin’ motion returns in the history of the world, returned it for 69 excruciating yards for a touchdown. The entire sideline basically pointed and laughed. And celebrated. Oh dear God, we’re up ten! Stay calm.
After going up 10–0, Lafayette would fire straight back, cutting it to 10–7. Then the Tops would use fluke play after fluke play to blow the thing open before halftime. Well, the first of these was not a fluke. It was just Taggart ball. In a 15 play, 8:33 long drive, the Tops slogged down the field to take back our double-digit lead.
The Topper defense forced a three-and-out. ULL fumbles the snap and ends up falling just short of the line to gain on what was originally supposed to be a punt attempt. The Tops took over with a shade over two minutes left and score within a few seconds on a two play, 24-yard drive. That was Antonio Andrews’ first career touchdown.
So if you’re keeping track, it’s now 24–7 with 1:48 to go. Keep in mind we haven’t won in 26 games. Imagine the excitement! ULL drives the ball down the field, has a false start, and comes up short on a pass to its All-American tight end. The Tops get the ball back with 38 seconds, and Kawaun Jakes and company march down to the ULL 30 yard line, and (insert fluke here) Casey Tinius bangs home a career-long 47-yard field goal.
So the Tops went from 3–0 to up 27–7 in 15 minutes, getting (by my count) five flukes in a row to help us to our largest halftime lead in a long, long time.
Part of my responsibilities that year was to go in during halftime, provide things the players needed, and come back out with them, as well. What I witnessed during the halftime break was very interesting. Of course, leaders were calling for us to finish and all of that, but the locker room was much calmer than you would expect it to be from a team that hadn’t won in 26 games. Strangely calm.
The Tops came out of the locker room, and everyone was acting weird. All of the managers and trainers are kind of side whispering, “Is this really happening? How are we going to screw this up?” Probably the players, too. Any mention of winning or losing is quickly shushed as if we are about to jinx ourselves.
It’s amazing. We were up 20, and no one believed it was a done deal. We refused to believe we could actually win a game until it was literally out of reach. Perhaps that explains the second half.
ULL came out and cut the lead to two possessions, marching fairly easily down the field to cut it to 27–14. In fluke play number six, Demetrius Coley catches a three-yard fullback out for a 31 yard gain in his first career reception to bring the ball to the one-yard line. Jakes sneaks the ball in, and the Tops miss the extra point.
Oh lord. Here we go. Finding ways to screw it up again.
(Fluke #7) Jakes and Coley connect again, this time for 43 yards, and this time, ole Coley found his way into the end zone with 1:14 left in the third. Here is where the emotion started to invade. I mean…Tops are up 40–14 with 17 minutes left.
Full disclosure: I’m a happy crier. I cried at my wedding, I cried when Ty Rogers hit “The Shot”, I cried when Western won its first bowl game, I cried when I saw the basketball team win championships, I cried when I got saved, etc. You get the picture. So the tears start welling up, but hey we need to be calm. This is still not over. Cool your jets, bro. Focus.
(Fluke #8) Early in the fourth, Derrius “D’Roc” Brooks picked off an errant pass in the flat and ran like a dadgum deer down the sideline. Alright, Tops now I’m for real thinking this is going to happen! Tears are coming, my abs are shaking, and I’m trying to keep myself together. Man, it’s nearly uncontrollable.
Keep it together.
But now, we’re starting to celebrate a little bit. Still kinda cautious, but when Antonio Andrews (Fluke #9) ran for his second rushing score of the game, we were up 40. There’s no way on earth the Tops could blow that lead, and man I lost it.
I had my Red Towel and wiping tears. Mark Harris and I jumped up and down. managers and trainers pointed and laughed. Willie himself (right near the end) is celebrating with everyone, and he looks back and says, “Matt, you cryin’?”
Then senior offensive lineman Myke Patterson (pictured at the top) goes, “Aww Matt come here, buddy,” and full on open arm hugs me, to which I regrettably melted into his chest and open mouth sobbed and drooled and left a wet spot into his already sweat-stained chest.
Sadly, there’s video evidence out there somewhere on Facebook. Myke is slightly taller than me at like 6'3" or so, and I just looked like I was about 5'2" on that video.
It was an ugly win on my behalf, but frankly one of the best moments of my life.
Devin
It really wasn’t a close game, but what made it really exciting was the satisfaction that “we can actually do it”. If you watch the highlight video to the end you get to see the guys celebrating. It was just a midseason win against a mediocre opponent. But the way the guys celebrated was like it was a championship.
Matt
The Tops snapped a streak of 26 straight losses, and I snapped my streak of 18 straight dignified responses as an equipment manager. The times were so desperate, though. I would (and did) trade my dignity for a win every day of the week.
Devin
This game was a pivotal point for WKU Football. Before this game, the only FBS opponent we had beaten was MTSU (during the transition years), and they crushed us the year before (62–24). WKU would go on to win only one more game during the 2010 season (Arkansas State).
But it helped open the door for a 7–5 year in 2011, and a bowl game in 2012. Without those milestones in WKU Football, would we have Coach Petrino? who led us to Coach Brohm and two C-USA Championships?
This game was a true turning point, and one I was glad to be on the sidelines for.