WKU Football: Talkin’ The Moonshine Throwdown With, Well, Moonshine Throwdown
It’s Moonshine Throwdown Week, the all of a sudden hottest rivalry on the block in Conference USA, and boy howdy do we have a treat for…
It’s Moonshine Throwdown Week, the all of a sudden hottest rivalry on the block in Conference USA, and boy howdy do we have a treat for you.
The man who helped start it all, KD, was kind enough to allow us to bug him for some questions regarding the start of the Moonshine Throwdown, the respective seasons for the Tops and the Herd and more.
Hope you all enjoy.
The Towel Rack: I remember the first days of Moonshine’s twitter account and thinking to myself “who are these guys?” You have now blossomed into one of the primer voices in not just the WKU and Marshall internet circles, but all of the Conference. How did this whole thing start, and when did you go from “RT for this guy, fav for this guy” to being the mammoth we all know you as now?
Moonshine Throwdown: I’m pretty sure you were the very first person to interact with me with a reply. You asked something like “Which side of this rivalry are you a fan of?” To which I replied “We’re a fan of this matchup.” Thus, @MoonshineTD was off and running. To answer your question though, all of the growth has been through constant interaction, and building relationships with players, coaches, fans, other CUSA twitter circles and giving honest (sometimes unpopular) information and opinions, and always pushing this rivalry forward. We still run our polls from time to time, especially since its Moonshine Throwdown Week. It helps to keep everyone involved and looking forward to the game.
TTR: I’ve quietly thought to myself more than once this season that this year feels kind of like what Marshall went through last year — am I making something out of nothing or do you see similar parallels?
MSTD: There are some parallels, but WKU’s season is nothing like what Herd fans endured in 2016. The Tops have been competitive in every game, with chances to win each one. Marshall gave up so much yardage in 2016, it continually kept The Herd offense behind the 8-ball. There have been obvious setbacks, but overall the word “disappointing” doesn’t come to mind when thinking of WKU’s 2017 season. They have already won five games and have a great shot to go on a run to get to eight wins, then make and win a bowl game, That’s something Marshall wasn’t gonna get in 2016.
TTR: All offseason you were trying to get WKU fans to pump the brakes a bit on the Tops and, as it turned out, we should have been listening to you. What did you see this offseason and what have you seen this year to explain why WKU is where they are?
MSTD: Despite catching constant grief from the Topper faithful, I was confident in my thought process regarding WKU in 2017. It seemed so obvious, but I get it, you want to hype your team and hope they’ll continue to dominate. Here is what I saw: WKU had a whole new coaching staff taking over, lost a ton of all-timers like Taywan Taylor, Nick Norris & Forrest Lamp along with guys like Max Halpin, Branden Leston & Ace Wales, among others graduating. There was simply too much talent to try to replace all at once. There were a lot of talented players returning, but it was just too much change to make me think another 10 or 11 win season was on the horizon.
To explain why WKU sits at five wins in 2017 is also pretty easy. A lot has to do with what led to Marshall’s demise in 2016 — the injury bug. WKU has been decimated all over the place with injury. That’s hard for any G5 to overcome if the bug hits too hard. Mike Sanford also tried to force a run game that was not a strength for WKU for roughly half of the season. You see the results. Once the playbook went a bit more pass heavy and the talent of Mike White was better utilized, the scoring increased. But perhaps the biggest problem this season has been the lack-luster play of the WKU offense line. WKU leads CUSA in sacks allowed and holes haven’t been there for the run game. Often you live and die by O-line play. It was a strength in 2016, it isn’t in 2017.
TTR: Alright, lets talk some Herd — this bounceback from Marshall has been insane. What’s going well for them.
MSTD: Marshall is benefitting from a number of things. They have stayed relatively healthy all season, that’s a big deal. The Herd has some guys eligible in 2017 that had to sit in 2016 due to transfer or other rules, namely WR Tyre Brady, RB Tyler King, LB Juwon Young & LB Jaquan Yulee. The Herd probably has the deepest linebacking corp in CUSA, if not the entire G5. Marshall has seen guys emerge really out of nowhere. Safety Malik Gant is a prime example. He’s a redshirt freshman that began as a walk-on, and is among the best players on The Herd defense. Marshall has more playmakers on offense this season too. But the biggest reason for the turn-around is the maturity of the team as a whole. In 2016 there were leadership issues, attitudes flaring and fingers pointing. It showed on and off the field. In the off-season The Herd made a commitment to “team.” You can see it, they’ve adopted the mantra “I Am Because We Are.” They play better, they hold each other accountable, and there’s more accepting of mistakes than blaming of others going on.
TTR: What are the matchups that Marshall has a clear advantage over WKU in?
MSTD: The clear advantage for Marshall is The Herd OL vs. the WKU defensive front. Marshall is excellent at keeping Chase Litton upright and opening holes in the run game. WKU doesn’t get that many sacks, and have been gashed a lot on the ground. While I don’t think its a clear advantage, the opposite is true regarding the Topper OL. They give up a lot of sacks and don’t run block very well. Marshall’s DL & LBs are super athletic and speedy. Moving 6'7" Ryan Bee from DE to DL has been a stellar decision. LB Chase Hancock is just a flat stud, he should be First Team All-CUSA at season’s end. Mike White will be under duress much of the day if the WKU OL doesn’t find a way to slow the Herd Pass Rush.
TTR: Let’s spin that around — in what ways do WKU have a matchup advantage over Marshall?
MSTD: WKU’s advantage is at WR/TE. They have an unreal amount of play makers in the receiving corps. Marshall has a talented secondary, but having to cover seven or eight offense of weapons at once is a tall task for any defense. If WKU will spread out the offense and spread around the passing, they have more than a legit shot to win on Saturday.
TTR: It’s prediction time. Who you got?
MSTD: Even though there was no home-field advantage for Marshall in 2016, I think there will be a huge advantage for the herd this season. Marshall will be playing WKU on Sacred Saturday, which is the game in which Marshall honors the 1970 plane crash victims. Marshall is historically nearly unbeatable in those games. Something just seems to propel them to another level. I also think many Marshall players have a huge chip on their shoulders after the 60–6 defeat at home last season at the hands of WKU. When you couple that with WKU’s inability to run the ball effectively and keep pressure off of Mike White, I think Marshall wins 34–24 to raise The Big Mason Jar in the Moonshine Throwdown.
TTR: Anything you want to say to the WKU faithful?
MSTD: First things first, thank you to everyone that has helped us build this rivalry, that has helped us grow, that interacts with us, we really love it and appreciate you. Without the fans, without the support, there is no rivalry.
If you like what we do on Twitter and want more, then I invite you to subscribe to The Shiner Sitdown podcast. Each week we try our best to wrap up the previous game, preview the upcoming game and have a lot of fun along the way.
As far as WKU football goes: Keep the faith in your team. Keep the faith in your coaching staff. I realize that you’ve been blessed with a lot of lopsided wins, conference championships and bowl wins, but coaching transitions generally mean rebuilding, and that’s what we’re seeing with Western Kentucky this season. Stick with your team. Be at every home game. Wear red. Be loud. The players see that. It has an impact.
You guys know we were built around fan interaction and that holds true every day, so if your readers want to see us bring something new to the podcast or to the Twitter account then they should always tweet us. We are always looking for ways to push this rivalry forward, to build it, & to grow it into not just one of CUSA’s best rivalries but one of the best in the entire G5, and college football as a whole
I’d like to thank KD once again for taking time out to answer our questions, and for his (and MSTD’s) continued support of ours as a site since we’ve started. I know you already do, but if you for some reason don’t give the Throwdown a follow on Twitter.