WKU Football: Tops Complete Louisville Media Tour And Kickoff Party
From sunrise to sunset, WKU football was showcased in Louisville on Thursday.
From sunrise to sunset, WKU football was showcased in Louisville on Thursday.
Head Coach Mike Sanford, cornerback Joe Brown and offensive tackle Matt Nord continued the tradition that Jeff Brohm started a few years ago of touring the local media and kicking off their season in the Commonwealth’s largest city. All three of them interviewed with WDRB, Great Day Live, The Courier Journal, WAVE 3, WLKY, Spectrum Sports and ESPN 680.
After a long day of interviews, they finished up at the Greater Louisville Alumni Association Kickoff Party at Buffalo Wild Wings in front of a full house of WKU Alumni and fans.
Local WDRB Meteorologist and WKU alumni/hypeman Jude Redfield emceed the event.
Redfield recalled where WKU was when he went to school there between 1995–99. He said that he couldn’t dream about how far they have come and ran down the schedule game by game.
He introduced the Louisville area players and then continued with Head Coach Mike Sanford. Sanford praised the local alumni contingent, saying that they have to have a whole different energy in order to deal with Kentucky and Louisville fans, he then led a T-O-P-S chant. He stated his desire to turn I-65 South into the new Big Red Way.
After that, Sanford stressed how important the opening game with EKU is and brought up two football alums to share their thoughts on importance of the rivalry.
Sanford then ran quickly ran through the various position groups before taking questions. Here are the quick tidbits we gathered from the Q&A:
Leon Allen has to graduate by the start of the fall semester to be eligible this season, with the NCAA awarding him an extra season that is required. Sanford said he’s working hard to get back.
When asked about Arkansas State grad transfer, Cameron Echols-Luper, he said he couldn’t comment until he was officially a part of the roster.
The real fun news that came out of the event was actually from a question that we asked. After hearing all day that a New Year’s Six bowl was the grand goal of the program, I asked Sanford if he would do something similar to former Houston coach Tom Herman (he got a grill) to motivate his team towards a Power Six Bowl game. He said the goal was to win the bowl and claimed he would do the following:
This is something the entire fan base should rally around this season. I spoke to senior offensive lineman, Matt Nord about it — he didn’t hear Sanford say that initially but said he’d follow his coach and get a tattoo if the team achieves that goal. He said that is what Sanford has harped on this entire off-season and said he and Jimmie Sims are ready to step up for departed offensive tackles Forrest Lamp and Darrell Williams, while the younger guys are ready to compete for spots that have been blocked for the past few years.
I also interviewed senior safety, Juwan Gardner.
Overall, it was a great day to be a Hilltopper in Louisville. The city is the second-largest contingent of WKU alumni with over 12,000 strong. I hope this tradition continues for years to come.
Here’s some quick links of WKU’s media appearances yesterday:
What do you think of WKU’s Louisville tour? Will WKU be undefeated long enough for the tattoo to become a talking point? Let us know in a comment below, via twitter at @TheTowelRackWKU or on our Facebook page.