WKU Football: What I Think I Think Ahead of the Season Opener Against Austin Peay

It's hard to know how to feel about a team before they've taken the field for the first time, but lets see what our gut is telling us ahead of WKU's Week 0 matchup with Austin Peay.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have made it. We are officially in “game week” mode for the Hilltoppers, who will look to make a return to the Conference USA title game in maybe the most difficult set of circumstances of the Tyson Helton era.

Austin Peay is the first squad up for the Tops, and it’s maybe the best possible opening opponent for a team trying to break in a new quarterback, much in the same way UT-Martin was the perfect first opponent for Bailey Zappe to dip his toe into playing in the chrome dome.

We’ll have preview content all week long, this week and every week during the season, but to start each week, we’re going to measure how we’re feeling about the upcoming matchup based almost purely on gut feel.

So, welcome to Week 0’s Things I Think I Think.

I think…

• I think WKU’s offense isn’t going to see a tremendous drop-off from last season. I know, it sounds crazy. But if everything we’re hearing about Austin Reed as a quarterback comes to fruition in actual game time, I don’t think another year where WKU is averaging over 400 yards through the air is out of the question.

• I think we’re underrating the impact WKU’s running game will have this year. Towards the end of the year last season, Noah Wittington and Kye Robichaux were looking like they’d be a dangerous 1-2 punch in ‘22. Since then, Wittington has departed for Oregon, but Robichaux is back, as is Jakairi Moses. WKU hasn’t had a 1,000-yard rusher since 2019 and I don’t think it’s out of the question that changes this year.

• I think the defense will be better. Full stop. In their first four games against FBS competition last season, the Hilltoppers allowed 42.6 points per game, spotting the opposing team a double-digit lead. Starting with the win at Old Dominion (WKU’s first FBS-level win of last season), the Tops didn’t allow more than 21 points throughout the rest of the season, until they fell into old habits in the C-USA title game in San Antonio, trailing by as many as 29 points in the third quarter against the Runners. I cannot for the life of me seeing the defense start the year as poorly for a second-straight season.

• I think it’s a three-team race for the two spots in the Conference USA Championship Game. With Marshall having left for the Sun Belt (with all-due respect to ODU and Southern Miss, but they weren’t going to factor much into this season), WKU, UTSA and UAB are the three teams to beat atop the league this season. With no divisions for 2022, the Hilltoppers won’t be able to ride what will most likely be a fairly uncompetitive Eastern division and let UTSA and UAB beat each other up for the West crown. The schedule is manageable - the stretch from Oct. 8-21 where WKU gets UTSA, MTSU and UAB consecutively could determine the Tops’ title game hopes, while early statement wins against Hawaii and Indiana could set the tone for the remainder of the year.

It’s nice to get into the football thinking mode again, as we have (hopefully) five months of fun ahead of us for the Chrome Domes.