WKU Notebook: What We Learned from the HAF Social

Thursday night, the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation put on its annual HAF Kickoff Social in the Harbaugh Club of Houchens Industries-L.T…

Aug 24, 2018

Thursday night, the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation put on its annual HAF Kickoff Social in the Harbaugh Club of Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium. 300 Topper donors, coaches, staff and administrators sat down to listen to select speakers from the major sports at Western Kentucky.

WKU athletics enters into its 100th season in basketball, football and baseball this academic year. Hilltopper Athletic Foundation is the fundraising arm for the Tops, and last night (in order), HAF Executive Director Matt Morrison, WKU President Tim Caboni, WKU Athletics Director Todd Stewart, head football coach Mike Sanford, Lady Topper basketball head coach Greg Collins, and men’s basketball head coach Rick Stansbury each got up and said their spiel about how excited they are for the season and yada yada.

So obviously, when you get together with a bunch of donors, there is a lot of schmoozing and hearty semi-fake laughter that goes with it. We’re going to help you see beyond that. What did I get out of it, and what is the underlying message with each of them?

Matt Morrison

Quickly, the one thing of note was he said there was some chaos within HAF when two executive directors left within a year. Larry Cash and Kyle Chapman both moved on from WKU recently. Apparently, HAF had some struggle with direction when Cash left for UK in January.
WKU will be honoring the all-century teams and celebrating the full length of WKU’s athletic history throughout 2018–19.

President Caboni

WKU Athletics is extremely important to the overall success of WKU.
Budget cuts really hurt in 2017–18.
He did say how awesome Todd Stewart was, and spoke of how fortunate the Tops were to have him stay as long as he has. He also said, “Now, Todd, you can’t leave.” Take that how you wish, but it confirms what many of us knew: Stewart has had some options to leave WKU and has not taken the bait.
New students will learn the fight song and the alma mater; he commented that the only people singing the alma mater graduated before 1950. He wants to bring back and emphasize traditions.
He’s traveled to 31 counties in Kentucky this year (and more in surrounding states) trying to meet with school districts and superintendents. In essence, he said he wants the counties in this area of Kentucky to know that this is their school.

Overall, he’s working his tail off to “Spread the Red” in creative ways. I thought he was more impressive than last year. Last year’s speech was very vanilla, but now that he’s got his teeth into the job, it’s pretty obvious he’s into it and engaged and embracing the challenge of those massive budget cuts.

Todd Stewart

WKU Athletics only has 89 full-time employees (including coaches, staff, admin); the University of Texas has 90 making $100,000 or more.
New scoreboards and sound systems in L.T. Smith and Diddle (Yes, the one in the stadium looks awesome). In his words, “Diddle will look like a new arena.”
Remarked he would buy WKU football stock right now. Basically, every stock has down years, but if six wins and a bowl appearance is the floor, he’s happy with that as long as it doesn’t stay there.
He remarked that although WKU football won championships in 2015 and 2016, the final two Brohm recruiting classes were not that impressive and it left holes in the roster for Sanford to fill. Those classes should be the core of the team right now, and only 10 seniors remain. WKU is the second youngest team in the country.
He felt Greg Collins was a second head coach for the Lady Toppers when Michelle Clark-Heard was on the Hill, going so far as to say it was the easiest hire he ever made.
He practically glowed about Stansbury. Basically, he said he was doing an amazing job, and they’re going to be fun to watch. WKU has a perfect 1,000 APR since Stansbury took over. WKU was at 880 in Ray Harper’s last year.
Emphasized the importance of individual donors, especially after such serious cuts.
Travis Hudson and the volleyball team were traveling and not able to make it.

Overall, Todd was good and complimentary of all of the staff and coaches. He said there were unique challenges to 2017–18, but he thought President Caboni and the rest of WKU had gotten through the worst part. They have adjusted, and they’re ready to move forward.

Mike Sanford

Drew Eckels is the starter, but most interestingly, the only other QB mentioned was four-star true freshman Kevaris Thomas. This tells me Thomas is the backup as a true freshman and will probably see the field in 2018. This kid must be as advertised if Sanford is going to put it out there like that.
Offensive line is the number one group he gets asked about. The offensive line is really young, but talented. He likes who he has, and if they all stay on the Hill for their four or five years, all five should return next year and four of the starters should still be playing in 2020.
Wide receiver is a “position of depth.” Plenty of options at receiver. He said he has “three really good receivers,” that will actually match up well with Wisconsin’s corners. WKU will start 6'3", 6'2", and 6'1" vs. Wisconsin’s 5'9" and 5'10" corners. He said he plans to throw the ball deep against Wisconsin.
Speaking of Wisconsin, he said they have the Heisman front-runner at running back and NFL players at every level. They are ranked fourth in the preseason polls.
Sanford hardly mentioned running backs at all. I don’t know if he just forgot them, or he intentionally left them out. What it tells me is subconsciously, he’s not sure what he has at that position. This was the most concerning part of his whole time up there for me. He wants to run the ball. How are the Tops going to move the football? We’ll see. I sure hope he simply forgot.
Mik’Quan Dean (new starter at tight end) runs a 4.5 40. For perspective, Taywan Taylor runs about that. That’s the fastest tight end WKU has ever had.
Overall, the defense is going to be really good and experienced. He likes each of the position groups. Ben Holt (unanimous) and DeAndre Ferris are team captains.
Said Drelle Greene is the most coveted NFL prospect.
He mentioned Devon Key, who set the WKU freshman record for tackles.
Special Teams was not mentioned at all. Take that how you wish. He either doesn’t care, isn’t worried, or was terrified to mention it.
Overall, he said 2017 was difficult because he was a brand new head coach and had a brand new staff; he also said he was dealing mostly with players recruited by someone else. Interesting comment, but he clarified by saying it was not a shot at Brohm. Conjecture here, but that most likely has to do with a completely different offensive and defensive philosophy.
In 2017, the team had 24 total surgeries. Currently, there are no major injuries to any returning player. He did remark that the defensive line lost multiple starters during camp and in the first game.

Overall, Mike Sanford is a good talker. He’s recruited well for a reason. Many may be feeling it’s time for him to show some progress. I agree. It’s time to see some talent on the field and feel like it’s going back to what it was a couple of years ago.

I sincerely believe he likes this team much more than last year’s. Pure speculation, but I believe he dealt with serious internal issues last season. He seems truly excited about their chances, and honestly, he has filled some serious gaping holes left by the previous staff.

In all seriousness, the previous staff did not recruit, land, and keep enough running backs, tight ends, offensive line, or defensive line players. That’s literally half of the 22 offensive and defensive starters. He’s got legitimate depth and options at each position now, as long as some of these new recruits work out. You have to feel good about the personnel right now.

Greg Collins

The Lady Tops play a super tough schedule this season: Only two of the non-conference opponents are expected to be outside of the RPI Top 100.
His current expectation is to need an automatic bid come C-USA Tournament time. Ultimately, “It comes down to winning three games in three days.”
Ultimate goal is to have WKU back in the Top 25 every year and competing nationally for an at-large bid. Next goal for the Lady Tops is to win a game in the tournament.
Collins wants to get bigger: He’s got a 6'0" guard, a 6'3" forward/center (Arame Niang) that can shoot the three, and some other size, as well. And everybody said, “AMEN!”
Thinks he has a good team, and he’s going after some big time players. He said he has a girl from Washington, D.C. that is considering all kinds of schools on the East Coast, “…and some little red school in Bowling Green, Kentucky.”

Collins was pretty short and sweet, but one thing is for sure: He’s a cool guy, and he’s going to be a really good head coach for the Tops. Personally, I think all of the unique drills the Lady Tops did during warm-ups the past few years were pretty much his original ideas. On a personal level, I really like him, and when you look at his resume (former WNBA scout, assistant coach at Power Five schools, and Associate Head Coach at WKU, coached multiple current WNBA players), he’s highly qualified to be a good one for the Lady Toppers.

Rick Stansbury

One thing he repeated is it’s all about the people in the program. He’s very excited about the work ethic in his program in his staff and players and fans.
He likes Galen Smith, “…more than a lot of the guys I’ve ever coached. We got lucky with him.”
He thinks Jared Savage could be the best player on the team.
Five-star player Charles Bassey had a 3.92 GPA in high school and raves about him being a nose-to-the-grindstone player, unlike a lot of highly rated guys.
Said he got lucky with Taveion Hollingsworth and had no idea how tough he was.
Marek Nelson has massively improved.
He’s no longer horrified with Josh Anderson’s ability to shoot; he will probably be playing point guard this season.
He did not mention Jake Ohmer at all. Hmm.
If I had to guess a starting five from what he said Thursday, I would say:

Anderson
Hollingsworth
Jared Savage
DeSean Murray
Charles Bassey

Overall, Stansbury is always amazing to watch. I mean, if you were a Topper fan with a pulse, you had goosebumps thinking about how good this team should be. Of course, he finished saying, “If you haven’t bought tickets yet, there’s gon come a day real soon when you’re not gonna be able to get in. That day is here.”

Overall Impression

Despite all of the monetary issues, this is an exciting time for anybody associated with WKU athletics. Yes, positions, programs, and budgets were cut in each department in the university, including athletics. There’s no way around that, and man it sucks to hear things like $100,000 cuts to certain programs, positions eliminated and they’re working at Kroger to make ends meet, and a lot of feelings and futures hurt.

However, the state of the programs themselves and the people still in the programs is incredibly positive. Football is in a position talent-wise to rise over the next few years. The Lady Toppers continue under the same system, and the returning players know their head coach after having won four conference championships since Michelle Clark-Heard took over. It would be an understatement to say expectations for Topper Basketball are through the roof. That’s a no-brainer if I ever heard one.

Things are good in Topper land. Drink the Kool-Aid, y’all.