WKU Football: Eastern Kentucky Preseason Preview
With the kickoff for football season one week away, we are going to bring you a preseason look at each of WKU’s regular season opponents between now and the start of the season. Today we start the series with WKU’s renewed rival, Eastern Kentucky in the Battle of the Bluegrass.
Date & Time
September 2nd, 2017, 6 p.m. CST
Location
Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium
Series
WKU leads 46–35–3
Last Meeting
In 2008 during WKU’s 2nd transitional FBS season, WKU beat EKU 37–13 in Richmond, Ky.
TV/Radio
TV - TBA (Brad Stephens thinks it will be on CUSA.TV)
Radio - Hilltopper IMG Sports Network
2016 Season
In first-year coach Mark Elder’s debut, the Colonels stumbled to their worst record since 1963, finishing 3–8 overall and in 8th place (out of nine teams) in the OVC.
Returning Starters
13 (six on offense & seven on defense)
Relevant Preview Articles
The pickings are slim - EKU doesn’t have regular newspaper coverage during the offseason and, being FCS and only being an hour of Lexington, they aren’t covered like FBS teams. I did find this tidbid from Athlon Sports describing the EKU 2017 season:
How can Eastern Kentucky get back on track?
Head coach Mark Elder’s first season did not go well at Eastern Kentucky, which finished 3–8 overall and 2–6 in the conference — only the Colonels’ second losing season since 1973. They return 13 starters (six on offense and seven on defense) with key positional battles waged on the offensive and defensive lines during spring practice. Tim Boyle, a UConn transfer, is expected to lead the offense. The 21-time OVC champ should be improved, but it won’t be enough to contend for another title.
Three Players to Watch
The 6', 220 pound junior transferred from Louisville after playing sparingly in his first three seasons. Overall, he rushed for just 396 yards on 71 career carries with four career touchdowns. His playing time decreased each season before finally deciding to transfer down to the OVC this offseason. The Marion, Ohio native will hope that the decrease in competition level will lead to more playing time and production that many FBS transfers have experienced. Scott must beat out 2016 leading rusher Ethan Thomas, but that shouldn’t be difficult considering Thomas only gained 402 yards last season. If EKU wants to have any chance of keeping the opener close, a heavy dose of ball control from Scott would definitely help.
2. Tim Boyle, Garrett Kruczek or whoever wins starting quarterback job
Boyle, a senior UConn transfer, and Kruczek, a sophomore Central Florida transfer, are both competing for the starting quarterback job after EKU’s senior trio of Bennie Coney, Maty Mauk and Tyler Swafford all graduated. Boyle was a part-time starter at UConn during his three seasons. He led UConn to an upset victory that ruined #13 Houston’s undefeated run in 2015 but transferred shortly there after, redshirting last season. But, overall, his numbers at UConn were very bad. He had a 13 interceptions to just one touchdown in his 19 appearances.
Kruczek never appeared in a game for the Knights. He was a three-star recruit out of Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi, transferring due to not fitting in Scott Frost’s up-tempo offense. He is described as a Pro-Style quarterback and had the best performance (though still awful) in EKU’s spring game going 4–11 for 32 yards.
Overall, EKU’s QB’s went 12 of 43 passes for 81 yards and no touchdowns as defense dominated the spring game. This doesn’t bode well for their chances of keeping up with WKU’s high powered offense and they’ll need someone from an unproven group to show they can lead the team and complete passes to be successful in 2017.
3. Aaron Patrick, Defensive End
Unquestionably the top returning player for the Colonels, Patrick was a First Team All Ohio Valley Conference performer during his sophomore campaign. The junior from Dayton was EKU’s most disruptive pass rusher a season ago, finishing with seven sacks and ten tackles for loss while also finishing fifth on the team in tackles. Patrick has the size and speed to take advantage of WKU’s new starting offensive tackles and could be a factor early in the game.
Preseason Thoughts about the Game
- EKU has nowhere to go but up
Mark Elder’s rookie season was an unmitigated disaster for the historically strong Colonels. He inherited a 6–5 squad that almost upset Kentucky in Lexington in 2015 and produced their first losing season since 2009 and were generally non competitive over the course of the season. Whether it was a reaction to his culture change, the struggles of a first time coach or the start of a pattern remains to be seen for the coach that the folks in Richmond are looking to take them to FBS down the road. Luckily for Elder, year two is usually when coaches improve and results start to change. Having 13 starters back and over 11 FBS transfers should lead to improvement in 2017. The local media seems to think that Elder has the ability and vision to be successful down the road; How long that takes remains to be seen.
2. Rivalry renewed?
Eastern used to be WKU’s biggest rival. The “Battle of the Bluegrass” annually was the second biggest rivalry in the state before the series stopped in 2008. WKU has won 11 of the past 15 games, dating back to 1993. As Rick Stansbury recently put it, the Tops are the Colonels’ Super Bowl. Whether or not WKU’s fan base still views our directional in-state brethren to the east the same way is up for debate:
3. This game could be chippy, at least early
For the reasons I listed above, it isn’t out of the question that EKU could come out and try to muck up the game early. Being over-matched, underestimated and playing with a large chip on their shoulder could lead to high hostility on their end early. I wouldn’t be surprised to see pushing, loudmouthing and excessive celebrations early from the Colonels until the game is out of reach, and it would be something to monitor after the game is well in hand.
4. The attendance should be strong
Kickoff is on a Saturday night at 6 p.m. — this game should do well with both fan-bases. There will be plenty of time to tailgate and enjoy the start of football to draw a large crowd. The 2007 game in Bowling Green drew 18,898 fans (before the stadium was expanded) during the third week of the season. After starting the past three seasons on weeknights, it will be interesting to see how the the fans show up for a Saturday night prime time match-up. Eastern’s fan base will also outdraw many C-USA opponents when they travel west across the Cumberland Parkway.
5. EKU’s lack of offense could end this game quickly
If EKU’s spring game is any indication, this game could be over fast. EKU’s defense dominated the offense 46–13 (that’s crazy) during that April 15th scrimmage. That defense, led by Patrick and Texas Tech transfer Nigel Bethel, should be solid in 2017 by FCS standards and their playmakers will keep them in some OVC games. However, an abysmal offense that will be breaking in a new starting quarterback will be no match for the playmaking defense the Toppers boast and Mike White’s offensive wizardry. Unless WKU plays sloppy and turns the ball over, EKU’s offense simply won’t be able to keep up with WKU’s greatly superior talent advantage. This game should play out the same way as many of WKU’s recent games have played out.
Preseason Prediction
You never really know what you’re going to get in a head coache’s debut. In 2014, Jeff Brohm shocked everyone by out-tempoing Bowling Green in a 59–31 laugher. Mike Sanford’s experience at programs such as Boise State, Stanford and Notre Dame should prepare him well for his first game. I think EKU will come out fired up with something to prove. However that emotion will quickly fade as Mike White’s precision passing and the return of D’Andre Ferby’s physical running style quickly put the game out of reach as Eastern’s offense struggles to keep up.
Final Score Prediction - WKU 57 EKU 13
Best places for EKU coverage as the game gets closer
EKU Sports coverage is scarce. WKU is leaps and bounds ahead of the Colonels, even in that regard. If you want to track the Colonels upcoming season you should check out the Richmond Register (local paper), EKUSports.com (school’s athletic website) & the Eastern Progress (student newspaper). For their fan perspective, they also have a very lightly used message board called Maroon Nation & an OVC specific website called OVC Ball.
What are your thoughts about the Colonels six weeks out? Do you still consider them a rival? How many points will EKU even score? Let us know in a comment below, via Twitter at @TheTowelRackWKU or on our Facebook page.
