WKU Football: Ranking the 2017 Opponents — #12–9
We’re now 82 Days from WKU’s football opener against Eastern Kentucky. Over the course of the next 2+ months we’ll be have a lot of content previewing the upcoming season. Starting today, we wanted to get things started with a ranking and overview of WKU’s 2017 opponents from easiest to hardest.
12.) Eastern Kentucky Colonels
When you think about how far WKU has come in the last 15 to 20 years, a good program to look back and see what WKU could still be if they hadn’t made the jump to FBS is former Ohio Valley Conference & directional Kentucky rival Eastern Kentucky.
The Colonels used to be a Division 1-AA power in the late 70’s & 80’s (winning two titles under Roy Kidd), but since, they have struggled to keep up with various FCS programs that have elevated their programs and won at higher levels. Since WKU left the OVC in 2000, the Colonels haven’t been able to regain their regional identity, only making the FCS playoffs fourtimes since 2007, never advancing out of the 1st round.
There has been whispers of them trying to follow WKU’s path to FBS glory, but the hill they’re climbing is much steeper than WKU’s in ‘07, especially being only 25 miles from UK’s campus.
WKU has gone 10 seasons without playing its former top rival. In 2008, the Colonels were one just two of WKU’s victories in their second FBS transition season. EKU played David Elson’s second-to-last team tough for a half, trailing 16–13 at the break, but it was all WKU in the 2nd half as David Wolke & Tyrell Hayden led WKU to a 37–13 victory. Here’s a EKU centric hype video from that game:
Fast forward to today. Head Coach Mark Elder is in his second season at the Colonels. The former Tennessee assistant is a high-energy guy that some in their administration think can push them back to success, and eventually, into the FBS.
Last year smashed the delusions of a quick turnaround. With known transfers, such as former Missouri QB Maty Mauk, the Colonels went 3–9 with wins only against Austin Peay, Southeast Missouri St. & NAIA Pikeville.
The Colonels always relay on a good amount of FBS transfers, and their 2017 roster includes 11 transfers from such programs as Texas Tech, Louisville, Arkansas & Arizona State. Their offense will probably be led by Central Florida transfer Garrett Kruczek at QB & UofL transfer LJ Scott at running back. The defense dominated the offense in their spring game winning 46–13, and if that’s their “strength,” they’re in trouble against a Mike White led offense.
Overall I expect this to be the perfect game to kickoff the Mike Sanford era. The 6 p.m. kickoff should attract a large crowd in the renewal of the “Battle of the Bluegrass” and I expect the Tops to roll easily, even against a former rival with a chip on their shoulder.
11.) Charlotte 49ers
The newest program in Conference USA finally gets to play the two-time defending Conference Champion that they’ve avoided during their first two seasons in the league. Charlotte has only been around as a football program since 2013, and have had a winning season in their four years.
Brad Lambert’s team did show some signs of being competitive last season. After a 1–4 start, the 49ers went 3–1 in their next four games including wins over annual C-USA contenders Southern Miss & Marshall. Close losses to Rice & MTSU ended their bowl hopes but overall they took a step forward.
The 49ers lost draft pick DT Larry Ogunjobi & leading rusher RB Khalif Phillips, but do return mobile starting QB Hasaan Klugh.
Overall Charlotte returns 12 starters (six offensive, six defensive) & have three or four winnable games before they head to Bowling Green (Eastern Michigan, NC A&T, Georgia State, Marshall). This is a program that could be a bowl contender here in a few years if not this year. North Carolina & Charlotte have exploded over the past 30 years, enough so for the leaders at the school to add a football program. They have great access to talent and a beautiful football facility but that won’t be enough in 2017 at least against WKU. I fully expect the Tops to handle the 49ers thoroughly in front of a large homecoming crowd at the Houch.
10.) @ UTEP Miners
UTEP is a Conference USA school more by convenience than by geography. UTEP is almost eight hours from the closest conference rival (UTSA) and joined the conference in the mid-2000’s shakeup of C-USA and dissolution of the WAC.
El Paso is remote, but UTEP’s local support & uniqueness does make them intriguing even if they can’t take advantage of Texas’ talent like the other schools in its state.
Head Coach Sean Kugler is in his fifth season at his alma mater, and enters the season squarely on the hot seat after only making one bowl appearance (2014) in four seasons.
During that bowl season, they played WKU for the only time in history. The Miners traveled to Bowling Green after WKU had fallen to 3–5 (after that embarrassing loss in Ruston to La Tech). UTEP jumped to a 27–14 lead in the 3rd quarter, but a Wonderful Terry 90-yard interception return put the Tops up front and they ended up making the homecoming crowd leave happy in a 35–27 win.
Since that game, the programs have gone in opposite directions. WKU has only lost one conference game while UTEP hasn’t been able to replicate Kugler’s second-season success. In 2016 the Miners were inconsistent and one dimensional. They had fifth-round running back Aaron Jones rush for 1700 yards and 17 TD’s but he was the only thing their team did well consistently, and if their defense got them down they were dead in water.
They return just 11 starters (five offensive, six defensive) but do have a potential building block in junior QB Ryan Metz, who took over the starting job while the offense played decent in a lot of shootouts.
The defense have several seniors set to start, including LB Alvin Jones and has nowhere to go but up. WKU gets UTEP after a bye week (following the Ball St. game). El Paso is a long way away from Bowling Green but luckily the time off should have the Tops focused for a UTEP team that likely could be 2–3 or 1–4 heading into the game.
9.) Ball State Cardinals
For a team that finished 4–8 last season, Ball State has a lot of potential, especially on offense. Ball State is a university that is very similar in size and stature in its state (Indiana) to WKU. They both have almost identical enrollment numbers, stadium sizes, conference level & both reside in almost identically sized cities.
Ball State’s most recent heyday was back in 2008. That Brady Hoke led team started their season 12–0, including a 24–7 victory over WKU in Bowling Green, topping out at #15 in the polls before losing their last two games.
Since then the Cardinals have been to only two bowl games and are on their third head coach in high energy former QB Mike Neu.
Last season, Ball State started 4–3 but lost many close games along the way to limp to a 0–5 finish. They return 12 starters (eight offensive, four defensive) including 1300-yard rusher in running back James Gilbert & starting QB Riley Neal and should be able to play a lot of shootouts.
Ball St.’s problem last season was the fact that they were horrendous on defense. They gave up more than 30 points in eight of their 12 games and replaced their Defensive Coordinator with former WKU Head Coach David Elson to recharge that side of the ball.
If they can go from terrible to mediocre, the Cardinals should compete for a bowl bid in the merry-go-round MAC in 2017. BSU could also be heading to BG with a little bit of momentum as well. Their first three games are against Illinois (which lost to two MAC teams last season), restart UAB & FCS Tennessee Tech and should be a minimum of 2–1 heading into their week four matchup with the Tops.
Their defensive liabilities and track record against superior teams probably will do themselves in against WKU but this game could be very high scoring if WKU’s defense isn’t ready that day.
What do you think of our rankings so far? Did we put someone too high or too low? Let us know with a comment below, on twitter @TheTowelRackWKU or on our brand spankin’ new Facebook page!
