WKU Football: Tops end Regular Season on High Note with 37–19 Win over Charlotte.
WKU Football closed their season on a high note as they traveled on short notice to play a rusty Charlotte 49er squad and dominated throughout to close out the regular season with a 37–19 Win.
The Tops dominated the first half from the jump opening the game with a 10 play 74-yard drive bolstered by a 34 yard run by Gaej Walker. The Tops would get stuffed on a questionable call by the refs on the 1-inch line but that wouldn’t hamper WKU’s progress. The Hilltoppers would get a stop on defense and then add a quick Brayden Narveson field goal to take a 3–0 lead with 2:47 left in the first quarter.
On the next drive, the defense would get a quick stop and a Charlotte special teams error would give the Tops a double-digit lead.
The Hilltoppers dominated the first half outgaining the 49ers 243–34. They would drive the field in the final few minutes and take a 17–0 lead into the locker room.
Charlotte didn’t let the poor first half hamper their effort as they came out of the locker room and immediately put together a 10 play a 75-yard drive in 5 minutes and 30 seconds to cut the Hilltopper lead to 10.
The Hilltoppers answered on the following drive as they’d reach the Charlotte 28 yard line and Brayden Narveson would drill a 46-yard field goal to get the lead back to 13. The defense then forced a quick three and out.
The offense didn’t take the foot off the gas as Pigrome stretched the field on a deep pass to freshman Dakota Thomas to put WKU inside the 49er 5-yard line. He would finish the drive off with a two-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell Tinsley.
WKU defense continued to be a brick wall as they forced multiple three and outs throughout the third quarter. Narveson would drill a 49-yard field goal extend lead the lead to 30–7.
The teams then traded garbage time touchdowns (three of them) and Charlotte made the final score respectable as the Hilltoppers then ran out the clock and finish with a 37–19 Victory finishing the regular season at 5–6 (4–3 in CUSA), their third straight victory to close the season.
Here are some thoughts on the convincing victory today:
- The Defense was lights out again today, punctuating their strong finish with a very dominant effort. Despite a lot of garbage yards they still only allowed 309 yards on the day and made Chris Reynolds and company look uncomfortable all day.
- Tyrrell Pigrome ended the regular season with his best effort of the year with 218 yards passing and another 60 yards on the ground. He’s not perfect but he’s slowly grown as the season progressed. It appears he’ll be back so let’s hope Helton continues his development over the offseason.
- Gaej Walker concluded his late-season resurgence by finishing with 98 yards rushing. If that was his last effort as a Topper, he ended on a very solid note.
- Charlotte looked like a team that hasn’t played in over a month. They were sloppy and unmotivated at times. Will Healy still has a lot to prove in my book. He may be a media darling but he seems like a Sanford style coach to me.
- Freshman receivers Dakota Thomas & Malachi Corley were weapons today combining 118 yards on 8 catches. The receiving corps returns just about everyone next year and could turn from a weakness into a strength next season.
- The veteran Offensive Line was at its best today putting up 436 yards of offense with a balanced 218 yards rushing and passing. Let’s hope Helton can convince at least one of the three seniors to come back next year at least.
- Brayden Narveson drilled three field goals today. We’re lucky to have such a weapon back next year. He might have just wrapped up the best season by a placekicker in school history.
- I have no idea how many seniors will come back but we’re definitely going to lose a decent amount. There were key contributors on almost unit of the team and we’ll miss the veteran nature of the team next season.
- During the game, the Tops got a commitment from North Dakota State transfer Adam Cofield
Cofield was a running back for the FCS powerhouse Bison who ran for 813 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2019. He should definitely be in the mix to replace Gaej Walker next year.
- Helton deserves a lot of credit for figuring out what he had (especially on offense) and adjusting how he coached this team. Piggy is a flawed player but he played to his strengths and founds ways to lean on the veteran defense and a power running game to win games late. Winning three straight to close the year definitely helps him reclaim the narrative after an abysmal start to the season.
This is the end of WKU’s regular season. They finished 5–6 (4–3 in CUSA). We will wait to see if they can maneuver into a bowl game despite the losing record. Overall a losing season isn’t a great result especially with the personnel that this team had but credit to the coaching staff for closing the year strong and regaining momentum when they easily could have packed it in like several of their conference brethren.
Here are your final stats from today dominant win:
