And, the chances that a high-scoring affair are in store like last week’s 38-35 WKU victory over the Leathernecks are pretty good. After all, last year the Toppers needed a 43-yard field goal from Chris James as time expired to send the contest to overtime before his 33-yard kick in the extra session led to a 37-34 victory in Normal, Ill.
The Hilltoppers rolled up season highs with 202 yards rushing, 267 yards through the air, 469 total yards and 38 points last time out. Lerron Moore was named the Gateway Conference Offensive Player of the Week Monday after rushing for 163 yards and three touchdowns against WIU, while Justin Haddix completed 16-of-20 passes for two scores as well. Curtis Hamilton continued his impressive start to the season with eight catches for 166 yards and a touchdown, and Chris Sullivan was selected the league’s Offensive Lineman of the Week after grading out at 93 percent with 10 knockdown blocks.
The Toppers were successful on 7-of-9 third-down conversions as they did not punt for the first time since September 6, 2003.
“That is definitely the offense that we’ve felt we have all along,” said WKU head coach David Elson. “When you don’t punt, you know you’ve played pretty well. Our two senior leaders stepped up and played their best game of the year — I think when those guys are ready to play and producing, good things happen.”
ISU counters with an offense that features a quartet of dangerous players. Luke Drone is completing just under 55 percent of his passes for 928 yards and nine touchdowns as he leads the conference with 232 yards per game through the air. Laurnt Robinson has 15 catches for 198 yards and four touchdowns in just two appearances — he’s missed two of the Redbirds first four contests — while Pierre Jackson has 21 receptions for 364 yards and three scores. Pierre Rembert paces the ISU rushing attack with 533 yards and four touchdowns as he tops the GFC with 133.2 yards per game.
The Redbirds are averaging 379.8 yards of total offense and 30 points per contest.
“Around the Gateway Conference everybody has good players. Everyone has a good quarterback, everybody has a good tailback, everybody has a good receiver or two and everybody has some marquee guys on defense,” said Redbird head coach Denver Johnson. “I think we are blessed to have some of the guys we have, but I don’t think we are any more blessed than any other team in the Gateway Conference.”
“There’s going to be a lot of offensive talent on the field,” Elson added. “I think that there’s going to be some points put on the board on both sides of the ball and it will be an exciting game to watch.”
ISU’s defense features Buck Buchanan Award candidate Camerson Sikowic, who ranks third in the nation with 12.5 tackles per game while Kye Stewart stands fifth in the country with 12 stops per outing. Tom Nelson is tied for the conference lead with three interceptions. Alex Filin has been credited with a team-leading five tackles for loss including three sacks, and Jarek Thomas has collected 4.5 stops behind the line of scrimmage.
Marion Rumph paces the Hilltoppers with 42 total tackles after posting a career-best 16 against the Leathernecks, and Andre Lewis added 12 to give him 39 on the season — both players rank in the top five in the conference in tackles per game. It was the first time two Toppers were credited with double-digit tackle totals since last year’s Northern Iowa game.
Travis Watters broke up a fourth-quarter Leatherneck pass that led to a missed field goal, giving him a team-leading five passes defensed. Artis Neal collected six tackles in his first start of the season, while Dusty Bear led the line with a career-best seven tackles including his first sack of the year on the final play of the game.
Regardless of what the totals on the scoreboard show, a close contest wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone tonight. Even though WKU has won all five meetings with the Redbirds since joining the Gateway Conference prior to the 2001 season, the last three match-ups have all been decided by a field goal — in addition to last year’s rally in the final minutes, the Toppers needed a touchdown run from Moore with less than two minutes remaining to come away with a victory in the 2003 meeting.
“Once again, Illinois State is an extremely talented football team in all three phases of the game — this is the best Denver Johnson-coached team that I have seen,” said Elson. “We are going to have our hands full with the tremendous amount of firepower they bring to the field.”
While WKU needed to come from behind in the final minutes to defeat Western Illinois last week, ISU was off after making a change in their schedule. According to Johnson, the break came at the right time even though the Redbirds have won three games in a row.
“I think the way that the season fell, I was glad that the open week came when it did,” he said. “We had some injuries and very much needed an open date. Originally, we were scheduled to play at Northern Iowa, and we agreed to move the date to the end of the season so they could play at Iowa State.
“What that did for us was separate a long road trip to Northern Iowa and then turn around and make another one to Western Kentucky. I think it was beneficial to us, to separate those two trips, and just by happenstance we got a much-needed open date because of some early season injuries.”
Should the Hilltoppers be able to overcome the firepower the rested Redbirds bring to Bowling Green, they will begin a two-game road trip 2-0 in the Gateway for the third straight year.
