WKU (5-2, 3-1 C-USA) vs. Florida Atlantic (4-3, 3-0 C-USA)
Saturday, Oct. 28 | Houchens-Smith Stadium | 3:30 p.m. CT
Saturday, Oct. 28 | Houchens-Smith Stadium | 3:30 p.m. CT
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The Matchup
The Hilltoppers welcome the Owls to Bowling Green in a game with C-USA East Division implications. Since joining C-USA in 2014, WKU is 14-2 against league opponents at home, including two C-USA Championship games.
The Hilltoppers are seeking to move to at least 4-1 in conference play for the third consecutive season. In the FBS era, WKU has started 4-1 in league play three times (2011, 2015, 2016). In the FBS era, WKU has started better than 5-2 just once: 2015 (6-1). A 6-2 start would match that 2015 team's record through eight games.
Both head coaches, including FAU's Lane Kiffin, are in their first season at their respective schools. Among the nation's first-year head coaches, Mike Sanford's 5-2 start ranks behind only Charlie Strong (7-0, USF) and Lincoln Riley (6-1, Oklahoma).
Scouting Florida Atlantic
Under first-year head coach Lane Kiiffin, the Owls have seen dramatic improvement as a whole, but particularly on the offensive side of the ball. After averaging 26.4 points per game and 398 yards of total offense a season ago, the Owls are averaging 39.1 points per game and 485 yards per game this season, carried primarily by the nation's No. 9 rushing attack where they average 285.6 yards per game on the ground. Running back Devin Singletary leads the Owls 809 yards and a school-record 14 rushing scores while quarterback Jason Driskel has proven to be a dual threat at times, completing 66 percent of his passes while adding five rushing scores.
On defense, the Owls are led by linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair who has tallied 60 tackles, including three for loss. Led by head coach Kiffin's brother, Chris, the FAU defense is allowing 26.6 points per game and 213 yards per game on the ground. The opportunistic secondary from Boca Raton is allowing just 208 yards through the air and has intercepted 12 passes on the season, the most in C-USA.
2017 Team Captains
WKU's season-long team captains were voted on at the end of fall camp, entirely by the players. Under Sanford, the team has one offensive captain, one defensive captain, one "trenches" captain (from either offensive or defensive line) and a rotating special teams captain.
Offenive Captain: QB Mike White
Defensive Captain: LB Joel Iyiegbuniwe
Trenches Captain: DL Derik Overstreet
Youth Movement
In the season opener against Eastern Kentucky, seven true freshman saw game action and one, Roger Cray, also started his first ever game as a Hilltopper. Along with Cray, defensive end DeAngelo Malone, defensive backs Antwon Kincade, Kyle Bailey and LA Rogers-Anderson, tight end Steven Witchoskey, and long snapper Ben Reeder all saw action among the 2017 signing class. Additionally, 10 of a 22 possible starters earned their first starts as Hilltoppers against the Colonels.
For the year, 19 players have earned their first career start, the fifth-most nationally, and nine true freshman have seen game action.
4-2-5 Defense Proving Stout
WKU's move to a 4-2-5 defense has paid off so far in 2017. Removing a pick-six allowed by the offense at Illinois, the Hilltopper defense has allowed just 133 points through seven games, the fewest through seven since 2003 (120 points). The 2,491 total yards allowed are the fewest since 2013. Clayton White's crew also averages 4.71 three-and-outs per game, the 18th best mark nationally or 38.8 percent of drives.
A Complete Performance Against Charlotte
WKU founds its offensive rhythm in a big way against Charlotte as the Hilltoppers churned out 627 yards of total offense, including 506 yards through the air, both season-highs by far. It was arguably the most complete performance this season by the team, just six games in to the installation of new offensive and defensive schemes.
Other marks of note included:
- Mike White's monster day (398 passing yards, 5 TDs, 1 rush TD) can stand by itself, but he's the only quarterback in the FBS this season to hit those marks while also completing 70-percent of his passes in a victory.
- The 398 yards are the second-most by a Conference USA passer this season and the most by a C-USA quarterback in a conference game.
- As a team, WKU's 506 yards passing were the fifth-most in a single game in school history.
- WKU ran 92 plays in the game, the eighth-most in a single game in school history.
- The 22 first downs via the pass tied for the second-most in a game in school history while the 34 first downs overall tied for fourth-most in a game in school history.
- The Hilltoppers 4-2-5 defense allowed just 61 yards passing, the fewest allowed to a conference opponent in the program's FBS history.
- Charlotte tallied just nine first downs overall, the fifth-fewest allowed to an opponent in WKU's FBS history. Of those nine first downs, just two came via the pass, the fewest ever allowed to an FBS opponent.
Season Helmet Stickers
WKU will wear a pair of helmet stickers this season, honoring two former Hilltoppers who passed away during the offseason: former assistant coach Butch Gilbert and former tight end Mitchell Henry.
Gilbert regularly passed out butterscotch candies to players and coaches during his visits to practice, which WKU commemorates with a wrapped candy as a helmet sticker. To commemorate Henry, WKU has an "MH" sticker on the helmet.
Who's Next?
With the graduation of Forrest Lamp, Darrell Williams, Max Halpin, Taywan Taylor, Anthony Wales, and Nicholas Norris, the opportunity to make a name for yourself is wide open for the 2017 Hilltoppers. All six had NFL opportunities following their senior campaign and three (Lamp, Taylor, and Williams) made rosters. Between the three offensive lineman (Lamp, Williams, and Halpin), they combined for 140 games played and 129 starts - nearly all of them together. Wales tallied 1,621 rushing yards and led the nation in scoring and touchdowns, while Taylor and Norris combined for over 7,000 receiving yards for their careers as they went 1-2 in the record books in every major receiving category both season and career.
All totaled, those six played in 289 combined games with a staggering 209 combined starts.
The Sanford Era Begins
WKU is in the first season of the Mike Sanford era which began at home with a 31-17 victory over Eastern Kentucky. The nation's second-youngest head coach, Sanford's youth is deceptive. When he was hired on December 14, Sanford was, in fact, more experienced at that point in his coaching career than either of WKU's previous two "first-timers" in Jeff Brohm and Willie Taggart. He was one of just four rookie head coaches (out of 10) in 2017 to win his debut and one of only 12 new coaches overall (out of 24) to win his season opener.
Sanford has 12 years of FBS coaching experience while his predecessors had just 11 when they landed their first head coaching job on The Hill. Additionally, the head Hilltopper has been to five Bowl Championship Series (BCS) or New Year's Six bowl games, compared to just one combined with the previous two first-timers.
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