BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Football will welcome Kennesaw State to Houchens-Smith Stadium for a 6:30 p.m. Black Out game on Wednesday.
GAME INFO
- Kennesaw State (1-6 overall, 1-2 CUSA) at WKU (5-2 overall, 3-0 CUSA)
- Wednesday, Oct. 30 | 6:30 p.m. CT | Houchens-Smith Stadium | Bowling Green, Ky.
- Watch: ESPN2 (PxP: Clay Matvick | Analyst: Steve Addazio)
- Listen: SAM 100.7 FM/Varsity Network (PxP: Randy Lee | Analyst: Terry Obee | Reporter: Jared Holland)
- Social: @WKUFootball | @WKUSports
- Live Stats: https://wkusports.com/sidearmstats/football/summary
- Game Notes: WKU | Kennesaw State | CUSA
AT THE GAME
- Purchase tickets to Wednesday's game against Kennesaw State HERE.
- Ticket booths at Houchens-Smith Stadium will open starting at 3:30 p.m. CT. Gates will open 90 minutes prior to kickoff.
- For the full WKU Football Gameday Guide, click HERE.
- Flo Rida will perform a free pregame concert on South Lawn starting at 5 p.m. CT.
- Fans are encouraged to wear black for the Black Out game. The Hilltoppers will be wearing all-black uniforms for the first time this season, and the first 1,000 students in Houchens-Smith Stadium will receive a glow-in-the-dark "Tops" shirt.
- Topper Walk, a tradition where the football team arrives at PS1 and walks down Avenue of Champions to Feix Field led by the band and spirit groups, will begin at 4:10 p.m. CT.
- The Topper Tailgate Show – a live pregame radio show that fans can watch and listen to from the tailgate area – will begin two hours prior to kickoff at 4:30 p.m. CT on South Lawn.
ABOUT THE TOPS
- In its most recent game, WKU shut out Sam Houston in the second half and pulled away for a 31-14 win on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at Elliott T. Bowers Stadium in Huntsville, Texas, to improve to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in Conference USA play. Hosea Wheeler had a crucial blocked kick early in the fourth to prevent Sam Houston from tying the game, and the Hilltoppers pulled away from there. Caden Veltkamp threw for 281 yards and three touchdowns on 20-of-29 passing, and added 27 yards and a touchdown rushing. It was Veltkamp's third game this season throwing for at least three touchdowns. Six different WKU players caught multiple passes in the win, and five caught at least three passes. K.D. Hutchinson led WKU in receiving with 88 yards and a touchdown on three receptions. The Hilltoppers rushed for 130 yards in the win, led by 97 yards on 23 attempts from Elijah Young.
- WKU has been tough to score on since the season-opening loss at Alabama. The Hilltoppers are allowing only 15.7 points per game over their last six games, and have not allowed more than 21 points in a game during that stretch. WKU has been especially good in the red zone all season, allowing scores just 58% of the time. The Hilltoppers rank first in CUSA and second nationally entering games on Friday, Oct. 25, in red zone defense.
- The Hilltoppers are among the leaders in CUSA so far this fall. They're one of two teams still unbeaten in league play, along with Jax State. It's the first time the program has been 3-0 in league play since 2019, when Tyson Helton was in his first season with the program and the Hilltoppers started 4-0 against CUSA competition. WKU has started 4-0 in CUSA play only twice since joining the league ahead of the 2014 season – in 2019, and in 2015, when the Hilltoppers went 8-0 in regular-season CUSA play before claiming the conference championship.
- With a win, WKU can become bowl eligible for the sixth time in six seasons under Tyson Helton. A win would mark the first time WKU has become bowl eligible before November under Helton and the first time the program has become bowl eligible before November since 2016. WKU has become bowl eligible in October three times before – in 2012, 2015 and 2016. WKU is one of only 16 programs that had played in a bowl game each of the five seasons from 2019-23, and one of only seven programs to win a bowl game each year from 2021-23.
- WKU has started the season 3-0 at home for the second straight year. The last 4-0 start at home came in the 2015 season, when the Hilltoppers finished 6-0 in games at Houchens-Smith Stadium, including a win in the CUSA Championship game.
- Wednesday's game will be WKU's annual Black Out game. The Hilltoppers will wear all black uniforms for the first time this season, and fans are encouraged to wear black to the game to support the team and celebrate Halloween on the Hill. The first 1,000 students will receive a glow-in-the-dark "Tops" shirt.
- Dalvin Smith has 19 touchdown receptions in his WKU career after catching a 30-yard scoring pass in the win over UTEP. The 19 touchdown receptions are tied for seventh most in program history with Jared Dangerfield, Curtis Hamilton and Jay Davis. Taywan Taylor holds the program record with 41 touchdown receptions.
QUOTABLE
- "Another big conference game at home. Really excited about the opportunity to play Kennesaw State. They look like a very impressive football team, a very hungry team. They obviously had a big win against Liberty. As I've had a chance to watch them throughout the season, you can tell they're a well-coached team, they're a hungry team, so we need to play our best football, we need to have a championship mentality. I know our guys will be excited and ready to play. It should be a great atmosphere. We've got a lot going on on campus. There's a concert before the game and a black out and all those things, but at the end of the day, this is what you want in conference play – two good football teams playing. We get to play at home, which we're excited about, so it should be a good game." – WKU Football Head Coach Tyson Helton, on Wednesday's game against Kennesaw State.
- "I didn't think we played very good in the game offensively. When I say that, we protected the ball until the end, but we really had three or four things on some drives that really were self-inflicting, whether it be an assignment or a penalty on one that really put us in a bind, that really stopped drives. I don't know how much they would've stopped us in the first half if we could've got out of our own way at times. We didn't play as well as we wanted to, and that's kind of been the point of emphasis this week of trying to do some things and understanding the importance of doing the right things, because this day and time of college football you're limited a little bit on your possessions. If you're on a game and you have a self-inflicting type of situation that stops a drive, not only have you put your defense back out there, but you're limited on how many opportunities that you have. We've got to do better at that." – WKU Football Offensive Coordinator Will Friend, on cleaning up mistakes against Kennesaw State.
- "I continue to kind of say just how fortunate we are with the players we have. Again, I know I've said it a lot since I've been up here, but this is the most fun year I've had coaching. We've got great people, guys that are playing really hard, playing well together. I think we have a unique chemistry with the players that we've got on our team. We're really fortunate across the board in our room, but on the defensive side of the ball we have incredible coaches and I think that they've been able to develop those relationships with the players. Our guys do a great job of us being able to communicate strengths and weaknesses within a call or a situation and they go out there and they apply it and to their credit they play really, really hard. I think a lot of that just comes back to chemistry and guys understanding the goals they're trying to achieve. We keep trying to just stress over and over what is your standard and being able to hold themselves and the rest of us to that accountability and then being able to understand what the process is, and I think we've been able to do that." – WKU Football Defensive Coordinator Tyson Summers, on what has led to the defensive success this season.
SERIES INFORMATION
- WKU and Kennesaw State will meet for the first time on Wednesday, Oct. 30. The Owls are in their first season at the FBS level and joined Conference USA this season. Kennesaw State will be the final of three first-time opponents WKU has on the 2024 schedule. The Hilltoppers beat Toledo 26-21 on Sept. 21 in the first meeting between the two programs, and fell 21-20 the following week in the program's first game against Boston College.
SCOUTING THE OWLS
- Kennesaw State is in its first season in CUSA and as an FBS program.
- The Owls picked up their first win as an FBS program last week by knocking off previously unbeaten Liberty 27-24.
- Kennesaw State is in its 10th season, all of which have been led by head coach Brian Bohannon. He holds a 72-36 overall record leading the Owls.
- The Owls rank 10th in CUSA in scoring offense at 15 points per game and are eighth in scoring defense in 31.1 points allowed per game.
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