BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Football will open Conference USA play when it travels to face New Mexico State for a Thursday night game at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, New Mexico. It will be the first weekday game of the season for the Hilltoppers as CUSA begins its slate of October "Weekday CUSA" games. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.
GAME INFO
- WKU (1-3 overall, 0-0 CUSA) at NM State (1-3 overall, 0-0 CUSA)
- Thursday, Oct. 1 | 7 p.m. CT | Aggie Memorial Stadium | Las Cruces, N.M.
- Watch: CBS Sports Network (PxP:Justin Kutcher | Analyst: Ben DiNucci)
- Listen: BG 100.7 FM/Varsity Network (PxP: Randy Lee | Analyst: Terry Obee | Reporter: Jared Holland)
- Social: @WKUFootball | @WKUSports
- Live Stats: wku.statbroadcast.com
- Game Notes: WKU | NM State | CUSA
ABOUT THE TOPS
- LAST TIME OUT: After a tough schedule to start the 2026 slate, WKU picked up its first win of the season by defeating Mercyhurst 52-7 in the home opener last weekend – the latest home opener for the program since the 1983 season. The Hilltoppers put up 596 yards of offense in the victory. Quarterback Rodney Tisdale Jr. threw for 309 yards and four touchdowns on 19-23-0 passing in under three quarters of action, and quarterback Brock Glenn added 101 yards and two scores on 4-6-0 passing, with a team-best 50 yards rushing and one touchdown on five attempts. Seven different Hilltoppers found the end zone in the win, including six different players catching touchdown passes.
- CUSA OPENERS: Thursday will be the Conference USA opener for WKU. The Hilltoppers are 8-4 in CUSA openers since joining the league ahead of the 2014 season. WKU has won its last four CUSA openers and six of its last seven – all seven of which came under Head Coach Tyson Helton. The Hilltoppers opened the season against a CUSA foe last season – Sam Houston on Aug. 23 – and claimed a 41-24 victory over the Bearkats. The Hilltoppers have scored over 30 points in each of their last five CUSA openers.
- STAFFORD STANDS OUT: WKU Football true freshman Jonathan Stafford Jr. was named the CUSA Freshman of the Week this week, marking the first CUSA weekly award of his career and the first for the Hilltoppers this season. He led WKU with 85 all-purpose yards in the 52-7 blowout victory over Mercyhurst, and he also led the Hilltoppers with six receptions, recording 66 yards on those six catches. He added a 17-yard punt return in the victory. Stafford is WKU's leading receiver through four games this season with 20 catches for 158 yards, and he is second on the team in all-purpose yards with 207.
- CLIMBING THE WKU COACHING RANKS: WKU improved to 58-39 under Head Coach Tyson Helton with the win over Mercyhurst. The 58 wins are third-most in program history and puts Helton ahead of Nick Denes, who claimed 57 wins in 11 seasons from 1957-67. Helton trails only Jimmy Feix, who had 106 wins in 16 years from 1968-83, and Jack Harbaugh, who had 91 wins in 14 seasons from 1989-02, on WKU's all-time career wins list.
- TESTED ON THE ROAD: WKU started off the 2026 campaign with three straight road games – at Nevada on Sept. 5, at No. 2 Georgia on Sept. 12 and at No. 4 Indiana on Sept. 19 – and will now be on the road for the fourth time in five weeks to start the 2026 campaign. The Hilltoppers are one of only five programs nationally with three straight road games this season, and they are the only school that had three straight road games without a bye week during that stretch. The Hilltoppers are also the only FBS program scheduled to play multiple nonconference games against teams that were ranked in the Top 10 of the AP Preseason Poll. The rest of CUSA has one such game combined. With the 2026 games at No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Indiana, WKU has now faced multiple ranked FBS teams in the AP poll during the same season for the second time in program history – the Hilltoppers faced three teams in the AP Top 25 during the 2008 season at the time of the meeting.
QUOTABLE
- "Been a good week of practice so far. Excited about getting on the road for the first conference game. It should be a great game. It should be a four-quarter game. Two good football teams playing. Two hungry football teams playing, so I'm looking forward to it." – WKU Football Head Coach Tyson Helton, on starting CUSA play at NM State.
- "Tremendous respect for their team. Offensively, they got excellent skill. Their running backs are strong, powerful runners, they're fast. They're explosive in their receivers. No. 1 for them can take the top end off. You've got to account for him and all the other receivers. The quarterback is an accurate passer – an accurate deep-ball passer. They're an explosive offense. Defensively, they're big up front. They get good push. They have a good scheme, trying to keep everything in front of them. I think it's two evenly matched football teams. It's going to be a battle and a four-quarter game, and we've got to play great football if we want to win. But our guys are excited. I think everybody's hungry to win, as are they. Should be for a great Thursday night Conference USA matchup." – WKU Football Head Coach Tyson Helton, on NM State.
SERIES INFORMATION
- Thursday will mark the fourth meeting between WKU and NM State. All four meetings have come in the last four seasons, since New Mexico State joined Conference USA. WKU leads the series 2-1, with the Hilltoppers claiming the last two victories – a 35-16 win on homecoming in 2025 and a 41-28 win in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 2024. The Aggies defeated the Hilltoppers in their first-ever matchup in 2023, 38-29.
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
- NM State enters Thursday's game with a 1-3 record so far with losses against Florida State, Hawaii and New Mexico. The Aggies' sole win is against Mercyhurst, the same team WKU claimed its first victory of 2026 over last weekend.
- Tony Sanchez is in his third season as NM State's head coach. He owns an 8-20 record with the Aggies and a 28-60 record in eight seasons as a head coach.
- The Aggies have averaged 26.3 points per game this season and have allowed an average of 29.8 points per game.
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