2011 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Football Preview

The 2010 campaign was a success on multiple fronts for the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. That’s an undeniably true statement. The only problem with that reality is that it emerged from decidedly depressing and difficult circumstances.

Yes, Western Kentucky made pronounced advancements in 2010, but that’s only because the program resided at the very bottom of Division I-A college football in 2008 and 2009. First-year head coach Willie Taggert’s crew stopped a wrenching 26-game losing streak with a 54-21 midseason thrashing of Louisiana-Lafayette. Playing four BCS opponents in consecutive weeks during September extended the team’s slide to 26 games before conference play gave WKU the October opening it needed. Western Kentucky finally put its longstanding nightmare to bed; that one win, while small in a much larger context, enabled the program to breathe more freely, thereby enabling this season to begin without a black raincloud looming overhead in the town of Bowling Green, Kentucky. This year, talk of a long losing streak is nowhere to be found, a blessed relief for a band of gridiron brothers who can try to chase the .500 mark and make a climb toward genuine respectability in the sport.

One of the other things that made the 2010 season a success (relative to the past, of course) was that the Hilltoppers produced the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year in running back Bobby Rainey. The junior’s 137 yards per game was good enough for the third-best average in the nation. With the return of Taggert and Rainey and a total of 17 starters, including 10 on offense, Western Kentucky may just take another step forward in 2011. If this team can take the resilience it began to cultivate in 2010 and develop it into even more late-game toughness this year, the Hilltoppers could double their win total, which would rate as progress even though a bowl game wouldn’t yet appear on the horizon.

The Hilltoppers return Kawaun Jakes for his junior season. If the quarterback can find a rhythm offensively and spread the field for Rainey, the Hilltoppers should be able to score more than the 22 points per game they averaged in 2010. Jakes has been mistake-prone in fourth quarters, and that’s what needs to be addressed if WKU is to win at least four or five games this fall. The defense will be anchored by a pair of defensive linemen, Jared Clendenin and Quanterus Smith, but it’s really the offense that’s going to acquire center stage when September arrives.

Western Kentucky has also been smarter in terms of scheduling. Gone is the BCS gauntlet of years past, in favor of a more diverse and confidence-building slate. A neutral-site game against Kentucky and a road contest in Baton Rouge to take on LSU will be difficult, but the remainder of the schedule should give the Hilltoppers reason to believe that they can compete on relatively even terms when this season kicks off.

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