Western Kentucky, UTSA enter C-USA Championship in different places than earlier meeting
SAN ANTONIO — One yard. That was the difference between victory and defeat the last time the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and the University of Texas-San Antonio played each other on Oct. 9. Down 52-46 at the 5-yard line, Hilltoppers quarterback Bailey Zappe found standout wide receiver Jerreth Sterns who made his way to one yard short, however a clipping penalty knocked WKU back to the 15 and two plays later Zappe would throw an interception with 43 seconds left to seal the game for the Roadrunners. Fast forward to today and the two teams, who will be playing again on Friday with the Conference USA title on the line, are in two different spots than their last meeting.
“We’ve already played them once which I think makes that unique in an incredible ballgame which ended up on the one-yard line,” USTA head coach Jeff Traylor said during a press conference. “They were one yard away from beating us so that’s how close they were to beating us. [WKU head coach Todd Helton’s] kids play the right way and we’re excited.”
UTSA, 10-1, is dealing with an adversity they haven’t had to handle all season: a loss. The team dropped its first game of the season last week to C-USA foe North Texas 45-23 during a sloppy performance in Denton, Texas after starting the year with 10 straight victories including the first win over a Power 5 opponent in program history. WKU, on the other hand, seemingly doesn’t know how to lose as after dropping its game against the Roadrunners to start the season 1-4, the team has now gone on a seven game conference win streak to place itself in the championship matchup at 8-4. With both teams facing their own unique challenges coming into the game, one looking to bounce back for the first time all year and the other trying to balance emotion and revenge with consistency and patience, the matchup is a tantalizing prospect for any football fan.
“I think early in the season we played some really tough opponents back to back when everyone was healthy and I think those losses really helped make us stronger and bring us tighter together and really evaluate our strengths and weaknesses,” Helton said during a press conference. “From the UTSA game on we knew we were in control of our destiny if we could put all the pieces together and we found a way to put all those pieces together and it’s been a fun ride and it’s great to have an opportunity to play UTSA again.”
The Roadrunners’ recent loss has the team motivated in a different way. While some teams may try to throw away the game film from a loss or use the loss as a reason for the team to feel relieved following an unbeaten start, Coach Traylor is trying to find a balance to use the defeat as both a motivator and a point of animosity.
“I was worried we got so embarrassed Saturday what was [practice] going to look like this week?” Traylor said. “But if a conference championship did not get your attention, I know that what we did Saturday and then going to a conference championship would really get your attention. We’re excited…the kids have had tons of energy and are flying around and I know they’re excited.”
For Zappe, Jerreth Sterns and his brother Josh Sterns the game will be a homecoming of sorts as the trio played both in high school and their early years of college in the state of Texas before ending up with WKU in Bowling Green, Kentucky. With Zappe and the Sterns helping to rewrite both program and national record books, the Hilltoppers passing offense comes in with a lot of hype, though Traylor is expecting a strong performance from the entirety of the offense and knows his team must try to contain a unit that has won each of its last seven games by 15 or more points.
“They’re well coached, they take what’s there,” Traylor said. “When they’ve got a light box they will check to inside zone or whatever little scheme they’ve got for the week and the back is good and both of those backs that run the ball are good. That’s probably something they don’t talk about enough is how good their line is, they’re very well coached up there, they’re mature and they block.”
On the other sideline, Helton wants to prevent a repeat of last time where his team got burned on a number of big plays. With a goal of keeping the offense in front of them, the Hilltoppers will look to have the more explosive offense come gameday.
“The biggest thing [we learned] was not to let them throw the ball over our heads at will,” Helton said. “I thought we did a lot of really good things in that game, but one of the things that really stood out was they took advantage of the explosive plays especially down the field. … If we can try to limit those this time around that would really help us, try to make them go the distance a bit.”
With both teams performing extremely well on the year and having the first game being so close, the C-USA Championship could set up to be one of the best championships this season has to offer. As WKU and UTSA prepare to meet each other Friday, the two teams will look to cap their seasons of success with a conference title.
The game will take place at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Friday with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
