Hilltoppers gear up for critical road game at Liberty – Bowling Green Daily News

The task is clear and the path awaits.

Western Kentucky’s football team knows what must be done to ensure a spot in next month’s Conference USA championship game – beat both Liberty and Jacksonville State in the next two weeks, and the Hilltoppers are undisputed regular-season champions and would host that CUSA title game.

Lose one, and even making the game would be a chancy proposition. Lose both, hopes of playing for the crown are mostly likely slim to none.

It’s four teams batting four two spots, with WKU (7-3 overall, 5-1 CUSA) visiting Liberty (7-2, 4-2) on Saturday in Lynchburg, Virginia, for a noon matchup to be telecast on ESPN+. An hour earlier, current league leader Jacksonville State (6-0 in conference) hosts the other hopeful in Sam Houston State (5-1 in conference). If both Jax State and the Tops win Saturday, the championship pairing is set with only the location to be determined the following week when those teams play at Houchens-Smith Stadium. If either or both lose, it will go down to the final weekend of the regular season to sort out the last two teams standing – the other relevant game in that case being Liberty at Sam Houston on Nov. 29.

Simple, right?

It will be for the Hilltoppers, provided they win twice more starting Saturday against the Flames.

“You want to be able to continue to control your destiny, right?,” WKU head coach Tyson Helton said. “And you don’t want to leave it in somebody else’s hands, hoping that hey, if somebody loses then we might… and this and that. But we’ll just take it one game at a time. “I’m not into looking for anything other than Liberty and trying to get that win.”

The Flames, who ran the table in their first season in CUSA last year and put together an undefeated regular season to earn a spot in the Fiesta Bowl, haven’t seemed quite as formidable this season. A stunning 27-24 loss to then-winless Kennesaw State was Liberty’s first defeat of the season and another loss followed a week later at home against Jacksonville State.

Even with two CUSA losses, all hope isn’t lost for the Flames to get back to the conference title game and they have the weapons to do it. Quarterback Kaiden Salter, who torched the Hilltoppers for three passing touchdowns and ran for 117 yards and another score in Liberty’s 42-29 win, is back leading the offense.

WKU linebacker Sebastian Benjamin, who had a team-high eight tackles and a sack last year against the Flames, said hitting Salter early and often will be vital.

“You gotta hit him – every chance you get, you’ve got to hit him,” Sebastian said. “You’ve got to make him not want to play no more. Quarterbacks aren’t used to getting hit because they don’t get hit at practice, they’re not going to get hit in scrimmages, they’re not going to get hit at the spring game. Those guys that get the big bucks, they stay as clean as possible. So when it comes down to game time, we’ve got to hit him as much as possible.”

Liberty running back Quinton Cooley ranks second in CUSA with 998 rushing yards, Billy Lucas (473 rushing yards) and Salter (498 rushing yards) form a dangerous threesome out of the backfield.

WKU counters with CUSA’s second-best scoring defense (21.1 points allowed), a trend that held true in last week’s 12-7 home loss to Louisiana Tech – the Hilltoppers allowed no touchdowns, just four field goals, in the setback.

Getting the offense back on track is the task for this week after WKU managed just one scoring drive and was doubled in time of possession by the Bulldogs.

“I think one thing that we lacked last game against LA Tech that we had been really good with, especially as an offensive line unit, is communication,” WKU right tackle Marshall Jackson said. “We had a few crucial (missed assignments), especially toward the end of the game when we could’ve won it after the blocked field goal. “I really think that’s something that we’re harping on this week because that was such a huge point in the game, the miscommunication that we had.”

Even with that off day against LA Tech, WKU ranks third in CUSA in scoring (28.0 points per game) with Liberty one spot ahead at 31.3 points per game.

“We’ve got to bounce back,” Helton said. “This time of year you want to be in the hunt and we’re in the hunt. So we don’t have time to think in the past. We’ve got to be getting ready for the future. Our guys had a good look in their eye, they had a chance to meet with them and we’re ready to get back to work and try to get back in that winning column.”