Six years ago, Western Kentucky finished 0-12 after losing to Arkansas State 24-20 in the final game of the season.
The Hilltoppers will play Southern Miss for the C-USA championship Saturday in Bowling Green after winning the East Division crown with a 49-28 win over defending champion Marshall.
It was Marshall’s worst road loss since falling to Tulsa 59-17 in 2011.
Defense wins championships, at least that is the cliché when it comes to football. Coming into Friday’s game the great unknown was if Marshall’s top-ranked defense could slow down Western Kentucky’s league-best offense.
WKU rose to the challenge while sending a message of its own: It is the elite team this season in Conference USA.
Not only did the Hilltoppers score more points than any team against Marshall this season—31 was the previous best in the season opener versus Purdue—they also forced the Herd into being one-dimensional, taking away the run.
“(WKU) forced us to beat them throwing the football,” Marshall coach Doc Holliday said. “That’s exactly what they did. You can’t run the ball. They have too many in the box. They forced us to have to beat them throwing the football and we weren’t good enough…we didn’t make enough plays to be successful offensively.”
WKU limited Marshall to 31 rushing yards on 25 carries and held the Herd to minus-4 yards on nine carries at the half. Marshall’s 31 yards were the fewest allowed by WKU since allowing 27 to Troy in 2011.
“It was huge (early),” WKU linebacker Nick Holt said of the defense’s dominance. “We stopped the run very well. They (Marshall) averaged 187 (rushing yards per game), and we held them to 31 yards on 25 attempts. So, if you do that, you’re going to most likely win the game.”
WKU’s defense allowed only five first downs in the first half while forcing the Herd to play behind the marker.
“All downs were difficult today,” Holliday said. “When you keep coming up second and 10 and then you end up third and long, it’s tough. We did not stay ahead of the sticks very much today and that’s a credit to them.”
Marshall finished with 16 first downs in the contest, with five coming on its final scoring drive with Hyleck Foster cashing in on Marshall’s only rushing score of the game from 4 yards outs.
“I think one of the main things was that all week, we focused on stopping the run,” WKU defensive end Ge’Monee Brown said. “Obviously, they (Marshall) are a good passing team, but our focus all week was to stop the run. We put a lot of things into the game plan to do that, and they helped out today.”
Chase Litton was 19-of-38 for 230 yards with a pair of touchdown passes and a pair of interceptions. Holt was responsible for both Litton interceptions with the second leading to WKU points.
“(WKU) came with a great game plan to stop our run and make us beat them with the pass,” Litton said. “I just didn’t capitalize. They expected me to beat them by throwing the ball and I just didn’t do it.”
Western Kentucky coach Jeff Brohm credited his team’s work in the offseason for the turn-around on defense.
“We worked hard at the end of last year as coaches, as players, even as strength coaches, to get better on defense,” Brohm said. “I could give you a whole laundry list of things we did, but schematically we tried to do some things to help us get better.”
AWKU forced four Marshall turnovers while committing only two of its own. When Marshall loses the turnover battle, it is 11-18 under Holliday.
Marshall was held to under 300 total yards for the fifth time this season and only the third time this season WKU has allowed fewer than 300 yards.
— James Collier