WKU Hilltoppers College Football Pregame Quote, 11/30/2021

Just excited to be hear and appreciate everyone getting on. On behalf of our football team, administration and Western Kentucky we’re excited to be a part of this game and looking forward to Friday and getting the opportunity to play a great UTSA team. Looking forward to the opportunity, it’s been a long year, a lot of ups and downs but it’s been a fun ride. Really look towards Friday. With that being said, questions.

On what he’d say to those who dismiss QB Bailey Zappe and WR Jerreth Sterns success and statistical output due to strength of opponents:

I’d tell them to watch the Michigan State game at Michigan State, I think that’s pretty good competition and those stats speak for themselves. Then you go on the road at Army the second game of the season, 20-year anniversary of 9/11 -tough environment to play in at the time. They were on a win streak that was pretty long, but another pretty good example. Then come home and play a good Indiana team and at the time should’ve beat Cincinnati the week before at home. I don’t really think it mattered who we played. Like you said that’s a good combination, that’s a great duo, a very talented group of guys, not only Bailey and Jerreth, it’s a lot of other targets like a Mitchell Tinsley, Malachi Corley, and a Daewood Davis. I think there’s a lot of body of work there that shows these guys are the best in the country when it comes to that duo, that tandem.

On what has changed since the first game against the Roadrunners:

Early in the season, we played some tough opponents back-to-back when everyone was healthy. I think those loses helped make us stronger, bring us closer together, allowed us to re-evaluate our strengths and weaknesses. UTSA is an exceptional football team and what a great game that was during the regular season. I think we came out of that game saying, at the time and still today, the best team in Conference USA. I really felt like we could’ve won and should’ve won that football game. I think you learn a lot about yourself. I think we’ve grown so much as a team and from the UTSA game on. We knew we were in control of our destiny if we could put all the pieces together and found a way to put all those pieces together. It’s been a fun ride and it’s great to have an opportunity to play UTSA again. You don’t see that a lot where you get that same matchup again. It’s going to make for an exciting game, for sure.

On scouting UTSA:

The one benefit we have just because there is so much carryover of the teams we play and the teams they play in those matchups and you’re watching the cutups and all those things, you continuously get to see the teams that you play on film. So you may be game-planning for another opponent but at the same time you’re taking notes on the ‚Äòwhat ifs’. You know the ‚ÄòWhat if we see this team again.’ So I think our coordinators and our staff have done a great job of always keeping tabs and making sure we see the adjustments of the teams that we’ve played from the previous time. UTSA is no different there. I do think that full body of work over the weeks since we played them of continuing to see their film and making sure our staff takes those notes ‚Äì it’s not just them, it’s any other potential games we might be in and you’re looking at next year and all those kind of things, it’s just a part of the process for us. So, it did help for game planning purposes for this game for sure, it gave us a head start.