WKU Football is back on the Hill.
The Hilltoppers hosted their Red and White Spring Showcase on Saturday, giving coaches and fans their first fast-paced look at the team in 2025.
With the losses of quarterback Caden Veltkamp, wide receiver Easton Messer and defensive lineman Hosea Wheeler, among others, to the transfer portal, the 2025 WKU Football team will look much different than last season.
Despite being a much slower pace setting, the spring game allowed people to get their first evaluation of the new-look team for the upcoming season.
Here are my three takeaways from the showcase.
McIvor is legit
Graduate quarterback Maverick McIvor led five drives in the game – and scored five touchdowns. He threw four of them, two to redshirt freshman wide receiver Cameron Flowers, one to redshirt junior wide receiver Moussa Barry and one to redshirt sophomore tight end Noah Meyers. He threw multiple passes in the intermediate and deep levels of the field and showed the ability to deliver accurate balls when the pocket collapsed.
“Just had a great day,” McIvor said. “Finally felt confident in the pocket. The playbook is starting to slow down for me. We’ve been trying to get our completion percentage up through the spring and this day really helped us.”
It’s too early to determine what his impact on the Hill will be, but the spring game showed promise. With his offensive coordinator from Abilene Christian, Rick Bowie, with him under the Tyson Helton system, we could see a return to the dynamic passing attack WKU has been known for.
Backfield by committee
The Hilltoppers lost running back L.T. Sanders to the transfer portal, and starting running back Elijah Young graduated. Running backs George Hart III, Jalen Hampton and Corey Landers returned to the team along with transfer La’Vell Wright transferring in after a solid season at Austin Peay.
With uncertainty coming into the season at the position, I focused on the backs when they got touches. Hart III got a touchdown run to cap off a drive. Redshirt freshman running back Javon McMahan caught multiple passes and gained good yardage on the ground.
With the loss of Young, the essence of a relief speed back that can create big runs and catch and run out of the backfield may be lost. However, the elevated role of Hart III and the addition of Wright could be a welcomed change for the Hilltoppers.
“I’ll tell you what, they’ve probably been our best group all spring,” Helton said. “You can trust those guys, hard runners, doing a great job of being leaders for our offense. So I’ve been very pleased with those guys this spring. They had some really good, hard runs today too that moved the chains.”
New look defense
Last season, the WKU defense started strong. It allowed no more than 28 points in all but one game through Nov. 9. In that same time frame, the Hilltoppers forced nine interceptions and recovered eight fumbles.
However, WKU struggled toward the end of the season, especially in the run game. The Hilltoppers gave up 200 yards or more rushing in every game after Oct. 30, including 331 versus New Mexico State on Nov. 9, 419 versus Liberty on Nov. 23 and 386 versus Jacksonville State on Dec. 6.
With defensive back Upton Stout, linebacker Darius Thomas and defensive end Deante McCray among notable departures this offseason, the defense looks different.
What didn’t look different in the Red and White Showcase was the turnovers. The defense forced three – two interceptions and one fumble recovery. Adding multiple tackles for loss and sacks, the defense showed that the new faces can perform.
“I think we have a phenomenal defensive room,” redshirt freshman defensive back Xavion “Tutu” Griffin said. “Coach Von (Da’von Brown), Coach (Jason) Martin. I think they’re good coaches. They teach the right techniques, teach us how to play the game. We gotta have energy. If we don’t have energy, we’re not gonna have momentum.”
Sports Reporter Michael Givner Jr. can be reached at michael.givner589@topper.wku.edu.
