Hilltopper fans had to close their “tickets for conference championship game” computer tabs.
WKU Football had an opportunity to not only make the Conference USA Championship Game, but also host it. Instead, they will not play again this year until their bowl game.
Jacksonville State once again played spoiler. After defeating WKU in the conference championship game last year, they prevented them from getting in entirely. The Hilltoppers are 1-3 in their last four meetings against the Gamecocks and have only beaten the Gamecocks once in their five meetings in Jacksonville.
“Very proud of our football team,” Head Coach Tyson Helton said. “Obviously would’ve wanted to make it to the championship game, but that didn’t happen, so now we’ve got to reset and find out eventually where we’re going bowling and try to win that one.”
The Hilltopper offense was near unstoppable to start the game, scoring three touchdowns on its first three drives. They came out swinging and looked like they were going to pull away early with a win.
The Gamecocks finally realized the stakes and locked in. Even with 24 points at halftime, they still trailed. From there, WKU basically hit snooze. They would score six points in the second half, punting three times, and another drive ended via a fumble by junior wide receiver K.D. Hutchinson.
Jacksonville State would walk down the Hilltoppers on an 11-play, 50-yard drive, converting a third and 15 to extend the drive. A game-winning field goal would send the Gamecocks to the conference championship game in a rematch versus Kennesaw State.
WKU converted just four third downs in 10 attempts, turning the ball over twice. The Thanksgiving food coma must have set in because the offense went stagnant the second half. Just 148 yards of total offense and one third-down conversion allowed Jacksonville State to outscore them 13-6.
WKU got run over, then the car came back in reverse, allowing 515 total yards of offense and 292 yards on the ground. Shades of last year’s CUSA Championship Game, where Jacksonville State ran for 386 yards.
“I thought the guys battled extremely hard,” Helton said. “We knew it was going to be a tough back-and-forth game. I knew our defense was going to have a big challenge ahead of them. The game went about how I thought it was going to go, (the score) somewhere up in the 30s, and it was.”
The Hilltoppers finish the regular season with an 8-4 record, the same as last year. They will await their bowl game as well as their opponent.
