WKU's in the win column for the first time this season thanks to the boys in blue from Murfreesboro. While the football was sloppy, the Tops bested one of their oldest rivals for the fifth time in six years in the latest edition of the 100 Miles of Hate. Let's see what we learned from Saturday's win.

Keys to the Defense

A whale of a game from senior linebackers Kyle Bailey and Eli Brown, as well as senior safeties Devon Key and Antwon Kincade gave WKU just enough power to hold off MTSU's offense. The Tops were able to hold the Blue Raiders to 102 yards on the ground. MTSU's quarterback Asher O'Hara had to do the heavy lifting as the team's lead rusher as well, since no other Blue Raider got more than 10 yards for the game. DeAngelo Malone will be missed next year when he is gone because he is the tone setter for the defense. His sack early on put the MTSU offense on notice.

Isn't That Special

The steady leg of Redshirt sophomore, Brayden Narveson proved to be the difference in the game. If Narveson hadn't nailed both a 47- yarder and a 53-yarder (a career best), both of which gave the Tops the lead, and helped keep them afloat when the rest of the offense couldn't quite get things going. Narveson will be looked to a lot more this season, since the Tops' offense is still an unfinished product.

Narveson is still an unproven commodity at this point given the fact that previous to this season, Narveson spent 2 years at Iowa State and was 2-4 on made field goals. So far he's 3-3 here on the Hill. Let's hope he can stay consistent throughout the season. Just remember that points are points. Just as long as you get them, it doesn't matter how.

Starting to Gel

After the first quarter and a half of Saturday's game, I was ready to write off WKU's offense. I mean for the past two games, the Tops were not really able to find any continuity and barely were able to put points on the board. (WKU only managed 229 rushing yards and 310 yards in the air coming into the contest with MTSU.)

However, something happened in the last drive of the 2nd quarter. You could say that Middle took their foot off the gas or WKU recognized the need to get a score to knot it up at 10 going into halftime, but the Tops put together a nice looking drive that looked more comfortable than it has in a while. WKU pushed the pace and was able to showcase some of the ability we expected to see from the onset of the season.

The second half saw the Tops gain momentum as the night went along. Rather than waiting for Pigrome to use his feet to gain yards, other Toppers stepped up both in receiving and rushing. Which brings me to my next point...

Spreading the Wealth

WKU has been reeling since its lost two of its veteran wide receivers and lack of production on the ground by last year's stud, Gaej Walker. Because of that, there's been lots of dropped balls, incorrect routes and overall sloppy play. That changed Saturday as several Toppers stepped up in a big way. Wide Receiver Xavier Lane, who was largely absent from the game plan the first couple of games recorded his first touchdown of the season and was a constant target throughout the second half of the game. In all, five different Toppers fielded passes from Piggy T. You could see his confidence growing with each pass that was caught for positive yardage.

The running game was more potent against Middle as well. Piggy T made sure to get his usual yards, but Jakairi Moses, Walker and C.J. Jones combined for nearly 100 yards on the ground. This balance helped to keep MTSU off balance and allowed the Toppers to gain confidence, something that has been missing of late. WKU will need this type of performance offensively next week when Marshall comes to town.

Rising to the Occasion

The big questions going into Saturday's games were:

Would WKU be able to fix their issues coming off of a bye week?

Would the fact MTSU, one of WKU's hated rivals, finally give the Toppers a reason to step up their game to pick up that first win?

Would the Tops be able to start off conference play the right way with a win?

Luckily, the Tops were able to answer all of these questions. WKU is not a bad team but they have been guilty of underachieving. Pigrome is just now becoming confidence in the offense and Coach Tyson Helton is understanding what he has on both sides of the ball. The Toppers face two more conference foes in Marshall and UAB, who both have winning records. So the Tops will have to tighten up defensively and play looser offensively if they want to keep a winning record.