Western Kentucky finds themselves on a six-game winning streak after Saturday's 52-17 drubbing of Florida Atlantic. Now, the C-USA East Division is on the line as the Hilltoppers (7-4 overall, 6-1 in C-USA) travel to arch-rival Marshall (7-4 overall, 5-2 in C-USA).
The winner earns a trip to the C-USA Championship game on Friday, December 3rd.
The Thundering Herd bounced back over the weekend with a 49-28 road win over Charlotte in which they put up 588 yards of offense including five rushing touchdowns.
Offensively, Marshall is led by quarterback Grant Wells and running back Ali Rasheen.
Wells has racked up 3,357 yards passing and 15 touchdowns so far this season while throwing at a 67% clip. However, he has been turnover prone, throwing 12 interceptions on the year.
Against Charlotte, Wells was an efficient 21-of-28 passing for 267 yards and two scores.
Rasheen is a workhorse that has 1,142 yards rushing on the season with 20 touchdowns while averaging 5.5 yards per carry. He had 23 carries for 203 yards and three touchdowns in last week's win against Charlotte.
The Thundering Herd also has a veteran one-two punch at wide receiver in Corey Grammage (62 catches, 784 yards, 2 TD) and Xavier Gaines (38 catches, 447 yards, 3 TD).
Marshall boasts the nations 16th-best passing defense, allowing 187.5 yards per game and is led by junior linebacker Abraham Beauplan, who leads the team with 92 tackles and 8.5 tackles for loss.
Sophomore linebacker Eli Neal is second on the team in tackles with 83 and leads the team in sacks with 5.5.
Safety Cory McCoy is Marshall's third-leading tackler with 60 to go along with two interceptions and defensive back Stephen Gilmore leads the team with three interceptions.
Summarizing Tyson Helton's Press Conference:
- Big game this week playing for the East title. That's where you want to be at the last game of the regular season to see who will represent the East in the conference championship.
- Two really good, competitive schools. Fun to be in those type of games. Their new coach has done a fantastic job. Marshall is Marshall, they always do a fantastic job every year.
- Marshall is a very good pass-rush team and they have athletes all over the field. Our offensive line has done a great job all year in pass protection, so it will be a great matchup and great challenge.
- They have a big, physical offensive line up front. Their running back is spectacular and they have a really good scheme there. He'll make his yards, but we have to tackle him and get him down.
- Grant Wells is a really good player. When we played them last year I made the comment, "I think the kid has NFL talent." He's grown, he's matured, and gotten better. He has a really good scheme he gets to run and good skill players to throw too.
- We re-evaluated our defensive scheme around game five and tweaked some things and put our guys in positions to go make plays. We started to get some picks and turnovers here and there and they've came in bunches. Need to get a couple of more this week as well.
- Bailey Zappe is the best quarterback in American. Now, I'm biased. I get to watch him everyday. He deserves every award there is out there in my opinion and so does Jerreth Sterns. I think people are taking notice of that.
- Coach (Zach) Kittley and his production speaks for itself and he's deserving of the Broyles Award Nomination. Hopefully, at the end of the year he'll win the award. But, team success breeds individual success - that's what you're seeing right now.
Western Kentucky/Marshall Team Stats:
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