Western Kentucky (8-4, 7-1) is in the midst of a seven-game winning streak after Saturday's 53-21 victory at Marshall. Next up is the highly-anticipated rematch with the UTSA Roadrunners for the Conference USA Championship at the Alamodome.

UTSA (11-1, 7-1) got tripped up at North Texas last weekend, losing to the Mean Green 45-23 in a turnover-riddled game which got the Roadrunners knocked out of the Top 25 polls.

That performance should provide extra motivation for UTSA heading into Friday night's nationally-televised rematch with the Hilltoppers.

The motivation for Western Kentucky goes back to the October 9th when Frank Wilson, Sincere McCormick, and De'Corian Clark carved up the Hilltoppers' defense for 564 yards in a 52-46 win at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

Western Kentucky had a chance to win it as quarterback Bailey Zappe led the Tops to the UTSA 5-yard line with just over a minute remaining. An illegal blocking penalty pushed the Hilltoppers back and three plays later, Zappe threw a gut-wrenching interception to UTSA's Clarence Hicks toward the sidelines with :43 seconds remaining.

Zappe will have a chance to redeem himself on Friday.

Hilltoppers versus Roadrunners in the Alamodome for the Conference USA Championship on CBS Sports Network at 6 p.m. CST - get your popcorn ready because this will be fun.

- I really don't buy into any of the noise, just go about it like a normal week. Our team does a good job of keeping the outside noise away from us.

- This will be an exciting game and should be a great environment. They have a great fan base there. It's going to be loud and that's what you want in championship games.

- Coach Traylor has done a great job. They are an excellent football team and obviously we already played each other.

- Came out of that earlier loss to UTSA a stronger team. It's great that we know everything about each other. Hopefully, we can contain the quarterback and their explosive plays. Their running back is spectacular. We need to stop him and stop their explosive plays.

- You work hard to be in these type of games and environment and hopefully get the win.

- Really proud of our organizations, players, and coaches. We have a great people. They love the process. My job as a head coach is to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

- Really like who they have on their football team with their style of play. Really excited with what they have coming back and the future. Have to have balance in recruiting - need young guys and older guys and get immediate needs filled. Great thing about the portal is you have now all the way up until fall camp to add guys.

- It's all about choosing the right person and the right player in the portal and that takes time.

- Biggest takeaway from the first game with UTSA, just eliminate the explosive plays on defense. They also have a tremendous defense, so we have to click on all cylinders on offense.

- Our offense does a great job of having a plan A, plan B, and plan C. Zappe is checking 50% of the time. They will have change-ups from the first time as well. We'll have to do our jobs well in coaching our guys and preparing for adjustments.

- Very proud of what we accomplished in the past, but it's in the past. This is a special football team that has very special players on it, like the 2015 team had. These players are the type of guys you like to coach.

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