Western Kentucky's football season opener at Louisville is scheduled to take place in just 16 plays, and Todd Stewart remains "very optimistic" that the game -- as well as the entire 2020 campaign -- will happen as currently scheduled.
The University's Director of Athletics spoke with reporters Thursday afternoon on a Zoom conference call to discuss the Hilltoppers' revised football schedule and provide an updated overall outlook on the fall sports calendar, saying that everything is moving forward as planned during the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think we all know the challenges, and certainly we're taking everything on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis," Stewart said on the Zoom call. "What I would say is based on the conversations we were having in March, April and May and the conversations that we're having today, I remain very optimistic. I'm certainly aware of the challenges that are there, but feel good because of the medical protocols we're following. Just following the guidance of the experts, I feel like that's helped us to manage through everything."
WKU released its updated season schedule Monday, which is now highlighted by the Sept. 12 opener at U of L and a Halloween road trip to BYU. Looking at the Conference USA portion of the Toppers' slate, they will meet Middle Tennessee, Marshall and UAB three consecutive weeks from Oct. 3-17.
Stewart had already spoken highly of U of L AD Vince Tyra and the Cardinals working with WKU to keep their game alive and again mentioned the importance of the matchup.
"That was big for a lot of reasons," Stewart said of being able to salvage the contest. "Certainly that was one of our bigger non-conference games. Obviously being able to play Louisville -- a prominent school in close proximity to us in the Atlantic Coast Conference -- and making it our opener has made it really exciting for our players to have that game right out of the gate."
Stewart also spoke about the added game with BYU, which will mark WKU's first-ever meeting with the Cougars and allow the Hilltoppers to travel a long distance to play a non-conference contest.
He labeled the matchup "unique" and commended BYU AD Tom Holmoe for working with him to put together the game.
"When they lost the number of games they lost -- being an independent, they lost a lot of games -- I reached out to Tom when I noticed that and we lost the Indiana game and he told me, 'Let's stay in touch. Let's see how this evolves,'" Stewart said. "Then all of a sudden he reached out to me the week we ended up announcing it and said, 'Hey! What do you think about playing on this date?' and it worked for us."
In regard to fans attending games this season at Houchens-Smith Stadium, Stewart said that they are still strategizing the logistics of everything but that WKU would like to follow U of L's plan of allowing the stadium to hold 30% of its capacity.
"We've submitted some things; we don't have anything finalized yet," Stewart said. "I think it would be safe to say that for the Liberty game (on Sept. 19), whatever our fan situation is will probably mirror the Louisville game. Just being in the same state they are, only 100 miles away and our home game being a week away from there, I think whatever it is when we go to Louisville will be what it is when we host Liberty."
