Things have quickly deteriorated from bad to worse for WKU football. The Tops fell to 1-5 overall and winless in Conference USA play after the Charlotte blew out the Hilltoppers, 40-14, during the 49ers homecoming festivities.

No one knew who would get the call at quarterback leading up to game time. Ultimately, Davis Shanley got the nod. The day would start off auspiciously for Shanley, as he threw a horrible interception to Charlotte’s Juwan Foggie. The 49ers respond with a 46-yard rushing touchdown by Benny Lemay on the first play of the drive.

However, Charlotte failed to convert on the two-point conversion, but still held a 6-0 lead early.

WKU flirted with multiple quarterbacks as freshman, Kevaris Thomas came in late in the first quarter where he navigated a 9-play, 85-yard drive and capped it off with a 4-yard touchdown.

However, that was the end of the action for Thomas on Saturday as Shanley returned under center.

Charlotte would respond to the Tops scoring drive later in the first half with a 33-yard field goal by Jonathan Cruz to put the 49ers up 9-7, going into the half.

Charlotte started the second half with a 10-play, 75-yard drive capped off with a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Evan Shirreffs, who replaced Chris Reynolds, to go up 16-7.

Charlotte, who currently ranks 4th in the country on time of possession, fed WKU a steady diet of Lemay running the ball while the 49ers' offensive line beat up WKU. Charlotte continued to pull away as Lemay scored with a 9-yard run, to make it 23-7.

The Tops could provide no answers as Shanley was picked off at WKU’s 27-yard. Charlotte poured it on with a quick 24-yd TD run by Aaron McAllister, pushing the lead to 30-7. Charlotte’s Cruz then hit a 52-yard field goal to extend the lead 33-7.

WKU’s defense did show some signs of life after blocking the subsequent field goal attempt by Cruz and recovered the ball.

However, rather than capitalize, Shanley immediately fumbled the ball back to Charlotte in Hilltopper territory. This led to 28-yard Charlotte passing touchdown from Shirreffs to Rico Arnold to push the lead to 40-7 over WKU. In all, Charlotte scored 34 straight unanswered points on the Hilltoppers.

Near the end of the game, quarterback Steven Duncan came in and found Steven Witchoskey for a 7-yard touchdown in the end zone to make the final score 40-14.

The Tops have now lost 10 of their last 12 games after suffering their worst conference defeat since losing to Louisiana Tech 59-10 back in 2014. WKU will return home next week for a matchup with Old Dominion.