MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – After entering Saturday's matchup at Middle Tennessee with the series tied 35-35-1, WKU claimed the lead in the 100 Miles of Hate rivalry by knocking off the Blue Raiders, 35-17, at Floyd Stadium.
The victory improved WKU's record to 4-3 overall on the season and 2-1 in Conference USA play. It was also the 600th win in the history of WKU Football. The Hilltoppers became the 66th FBS program to reach the 600-win milestone. Middle Tennessee fell to 3-4 for the season and 0-3 in C-USA.
"It's always good to get a big rivalry win, especially after only two losses and to go on the road and facing adversity, I thought our guys responded well," said WKU Head Coach Tyson Helton. "Now we have to go back and clean a lot of things up. Offensively we were very messy, and in the first half shot ourselves in the foot. I was very frustrated. Defense did fantastic, it allowed us to calm down a little bit offensively, and the offense responded in the second half, put together some good drives. I thought we went back to being sloppy late in game again, so those are the things we have to fix. But to go on the road and get that win is a big deal."
A dominant defensive performance was the story of the night for WKU as the Hilltoppers gave up only 291 yards of total offense, including just 63 rushing yards. The Tops also forced two turnovers, including a pick six by freshman defensive back Darius Thomas to put the game on ice in the fourth quarter. JaQues Evans led WKU in tackles on the night with nine, but Kahlef Hailassie did a little of everything for WKU with seven tackles, including 2.5 for loss, as well as two pass breakups and a forced fumble.
After the defense forced a three-and-out on MTSU's opening drive of the game, WKU's offense got off to a tough start by losing a fumble on its first play from scrimmage which set up a Blue Raider touchdown on the very next play. The fumble was the beginning of an rough first quarter for WKU's offense, but the Hilltoppers managed to recover and score 14 points in the second quarter to take a 14-10 lead into the halftime break.
On the first play of the second quarter, Austin Reed connected with Malachi Corley for a three-yard touchdown pass, and then Kye Robichaux ran in a 14-yard touchdown toward the end of the quarter to put the Tops ahead for good.
Reed would go on to finish the game 32-of-39 for 278 and two touchdowns through the air with a quarterback rating of 122.4. He also rushed for 41 yards and a touchdown on the night. Corley proved to be his top target with 10 catches for 100 yards and the second-quarter score. Robichaux finished the night as the Hilltoppers' leading rusher with 78 yards and a touchdown.
The second half started much better for WKU than the first as Reed led a seven-play, 73-yard touchdown drive on the opening possession. The Tops got down to the one-yard line thanks to a 26-yard reception by tight end Joey Beljan, and Reed punched it in from a yard out. Two drives later, WKU was once again on the one-yard line, this time facing a fourth and goal. Helton called a timeout to set up a fourth-down conversion attempt and drew up the perfect play as Reed found Joshua Simon wide open in the end zone to make the score 28-10 for WKU.
The Hilltopper offense was done scoring for the night after Simon's touchdown, but WKU still managed to find the end zone one more time thanks to the defense. Middle Tennessee attempted a quick screen pass minutes into the fourth quarter and Thomas was waiting on it to make the interception and take it 42 yards for the pick six. WKU's defense entered the game second in the nation in defensive touchdowns and scored their fourth of the year to secure the victory.
The Hilltoppers will now return home after a two-game road trip to host UAB on Friday, Oct. 21. Kickoff between the Tops and Blazers is slated for 7 p.m. MT and the game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
