Western Kentucky Opens 2024 Season at Alabama

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Football will open the 2024 season on Saturday with a 6 p.m. CT game against No. 5 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

GAME INFO

• WKU (0-0) at No. 5 Alabama (0-0)

• Saturday, Aug. 31 | 6 p.m. CT | Bryant Denny Stadium | Tuscaloosa, Ala.

• Watch: ESPN (PxP: Dave Pasch | Analyst: Dusty Dvoracek | Reporter: Taylor McGregor)

• Listen: SAM 100.7 FM/Varsity Network (PxP: Randy Lee | Analyst: Terry Obee | Reporter: Jared Holland)/SiriusXM 81 and on the SiriusXM App 

• Social: @WKUFootball | @WKUSports

• Live Stats: rolltide.com/sidearmstats/football/summary

• Game Notes: WKU | Alabama

ABOUT THE TOPS

• WKU has become accustomed to using the transfer portal to build teams under Head Coach Tyson Helton and that is no different this season. The Hilltoppers have a total of 53 new players in the program that were not with the team in 2023. That group includes 24 offensive players and 23 defensive players. Of the 53, 33 arrived via the transfer portal and 20 are true freshmen.  Of the 33 transfers, 14 are offensive players, 15 are defensive players and 23 have been on an FBS roster at some point in their collegiate career. Of the 20 true freshmen, 10 are offensive players and eight are defensive players.

• Expectations are high for the Hilltoppers in 2024. WKU was picked second in the 2024 CUSA Football Media Predicted Order of Finish, while running back Elijah Young, offensive lineman Quantavious Leslie, defensive lineman Hosea Wheeler, defensive back Upton Stout, and kicker Lucas Carneiro were named to the CUSA Preseason Watch List. Carneiro was also named the league's Preseason Special Teams Player of the Year. Six Hilltoppers – Stout, Anthony Johnson Jr., Leslie, Dalvin Smith, Kisean Johnson and TJ Finley – were named to the Shrine Bowl 1000 Watchlist. Finley was also on watch lists for the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Player of the Year, the Davey O'Brien Award, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and the Reese's Senior Bowl. Leslie was included on the Outland Trophy Preseason Watch List, while Johnson was on the Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Preseason Wach List, Smith was on the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy Watch List, Easton Messer was on the Paul Hornung Award Preseason Watch List, Young was on the Doak Walker Award Watch List and Wheeler was named to the Lombardi Award Watch List.

• WKU capped off the 2023 season with a dramatic come-from-behind 38-35 overtime victory against Old Dominion in the Famous Toastery Bowl – the fourth-largest comeback ever in a bowl game. WKU became one of one of only 16 teams to play in a bowl game each of the last five seasons, and became one of only seven programs to win a bowl game in each of the last three years. Only Alabama, Georgia and Wisconsin have more bowl wins than WKU over the past 10 years.

• On Monday, Tyson Helton named Texas State transfer TJ Finley WKU's starting quarterback for the season opener at No. 5 Alabama. Finley spent one season with the Bobcats and received All-Sun Belt Honorable Mention, Phil Steele All-Sun Belt Fourth Team, Manning Award Watch List and Davey O'Brien Award Midseason Watch List recognitions. He finished the year throwing for 3,439 yards and 24 touchdowns to just eight interceptions on 279-of-414 passing while starting all 13 games. He also rushed for 81 yards and five touchdowns. 

• WKU's combined nine defensive touchdowns over the last two seasons (2022 and 2023) are the most in the nation.

• WKU is 63-36-6 in season openers. The Hilltoppers have claimed wins in each of the last three season openers, with victories against South Florida in 2023, Austin Peay in 2022 and UT Martin in 2021. 

QUOTABLE

• "Excited about game week. It's finally here. We've been working really hard for a long time now and I know our players are really excited about this week. Can't think of a better game to start off with, with a great opponent in Alabama. Get to go to their place, storied program. I know our guys are really excited to get the opportunity to play them. It's just been a lot of hard work and now you finally get to go out there and play somebody other than yourself. It'll be a great challenge for us but a challenge that we're excited to get after and we're looking forward to a good ballgame." – WKU Football Head Coach Tyson Helton, on starting the season Saturday at No. 5 Alabama.

• "I think it's like most offense. I think as you go through time a little bit, you start executing a little bit better. The repetition picks up of things that you're doing. It's such a repetition side of the ball as far as doing things right and not putting yourselves in bad situations. The assignments got better as camp went on. That's not really foreign to have the second scrimmage or the third scrimmage not be better than the first one. I think the guys have worked hard. I think we've had good competition. We did a lot of good on good work against our defense who does a great job and guys have got better as we've gone. The key is going to be, as coach says, it's a marathon and that's the whole season. Can you improve? You never stay the same – you either get better or worse – and that's kind of what you want to do throughout the course of the year and that's our goal here, is to continue to get better and continue to get better. Fall camp is no different from the season – you want to get better as fall camp goes on and you want to do the whole thing through the season." – WKU Football Offensive Coordinator Will Friend, on improving throughout fall camp.

• "They're just a lot of fun. They like to be coached, they like ball, they like learning, they don't complain, they don't point fingers, so they're a lot of fun. I think, like anything else, the more fun that you're having, the more you enjoy it. Those kind of go hand in hand. It's been a great camp." – WKU Football Defensive Coordinator Tyson Summers, on coaching the defense this fall.

SERIES INFORMATION

• WKU's 2024 season opener will mark the program's fourth meeting all-time against Alabama and the first since the 2016 season. 

• The Hilltoppers are 0-3 all-time against Alabama, with all three of those meetings coming in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 

• WKU lost 38-10 in the most recent meeting in 2016, but went on to win the Conference USA championship and the Boca Raton Bowl title that season.

SCOUTING THE CRIMSON TIDE

• Alabama went 12-2 overall and 8-0 in SEC play during the 2023 season. The Crimson Tide knocked off Georgia 27-24 in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta and earned a berth in the College Football Playoff, where they fell 27-20 in overtime to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

• The Crimson Tide are in their first year under new head coach Kalen DeBoer, who replaced longtime coach Nick Saban at the end of the 2023 season. DeBoer comes to Alabama from Washington, where he led the Huskies to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game a season ago. Saban was at Alabama for 17 seasons, where he won six national championships, and in his 28-year head coaching career he claimed seven national titles. First-year Alabama head coaches have a 21-7 record (21-6 without interim head coaches) in their inaugural game at UA.

• Alabama enters the 2024 season ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press Poll, marking the 262nd consecutive week the Crimson Tide have appeared in the poll. That streak is the longest active streak in college football.

• Alabama is currently riding a 22-game winning streak in its season opener. The Tide's last loss to start a new year came in 2001 when UA fell to UCLA, 20-17. Alabama has an 83-11-2 record in 96 home-opening games.

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