Bowling Green, Kentucky – The Indiana Hoosiers (2-2) took a 14-0 lead in the first period over Western Kentucky (1-2) on the road, but the Hilltoppers opened up a comparable passing attack and battled to the end as IU won in a close one, 33-21. Indiana QB Michael Penix passed for 373 yards completing 34 of 53 to very wide-open receivers. He ran for a TD and his RB Stephen Carr added two on short runs all finishing long drives. WR Ty Fryfogel caught key passes gaining 98 yards on ten receptions.
Hoosiers start quick
WKU, down by 14, went to the air on QB Bailey Zappe’s arm to offset IU’s successful air attack. He countered with 31 of 44 completions for 365 yards and three TDs. WKU’s pass defense was porous. As the game progressed, however, the IU secondary showed their coverage lacked more than the Toppers. Zappe passed at will. Early penalties and mistakes cost them in several critical situations. Neither team turned the ball over which could be attributed to no pressure on either QB. Neither team recorded a sack. Both secondaries played very loose coverage.
QB Michael Penix submarines underneath this pile for Indiana’s second score.
One positive note for the Hilltopper defense, it displayed a “bend but don’t break” scenario forcing four FGs. However, Hoosier PK Charles Campbell lived up to the task converting all four attempts from 46, 37, 25, and 48 yards. IU’s first punt of the game came late in Q3.
Hilltoppers climb back in
Long drives finished by short TD runs by Penix and Carr spotted the Hoosiers a 14-0 lead by the end of Q1. WKU got its offense going into the second period finishing a 77-yard drive with a one-yard plunge by Adam Cofield. Campbell’s first two FGs extended the IU lead, 20-7. WKU showed it figured IU’s weakness through the air and drove 72 yards in 1:42 scoring with only 55 seconds left in the half. A 25-yard pass to Daewood Davis at the right pylon closed the gap by six. IU started its next possession with two straight complete passes and a 21-yard run by Carr to the Topper’s 15. Three incompletions and an offsides by WKU brought Campbell back on to boot is third FG for a 23-14 margin as time ran out to end the half.
Memory of Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium/Fiex Field
Though this was Collegefootballfan.com’s first time ever at the home site of the Western Kentucky football program, this game revived a vivid memory of a WKU football game played in this venue from 1970. Back then, ABC-TV featured a Sunday morning college football program featuring four or five games from the previous day before. The field goals in particular, while sitting up above the north end zone this evening overlooking a highway running parallel to railroad tracks running east to west, reminded me of a game recorded on that program back then.
Looking up records after, I confirmed my memory was correct! I believe the broadcaster narrating the highlights was either Bill Simpson or Bob Murphy of NY Mets broadcasting fame. The game featured Western Kentucky hosting Eastern Kentucky. As a field goal cleared a high, chain-linked fence beyond the end zone at that time, one of two school-aged kids standing on the desolate road at that time caught the football. They both started running away from the football field with the game ball as the narrator exclaimed, “And here is the longest run of the day!” Being at Feix Field, a beautiful football facility by the way, and seeing FGs landing in the stands brought back the WKU memory. What memories of so long ago – shocking!
Charles Campbell’s four FGS at WKU stirred some memories of a highlight reel from 1970 at the same stadium.
You can look it up!
I confirmed all of this on Wikipedia. WKU won the Ohio Valley Conference that season with a record of 8-1-1, 5-1-1. They finished No. 12 in the AP and No. 9 in the UPI final polls in the NCAA College Division. On October 24 in Bowling Green, they defeated No. 14 Eastern Kentucky, 19-7, in the “Battle of the Blue Grass.” Several WKU alum on that team made it to the NFL. Of note, one of the Hilltoppers’s football assistants was Romeo Crennel, long time NFL coach since.
Feix Field is named for the HC of WKU at the time of this game. Jimmy Feix played QB for the Toppers in 1949-1952. He was an assistant there from 1957-68. He became HC from 1968-1993 finishing with a career record of 106-56-6. His teams won the Ohio Valley Conference six times. Great stuff! We wonder if there is any record of the two kids responsible for the “famous” longest run with that ball that day?
Hoosiers hold on
In the second half, Zappe came out firing. His 13-yard TD pass to Dalvin Smith closed the score to 23-21 within the first two minutes of the second half. Field goals by both teams made the score 26-24 going into the final period.
WKU’s Dalvin Smith scores on a 13-yard TD pass to close the gap early in the third period.
Carr’s five-yard TD run to finish an 86-yard Hoosier drive extended IU’s lead, 33-24. WKU’s ensuing drive stayed alive on a fourth and seven-yard pass completion to Mitchell Tinsley. The 38-yard gain renewed life for the Hilltoppers at IU’s 34. With 2:43 left, Zappe connected with a wide-open Malachi Corley for a 19-yard TD pass. WKU got back within two, 33-31.
Indiana took over at their 35 when the Topper kickoff landed out of bounds. A third and eight pass from Penix to Fryfogel for ten yards put IU in control after WKU used up all its time-outs to run out the clock to take home the Big Ten Team’s 33-31 victory, but not without exposing some weakness going forward into conference play.
IU WR Ty Fryfogel didn’t score on Saturday, but he had several key catches including a final first down late in the game to seal the Hoosier win.
Next week
IU’s conference play starts next Saturday at No. 4 Penn State. Having seen the Nittany Lions and Hoosiers both play these last two weekends, look for our prediction regarding that one later this week in Steveo’s Salvos. Speaking of Big Ten play, WKU continues the same traveling to East Lansing, Michigan to play No. 17 Michigan State (4-0). Collegefootballfan.com is calling an audible. We decided that high-scoring Marshall (2-2) visiting Middle Tennessee (1-3) will not be as competitive as another local alternative game. We will travel to nearby Clarksville, TN instead to see our first game at Austin Peay (2-2). They host Ohio Valley Conference foe, Tennessee State (1-2), an HBCS coached by Heisman winner Eddie George. We will see these Tigers play for the first time. Interestingly enough, these two will meet again in Nissan Stadium on October.
Extra points:
Since we both have an interest in exploring locations not far from where we live now in Tennessee, my wife “St. Laurie” joined me on this excursion to Bowling Green within an hour away. On the way, we stopped at The Mint Gaming Hall in Franklin, Kentucky right over the north Tennessee border. Slots and horse simulcasting only. We went for drinks and apps at Double Dogs Sports bar in Bowling Green for our pregame meal.
Good beers and three appetizers were good, but even Laurie got intrigued by the games being played on the multi screens long enough to watch the Louisville-FSU game with a small but hard-core group of Cardinal fans. Even more so, she was intrigued to watch Clemson going down since she is the mother of a die-hard Gamecock fan! However, Clemson tied the game at the end of regulation and I pried her away from OT since we were unfamiliar with the parking arrangements at WKU.
We got to the campus easily enough, but signs for football parking were not evident. On this date where Power Five team Indiana visited for a rare occasion, the facility probably was not organized to host the 25,171 fans that showed up for this one. Probably twice what they usually have at Topper games. We followed what we thought were others searching for football parking, stopped to ask several people who directed us to the local high school lot, parked for free, and thought nothing of it since we had quite a trek ahead of us.
A bunch of high school bands were practicing near their buses for what we figured was a HS band halftime extravaganza. We never saw them again. After the game, we walked along dark streets and found we were the last car left. One gate was locked. Uh oh! We found a main gate wasn’t, luckily. On the way back we were the only ones walking along this route. We had parked at a high school band competition at the Warren Central High School. Oh well, we’ll know better next time! WKU vs Middle Tennessee is on our slate later this season, for now.
The record crowd created long lines on the way into Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium. By accident, we ended up in the shorter of two lines luckily to get in a few minutes late into the game. No tickets could be added to the collections as these were bought electronically in advance, and no programs were to be had either. Not sure if they had run out or just never sold any. New technology puts a damper on some of the fun of attending college football games.
Collegefootballfan.com plans to visit Topper the WKU mascot again!
