Toppers can clinch C-USA East title, home field for championship game at Marshall tonight
By Jim Turner

At 6 p.m. today, the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers will play at Marshall University with two big prizes at stake. If they win, they will clinch first place in Conference USA’s East Division and home field advantage in the conference championship game.

It’s still possible that WKU could lose and still be in the championship game, but that would happen only if Old Dominion loses today, too.

This game matches two excellent quarterbacks, Western’s Mike White and Marshall’s Chase Litton. Trey Turner’s computerized artwork included with this article features those quarterbacks.

The Matchup:

WKU at Marshall
Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016, 6 p.m. CT
Joan C. Edwards Stadium (38,227), Huntington, W.Va.

TV: ESPNU/WatchESPN
Play-by-Play: Bill Roth
Analyst: John Gregory

What to Watch For:

• WKU is in its 97th season of football and third under head coach Jeff Brohm, who became the school’s 19th head coach on Jan. 10, 2014.
• WKU is one of the newest members of the FBS, entering just its eighth year as full members at this level.
• Since 2010, the Hilltoppers have had remarkable consistency at the quarterback position with just two opening day starters over those six seasons - Kawaun Jakes (2010-12) and Brandon Doughty (2013-15). Enter Mike White in 2016, who won the starting job this fall.
• Defensively, the Hilltoppers returned just four starters but a wealth of game experience. Of the 32 players on the defense who saw at least three games of action last year, 21 return for 2016.
• Wide receivers Taywan Taylor and Nicholas Norris - both on the Biletnikoff Watch List - are living up to their preseason hype so far. They are one of only three duos in the nation to each have 2,500 or more career receiving yards.
• WKU has reached bowl eligibility in six consecutive seasons and in six of eight years as an FBS school. It is the longest streak of bowl eligibility in Conference USA. WKU also became C-USA’s first bowl-eligible team of 2016 with a 52-3 win over FAU.
• WKU had a 13-game winning streak over league opponents snapped at Louisiana Tech. It was the second-longest streak in league history and one shy of tying the record set by Southern Miss from 1998-2000.
• Taywan Taylor shattered the single-season record for receiving yards in 2015, and he’s ahead of that pace in 2016. Through 11 games in 2015, Taylor had 1,151 yards compared to 1,340 this season.

• The Hilltoppers average 43.8 points per game under Jeff Brohm - the highest points per game mark among all active FBS head coaches. Brohm is ahead of Oregon’s Mark Helfrich (No. 2) who averages 42.9.

About the Game:

• WKU faces Marshall to close the regular season for the third consecutive season in what has become one of C-USA’s most intense rivalries. The Hilltoppers upset the Thundering Herd during their last trip to Huntington in 2014 in what was an instant college football classic.
• With a victory, WKU would secure C-USA’s East Division title for the second consecutive season.
• Since 2013, WKU is 13-1 in the month of November and 9-1 under Jeff Brohm. Only Florida State (14) and Ohio State (14) have won more games in November over that same time span.
• It will be the final regular season game for WKU’s senior class of 2016. Since 2013, the first year of competition for this class, the Hilltoppers have won 36 games, the most successful senior class since the 2004 class won 38 games and fourth-most wins all-time by a class.

Numbers to Watch

• 1 - With one rushing touchdown, Anthony Wales would tie the school’s single-season record for rushing scores at 19.
• 2 - If Wales is able to get two scores, he will tie Garrett Schwettman for the single-season scoring record, currently at 124 points.
• 100 - Saturday’s game will be WKU’s 100th as an FBS school. The Hilltoppers are 52-47 at the FBS level since the move in 2009.

Extra Time:
A common line of thought across college football is that with more time to prepare for an opponent, the better chance of victory, but is that really true? Well, for Coach Brohm’s Hilltoppers, the math works in their favor. Brohm has never lost an opener and is 8-4 when having more than a week to prepare - including a 8-1 mark against Group of Five foes. 

First Half Leads:
The Hilltoppers have been on a tear during their current five-game winning streak, carrying double-digit halftime leads into the break in four of those five games. For the year, the Hilltoppers are averaging a 14.6 point halftime lead, the seventh-best mark in the country.

Dynamic Duo
As WKU’s two most experienced wide receivers, Taywan Taylor and Nicholas Norris have carried the pass catching load so far this season for WKU, accounting for 141 of the 248 completions (56.9%) combined.

• Taylor and Norris were both members of the 2013 signing class and played as true freshman
• Their combined career receiving totals (6,641) are more than any other wide receiving duo in the country, ahead of LA Tech’s Trent Taylor and Carlos Henderson (6,241).
• Taylor (5) and Norris (20) both rank in the Top 20 in receiving yards through Week 11 - making WKU one of only two schools with a duo inside the Top 20 (LA Tech). They also have the fifth-most combined receptions of any duo in the FBS.
• Rarely do two players go 1-2 in the career receiving yardage record books but Taylor and Norris have done just that. They are the first active duo to sit at No. 1 and No. 2 at the same time since Noel Grigsby and Chandler Jones (San Jose State) in 2013 and just the seventh duo all-time. Research for more duos is ongoing.

Chasing Legends
Taywan Taylor is steadily climbing the record books both in the NCAA and in Conference USA. With just three seasons in the league to count, Taylor already ranks in the Top 15 in numerous C-USA career categories.