Hilltoppers' FBS evolution has been stunning

Apr. 27—We've touched on this before, but one of the real success stories in college football over the past 15 years has been the rise of Western Kentucky in the ranks of the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision — something that literally couldn't have been imagined three decades earlier, when the the university came within one board of regents vote of discontinuing the sport altogether.

In the time since, Jack Harbaugh steadily built and built and built the program to a point where the Hilltoppers were viable contenders for the NCAA Division I-AA national championship — winning it all in 2002 on a cold December night in Chattanooga, Tennessee, punishing top-ranked McNeese State 34-14 behind the extraordinary performance of running back Jon Frazier, a former Muhlenberg North High School star.

Harbaugh retired following that improbable championship run and was replaced by defensive coordinator David Elson, who enjoyed a pair of solid seasons in the Gateway Football Conference before the flower began to fade. While navigating its precarious transition from FCS to FBS, Western lost the final 18 games of Elson's tenure, prompting the university to relieve him of his duties.

Western turned to a familiar face for resuscitation and hired former offensive coordinator Willie Taggart, an All-American quarterback on the Hill in 1998, to take over; the first of several brilliant coaching hires in succession. The Hilltoppers lost the first six games of his tenure — stretching the program's losing streak to (gulp!) 26 games — and Western was only 2-14 in Taggart's first 16 games.

So, how in the world did the WKU program get from that point to this point?

The Hilltoppers won seven of their final eight games in 2011, finishing a surprising second in the Sun Belt Conference, and won four of their first five games in 2012, including a landmark 32-31 overtime decision over Kentucky in Lexington, which featured a trick play 2-point conversion on the game's final play. Make no mistake: This victory over UK — Western's first versus a team from the Southeastern Conference — forever changed the trajectory of the WKU football program.

Despite a late-season slide, the Hilltoppers finished 7-6 and earned the program's first FBS bowl berth. By this point, Taggart was considered one of real up-and-coming young guns in the coaching profession, and he accepted the head coach position at South Florida — a return to his Sunshnie State roots, having hailed from Bradenton.

That led to a period that Hilltopper Nation refers to as "The Bridge" and the somewhat controversial hiring of Bobby Petrino, the former Louisville coach whose career had been severely tainted by some scandalous and highly-publicized misadventures during his otherwise successful tenure as head coach at Arkansas. Petrino was fired by Arkansas in the spring of 2012 and was hired by WKU the following December to replace Taggart.

During his one season at WKU, Petrino rehabilitated his image and led the Hilltoppers to an 8-4 record, which included their second consecutive victory over UK — a 35-26 conquest before 47,623 fans in a Western "home" game at Nashville. Curiously (wink), the in-state rivals haven't met since. Petrino employed former U of L star quarterback Jeff Brohm as offensive coordinator, and Western's Air Raid-style attack — which continues to this day — was unleashed in earnest behind the talents of record-setting quarterback Brandon Doughty.

Following the 2013 season, Petrino returned to Louisville as head coach and WKU promptly hired Brohm as his replacement, ushering in a golden era.

In three seasons at the WKU helm, Brohm's teams won 30 of 40 games (.750), captured two Conference USA championships and won three consecutive bowl games. Among the highlights of the Brohm era was an epic 67-66 overtime upset of then-undefeated and No. 19 Marshall on Nov. 28, 2014, in Huntington, West Virginia — the Toppers' first-ever win over a ranked opponent, and, arguably, the most impactful victory in their FBS history.

A highly sought coach at the Power Five level, Brohm, with some genuine reluctance (he once said with conviction that he enjoyed every aspect of coaching at Western and living with his family in Bowling Green), departed following the 2016 season to accept a lucrative offer to become head coach at Purdue.

What followed was the program's only significant hiring misstep in FBS, when Mike Sanford Jr. was chosen to succeed Brohm. Sanford looked good on paper, having been offensive coordinator at Notre Dame, but he proved to be too young (35) to lead a burgeoning FBS program, and it didn't take long to see that he was in over his head. Sanford went 9-16 in two seasons — losing 14 of 16 games in one tell-tale stretch — and was fired after going 3-9 in 2018.

That led to the hiring of current head coach Tyson Helton, who had been Brohm's offensive coordinator at WKU in 2014-15. Reigniting the Air Raid attack, Helton has won nine games three times and has won three bowl games in his four seasons at the Western helm — coaching the nation"s leading passer in consecutive seasons (Bailey Zappe in 2021 and Austin Reed in 2022).

Over the last decade-plus, numerous WKU players have landed in the NFL, including standout tight ends Jack Doyle (Indianapolis Colts) and Tyler Higbee (Los Angeles Rams), as well as Miami Dolphins backup quarterback Mike White. Another Topper tight end, Deon Yelder, was a member of the Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs.

So, this is how we got here — this is what has turned the Hilltoppers into the Thrilltoppers on the gridiron.