This will be an interesting game. WKU is tops in passing efficiency, as a team....and it's hard to gauge how good they are in the C-DOA ranks with 8 of the defenses they faced were rated in the bottom half of the passing efficiency world. They faced four teams in the top half...Marshall, LSU, Vandy, and USM...against Vandy, and LSU they struggled passing....so was Marshall, and USM's pass efficiency rating a product of their play in C-DOA? I think we're going to get a very healthy dose of passing, and our DB's are going to have to be sharp, ready, and play disciplined because WKU is not a good rushing team so they will pass often, and a lot. They will try to lull us to sleep with their short and intermediate passing game and then take us deep occasionally with Taylor. We're going to have to play the pass like we've played all year against 5 top 50 teams. This is a battle of best versus best. WKU has a bad rushing offense ranked 90th, so they're going to try and pass their way to victory. Their rush defense is ranked 50th, but part of that has to do with the fact they've faced 8 teams ranked in the bottom half of the rush offense category. They've faced a total of 2 rush teams ranked in the top 50....LSU is ranked 10th, Indiana is ranked 30th, and USM is ranked 43rd. They lost to two of those teams....we're ranked 12th rushing. We should be able to run hard against them and balance our offense providing we play disciplined and tough on offense. The goal has to be is to shut-down their run, and limit their passing but play smart, and disciplined on defense and offense. We're better athletically but we've got to limit the effectiveness of their passing attack.
My biggest concern is the intangibles in this game. WKU has played quite a few bowl games lately, and this is our first in quite sometime. No one except a few 5th year guys have participated in a bowl game with this team. We've got a lot of kids from Miami that might get distracted by the home town crowd and fans. Athletically, and statically this should be a game we can win if our kids play smart, tough, and disciplined on both sides of the ball. We shall see, let's hope the kids are mentally prepared because WKU will try to push us around in the passing game. If our defense plays smart, disciplined, and opportunistic and limits WKU rushing attack we should be able to keep them settling for FG's and allow our offense to do their thing. Let's go Bulls!
My biggest concern is the intangibles in this game. WKU has played quite a few bowl games lately, and this is our first in quite sometime. No one except a few 5th year guys have participated in a bowl game with this team. We've got a lot of kids from Miami that might get distracted by the home town crowd and fans. Athletically, and statically this should be a game we can win if our kids play smart, tough, and disciplined on both sides of the ball. We shall see, let's hope the kids are mentally prepared because WKU will try to push us around in the passing game. If our defense plays smart, disciplined, and opportunistic and limits WKU rushing attack we should be able to keep them settling for FG's and allow our offense to do their thing. Let's go Bulls!
