First Glance Preview: Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Week Two: Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Date & Time: Saturday, September 19 at 4 pm ET

Venue: Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, IN 

TV: Peacock

Hilltoppers at a Glance

Head Coach: Tyson Helton 

Entering his Eighth season as WKU head coach

Record at WKU: 57-36-0 (40-15 in CUSA)

Overall Record: 57-36 

Last Season: 9-4 (6-2 in CUSA) Won New Orleans Bowl vs. Southern Mississippi

Series History vs. Indiana

Record: 0-5

Last Meeting: 2023 33-30 Loss OT

Hilltoppers Returning Leaders

Passing: Rodney Tisdale (139-212, 1,432 yards, 9 TD 7 INT)

Rushing: Rodney Tisdale (52 rushes, 108 yards 3 TD)

Receiving: K.D. Hutchenson (66 catches, 618 yards 2 TDs)

Tackles: DB Jaylen Lewis (74 tackles, 3.5 TFLs, 3 INTs)

Hilltoppers Names to Know

WR K.D. Hutchenson

QB Brock Glenn

QB Rodney Tisdale

DB Jaylen Lewis

DB David Herard

WR Jeremiah Carroll

Hilltoppers Preseason Predictions

Athlon: 1st in CUSA (New Orleans Bowl vs. JMU)

Lindy’s: 2nd in CUSA 

Phil Steele: 2nd in CUSA

Sporting News: 1st in CUSA

SP+: 86th Nationally

Impact Newcomers for the Hilltoppers

Brock Glenn, QB (Transfer from Florida State)

Ajay Allen, RB (Transfer from Nebraska)

Biggest Questions Facing the Hilltoppers

Can they take the next step as a G6 Program?

What is the adjustment period for two new coordinators?

Who plays quarterback?

Program Preview

Western Kentucky has been one of the most consistent Group of Six programs in college football and head coach Tyson Helton is entering his eighth season in Bowling Green. Helton has been fantastic and has brought stability to a situation that usually lacks it when a team has won 57 games over seven seasons.

The Hilltoppers have high expectations this year, and while not listed by many, if any, to be the G6 representative in the College Football Playoff, they will be in contention for the CUSA title. The schedule does feature a couple of daunting matchups out of conference, with trips to Georgia and Indiana in back-to-back weeks. The Hilltoppers don’t play a home game until September 28th and just three before November, so fans looking to get a taste of WKU football may head to Bloomington in droves. 

WKU will be breaking in two new coordinators in 2026. Davis Merritt earned a promotion to full-time defensive coordinator after helping the Hilltoppers finish second in the CUSA in scoring defense. On the offensive side of the Hilltoppers brought in Bodie Reeder from Middle Tennessee State to serve as co-offensive coordinator with Joe Bernardi who was promoted to co-coordinator after two seasons serving as WKU’s offensive line coach.

On the field, the Hilltoppers will likely have a battle at quarterback between the sophomore Rodney Tisdale and Florida State transfer Brock Glenn. The offense should be explosive as always, while the defense is susceptible to giving up yards, but locked down in the red zone.

Offensive Preview

Indiana fans know well that Western Kentucky always has a good and explosive offense. While the Hilltoppers battled some up and downs last season, they should have another great offense in 2026.

WKU returns sophomore quarterback Rodney Tisdale, who has garnered some All-CUSA preseason honors.  In nine games in 2025, Tisdale put up decent numbers with 1,432 yards passing and nine touchdowns. Like most young quarterbacks, Tisdale struggled with consistency. He threw seven interceptions and completed 65.6 percent of his passes.

Helton brought in Florida State transfer Brock Glenn to add experience to the room and it may end up being a quarterback competition early in the year as to who gives the Hilltoppers the best chance of winning games on the road. Glenn has 16 games of experience under his belt, but not much productivity. In those 16 games, Glenn has 895 passing yards, six touchdown passes and seven interceptions. He is not really a threat to run the ball.

Whoever the quarterback is will have a great group of receivers to throw to, led by senior K.D. Hutchenson, a 5’8” dynamo who has 11 career touchdowns. South Carolina State transfer Nigel Johnson is a 6’5” receiver who has yet to realize his potential. Quincey Burroughs comes in from Wisconsin, where he played special teams, but is now looking for a bigger role on offense.

Cameron Flowers (5’11”) will step into a bigger role after 19 catches and 204 yards in 2025 and Zion Taylor (Georgia Tech) and Jeremiah Carroll (Carson-Newman) are transfers who should make an immediate impact at the position.

The Hilltoppers try and boost their rushing attack with former Nebraska back Ajay Allen who will be at his fourth school. Allen also played at Miami and Tulsa and has 1,229 career rushing yards to go along with 14 touchdowns. Oklahoma State transfer Kalib Hicks will also be added to the backfield. He’ll be a redshirt junior and only has 153 career rushing yards.

Western Kentucky has only one starter returning to the projected starting lineup, but it hammered the big fellas upfront in the portal. Seniors Karsten Upchurch and Rhett Larson will anchor a pretty young group. Freshman Alex Lopez is projected to start at right tackle and sophomore Max Thurston will be at right guard. The left side will have junior Tai Ray at tackle and Larson at guard.

Arizona State transfer Coleson Arrends has experience and production to step into the starting role, but has played only one of his 15 games of experience in the 2025 season. Most of that playing time was on special teams.  Redshirt junior Aiden Miller could win the job as well, but has only six games under his belt. 

Defensive Preview

In 2025, the Western Kentucky defense allowed the ball to move between the 20-yard lines, but as soon as an opponent got into the red zone, they clamped down. The Hilltoppers’ defense allowed 400 yards per game, but just 22.8 points per game, thanks to their red zone defense. WKU forced opponents to kick field goals instead of touchdowns as they held teams to a CUSA-lowest 34.7 percent touchdown rate in the red zone. 

After struggling to defend the pass in 2025, the Hilltoppers look to get back to their 2024 production. Safety Jaylen Lewis is an All-CUSA candidate and the team’s most experienced defender and is joined by returning safety starter Dave Herard. WKU again went to the portal to bring in some reinforcements. Former Florida State defensive back Christian White is in line to start at the nickel corner position.

Tony Newsome (West Florida) will get a look at a starting corner position after a productive two seasons with WFU. Braxton Meyers, a former Purdue defensive back, returns to play opposite Newsome.

Zach Smith and Jordan Donald will man the middle of WKU’s 4-2-5 defense. Smith and Donald are just sophomores and will have to grow on the job as they have 20 career tackles between them.

The Hilltopper defensive line will feature a familiar face in former Hoosier Venson Sneed, who played at IU from 2022-2024. He looks to build on a productive season at Western Kentucky last year after posting 16 tackles.

Elin Jones will be opposite Sneed at defensive end. He had two tackles for loss and a sack last season. Eric Etienne and Jakeem Fletcher will plug up the middle. Both tackles tip the scales at 310 pounds. 

Special Teams Preview

The Hilltoppers will have to replace punter Cole Maynard who earned All-CUSA honors last season. However, they hit the Australian market for punter Daniel Wall, but he has no experience playing American football.

There is a three-man competition for field goal kicking, but it seems like Michael Buck has the upper hand to start the season 

Western Kentucky can throw a number of athletes at opponents in the kick and punt return game. K.D. Hutchenson is an excellent punt returner and Cameron Flowers will likely handle the kickoff duties.

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