Many might have been surprised with the way the Western Kentucky football team ran the football Saturday in its season-opening win against Kentucky.

They shouldn’t have been.

The Hilltoppers’ offense is full of players recruited to fit into former coach Willie Taggart’s run-heavy, West Coast offense. From physical, experienced offensive linemen to pure, between-the-tackles running backs, Petrino and offensive coordinator Jeff Brohm can tailor the offense around the running game while the passing portion catches up.

“We’ve got to make sure our guys know exactly what they’re doing,” Brohm said. “There’s always things we’re going to tweak, slightly add, but right now we’ve got to make sure we get the ball in our playmakers’ hands and utilize their talent to win the game.”

The Tops gave carries to three different backs, first and foremost to senior Antonio Andrews. He went for 99 yards and a score, but after fumbling the ball away twice in the first half, gave way to true sophomore Leon Allen.

Allen went for 92 yards on 10 carries and also scored a touchdown. Senior Keyshawn Simpson then became an afterthought despite scoring two touchdowns in the first half and averaging 4.2 yards per carry.

“We feel like we have a lot of weapons,” Petrino said. “We didn’t even get Ace (redshirt freshman Anthony Wales) going yet. Just didn’t work out that way. We had the package for him and a plan for him. Leon (Allen) got real hot in the third quarter and showed his burst and his power and he has a combination of both.

“But it’s a good group of running backs. We’ve got to keep them fresh and use them and when one guy gets hot, we continue to feed him.”

Not only is WKU’s backfield stable loaded, they’re all running behind an offensive line groomed under Taggart and former offensive line coach Walt Wells to be perfectionists in the run game.

Left tackle Cameron Clemmons has now played in 22 games, left guard Luis Polanco 34, center Sean Conway 38 and right tackle Ed Hazelett 24. Forrest Lamp – who Petrino said will be a “very, very good player” – played in his first college football game Saturday as a redshirt freshman and as the unit’s starting right guard.

“I was very well pleased, man,” Polanco said of his unit’s first game. “We’ve been working really hard since the spring, all camp, our first week of practice our focus was to become a team, to come together. I feel like we all did that.

“Like coach Petrino was saying, we won that game because we all bonded together.”

Western Kentucky, which gets $800,000 for its trip to Tennessee and Neyland Stadium at 11:21 a.m. CDT Saturday, ranked 45th in rushing the football in the nation in 2012. After Saturday’s game, WKU ranks 37th by rushing for 216 yards against UK.

Report claims former trainer was at odds with Petrino

In a report issued Monday by The Chronicle of Higher Education, former Western Kentucky athletic trainer Danny Cobble said first-year WKU football coach Bobby Petrino questioned his medical decisions.

“I was excited about the opportunity to work with him,” Cobble told The Chronicle about attending Petrino’s introductory news conference. “I thought, ‘This man is a winner. There’s no way I can’t work with this guy and learn something I could do better.’ ” Cobble, however, said that when Petrino began to work within the program, the former Arkansas and Louisville coach questioned Cobble’s willingness to do things Petrino’s way and was prone to criticizing him in front of fellow staff members.

Petrino is made available to the media Mondays and Thursdays, so he was not immediately available for comment. WKU athletic director Todd Stewart said Tuesday he has no comment on the report.

Cobble said Petrino questioned his medical abilities, was impatient with return-to-play times and pushed back on physicians’ decisions. He cited an example in which an unspecified player required surgery (which he ultimately got) and Petrino suggested cortisone as an alternative.

Cobble, now at the University of South Carolina as an assistant athletic trainer for football and equestrian, said he was fired from WKU in April.

Joe Miday was hired in January as the program’s director of strength and conditioning and Scott Wilks has since joined him as associate head strength and conditioning coach.

— Chad Bishop covers Western Kentucky University athletics. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/MrChadBishop or visit bgdailynews.com.