Western Kentucky’s season opener Saturday wasn’t just Mike Sanford’s first game as a head coach. It was also his coordinators’ first career game in their respective roles.

Offensive coordinator Junior Adams and defensive coordinator Clayton White both made their play calling debuts Saturday. A 31-17 Hilltopper win against Eastern Kentucky made Adams and White 1-0 in their coordinating careers.

The duo will look to push their records to 2-0 this week when WKU heads to Illinois. Kickoff between the Toppers and Fighting Illini is set for 7 p.m. Saturday from Champaign, Ill., with the game broadcast on Big Ten Network.

“I learned a lot,” White said Wednesday of his debut calling plays. “That’s one thing I call my mentor or tell my wife, ‘You wouldn’t believe what I’ve learned today.’ It’s every single day something comes up as a coordinator that didn’t come up as an assistant coach.

“It’s been very gratifying. It’s been exciting and I’m loving it. I really feel like this is what I want to keep doing for a long time.”

Adams had been an assistant coach since 2004, most recently as passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach last season at Boise State.

Adams worked with Sanford at Boise State during the 2014 season, when he coached the Broncos’ wide receivers and Sanford coordinated the offense.

The two men worked together that season formulating Boise State’s offensive game plans. Sanford called Adams in December after taking the WKU coaching job and brought him to Bowling Green.

“I was on the sideline when I was wide receivers coach and he was up in the box,” Adams said of Sanford. “Now he’s on the sideline and I’m up in the box.

“We’ve got a good relationship as far as being on the headsets and knowing what each other is like. We kind of anticipate each other’s calls.”

Adams’ first game Saturday as WKU’s offensive coordinator saw the Hilltoppers score on five of the nine drives they touched the ball. WKU worked the ball down the field methodically, going on two touchdown-scoring series that lasted 16 plays each.

The Tops combined to go 13-of-20 on third and fourth-down conversion attempts. Quarterback Mike White was the catalyst for those conversions, completing 10 of his 11 third-down pass attempts.

“Mike White’s awesome,” Adams said. “We couldn’t have walked into a better situation with the guy we have playing quarterback for us and taking leadership of this offense.

“Being the first time calling plays here and Mike White going out and doing what he did … That’s impressive.”

WKU practiced situational football throughout fall camp. Coaches wore headsets and called plays in during team periods that were supposed to simulate games.

Mike White said those camp reps helped ease the offense into adjusting to both a new play caller and new offensive system.

“We had those two scrimmages where we had him call (plays) up as much as we could just to get a feel for how he calls a game,” White said. “You want to know really what he’s calling a certain play for …

“I congratulated him after the game, his first win as a play caller. It was fun and we’re looking forward to growing together.”

Clayton White has been in coaching since 2003, primarily working with defensive backs. He’s also been a special teams coordinator at three different coaching stops, including in ’10 at WKU. He and Sanford worked together both that season and in ’07-’08 at Stanford.

White joined the Hilltopper program this offseason after serving as co-special teams coordinator/defensive backs coach the last four years at North Carolina State.

Saturday marked White’s first time calling defensive plays in a game.

Unlike Adams, who stays in the press box on game days, White calls the defense from the sidelines.

“Just from an adjustment standpoint, in the ACC I’ve seen every single play you can possibly think of, every single formation,” White said. “… If I need to make an adjustment and it’s a play I saw in 2014, ‘Oh I remember that play against Clemson. We need to do this.’

“So I just want to be there and talk to the guys and see their eyes.”

White’s defense pitched a first-half shutout last week before giving up 17 points over the final two quarters.

The Toppers limited EKU to just 1.1 yards per carry but allowed Colonel quarterback Tim Boyle to get comfortable, sacking him just once as he attempted 46 passes.

Linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe paced the Hilltopper defense Saturday with nine tackles, including seven solo. The redshirt junior and his fellow veterans have tried to assist White as he gets used to calling defensive plays for the first time.

“Me and (Derik) Overstreet and Marcus (Ward) and the older guys, we’ve tried to be like coaches on the field and help him out,” said Iyiegbuniwe, a defensive captain. “But he’s done a great job installing a game plan and the different schemes.”{&end}