Western Kentucky went almost a month without a towel waver or the standard locker room celebrations it enjoys after a victory.

Friday night’s emotional win over Middle Tennessee brought back those practices and may have given the program a timely adrenaline shot needed to close out the season.

“I think there is a renewed energy,” WKU coach Mike Sanford said at Monday’s weekly news luncheon. “It had been a long time. We get in the locker room and kind of almost forgot what it was like to go through all the procedures and celebrating and bringing up the towel waver and just going through that. It was a hard three-week stretch.”

The 41-38 triple overtime win over rival MTSU (5-6 overall, 3-4 Conference USA) Friday at Houchens-Smith Stadium made WKU (6-5, 4-3) bowl eligible and snapped a three-game losing skid. WKU will go for its seventh win Friday at Florida International (6-4, 4-3) at 7 p.m. with beIN Sports broadcasting the game.

Both WKU and MTSU needed the win to secure bowl eligibility. A 37-yard field goal from Ryan Nuss in the third overtime booted WKU into its seventh straight season of being bowl eligible.

“It was a hell of a game,” WKU linebacker Ben Holt said. “Big rivalry. We both wanted to win and both needed to win. Both teams just played their hearts out and it was a great game. We came out on top, I believe, because we wanted it more.”

A win at FIU would give the Hilltoppers their seventh-straight winning season, a feat that looked well on its way to happening when they were 5-2 after beating Old Dominion on Oct. 20. Injuries and an inability to play four complete quarters against FAU, Vanderbilt and Marshall dropped WKU to its first three-game skid since 2012. It also dropped WKU out of contention for a third straight C-USA title.

“I do think FAU into the Vanderbilt game, those in particular were a bare-bones outfit in terms of what we had health-wise,” Sanford said. “I thought we started to kind of get on the mend as we got into Marshall week toward the end and certainly the healthiest we’ve been since Week 2 or Week 3 at this point.”

That foreign feeling and restored health translated into a hunger against the Blue Raiders on Senior Night. An early MTSU touchdown in the fourth quarter tied the game at 10-10 to commence a shootout into three overtime periods. After Nuss kicked the walk-off winner, the Toppers stormed the field and Nuss led the team in the fight song in the locker room after the game.

“It meant a lot, especially going into triple overtime like that and win,” Tops defensive lineman Derik Overstreet said. “Any time you get deep into a game and pull it out, it’s always big for a team. It’s not like anyone had been losing motivation or anything, we had just been losing some close games.

“Just to get bowl eligible meant a lot for everybody. It was a playoff situation and to win that game and play next week (for) the possibility of having a winning record. And for the seniors for that to be their last home game, it meant a lot obviously. There was a lot of stuff in that game that made it good.”{&end}