Western Kentucky football coach Tyson Helton speaks at a news conference March 11 before the start of spring practice.

Tyson Helton has been around Conference USA football long enough not to put much stock in those preseason predictions.

The Western Kentucky football coach, entering his sixth season leading the program, thinks this CUSA campaign will be just like most any other he’s experienced – down to the wire.

That’s even with having to contend with reigning conference champion Liberty, fresh off a dominating season capped by an New Year’s Day appearance in the Fiesta Bowl – the No. 23 Flames were dismantled 45-6 by No. 8 Oregon to spoil Liberty’s perfect season.

The Flames were runaway picks to repeat as champions in the 2024 CUSA Football Media poll, garnering 18 of 20 possible first-place votes. The Tops got the other two, ranking second in the poll with Jacksonville State not too far behind.

“I’ve been in this conference since the creation in some form or fashion,” Helton said during Tuesday’s CUSA Kickoff & Media Day held at the PGA of America headquarters in Frisco, Texas. “I was a player at the University of Houston in 1996 and I remember sharing a conference title with Southern Miss, and everybody had picked Southern Miss and nobody had picked Houston. And you look up at the end of the season, and here’s Houston sharing a title. I’ve been at University of Memphis, I’ve been at UAB, I’ve been at Cincinnati, I’ve been at Western Kentucky now twice.

“That’s the great thing about preseason polls. Everybody gets to make their pick, but that’s not reality.”

The Hilltoppers saw that firsthand last season as the preseason choice to win CUSA. Then along came Liberty, and a tough Jacksonville State squad, plus a resurgent New Mexico State. All three dealt losses to WKU, which finished 5-3 in conference play (fourth in CUSA) and 8-5 overall.

It’s a new year, with plenty of new faces on every roster in CUSA – not to mention a new conference rival with Kennesaw State joining the fray to make it a 10-team league this season – Delaware and Missouri State are set to join next year.

“Excited about our conference, excited about the schedules that we have, the matchups that we have,” Helton said. “ … Last year had the weekday games, I thought those were great to have and the exposure that our conference received from that was outstanding. Now you’re going into year two of that and I think we have some really good matchups there. So excited about the season, excited about where we’re headed, excited about the opponents that we get to play in the conference. I think there’s a lot of parity in this conference. I think it’s anybody’s game.”

WKU running back Elijah Young, who finished with a team-high 474 rushing yards and three touchdowns in his first season with the program after transferring in from Missouri, said the Tops have been focused on getting better before the season opener on Aug. 31 against SEC power Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

“We’re just going to grind,” Young said. “They’ve got us second in the conference – that don’t mean nothing. We’re just going to work. We’ve got new guys, new linemen, a new offensive coordinator (Will Friend) – we’re going to go run for it.”

The Hilltoppers face their fair share of questions with the losses of star wide receiver Malachi Corley and record-setting quarterback Austin Reed to the NFL, plus some standout players leaving via the NCAA transfer portal – most notably linebacker JaQues Evans and safety Kendrick Simpkins, now both at Baylor.

WKU added from the portal as well, with former Texas State starting quarterback TJ Finley the biggest name to join the team this season. He’ll battle for the starting job with redshirt sophomore Caden Veltkamp – the hero of WKU’s stunning season-ending 38-35 overtime win against Old Dominion in the Famous Toastery Bowl.

“Excited about our football team, excited about the possibilities of what we can achieve this year,” Helton said. “I think like a lot of football teams out there in college football today, you’re trying to recreate yourself every single year. And I think we’ve got a good mixture of guys that have been with us that have established the culture of the program. We’ve added a lot of new faces as well and they’ve been a great addition to us.”

Will it all add up to enough to push the Hilltoppers past the rest of CUSA this season? Check back with Helton in November, when the Tops close the regular season against the two teams closest in that preseason poll – at Liberty on Nov. 23 and at home against Jacksonville State on Nov. 30.

“We talk about all the time that it’s your full body of work through the season,” Helton said. “You know, one game does not make a season. And we really talk about that a lot in our program, about how it’s not how you start but how you finish. Our players hear all the time, you’re judged by your full body of work. There’s an old saying that says what you do in November they remember, and we definitely hang our hat on that.

“And we have to do that this year because we do play two of our top teams in the last two games of the season. It makes for great football, it makes for great television and hopefully we’re all having a lot of success so that we get a great game and great matchups in November.”