The tests keep coming for Western Kentucky’s football team.

After opening the season with a humbling loss at top-five ranked Alabama, the Tops dealt with back-to-back rivalry games – first a 31-0 home-opening win against in-state foe Eastern Kentucky followed by last weekend’s 49-21 win at Conference USA rival Middle Tennessee in the long-running “100 Miles of Hate” series.

Next up is unbeaten Toledo, a Mid-American Conference program coming off an impressive 41-17 road victory against Mississippi State. The Rockets were double-digit underdogs heading into that matchup against an SEC program, but dominated from the start to push their record to 3-0.

Toledo will be the slight favorite – 2 1/2 points – heading into Saturday’s 6 p.m. matchup against the Hilltoppers at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

“Excited to be back home again. We get to play a really good Toledo team,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said.”They’ve done a fantastic job. Very talented football team. Excited about the opportunity to play at home. Really need our fans to show up and show out. It should be a great game, great atmosphere. I know our guys will be excited to get back home and play a really good Toledo team. Gained some momentum getting that first conference win against Middle Tennessee last week. Hopefully we can carry that into this home game.”

WKU (2-1) got rolling early last week against the Blue Raiders despite the early injury loss of starting quarterback TJ Finley, who went down with a lower leg injury on the Tops’ first offensive possession and did not return. Redshirt sophomore Caden Veltkamp came and produced one of the best stat lines by a WKU quarterback ever – 27 of 30 passing for 398 yards and five touchdowns, along with one rushing TD as the Tops cruised to a 49-21 win in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Veltkamp will be the starter for the foreseeable future with Finley sidelined at least a couple weeks. It will be the first career start for Veltkamp, a Bowling Green native who had a similarly dazzling relief effort last year in the Famous Toastery Bowl when he led the Tops back from a four-touchdown deficit to beat Old Dominion 38-35 in overtime.

Against MTSU, Veltkamp effectively distributed the ball with 12 different receivers recording catches – senior Kisean Johnson, who is emerging as the Tops’ No. 1 wideout, tallied eight receptions for 129 yards and two touchdowns.

“The only thing I had to do was turn the tape on and watch these guys for a couple plays, and they’ll have your attention,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said. “I think our guys understand what this is. We know they’ve got really good players. It’s really good schematically as well on both sides of the football. They’ve been doing it at a high level there for a long time, and we’ve got to go to their place and win there.”

The Rockets are flying high after demolishing Mississippi State, piling up 454 yards of total offense led by quarterback Tucker Gleason’s 285-yard, three-touchdown performance. JerJuan Newton caught two of those TDs among his five receptions and Junior Vandeross had seven catches for 73 yards and a TD in the win. Toledo also found balance with 169 rushing yards.

“It should be a good matchup,” Helton said. “I know our guys will be excited to play and we’re going to need the defense to really hold them down. And offensively, we’ve got to go out there and score points. We’re facing a good offense in Toledo and they’re going to find a way to score, like any good offense. We, offensively, have got to match that and defensively, in critical downs mainly, we’ve got to be able to get off the field or create turnovers.”

The Rockets, who tallied five sacks against Mississippi State, have 11 total sacks heading into Saturday’s game. The Tops rank first in CUSA with only three sacks allowed through three games.

WKU has struggled defensively at times in giving up big-yardage plays, but the Hilltoppers have been stubborn in the red zone – they rank second in CUSA in that category after getting a pair of red-zone stops against MTSU and posted six straight shutout quarters between the EKU and MTSU wins.

“I think the biggest thing that stands out over the game and the first half the other night is just not giving up very many explosive plays,” WKU defensive coordinator Tyson Summers said. “If we can continue to do that, then we’ll continue to play well. Obviously we need to do and I need to do a better job in the second half getting those guys to come out in the second half ready to play and really finish the game the way we wanted to.

“We had an opportunity for some takeaways in the second half and weren’t able to do that. Again, trying to limit explosives in the second half and I think we would’ve felt a lot better coming out of the game had we done that.”

Helton said his team is excited to face a challenging opponent at home Saturday.

“They are very much a complete football team, but again these are the games you want to play at home,” Helton said. “If you want to be a conference champion, you’re going to play a conference champion from the MAC. So we’ve got to go out there and match their intensity and find a way to win this game.”

RETURN OF THE MAC

WKU last played a MAC school in 2019, when the Hilltoppers beat Western Michigan 23-20 in the First Responder Bowl. That was the only MAC opponent the Tops have faced during Helton’s tenure as head coach, but WKU holds a perfect 7-0 record against that conference since joining CUSA ahead of the 2014 season. This will be the first-ever meeting between WKU and Toledo.

BROADCAST

Saturday’s 6 p.m. game at Houchens-Smith Stadium is scheduled for broadcast on ESPN+ and is part of WKU’s Parent & Family Weekend.{&end}