IRVING, Texas – For Marcus Ward, college football games aren’t just won on Saturday afternoons.

The Western Kentucky safety says they’re also won in team meetings, in free time between classes or late at night, watching an extra few minutes of film and studying an opponent’s tendencies.

“There are a lot of athletic guys and they’re athletic for a reason,” Ward told the Daily News last week at Conference USA Media Day. “But I can always beat them to a spot if I watch enough film, if I study enough of how they do what they do, how the team does what it does, the scheme and things like that.”

That approach paid off in 2015 for Ward, who had his best season as a Hilltopper. Ward started all 14 games for WKU as a junior and tallied 57 tackles (37 solo) including a career-best 7.5 tackles for loss.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound native of Birmingham, Ala., was a reliable piece of a Topper defense that saw huge improvement from 2014 to ’15.

WKU ranked 124th of 128 FBS teams in scoring defense two seasons ago, giving up 39.9 points per game. Ward and his defensive teammates improved to No. 53 last season, allowing 25.9 ppg – a 14-point swing from 2014.

The play of coordinator Nick Holt’s Hilltopper defense was a key factor as WKU went 12-2 and won its first Conference USA championship. That title was also the first Ward said he’d won at any level of football.

“I know when I get older and I talk about my football career that’ll be one of the first things I talk about is how we won, how good that team was and not even that, but the people on the team that helped us win,” Ward said. “… As a group we won that championship, so that feels really good.”

Ward helping WKU to a championship didn’t seem a likely scenario when he was prepping at Vestavia Hills High School in his native Birmingham.

Ward, the son of a Marine, was strongly considering playing football at a service academy. Navy was the frontrunner up until late in his recruitment.

It wasn’t until after former coach Willie Taggart left in December of 2012 and Bobby Petrino was hired to replace him that the Hilltoppers started recruiting him.

“Western came in, man, really, really late,” Ward said. “They were the last team to come in and then I remember I think it was like a week after Petrino got there so I was really kind of like, ‘Who are you guys? What are you guys about?’”

Nate Dennison, WKU’s director of player personnel, was one of the program’s only staff members in the days after Petrino’s hire. Ward said Dennison convinced him to drive up Interstate 65 and take a look at the school’s campus.

Dennison “said, ‘You know what? … There’s a couple of days left until the period ends on unofficial visits. You want to come up for a day?’” Ward said. “We weren’t doing anything so me, my mom and my dad went up to Western.

“It was cold, nobody was on campus. It was kind of a bad day to be there. But I saw pretty much all I needed to see. I came back on an official visit too and I saw more then. It just felt like a comfortable place, really.”

Ward came to WKU alongside high school teammate and defensive lineman Kalvin Robinson. He impressed Petrino, Holt and Co., enough to earn a start in his first ever college game, taking the field as a freshman in the 2013 opener against Kentucky.

Ward played seven games as a freshman, then started 12 of 13 contests as a sophomore during Jeff Brohm’s first season at the helm of the program in 2014.

That number increased to 14 starts in 2015 for a team that finished the year ranked No. 24 in the nation. His best game was an 11-tackle performance Sept. 10 in a 41-38 win over fellow C-USA contender Louisiana Tech.

Ward is “kind of the quarterback of the defense,” Brohm said. “He’s got to get us set up, he’s got to get us lined up, he’s got to be able to read the quarterback’s eyes, he’s got to make sure we’re all in the right position.

“I think his understanding of the game and intelligence level is his strength. Then he’s a competitor as well.”

Ward takes his film study seriously. He said he tries to watch extra game tape each week with fellow safety Branden Leston, looking to glean information that can give him an edge on Saturdays.

Brohm, Holt and secondary coach Mike Cassity have taught Ward over the years what to look for when he studies film, he said.

“I tell you, freshman year I was a shrimp,” Ward said. “I wasn’t really looking at enough film or things like that.

“I was just listening to what coach said, saying, ‘Do this or do that.’ It’s been taking a lot more of the load on my shoulders and doing my part, not only to help myself but to then help my team.”

When teammate Forrest Lamp talks about Ward, his film study is the first thing he brings up. Lamp, a redshirt senior left tackle, compares the safety to former Hilltopper quarterback Brandon Doughty.

Doughty, now in training camp with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, was notorious for watching hours of film, even employing the help of his fiancée (and now wife) Sydney to quiz him on plays.

“He’s just like Doughty, watches a ton of film, studies the offense,” Lamp said. “I think I heard him say to someone earlier that he’ll see a formation or a certain player out there and he’ll know exactly what’s going to happen. …

“When the defense is on the field and I’m on the sidelines I’ll hear him screaming, ‘Oh this is coming, this is coming,’ and it happens right away.”

Ward said that meticulous film study is where he gets his edge on the field. But extra study is nothing new to the 2015 C-USA All-Academic Team member.

Ward was set to complete his undergraduate requirements for an accounting degree this summer, giving him a college diploma in three years.

Ward will start graduate studies this fall and then said he’ll pursue a master’s in the spring. Both of Ward’s parents were accounting majors in college, and he said his older brother is also pursuing an MBA.

“That’s kind of the mindset in our household,” Ward said. “We’re not like nerds or anything like that. We’re not looking at numbers all day. But we just have that keen sense of business.”

Ward will give professional football a try after his senior season, hoping to join the growing ranks of WKU players in the NFL.

But if that doesn’t work out, Ward said he feels confident in joining the business world after he finishes his time at WKU.

“Football is still the thing that I’ve been good at the past few years and I’m looking forward to having another good year,” Ward said. “Like coach Brohm said, there’s always an opportunity. Coaches will be there. They watch our games.

“Success brings good individual looks from the NFL. The opportunity’s there, so I’ll definitely try to pursue it and if it works out it does and if not then I’ll be fine in other career pursuits.”

– Follow Daily News sports reporter Brad Stephens on Twitter @BradBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com.