By JEFF NATIONS / jeff.nations@bgdailynews.com

Kennesaw State won’t be sneaking up on anybody the rest of this season.

The Owls blew their cover with a stunning upset win against previously unbeaten Liberty last week, a 27-24 victory that marked Kennesaw’s first-ever win as an FBS program – an almost unheard-of result, a six-loss first-year Conference USA member beating the defending CUSA champions.

Consider Western Kentucky on high alert heading into Wednesday’s 6:30 p.m. matchup against the Owls at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

“They look like a very impressive football team, a very hungry team,” WKU head coach Tyson Helton said. “Obviously had a very big win against Liberty. As I’ve had a chance to watch them throughout the season, you could tell they’re a well-coached team, they’re a hungry team. So we need to play our best football. We need to have a championship mentality. I know our guys will be excited, ready to play.

“It should be a great atmosphere. We’ve got a lot going on on campus. There’s a concert before the game and a black out and all those things, but at the end of the day, this is what you want in conference play – two good football teams playing.”

Liberty’s loss put WKU (5-2 overall, 3-0 CUSA) in prime position to challenge for the conference championship. The Hilltoppers are tied with Jacksonville State atop the league standings, with five CUSA games still to play, including closing out the season on the road at Liberty before returning to Houchens-Smith Stadium to host Jacksonville State on Nov. 30 in the regular-season finale.

To ensure those late-season CUSA games are truly meaningful in the standings, the Tops have to take care of business in a three-week stretch starting Wednesday with Kennesaw, followed by a road matchup at New Mexico State before another home game Nov. 16 against Louisiana Tech.

There’s little margin for error, something the Flames learned last week against Kennesaw (1-6, 1-2).

“It goes back to what I keep saying over and over again – in this league there’s a lot of parity and you better show up and play or you’re going to get beat,” Helton said.

The Hilltoppers had their second bye week of the month after going on the road to beat Sam Houston 31-14 on Oct. 16 in Huntsville, Texas. It was an impressive performance in all facets for the Tops – redshirt sophomore quarterback Caden Veltkamp threw for 289 yards and three touchdowns on 20 of 29 passing, plus ran for another score, the defense shut out the Bearkats in the second half and special teams came up with a pivotal field-goal block and got a 51-yard field goal from Lucas Carneiro, the second straight game with a 50-plus yard kick for the redshirt sophomore.

WKU has an opportunity to close out CUSA’s mid-week October schedule a perfect 3-0.

“We’ve had some extra time to work on Kennesaw State, that was good,” Helton said. “This time of year you do have bumps and bruises, and so we’ve had some guys that needed some time to recover. That’s been good.

” … Recruiting is hot and heavy, so we’ve done a lot from the recruiting department standpoint and got out on the road, got to evaluate some guys, have some official visits come in for this game, so should be good. We got a lot done during these bye weeks, and now it’s time to really focus our attention back to the main opponent who we’re playing in Kennesaw.”

The Owls clipped Liberty despite getting outgained 386-323 in total offense. Quarterback Davis Bryson was 16 of 20 passing for 189 yards and a touchdown, Kennesaw scored a pair of rushing touchdowns and Austin Welch connected for a pair of field goals to run his FG total to 11-of-11 this season.

Kennesaw head coach Brian Bohannon, who started the program from the ground up a decade ago, was a longtime top assistant at Georgia Tech under Paul Johnson – a noted triple-option aficionado. That carried over to the Owls during much of Bohannon’s tenure in building the program into an FCS power, but the team has shifted to a pistol option look the last two years.

“I think they have the ability to throw and pass, obviously had a lot of big throws the other night versus Liberty that really got them going,” WKU defensive coordinator Tyson Summers said. “And a lot like most of those teams that are kind of entrenched and rooted in triple option, everybody winds up spending their time on the option run game, run game, run game. And then you look up they completed seven passes for 280 yards and four touchdowns and that’s how you lost.”

The Owls still rank as the worst offense in CUSA, averaging 15 points per game, and are seventh in defense allowing 31.1 points per game – WKU is third in both offense (28.7 ppg) and defense (22.4 ppg).

Tops offensive coordinator Will Friend said Kennesaw has long been on the radar as a dangerous opponent.

“They play violent – their (linebackers) and secondary, they run and hit,” Friend said of the Owls defense. “That’s kind of how that program was built – on being physical – and they’re still there, so the first thing you did when you put on the tape you watched a team that was flying around, playing fast on defense, outhitting their opponent … just things weren’t going the right way for them.”

Wednesday’s game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

STRONG TIES

Summers, a Georgia native, has a enduring connection with Kennesaw State, in particular Owls running backs coach Tim Glanton.

Summers, whose father died in a car crash when he was just 3 years old, played high school football at Tift County High School when Glanton was an assistant coach there. Summers said he’s known Glanton “probably since I was 13 years old.”

Glanton played a major role in helping find Summers a place to play college football – he ultimately landed at Presbyterian College and had a standout playing career.

“When I was looking for a place to let me walk on and let me play football in college, he drove me all over the state of Georgia and the state of Florida every weekend to let me have walk-on tryouts,” Summers said. “And so that staff and those people are really special to me for a lot of reasons.”

WKU first-year senior analyst Grant Chestnut also has long ties with Kennesaw State, having been on Bohannon’s staff when the program started in 2013 and serving as offensive coordinator for nine years running through 2022.

“To my knowledge, we started it – it was three years ago, I think,” Helton said. “I think it was something where Cam was with Ben Arbuckle, who was our offensive coordinator … who knows where it truly originated? I just know that three years ago, we were doing it and so it’s kind of been our thing. We need to make sure we’re careful about people in the line of fire. We had a personal foul last week against Sam Houston. I don’t think there was any malicious intent. I think our guys were celebrating.”

NATIONAL NOTICE

Veltkamp has been named to the Davey O’Brien QB Class of 2024, the Davey O’Brien Foundation announced Tuesday.

Veltkamp is one of 35 quarterbacks on the list and the only quarterback from CUSA. Each member of the group is now an official candidate to win the 2024 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award.

Veltkamp has served as WKU’s starting quarterback since the Sept. 21 win over Toledo. He has thrown for 1,428 yards and 14 touchdowns on 114-of-164 passing with five interceptions. He has also rushed for 98 yards and five scores on 58 attempts. He has twice been named CUSA’s Offensive Player of the Week, including after WKU’s most recent game at Sam Houston.

The redshirt sophomore took over as the team’s primary quarterback after an early injury to starter TJ Finley during WKU’s Sept. 14 game at Middle Tennessee. Veltkamp came off the bench and threw for 398 yards and five touchdowns, and also had one rushing touchdown.

The next step in the process will be to select the award’s 16 semifinalists from the 35 quarterbacks. The semifinalists will be chosen based on voting from the Davey O’Brien National Selection Committee as well as bonus ballots awarded from the first round of the Davey O’Brien Fan Vote.