It’s one old rival to another for Western Kentucky on Saturday.

After rekindling the series with former longtime conference foe Eastern Kentucky in the Tops’ 31-0 home-opening win at Houchens-Smith Stadium this past weekend, WKU (1-1) it’s the road for the long-running “100 Miles of Hate” rivalry matchup against Middle Tennessee on Saturday at Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

It’s more than bragging rights in this series – Saturday’s 6 p.m. matchup is the Conference USA opener for both squads, giving MTSU (1-1) the same chance to get off to a strong start in CUSA play.

The Blue Raiders could use the bounce back after taking their lumps in a 52-3 loss at No. 6 Ole Miss last Saturday after MTSU had opened with a seven-point win against FCS-level Tennessee Tech in Derek Mason’s debut as head coach. MTSU’s start somewhat mirrors the Tops, only in reverse – WKU opened with a crushing 63-0 loss at No. 5 Alabama, then regrouped in a big way with a dominating 31-0 win against EKU.

Saturday’s matchup is an early start to CUSA play for both teams, with MTSU and WKU going back to nonconference opponents the following two weeks before really delving into the heart of conference play.

“There’s some good and some unknown there,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said of the early-season CUSA matchup. “Normally, you would have a couple games under your belt. But there is a lot of familiarity with Middle Tennessee and us, so it really doesn’t matter in my opinion whether it’s early, middle or late in the season when we play them. We both have two games under our belt. We both know our strengths, our weaknesses and things we need to get better at. I just think it’s another game that we’ve got to prepare for, but an exciting game. It’s a rivalry game, first conference game, a good comparable opponent so all those things add up for a good environment.”

WKU has had the upper hand in the series of late, having won five straight matchups against MTSU and eight of 10 since both programs joined CUSA. The Hilltoppers, who won last year’s matchup 31-10, lead the all-time series 37-35-1 – Saturday marks the 74th meeting.

“It’s definitely one of the games that we look forward to every season and you want to win it big,” WKU redshirt junior offensive tackle Marshall Jackson said. “It’s one of your most looked forward to games every season – it’s a huge deal around here.”

Down in Murfreesboro, Mason has also picked up on the nature of the longstanding rivalry among two fan bases that tend to “commingle” in the region.

“Some of these people fish together, some of these people work together,” Mason said. “My barber is a Hilltopper. I’m not going to let him cut my hair this week, that’s for sure. We don’t go there during game week.”

That familiarity extends to the opposing coaching staffs – Helton has coached against Mason several times in his career, while WKU offensive coordinator Will Friend served on the same staff as Mason at Auburn.

“We kind of know each other’s philosophies, so how do you counter those kinds of things,” Helton said. “They do a nice job of mixing up their looks and playing disciplined football defensively. Offensively, I think the quarterback (Nicholas Vattiato) is a veteran player, he’s good leader, he’s a good thrower, he can scramble with it and make plays. I think their running backs have done a really nice job up to this point. We’re going to have to do a great job of tackling them. They have a couple new wideouts that I think can be explosive players for them. We’ve got to make sure that we’re not allowing them to make the big plays. Their offensive line has always been a physical bunch and I see that on the film again.

“They’re putting the pieces together. I think they’re very close, like we’re very close. That’s why I’m like when I say, ‘Hey, there’s kind of two comparable teams right there.’ So it should make for a really good game.”

The Blue Raiders’ run game took a hit in last week’s loss at Ole Miss with injuries to running backs Frank Peasant – who ran for 76 yards and a touchdown last year against WKU – and Jekail Middlebrook. Neither is listed on MTSU’s depth chart this week, with Jaiden Credle and Terry Wilkins likely to pick up the brunt of carries.

MTSU tallied only 278 yards of total offense in its week 2 loss, while the Tops got rolling with 467 yards of offense against the Colonels. Quarterback TJ Finley had a breakout performance with 351 passing yards and a touchdown after a tough Hilltopper debut against the Crimson Tide. The Tops’ run game produced 116 rushing yards, with Elijah Young (52 yards on 13 carries) rushing for a pair of touchdowns and L.T. Sanders adding his first collegiate touchdown on a 2-yard run.

“I thought we executed better. I thought there was protection – we did a better job in protection, and that’s everybody,” Friend said. “That’s the running backs, that’s the O-line, that’s the quarterback doing a great job of getting the ball out and those type of things. TJ looked comfortable because of the protection. I thought we had a good night on third down. We’ve got to continue to improve on there. Third down was good for us. Couple of explosives … we’ve got to get more explosives, we’ve got to find ways to get more explosives. You’d like to somehow find a 20-plus play every drive – every drive get one play of 20-plus yards and you’ve got a chance to score. We’ve got to continue to find ways to do that like everybody in the country is.

“Overall, I thought the guys played more comfortable, I thought they improved a lot to Week 2 from Week 1 and we’re going to have to do the same thing this week.”

The Tops also made a jump on defense after getting trampled for 600 yards of total offense by the Crimson Tide in the opener WKU posted its first shutout since the 2022 season while forcing a key turnover that led to the Tops’ first touchdown.

“I think our guys have been motivated all year, for sure,” WKU defensive coordinator Tyson Summers said. “I think obviously they were upset and frustrated (after Week 1). Like I said, we had some missed opportunities in that game. I thought they really came and I thought we had our best three days of practice we’ve had all fall with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They were able to put it together. Really proud of the way they played on Saturday and handled themselves. A lot of it goes back to what I said a week ago – we had some missed opportunities in the previous game, but we are a lot better defense, we feel like, than what we showed that day, so fortunately we were able to execute and play well together on Saturday.”

WKU redshirt senior linebacker Devon Lynch said the Tops are working to keep that edge heading into Saturday’s CUSA opener against the Blue Raiders. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

“We’re going to keep the same mentality that we did last week,” Lynch said. “Playing Bama, we understood that was good competition. Going into EKU, we knew were were going to have a dogfight and we know that MTSU is going to bring a dogfight to us so its not going to be any different than what we did last game.”{&end}