Expectations are sky-high for Western Kentucky’s football team on the eve of the first fall practice.

The Hilltoppers are the solid favorites to win Conference USA, not just in the CUSA Preseason Media Poll but among most national publications. Featuring the conference preseason players of the year for both offense in quarterback Austin Reed and defense in linebacker JaQues Evans, a step forward for a program that reached the CUSA championship game last year is a popular assumption for the 2023 squad.

WKU head coach Tyson Helton, entering his fifth season leading the program, isn’s buying the hype – and he doesn’t think his players or coaches are, either.

“We kind of keep the status quo of every day,” Helton said during Tuesday’s media day at Houchens-Smith Stadium. “I think everybody knows kind of where you’re picked and those kind of things, but preseason polls don’t mean anything and certainly preseason picks don’t mean anything. It’s your full body of work that you do over the year, and I think we have a mature football team.

“Let me say this – I’m going to compliment the other football teams again that we play. They’re just as good as we are. It’s anybody’s race in this league. I don’t care if you’ve been in this league forever or you’re brand new. I think it’s going to come all the way down the stretch, so you better be ready to play every week, and your full body of work better be right. We have a blue-collar mentality here. We play with a chip on our shoulder and we’ve just got to maintain that.”

WKU is one of five holdovers in CUSA after the latest round of realignment impacted the conference once again. Six schools from last year departed for the rival AAC – CUSA champion UTSA, plus UAB, FAU, North Texas, Charlotte and Rice. That, just a year after CUSA said farewell to three other members when Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss left to join the Sun Belt Conference.

The new-look CUSA features four newcomers in Liberty, Jacksonville State, New Mexico State and Sam Houston State joining holdovers FIU, Louisiana Tech, MTSU, UTEP and WKU – Kennesaw State will come aboard for the 2024-25 school year, bringing the conference back up to 10 full-time schools.

That conference makeover, combined with new television broadcast deals that promise more national visibility for the Hilltoppers through increased exposure that allows the program “to show our brand of football,” has Helton excited about the prospect of the coming season.

“I love where we’re headed as a conference. I love the new teams that are coming in,” Helton said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of parity. I think there’s going to be a lot of exciting football played, and so we’re looking forward to it and looking forward to getting started.”

The Tops face their share of challenges as fall practice opens Wednesday. The now customary roster churn due to the NCAA transfer portal means plenty of new faces on the roster to replace not just the graduation losses but also the transfers out of the program. The Tops’ success last season also created opportunities for the coaching staff, and Helton has had to practically rebuild that group again. Among the newcomers is first-time offensive coordinator Drew Hollingshead, the third man to hold that post in as many seasons at WKU.

Hollingshead, who arrived after a stint coaching the Air Raid offense at Mississippi State under the late Mike Leach, got married this summer and has already dove into his new job duties at WKU. That includes a successful “fusion” of some Air Raid concepts with the pass-happy offense the Tops have built under previous coordinators Bryan Ellis, Zach Kittley and Ben Arbuckle.

“When (Helton) and I sat down for my initial interview and we were just kind of talking about what we wanted the offense to look like, I think my words to him were ‘I would be an idiot if I looked at the body of work over the last two years and say we’ve got to wholesale change it to something different,’ “ Hollingshead said. “Western Kentucky’s been really successful with offensive football for a long, long time and especially over the last two years.”

Reed and WKU wide receiver Malachi Corley are the nation’s leading returners in passing and receiving yardage from 2022, when Reed threw for 4,746 yards with 40 touchdowns through the air and eight on the ground while Corley caught 101 passes for 1,295 yards and 11 scores. Those are two impressive building blocks for the offense, but the Tops have loads of experience returning all over that side of the field to help Hollingshead’s transition.

Helton expects WKU’s high-octane offense to not miss a beat this year.

“I think the offensive coordinator’s got to feel comfortable doing what he thinks is best to go win the game,” Helton said. “I have to find a balance as a head coach and an offensive play caller – you know, I’m always going to be part of the offense in some form or fashion, OK. I may interject from time to time with some things that I want, but I want the play caller to feel like this is his game. It is his game to call, let him go do his thing. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that with the history of the coordinators that we’ve had.

“And then my job as a head coach and my background and experience is when I see an opportunity there, I need to be able to say, ‘Hey, gimme this,’ and it needs to be right.”

WKU does have some continuity on the other side of the ball, with defensive coordinator Tyson Summers back after guiding the unit to a nation-best 37 takeaways in 2022 – a big-play penchant that nicely fit with the Tops’ explosive offense.

The Tops do have some experience back on defense, headlined by CUSA preseason defensive player of the year JaQues Evans. The junior linebacker led the team with 106 tackles last season, including 14 tackles for loss and nine sacks. He also broke up four passes, hurried the quarterback eight times and recovered two fumbles.

“From a defensive standpoint, we want to continue to do the same things which is to play to our strengths,” Summers said. “I felt like last year we were able to do that, being able to take the players we have and make the most out of them and minimize some of the challenges that we have from a scheme standpoint or an individual standpoint or a matchup. And I think we’ve continued to do that.

“… We want to create havoc at all times. We want to try to eliminate explosives, we want to take the ball away – which we did a great job last year with – and we want to make them kick field goals. If we can do those things, we feel like we have an opportunity to win and be successful.”

Summers’ defensive staff is largely rebuilt with four new position coaches, two new quality control coaches and two new graduate assistants. The Tops have more than 25 new players on defense that weren’t with the program for the season-ending win over South Alabama in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

Helton is confident Summers and his revamped staff will have the defense ready to go when the season opens Sept. 2 at home against South Florida.

“If you play quarterback, it’s a hard day for you when you play our defense,” Helton said. “We throw so many things at you with our pressures. You just don’t ever know what’s coming at you, and that’s why we got all those takeaways last year, and it really starts with coach Summers. He approaches it like an offensive coordinator. He tries to dictate to the opposing team’s offense (that) you are not going to do certain things. I’m going to take away certain things, or I’m going to respond to certain things that you do and make you do what I want you to do.”

The Tops are in solid shape on special teams, with coordinator Andy LaRussa back along with numerous key players including punter Tom Ellard and place-kicker Cory Munson – who handled kickoffs last season, but as experience kicking field goals as well.

It all adds up to an expectation that WKU can break through and win the CUSA championship game for the first time since 2016.

“I think we have a group of guys that can go make a run,” Helton said. “So that’s the No. 1 thing for us is now we’ve got to go out there and prove it.”

– Follow sports editor Jeff Nations on Twitter @Jeff_NationsBG or visit bgdailynews.com.