It will be beignets and Bourbon Street for Western Kentucky’s football team this bowl season.

The Hilltoppers learned their final destination of the 2022 season Sunday afternoon as the school announced it accepted an invitation to play in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl against former Sun Belt Conference rival South Alabama on Dec. 21 in the Caesars Superdome.

WKU coach Tyson Helton led the Tops to an 8-5 record this season, which included a 6-2 mark in Conference USA play. The Hilltoppers closed out the regular season with a 32-31 victory on the road against Florida Atlantic by going for a two-point conversion to win it in overtime on Nov. 26.

“This marks nine of 11 years that we’ve been in a bowl game – that’s pretty special,” WKU director of athletics Todd Stewart said. “It’s the expectation of our program that we make a bowl game, but we never take it for granted. You just look around the country at the top programs that are not in a bowl game and it’s no sure thing. I certainly remember the three-year stretch here at Western Kentucky from 2008 to 2010 when we went 2-10, 0-12 and 2-10 and any bowl game seemed like a pipe dream. So now to be in a bowl game nine of 11 years is pretty remarkable and I especially salute the 2022 team and Tyson and our coaching staff for getting it done this year.

“South Alabama certainly is a very good team. This marks the second consecutive year we’ve played a 10-win team in a bowl game. We played a great game last year, beat a very good App State team in the Boca Raton Bowl. And this year will be another big challenge, but we are certainly excited and appreciate the opportunity that we have.”

So it’s the Big Easy for the Hilltoppers, but that doesn’t mean its easy street for WKU against South Alabama (10-2). The Jaguars finished 7-1 in the Sun Belt’s West Division this year and are riding a five-game win streak. South Alabama’s only two losses were a 32-31 road loss to UCLA on Sept. 17 and a 10-6 loss to eventual league champion Troy on Oct. 20.

“Playing a fantastic South Alabama team – it should be a great matchup,” Helton said. “They’ve done a great job there. So really, really looking forward to an exciting game. I know our guys always look forward to these bowl games and competing in these bowl games, so it’s just an honor to be a part of that and we’ll get after it and see what happens.”

Stewart said that while WKU’s input on the bowl destination was limited, with ESPN playing a major role in the matchup, New Orleans fulfills many of the desires for WKU as a southern location with a bowl before Christmas. The Superdome, home of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, offers a good venue for fans.

This is WKU’s first bid to the New Orleans Bowl.

“I think it’s nice anytime you can do something different,” Stewart said. “The only bowl that we’ve been in to twice I believe is the Boca Raton Bowl, and certainly you can’t go to Boca Raton too many times so there’s nothing wrong with going back there. But I think it’s interesting because we’ve been close to being in the New Orleans Bowl before. I know that there’s been discussions in previous years where that was one of the ones that it seemed like we might go to and it didn’t work out.

“To now be in a bowl nine times and this being the first one, I’m glad it’s finally happening because having lived down there in that area it’s a very nice bowl, it’s very well run and I know our players and everybody in our traveling party will have a really good time.”

Helton said New Orleans offers the added benefit of being a recruiting hotbed, and the bowl game offers a prime-time national audience for the Hilltoppers. The New Orleans Bowl is slated for broadcast on ESPN at 8:15 p.m. CT on Dec. 21.

“I think we’ve been very fortunate to be in some really good destinations, some really good areas of recruiting – areas that have a lot of players – to be visually seen,” Helton said. “Then you look at the TV markets now and I believe we’ll be a prime-time game where all eyes across the country will get a chance to watch us play. They’ll get to see our brand of football.”

WKU won its last bowl appearance in the 2021 RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl with a 59-38 decision over Appalachian State, a game in which Tops quarterback Bailey Zappe broke the FBS single-season records for passing yards (5,967) and passing touchdowns (62). Zappe is in the NFL now, but the Tops have maintained that high-powered passing game with first-year starter Austin Reed. The graduate-student transfer from NCAA Division 2 West Florida won the starting job in fall camp and finished second in the nation in passing yards (4,249) and third in passing touchdowns (36).

“We talk about the nine of 11 years in a bowl game, but every year’s a new year and it’s not guaranteed,” Stewart said. “And I don’t think it got talked about really a lot this year, probably as much as it should have, but if you think about it last year’s team was really good. But we lost 11 starters and we lost both coordinators off of that team. And that would be a rebuilding year for most programs, but Tyson just did a terrific job in assimilating an entirely new team in a lot of respects. And then we had to play 13 games this year, and because we played 13 we had to win seven to be bowl eligible. And because we played at Hawaii, we had a week 3 bye which means that we played 11 consecutive weeks. That’s pretty unusual, including road games at at SEC and Big Ten opponent, and then a non-conference game against the Sun Belt champion.

“And so to work through all that, all that change, and have eight wins and go 6-2 in Conference USA – including 4-2 against the six schools that are leaving the league – and now be playing in New Orleans is a lot to be proud of and we certainly are.”

Helton sees a lot of similarities between his program and South Alabama. WKU has played the Jaguars just once previously when both were members of the Sun Belt Conference. South Alabama won that 2013 matchup.

“You can tell that they’re a tough, hard-nosed football team that has a passion for winning – as do we,” Helton said. “So I’m excited about the matchup. Should be a really, really good game.”{&end}