WKU earned a big win in The Big Easy

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There are college football victories and they are program-defining college football victories.

Western Kentucky experienced the latter on Tuesday night — rallying past Southern Miss 27-16 in the New Orleans Bowl at the Caesars Superdome.

It was the eighth FBS bowl victory for the irrepressible Hilltoppers since 2014, lifting WKU into rarefied air with Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia on that distinguished list — and it left seventh-year head coach Tyson Helton emotional in the aftermath.

“This was a special team right from the start, and I’ve said that all along — it was made up of 70% new guys,” said Helton, who has directed Western to a bowl game in each of his seven seasons, winning five times. These are honorable men who want to compete, who want to win. I love this for them.

“I know this was one of the most physical, hardest-hitting games I’ve seen in a long, long time from both teams. We figured out a way to get it done at the end, which says a lot about our players and our coaches. I’m just so excited for the Hilltoppers — this might be my favorite bowl win of them all.”

And why not? This game had everything, including an off-the-bench performance by graduate quarterback Maverick McIvor who turned the contest upside down in the second half.

You remember McIvor, right? He was the Hilltoppers’ prize recruit for 2025, coming in from Abilene Christian — along with offensive coordinator Rick Bowie.

McIvor was WKU’s starting signal caller for the first half of the regular season, before being sidelined by a pectoral injury.

On Tuesday night, it was new starting quarterback Rodney Tisdale Jr. who was shaken up, and McIvor stepping in to become the hero — leading Western on three second-half touchdown drives, running for one TD himself, and ultimately (and deservedly) walking off with the New Orleans Bowl Most Valuable Player award.

“Shout out to the guys,” McIvor said. “They played really hard the whole game.

“Unfortunately Rodney went down. He’s going to be a great player and he played good for us this season. I think when your time’s called, you have to be ready to play. Going throughout all these weeks of prep, you’ve got to stay ready, and when your number is called, it’s time for you to go out there and play good. I think today we got that done.”

And the first player patting McIvor on the back as he came to the sideline? Rodney Tisdale Jr.

“That was a great response from Maverick out there tonight — I knew Mav could get it done for us,” Helton said. “I mean, what a great story this is. Hey, this is why we play bowl games. It’s just fantastic the way this all turned out.”

There were heroes galore for the Hilltoppers (9-4) down the stretch, in addition to McIvor, who passed for 199 yards and ran for another 48 yards in the second half, when WKU was a stunning 8-for-8 on third-down conversions after going just 1-for-9 in the first half.

Veteran running back George Hart III, who hails from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, scored from a yard out to push the Hilltoppers in front 20-16 with 7:51 remaining in the fourth quarter, and true freshman winning back Marvis Parrish got a key block from senior left tackle Marshall Jackson and raced 54 yards to paydirt for the clinching TD with 3:38 to play.

Jackson, originally a walk-on out of Meade County High School, was overjoyed following his final collegiate game.

“This is a fairy-tale ending to the greatest chapter of my life — I knew we could do it,” said the 6-foot-6, 304-pound Jackson. “We’re a tight-knit group of guys who have built a great bond over the years. I just want to say a big thank you to Hilltopper Nation for everything, including the support I got when I arrived as a walk-on. I will love this place forever.”

While Western’s offense finally came to life in the second half, it was its defense that was was stellar throughout — limiting a high-powered Southern Miss attack to just one touchdown and three field goals over 60 minutes. In the second half? The Golden Eagles managed a single field goal — and put nothing else on the Superdome scoreboard.

“Our entire defense,” Helton said, “was simply phenomenal.”

USM was held to only 112 yards of offense in the second half, and a late interception by Hilltopper junior safely Jaylen Lewis sealed the deal. The WKU senior linebacker tandem of Jaylen Wester and Anthony Brackenridge, meanwhile, combined for 23 total tackles in a lights-out performance.

“It was all about us stepping up, all about playing with perseverance to the very end,” Brackenridge said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling to go out there with my brothers and get one last W for this great program. We tried to bring the fight to them on every single play.

“At halftime, we stepped up in the locker room and came together as one. It was a players thing on that — and we went back out there in the second half and got the job done the way we know how. Go Tops!”

And go, the Tops did — into what Helton often refers to as the sunset of sweet victory with one of the program’s most memorable, most satisfying postseason performances of all time.

Not bad for a program that was nearly disbanded by WKU’s Board of Regents in the early 1990s, before being resurrected into a NCAA I-AA national champion in 2002 under coach Jack Harbaugh.

Not bad for a program that at once had the nation’s longest losing streak with a painful 0-26 stretch between the 2008-10 seasons as it made the transition from FCS to FBS.

Not bad, Hilltoppers — not bad at all.

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