Sun Belt Week 14 Review
Arkansas State 24, Western Kentucky 20
It was all set up. The opportunity existed in plain sight. The sweet taste of victory stood, open and attainable, for the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.
After an 0-11 start to their season, after losing 19 straight games dating back to 2008, the boys from Bowling Green, Ky., wanted to send off lame-duck head coach David Elson with a win, and deny the big bagel known as “oh-and-twelve.” With one minute left in the third quarter of Thursday night’s game at Smith Stadium, Western Kentucky led an underachieving Arkansas State squad, 20-3. Surely, this time, the tonic of triumph wouldn’t flow through WKU’s fingers.
Alas, not even a 17-point lead with 16 minutes remaining in regulation was enough for the hapless Hilltoppers.
Arkansas State scored a touchdown with 31 seconds left in the third stanza to creep within 10 points, but after WKU’s defense produced a pair of stops on its own side of the field, the home team still led, 20-10, with seven minutes remaining, and had the ball near midfield with a chance to run clock, play field position, and make the visiting Red Wolves drive the length of the field just to get within three points.
Elson’s offense - merely needing to avoid a catastrophic mistake - couldn’t get out of its own way.
WKU quarterback Kawaun Jakes was intercepted by ASU’s Nick Nelms, who took a pick 43 yards to the Hilltopper 4, setting up a touchdown that pulled Arkansas State within three, at 20-17. But that wasn’t the end of the insanity for a devastated collection of kids in home jerseys on Senior Night.
On the ensuing possession, Jakes fumbled while being sacked by ASU’s Stanley Wakwe. Defensive end Alex Carrington recovered the loose ball for the Red Wolves and scooted 27 yards into the end zone for the game’s winning points. WKU couldn’t muster anything on two subsequent possessions, and the 0-12 nightmare was complete. A come-from-ahead loss ruined a team’s hopes of winning one game in the 2009 season. Arkansas State finishes at 4-8 on the year.
Florida Atlantic 28, Florida International 21
The Owls did indeed clinch a winning conference record, going 5-3 in the Belt with a hard-earned seven-point win in Miami against the Golden Panthers. The story of this winning FAU finale was running back Alfred Morris, whose 158-yard performance (on 25 carries) earned him the 2009 Sun Belt rushing title, with a grand total of 1,392 yards. It was Morris’s pair of fourth-quarter touchdown runs that broke a 14-all tie and revived the team’s offense after a scoreboard drought of just under 35 minutes. Florida Atlantic gained a 14-0 lead eight seconds into the second quarter, but after getting shut out for the remainder of the second stanza and the entirety of the third quarter, the Owls needed answers, and Morris was the man who provided them.
The Golden Panthers - scrappy enough to come back from that early 14-point deficit - climbed a mountain at FIU Stadium, only to tire once they tied the visitors from Fort Lauderdale. FAU ends its season 5-7 and short of a bowl, while FIU ends its campaign with a 3-9 record and a 3-5 conference mark.
By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer