WKU AD reflects on a successful year

Harry · July 14, 2013

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) — Western Kentucky has raised expectations even higher after a year athletic director Todd Stewart says was one to “hang the hat on.”

During the Hilltoppers’ run, Stewart hired Bobby Petrino as the school’s football coach last December.

Petrino’s off-the-field troubles cost him his job at Arkansas, but he did lead the Razorbacks to the Sugar and Cotton Bowls in his last two seasons. The HIlltoppers are looking for the same kind of results coming off their first bowl as a Football Bowl Subdivision member.

But it wasn’t just the football team that is on a roll.

Eight programs reached the NCAA tournament; five teams, including men’s basketball, won Sun Belt Conference championships. Ten Hilltoppers also earned

All-America honors.

Expectations are high at WKU, which announced in April that it will move to Conference USA in 2014.

“I feel good because we have a lot of winning momentum right now,” Stewart said recently at one of the school’s statewide tour stops.

He stressed the need to build on the success.

“Not only do we need to make postseason play, but we need to win,” Stewart said. “That’s how we elevate our brand even more, because that’s when you have the most eyeballs on you, when you’re in postseason play. ... A rising tide lifts all boats, and when one or two of our teams has success, it really brings the bar up for everybody else.”

Most eyes will be on Petrino and the football program.

A 32-31 overtime upset at Kentucky highlighted a 7-6 campaign under former coach Willie Taggart. A late-season slump knocked the Hilltoppers from league contention but they still earned the program’s first bowl berth as an FBS member, losing 24-21 to Central Michigan in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.

By then the program had undergone a seismic shift with Taggart’s Dec. 8 departure to become head coach at South Florida and Petrino’s hiring two days later. WKU’s hiring of Petrino was stunning enough with the 52-year-old mentioned as a candidate for higher-profile jobs, including Kentucky, but even more so considering the scandal that led to his firing in April 2012 at Arkansas.

The coach was involved in a motorcycle accident along with his mistress, former Razorback volleyball player Jessica Dorrell, whom Petrino hired as a football assistant and also gave $20,000 in gifts. Arkansas released him for a “pattern of misleading behavior” about the accident and her hiring.

A believer in second chances, Stewart hired him for four years at an annual base salary of $850,000 — $2.65 million less than he made with the Razorbacks — to take WKU to the next level. So far, the AD says Petrino, 34-17 at Arkansas and 75-26 overall, hasn’t shied away from his controversial past.

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