Sun Belt Football Media Day's Top Storylines

Harry · July 18, 2013

DRAWING A CROWD: The two biggest media huddles during the scheduled interviews Monday were gathered around the UL Lafayette and Western Kentucky tables.

The Cajun gathering made sense. UL Lafayette is the closest Sun Belt school to New Orleans, head coach Mark Hudspeth was first on the podium and gave everyone in the meeting room something to do when he began, and his Cajuns have won back-to-back bowl games right there in the 'Dome in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

The WKU crowd gathered for a team that went 7-6 last year, lost three of its last four and saw a hugely-promising season go sideways in a series of close losses despite getting to its first bowl game.

Of course, that team is now coached by Bobby Petrino, who's hoping to make a splash in his only year in the Sun Belt.

"This is our one and only year in, and our goal is to win the conference," Petrino said without any overemphasis during his interview session. "As we build this program, we want to go to a bowl game every year and win the bowl game and then be conference champions."

Conference championships after this year will come somewhere else. WKU is jumping ship after this season and moving into a re-tooled Conference-USA in 2014, joining a gaggle of other former Sun Belt teams that will compete in C-USA this year.

It'll almost be news if the Hilltoppers don't get a bowl bid. Petrino went to seven in eight years as a Division I coach on the way to a 75-26 record at Louisville and Arkansas, both of whom he took to BCS games. Had he not wrecked his motorcycle with his fellow athletic staff member/mistress on the back seat 15 months ago, and then engaged in what the Arkansas hierarchy called a "pattern of misleading behavior" after the wreck, he'd likely still be leading the Razorbacks.

Instead, he's back from a one-year coaching hiatus and at WKU, which lost 24-21 to Central Michigan in last year's Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit. Willie Taggart, who guided the Hilltoppers to their first FBS success, headed to South Florida and that job following the 2012 season.

"It (taking the WKU job) was something that was best for everyone involved in my family," he said. "It was a good fit. I was able to get back in the state of Kentucky with the people who have been so good to me and my family. And I think it's a great situation for the team we have coming back."

WKU was tabbed fourth in the league's preseason poll despite the return of 15 starters from a team whose four conference losses were by one, five, nine and four points. Uncertainty at quarterback, with the departure of athletic Kawaun Jakes, was probably the biggest reason the 'Toppers were ranked behind co-favorites UL Lafayette and UL Monroe and defending champ Arkansas State.

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