New year, same Tops: WKU Football eyeing start of 2025 season

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Friday in the Harbaugh Club over on the Hill, WKU football held its annual media day, and while there were many important topics discussed pertaining to the upcoming season, one underlying area brought up was the brand of Hilltopper football.

Since finishing 2024 in Boca Raton, the Tops have remodeled the roster from top to bottom, including the newest starting quarterback, Maverick McIvor.

“Yeah, I think it starts with Coach Helton, Coach Bowie and then all the rest of our staff. I mean, just the knowledge of ball that those guys portray upon me and the way it’s elevated my game and it’s also so fun just coming out here,” said McIvor. “We have such great receivers, such great running backs, we built the offensive lineup, they’re going to be great Coach’s Bernardi’s done such a good job with them, and I think taking the next step in my game, and then obviously making our offense better, I think it’s been huge.”

McIvor fills the shoes in a long line of standout gunslingers, and while the world of college sports is constantly changing due to NIL and the transfer portal, that doesn’t necessarily define how productive and impactful he can be as a new member of the team.

“For us, we have to be a great mixture of the great stories of, hey, an in-state guy, like a Malachi Corley, that got developed, but also, hey, there’s a Bailey Zappe, you know, that came in and what a great story that was that year,” said head coach Tyson Helton. “We just want to be a part of the national conversation more than anything. I think we’ll continue to build this. I think you’re going to look up the next three-to-five years and our brand is going to be something really, really special.”

While the brand of the offense has recently been tabbed as air raid, the WKU defense, which welcomes a new pair of experienced co-coordinators, saw a specialty in turnovers.

Friday, Da’Von Brown explained how the offseason gave the Tops a chance to build a similar blueprint.

“I think it starts with how they act off the field, right? You want to bring good people into the program, right? Then all the people that play fast on tape play physical and then play together, so we going to make a lot of plays on defense, but we going to do everything together. Do it fast and do it physical. I think that’s one of the biggest things,” said Brown.

Football fans, your time is almost here with game one on week zero coming in under a month, being a special CUSA showdown against Sam Houston at Houchens-Smith Stadium.