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Western Kentucky-Marshall the Greatest Game of the Year as Hilltoppers Pull off Shocker

By Caleb Calhoun

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Go ahead and call up the ESPY”s. Let them know that the greatest game of the year does not belong in any professional league. It doesn’t belong in college basketball or some random sport that nobody cares about.

But it does belong in a football division that very few people care about: the Conference USA.

We are talking, of course, about the Western Kentucky-Marshall game. The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers stunned the Marshall Thundering Herd in the greatest game of the year by far.

This game had everything: huge upset, gutsy coaching, back and forth shootout, and an epic, stunning finish.

Western Kentucky pulled it out 67-66 in overtime behind 8 touchdown passes and 491 yards from Brandon Doughty and another 237 rushing yards and 51 receiving yards from Leon Allen along with 3 interceptions from Branden Leston.

But the win came from a gutsy decision by head coach Jeff Brohm. After Jared Dangerfield had an amazing 25-yard touchdown catch in overtime from Doughty to make the score 66-65, Brohm decided to go for two and the win rather than go for the tie. And Doughty connected with Willie McNeal for the win.

We would have applauded the decision no matter what from Brohm. You know Marshall is a better team, they had some momentum, and the game was in Marshall, so there was no way to know how long the Hilltoppers could last in multiple overtimes. It’s what made going for the win the smart idea in that situation.

The Thundering Herd were undefeated at the time and had finally gained some respect from the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, squeaking into their Top 25 rankings this past week.

Former Marshall wide receiver Randy Moss even came out and lobbied for Marshall to have a spot in the College Football Playoff despite their pathetic strength of schedule.

But 6-5 Western Kentucky had other ideas in mind, and they moved to 7-5 with the huge road upset.

This game was a dual of quarterbacks and lots of scoring, particularly in the first quarter.

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Doughty set the tone early with two touchdown passes to Tyler Higbee and Allen to go up 14-0. Rakeem Cato responded with a touchdown to Tommy Shuler, but then Doughty had a 75-yard touchdown pass to Taywan Taylor for a 21-7 lead. Cato had another touchdown to Hyleck Foster, Higbee had another touchdown catch from Doughty in response, and then Davonte Allen and Cato connected for a 40-yard touchdown pass.

That made the score 28-21 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Western Kentucky appeared to break the game open with a 10-yard touchdown run by Allen and another touchdown pass from Doughty to Joel German. Western Kentucky was up 42-21.

But Cato responded with a touchdown pass to Eric Frohnapfel, and a 48-yard touchdown run by Steward Butler made the score 42-35.

Another touchdown pass from Doughty to Higbee and then a touchdown pass from Cato to Allen made the score 49-42 at halftime.

The third quarter was oddly defensive, with only a 22-yard touchdown run by Butler to tie the game at 49.

Then came the fourth quarter, in which a Western Kentucky field goal and Doughty’s 7th touchdown pass to Dangerfield made the score 59-49. But Marshall responded with a field goal and touchdown pass from Cato to Frohnapfel.

After Doughty threw an interception at the end, Marshall had a chance to win but couldn’t get into field goal range.

Then, in overtime, Marshall struck first with  a 25-yard touchdown pass from Cato to Hyleck Foster. That’s when the Hilltoppers responded with Doughty’s 8th and final touchdown and the two-point conversion.

Doughty outplayed Cato, who had 7 touchdown passes but 4 interceptions.

The back and forth game between two mid-majors was the most exciting game to watch all year. Whether or not there were College Football Playoff implications is irrelevant.

This game had magnitude, had great coaching, and was an amazing barn-burner.

And for that, it was the most exciting game to watch in sports this year and definitely in college football.

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