The Toppers started their spring season last week in full pads, instead of gradually working their way up from practicing in helmets.
They’ll employ the same tactic next fall, jumping right into a schedule filled with Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
In the first six weeks of the 2008 season, the Toppers will travel to Indiana, Alabama, Kentucky and Virginia Tech, all teams who appeared in postseason bowl games last season.
Coach David Elson thinks his team is ready to move on to tougher, higher-level opponents in the fall.
“I think any of the I-A games we played last year have helped us get an understanding of what it’s going to take going into next year’s schedule,” he said. “Once you’ve played in front of 25,000 or more people, I think you get a pretty good feel for it.”
The Toppers faced six FBS opponents last season, including defending national champion Florida in the first game of the season. They will face a total of 10 FBS teams this year out of 12 regular season contests.
Elson said the team is excited about the chance to meet several higher-profile teams in the future.
He said nearly 50 percent of his roster is from the state of Kentucky, and that makes the Kentucky game even more important to the team.
“Just the fact that it’s never been done before, we’ve never played Kentucky in football, means our Kentucky guys especially are really excited about going over there,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys they know who are on that team, just like there’s a lot of guys they grew up with on Eastern Kentucky’s team.”
Elson said the Eastern Kentucky matchup is an especially key game because the contract between the rivals expires this year.
“One thing that you realize is that you play Indiana that first week and they may have 50,000 people there,” he said. “We go to Eastern Kentucky the next week and they’ll have 20,000 people there, and it’ll be just as intense, if not more intense.”
The game against Eastern Kentucky will be the rival schools’ last before the Toppers’ transition to the FBS is complete. The Colonels play in the Football Championship Subdivision, and NCAA rules prohibit teams from two different playing classes from competing in a yearly home-and-home rivalry.
Elson hopes that the tougher early-season schedule will show fans that high-profile teams will be a part of Western’s schedule in the future as well, causing them to attend more home games next season. He also hopes the tougher games will make fans want to follow the team on the road.
“We want people to see that number one, this is I-A football and you’ll be playing I-A teams week in and week out,” he said.
No players were available for comment Monday afternoon.
Reach Sarah Hyman at sports@chherald.com.
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