Western Kentucky pulls away in second half to win C-USA title game
Western Kentucky capitalized on three second-half Southern Miss turnovers to win the Conference USA championship game 45-28. It's the Hilltoppers' first conference championship since joining the FBS level of college football in 2007.
The game was tied 21-21 at halftime and Southern Miss even took a 28-21 lead in the third quarter. The Western Kentucky onslaught started soon after the lead.
The Hilltoppers reeled off 24 points aided by those three turnovers. WKU took the lead when Taywan Taylor caught his second touchdown of the game from Brandon Doughty. Taylor was wide open in the end zone after he beat the Southern Miss coverage for a 39-yard completion and a 31-28 lead.
Taylor's first touchdown came in the waning seconds of the first half. As the Hilltoppers made a push for late points, the Golden Eagles were somehow playing man coverage. Taylor beat his man for a 49-yard catch that set up a two-yard reception to tie the game with 11 seconds to go before halftime.
Southern Miss went three-and-out after Taylor's second score and D'Andre Ferby scored a fourth quarter touchdown to make the game 38-28. After Ferby's score, Southern Miss QB Nick Mullens threw his third interception of the game.
The Hilltoppers then sealed it with an 11-play, 82-yard drive that was capped off by Ferby's second touchdown. The last time Western Kentucky won a conference title was in 2002. It was at the FCS level and when the Hilltoppers were in the Gateway Conference.
The loss drops Southern Miss to 9-4 on the season and snaps a six-game winning streak. But the Eagles are still going bowling and it shouldn't diminish the turnaround coach Todd Monken helped engineer. Before 2015, Southern Miss had won four games in the previous three seasons.
The win pushed Western Kentucky's record to 11-2 on the season and further solidified coach Jeff Brohm's status as a candidate to eventually move to a bigger job, whether it's in the college ranks or in the NFL. The Hilltoppers have gone 19-7 in Brohm's two seasons in charge at WKU and quarterback Brandon Doughty has passed for more than 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns in each of those two seasons. Doughty finished Saturday's game with 410 yards passing, three touchdowns and an interception.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
