Latest news with #WKU
Fox Sports
a day ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
2025 WKU Football Predictions: Hilltoppers Ranked 83rd in RJ Young's Ultimate 136
College Football 2025 WKU Football Predictions: Hilltoppers Ranked 83rd in RJ Young's Ultimate 136 Published Aug. 10, 2025 9:44 p.m. ET share facebook x reddit link This isn't your average college football ranking. My Ultimate 136 is a set of rankings that is fluid, but it's my job to look ahead and make a claim for all FBS teams based on what I know and why I know it. Here are the three pressing questions I started by asking when putting together this list: Who do I think is good? Why do I think they're good? What are the chances they will finish above or below my expectations? Here is a look at where Western Kentucky lands in my Ultimate 136. Western Kentucky ranking: 83 Last year's ranking: 59 Top player: WR Matthew Henry: Recorded 1,211 receiving yards at Western Illinois last season, leading the Big South-OVC; had five games last season with 100+ yards receiving. [ Western Kentucky's 2025 schedule ] RJ's take: Tyson Helton continues to pick the best of the rest at offensive coordinator and quarterback and put an offense on the field that's built on a gunslinging attitude. ADVERTISEMENT This year, that means former Abilene Christian OC and QB Rick Bowie and Maverick McIvor will lead the Hilltoppers. McIvor threw for 506 yards last year against Texas Tech and turns 25 during Week 0 when WKU begins the 2025 season against Sam Houston. [ Check out RJ Young's Ultimate 136 College Football Rankings here ] Western Kentucky Win Total Odds: Over 7.5 (-110) Under (-110) Have an issue with my rankings? Think your alma mater is too low, or your school's rival is too high? Get at me on X, @RJ_Young , and I'll select my favorite tweets and respond to them in a future article. RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young. FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience College Football Western Kentucky Hilltoppers share
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rep. Tim O'Brien announces law keeping biological males out of female sports
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – According to Indiana House Republicans and Indiana State Representative Tim O'Brien, there's a new law that pertains to keeping biological males out of female sports. Rep. O'Brien explains, 'Ensuring fairness in collegiate sports is essential to protecting opportunities for female athletes. Biological differences impact athletic performance, and a new law I supported this session further protects the integrity of women's sports in Indiana.' WKU votes to extend contract of current president The Indiana House Republicans say House Enrolled Act 1041 ensures 'fair competition' by preventing biological males from competing in female categories at the collegiate level in Indiana. This legislation aligns with an executive order at the federal level signed by President Donald Trump and one at the state level signed by Governor Mike Braun, codifying the language into state law. HEA 1041 was signed into law by Gov. Braun on April 16. Evansville Flag Group and Otters to raise money for Marvin Gray tribute Legislators say Elle Patterson, a former San Jose State volleyball player, testified in support of HEA 1041 in both the House and Senate committee hearings. She stated that she lost a volleyball scholarship to a biological male athlete and was required to share hotel rooms and locker rooms, while being unfairly compared in athletic performance. To learn more about HEA 1041 and other new laws signed by the governor, go here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Charlotte teacher selected as 2025 National STEM Scholar, 10 teachers selected nationwide
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Aprille' Morris-Butler, a teacher from Trinity Episcopal School, is among ten middle school teachers from ten states who have been selected to participate in the prestigious National STEM Scholar Program. This is a unique professional development program providing advanced STEM training, national network building and project support for middle school science teachers nationwide. Created in partnership between the National Stem Cell Foundation and The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University, the National STEM Scholar Program selects ten teachers each year from a national pool of applicants based solely on the description of a 'big idea' Challenge Project the applicant would implement in their classroom if funds were available. Selected projects are chosen for maximum impact in middle school classrooms, where research shows lifelong STEM career decisions are being made. STEM Scholars convene on WKU's campus for a week of advanced STEM training and finalize their projects with input from their STEM Scholar class colleagues. I believe STEM matters because it sparks curiosity and creativity in my students, giving them the tools to solve real-world problems while having fun along the way. Being part of the National STEM Scholar Program is thrilling because it connects me with passionate educators across the country who understand that middle school is where lifelong STEM decisions are made. I can't wait to bring fresh ideas back to my classroom and watch my students' eyes light up when they discover the joy of scientific discovery. Aprille' Morris-Butler The Gatton Academy will host the 2025 National STEM Scholar class from May 25 to May 31 on the campus of WKU in Bowling Green: Melanie Davis Hardy (Bentonia, Miss.) – Yazoo County Middle School (Yazoo City, Miss.) Lalita Khemka (Katy, Texas) – Cardiff Junior High School Renae Lewis (Salmon, Idaho) – Salmon Junior/Senior High School Aprille' Morris-Butler (Charlotte, N.C.) – Trinity Episcopal School Yevgeny Pevzner (West Valley City, Utah) – Kearns Junior High School (Kearns, Utah) Joshua Reese (Hazelwood, Mo.) – Ferguson Middle School (Ferguson, Mo.) Jo Slavitz (Hampton Falls, N.H.) – Dover Middle School (Dover, N.H.) Tracy Vassiliev (Bangor, Maine) – James F. Doughty School Michael Vigeant (Lafayette, Tenn.) – Macon County Junior High School Alexandria Wicker (Melbourne, Fla.) – DeLaura Middle School (Satellite Beach, Fla.) Now in its 10th year, there are 100 National STEM Scholars representing middle schools in 37 states. 93% teach in public schools, 44% teach in mid- to high-poverty schools, and 39% teach in communities with a population under 15,000. By June 2026, National STEM Scholars will have directly and indirectly impacted more than 190,000 middle school students in the U.S. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Miami Herald
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Western Kentucky Preview 2025: Even in a Rebuild, the Hilltoppers Will Be Dangerous
Another year, another great run. It's coming, but Tyson Helton's Hilltoppers have to get that offensive groove back Kentucky has settled in with 34 wins over the last four seasons and six bowl appearances in six years. It's hard to argue too much with an eight-win year, a spot in the Conference USA Championship, and a bowl game. But … The offense died down the stretch, the defense didn't make up for it, and a 7-2 season turned into 8-6 with the Hilltoppers scoring 21 point or fewer in the last five yet, WKU lost to a bad Louisiana Tech. The win over Jacksonville State to end the regular season was a mirage - Rich Rodriguez's team was resting up for the rematch a week later, and it showed in a 52-12 take out the everyone-gets-a-pass 2020, and Helton has eight wins or more in five of his six seasons, this year's team should be a favorite to win the conference title, and it should be another great run if … Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Preview 2025: Offense X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN- The offense has to kick it back in from the start, and do it with a wholesale change at the skill spots. The passing game was okay under Caden Veltkamp, but he left for Florida Atlantic. In comes veteran quarterback Maverick McIvor. After bombing away for over 8,000 yards and 63 scores over the last three years at Abilene Christian.- The top four pass catchers are gone, but KD Hutchinson is back after averaging over 15 yards per grab. The stars - led by deep threat Matthew Henry (Western Illinois) - are almost all coming in through the portal. - The offensive line that struggled in pass protection and didn't generate enough of a push for the ground game replaces four starters, but Marshall Jackson is a decent veteran at left tackle. The new starters from the transfer portal are just okay - Devon Smith (ULM) should be okay at one tackle, but the interior being pieced Wright (Austin Peay) should be the main man for the ground game, along with WKU's No. 2 rusher last year, George Hart III - he ran for 206 yards. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Preview 2025: Defense - The defense was way too pass defense finished ninth in the nation, but that's because everyone was too busy running at will on the front six. On the plus side, the entire line and most of the linebacking corps is being replaced - Kennon Loftin (JUCO) should be the team's leading tackler in the middle.- The line has experience from other spots, but the proven production isn't quite there. It's a strength-in-numbers thing with seven new players from the portal forming rotation. The pass rush has to come from somewhere. - The secondary will be tested a little more this season. Jaylen Lewis (Temple) was a nice get at safety coming off a 43-tackle season, and Demarko Williams is a veteran who came up 37 stops and two picks last year. The corners will work around Kent Robinson, one of WKU's most experienced returning defenders. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Key to the Season Don't be awful against the Hilltoppers went 2-5 when allowing teams to run for over 190 yards - and one of those teams was Jacksonville State the first time around when it was playing at half speed - and 6-1 when allowing that many yards or fewer. That's why … Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Key Player Mackavelli Malotumau, DT former Nevada tackle isn't massive - he's a 6-1, 290-pound anchor - but he's got the leverage to hold up on the nose. That's the hope after making 25 tackles with a sack in two years for the Wolf Pack. If he and 305-pound Norfolk State transfer Eric Etienne can hold up, the WKU D will quickly change. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Top Transfer, Biggest Transfer Loss Top Transfer In: Maverick McIvor, QB would be nice if he was a bit more of a runner, but over his three years at Abilene Christian, McIvor grew into a whale of a passer throwing for over 3,800 yards and 30 scores last year. He's ready right out of the box to take over the attack and start pushing it down the Transfer Out: Hosea Wheeler, DT might be more talented players gone through the portal - Rodney Newsom should be a whale of a guard for South Carolina - but Wheeler is exactly who this year's team could've used for the defensive interior. The CUSA all-star is now at Indiana after making 75 tackles last year. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Key Game Sam Houston, Aug. 23If you really and truly want to dream big, the biggest game might be at Toledo on September 6th. Win that, and with a freakishly light schedule, 11-1 in the regular season isn't an insane goal. But Sam Houston will be dangerous, it's the Conference USA opener, and it's a home game that has to show the team is back up to speed right out of the gate.- 2025 WKU Hilltoppers Schedule Breakdown Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Top 10 Players 1. Marshall Jackson, OT Sr.2. Maverick McIvor, QB Sr.3. Jaylen Lewis, S Jr.4. Kent Robinson, CB Sr.5. Kennon Loftin, LB Jr.6. Matthew Henry, WR Sr.7. Anthony Breckenridge, LB Sr.8. La'Vell Wright, RB Sr.9. Cole Maynard, P Sr.10. Mackavelli Malotumau, DT Sr. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 2024 Fun Stats - Rushing Yards: Opponents 3,097, WKU 1,524- Fumbles: WKU 22 (lost 12), Opponents 17 (lost 10) - Time of Possession: Opponents 32:10, WKU 27:50 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 2025 Season Prediction, Win Total, What Will Happen This isn't one of Tyson Helton's best teams, but it might have the best about the paycheck game at LSU, and going to Toledo is dangerous, but that's it. Jacksonville State is in a total rebuilding mode, a road game at Louisiana Tech could be interesting, but whatever. This is one of the easiest schedules in college football, and WKU has to take full advantage of it. There are too many new parts to expect any sort of consistency over the first half of the campaign, and there will be a few blown tires - like, maybe against Middle Tennessee or in the opener against Sam Houston - but it'll be another season with eight more more wins, and another season in the mix for the Conference USA The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Win Total At … 8Likely Wins: FIU, North Alabama50/50 Games: at Delaware, at Jacksonville State, at Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, at Missouri State, Nevada, New Mexico State, Sam Houston, at ToledoLikely Losses: at LSU © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Strode aims for accessibility as WKU regional campuses director
Derick Strode felt he was 'floating around' during his formative years at Western Kentucky University before putting an emphasis on English. 'I had two great English teachers in high school; but by the time I got to WKU, I had no idea I was going to be an English major,' Strode, 43, said. '(I was a) young student who was trying to find their way,' Strode said. The 'lifelong Kentuckian' and Allen County-Scottsville High School graduate said it was during undergrad when he encountered 'a couple of very influential faculty members' who helped expose him to 'how great being an English student could be' — developing a keen interest in American literature. 'I fell into it,' he said, 'and loved it very much.' Strode, a first-generation college student, had the opportunity to study abroad in England the summer before the start of his junior year — an experience he deemed 'influential.' '... I had never been in the cities. I had never been outside of the U.S.,' he said. 'I didn't have a passport when I started college. ...I always put it into context historically — it was post-9/11, but this was still before the U.S. and other allies attacked Iraq, and went militarily into Iraq,' Strode said. 'It was a really political moment. The western world was really sort of reeling from 9/11 and there were a lot of protests because the coming war efforts were very established and publicized. 'I hadn't seen protests, peaceful protests, all these different ideas being exchanged,' Strode said. '... It was personal growth and confidence — that's what changed. 'I was never the same,' Strode said. Following graduation in 2003, Strode worked for a 'large, corporate' law firm in Cincinnati for eight months while also freelancing as a writer and photographer. It was following his departure from the firm when working a front desk shift at the Residence Inn by Marriott Cincinnati Airport that renavigated his life course. '... I was working (at the hotel) on the evening of July 4 … and I was not happy with how things were going in life, and I was looking for another job while I was working,' he said. 'I was looking at the classifieds … and I saw the WKU logo … and they were looking for a person who would live in northern Kentucky or Cincinnati and visit high schools as a recruiter.' He found himself back with WKU in August 2004, this time employed as an admissions counselor — the first job in Strode's now-two-decade-plus career in education. 'It felt like it was important. It felt like I had purpose. My salary stunk, but I did not care,' he said. 'I never worked harder at a job than I did for those three years as a recruiter.' The following year, Strode found himself back in the classroom as a graduate student in WKU's master's degree program for student affairs in higher education — all while working his full-time job. After graduating in 2017, Strode went on to become an international student advisor. 'At the time, WKU had a large international student population. Our biggest population were Indian students at that point in time, but we had students from … well north of 40 countries …,' he said. '... It was a blast.' After almost two years, Strode found himself at the then-recently opened Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky, a state-funded, specialized early college entrance program. Strode took on two roles during his near-13-year tenure — starting out as the coordinator of research, internships and scholarships in October 2008 before becoming the assistant director of academic services by March 2012. 'There's no reason except for it was special,' Strode chuckled in response to leaving his WKU post. '(Gatton) was one-year-old when I joined it, and the opportunities there were rich and plentiful. '... It was new and everything there was ready to take off and grow,' Strode said. 'It was not what I (thought) would be my next move, but there it was — and it was the professional ride of my life.' While Strode's time at Gatton still allowed him to connect and network with WKU faculty, he notes the new setting came with some learning curves. 'I didn't know how to create a research program. I didn't know how to create an internship program for people who aren't 18 years old yet,' he said. 'But there were two things — there was a vision that had been laid, and my first job was to bring it to life; and then second, there were peer schools around the country for us who had already been doing it that we got to learn from. 'I had a lot of support to take an idea, learn how to do it and bring it to life,' Strode said. During this chapter, Strode enrolled at WKU two more times — receiving his master's in English in 2012 and a doctor of education in educational leadership in 2016. About five years later, Strode found himself back at his alma mater, albeit not in one central area or building. In August 2021, Strode became the director for regional campuses — overseeing the college's satellite locations in Elizabethtown, Fort Knox, Glasgow, Owensboro and Somerset. 'I was still having a great time at Gatton, so I wasn't in a huge hurry to leave there. But I just grew ready for a leadership role,' he said. '... At Gatton, I worked with this select group of Kentucky students to propel them to .. reach for things that otherwise they wouldn't have necessarily been easily able to. 'This job is more about the access for every person,' Strode said. 'That value of this job, making sure that no matter what one's personal circumstances (are) that they still have access to higher education wherever they live. 'It speaks to a lot of what I believe,' Strode said. While Strode found his prior experiences in education have been helpful in the role, he said his past with admissions has been instrumental. '... If we try to get people to pursue a degree, we have to find them, understand them and communicate back to them on how to get enrolled,' he said. 'The recruitment aspect of what I do and what we do with our staff here (in Owensboro) and at other regional campuses — it's every single day.' And he's found leading the charge in different parts of the state has opened his eyes about how to best serve each campuses' students specifically. 'The needs between here (in Owensboro) and other communities … are not the same,' Strode said. 'There's a lot of gear switching in this job, and that's nice. I don't go to work in the same place tomorrow ever as I did today, and the challenges are always new.' Strode started the role when education was still plagued by the coronavirus pandemic, though he noticed online course enrollment '(absorbed) a lot more of our students.' '... We did a lot of evaluation first of what did students want? How did they want higher ed to take place? Did they want to be online? Did they want to be in-person?' he said. 'And the answer was everything above and in between — everybody had different feelings about it. '... We started forging more ways for our regional program to be hybrid touches,' Strode said. 'We insist that we get students to our regional campuses so that we have relationships with them, and so that they have relationships with their faculty and with their peers. But we also, probably, have more of an online modality inside of what they do now than before Covid. 'I think we're finding some sweet spot in that — trying to take advantage of what online education can do for flexibility of degree progress, while insisting that the in-person components are really important to their development,' Strode said. For the Owensboro campus, the city's only four-year public university, enrollment has been in a five-year high regarding on-campus students and 425 total students being enrolled as of fall 2024. According to comprehensive data from fall 2023, the average out-of-pocket cost per semester is $1,842, with 57% of students receiving a Pell Grant, 61% receiving an automatic WKU merit scholarship — average $1,400 per semester, and 60% receiving additional scholarship support — averaging $2,771 per semester. According to the data, 41% of WKU-Owensboro's full-time undergraduates ended up not paying anything. 'We work on that public education pipeline to help local residents complete bachelor's degrees and graduate degrees,' Strode said, 'and nobody else in Owensboro does that.' The university is also Owensboro Community & Technical College's largest transfer partner, which Strode stresses he and the university 'work really hard to make it as smooth and seamless as possible' in an effort to 'create purposeful transitions.' 'We meet with their administration every month — it's a standing meeting — … and we nurture the good things we've got going,' he said. 'We constantly work to make sure that they're smooth for students, and that it's affordable and that their faculty know how to advise them ….' Though the students enrolled with the satellite locations may not get the exact experience one would at WKU's main hub in Bowling Green, it doesn't deter the educational value. 'We're one Western Kentucky University; we just happen to have a different zip code,' Strode said of the Owensboro campus. 'The 13 degrees that we offer here (are) offered by the same departments and the same faculty at WKU — the same quality, the expectation, rigor, accreditation standards. 'Everything is measured by the same ruler …,' Strode said. And though Strode stays busy traveling from one location to the next, his interactions with students — former and present — make it all worthwhile. 'I'm always going to be the happiest when I hear from a student,' he said. 'That's where my heart's at.'
