It's essentially a Conference USA eliminator in the first game of a doubleheader tonight when Delaware visits Western Kentucky. Liberty and Jacksonville State are both 3-0 in CUSA, while the Blue Hens are 1-2 and Hilltoppers 2-1, so the loser here can forget about the league title game.
CBS Sports Network has the 7 p.m. ET kick from Bowling Green, Ky., and the forecast looks fine: Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 49F. Winds light and variable.
This sounds completely obvious, but it's amazing what a difference a true good starting quarterback makes for a team. Delaware has one you might not be aware of in senior Nick Minicucci, who was the 2026 CUSA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year after a 2025 campaign in which he led the conference in passing yards (3,683) and total offense (3,918).
Delaware started 2-1 out of conference (only loss was competitive to Vanderbilt) with Minicucci under center. But he missed the next three games and the Blue Hens lost them all, totaling just 47 points. Minicucci returned last Tuesday with a bang, leading his team to a 61-38 home rout of Missouri State. He tied a school record with five touchdown passes and ran for another score. That moved him to 48 career TD passes to pass Bill Vergantino for third on the school's all-time career passing touchdowns list.
The 61 points scored tied for the most under coach Ryan Carty (also vs. UTEP in 2025), and UD improved to 26-1 under him when winning the turnover battle. Delaware scored on nine straight drives and 10 of 11 overall, not including the two that ended in kneel downs to conclude the second and fourth quarters.
It was the highest-scoring CUSA game overall since October 2017 and tied for Delaware's second-most points in a game since 2000. It went 8-for-8 in the red zone with six TDs, the most red-zone scores in a game by any CUSA team since 2022.
Western Kentucky is off a bye week and won at Sam Houston 16-3 on Oct. 14 last time out. WKU used to be one of those programs that threw the ball all over the field – it leads the FBS in total pass attempts since 2019, Coach Tyson Helton's first season there -- and would often have 40-point games. That's not this year's club, exactly.
The Hilltoppers had only 276 yards of offense in the win and now have had more rushing yards than passing yards in back-to-back games for the first time since September 2013.
Florida State transfer Brock Glenn threw for 127 yards and a TD and led the team with 22 carries for 54 yards. In doing so, he became the first CUSA player with 30-plus pass attempts and 22-plus rushing attempts in a game since 2020. Sophomore Rodney Tisdale Jr. was the early-season starter but hasn't started the past two while dealing with a nagging ankle injury.
Defensively, that Sam Houston win was WKU's first time holding a CUSA opponent without a touchdown in a win since a 73-0 victory over FIU on Sept. 24, 2022. And the Hilltoppers' defense should get a major boost with the return of three starters in linebacker Jaylen Wester and linemen Mackavelli Malotumau and Rylen Su'a-Filo. The three graduate seniors missed the past two games in a bit of a tug-of-war with the NCAA over eligibility. But they won the latest round last week so can play. For now.
The Delaware defense, meanwhile, ranks at or near the bottom in CUSA and outside the Top 100 nationally in scoring (28.4 PPG), total (396.4 YPG) and pass defense (270.3 YPG) despite leading CUSA with 18 sacks – only two in the past two games, though. The Hens have given up at least 30 points in four straight games, tied for the longest active streak in the FBS.
WKU's team total is set at 28.5 and it is averaging 28.8 PPG in the past four, second in CUSA since Week 4. Defensively, the Toppers are allowing 30.4 PPG but have trimmed that number to 14.3 PPG over the last four (No. 2 in CUSA since Week 4) and just one TD surrendered in the past two games combined.
This will be a Red Out game, and the Hilltoppers have won 13 of their last 15 games at Houchens-Smith Stadium. It marks the fourth all-time meeting between the schools. Delaware leads 2-1 but lost last season, 27-24 in Newark. Minicucci threw for 314 yards but also a pick-six and rushed for three scores. Delaware hasn't played in Bowling Green since 1981.
