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The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers will host the Central Arkansas Bears at Houchens Industries–L. T. Smith Stadium on Thursday as each team opens their 2019 college football season.
The game (7:30 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on regular TV anywhere, but you can watch it right here via ESPN+, the digital streaming service from ESPN that includes most Western Kentucky and C-USA football games this season, tons of other college football and live sports, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and additional original content (both video and written) all for $4.99 per month.
You can sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch Central Arkansas vs Western Kentucky live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
Central Arkansas vs Western Kentucky Preview
The Hilltoppers went 3-9 in 2018, then fired head coach Mike Sanford Jr.
They soon replaced him with former Houston Cougars quarterback Tyson Helton, who spent last season as the Tennessee Volunteers’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
On August 20, Helton announced that redshirt junior quarterback Steven Duncan would start at quarterback against Central Arkansas. Duncan edged out graduate transfer Ty Storey for the starting gig.
“Thought it was a very close battle,” Helton said, according to the Bowling Green Daily News. “I thought [Duncan] and Ty Storey were pretty even. Told both of those guys I’m going to go with my first instinct to run Steven out there. Ty will play, he’ll have a role. It’s going to be competition every single day, but we’ll run Ty out there. I don’t want to get into a quarterback spinning wheel, but if a guy is not performing, we’ll go next man up.
“But Steven will be the first one to run out there.”
Three quarterbacks attempted at least 99 passes for Western Kentucky a season ago. Duncan led the way with 187 tries, completing 57.8 percent for 1,071 yards, 9 touchdowns, and 7 picks.
Central Arkansas posted a 6-5 mark last season, their first under head coach Nathan Brown, a former UCA quarterback who claimed the Southland Conference player of the year award as a senior in 2008.
Brown served as the team’s quarterbacks coach from 2009-13, then held a dual role as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator from 2014-17.
Redshirt sophomore Breylin Smith will once again head into the season as the Bears’ starting quarterback. Last year, he suffered a broken ankle in the fourth quarter of their fourth game. When he went down, he led the South Conference with a completion percentage of 68.8, having amassed 1,009 yards, 6 touchdowns, and just 1 interception.
“When you look at Breylin, he’s just a special player,” Brown said, according to the school’s athletics department website. “He’s just an unbelievable talent. He has a great ability to diagnose a defense during the play. And just the physical ability to throw the football.”
Brown added: “People gravitate toward Breylin, they listen to him when he speaks. He leads by example but he can also be a vocal leader. He can be the rah-rah, happy guy when things are going well or he can be the guy who sets the tone when something negative needs to be said.
“And that’s something I can’t coach, and that’s something [offensive coordinator Ken] Collums can’t coach into him. You either have it or you don’t. And Breylin has it.”