Brandon Doughty leads Western Kentucky to exciting 2015 Miami Beach Bowl win vs. USF

Western Kentucky’s first five possessions in the Miami Beach Bowl netted 114 yards in 34 plays (3.4 per play), three punts, a turnover on downs and an interception. Brandon Doughty, the Hilltoppers’ star quarterback, completed only one pass for more than 9 yards in this span, misfired badly on quite a few passes and threw a hesitant pick as WKU was driving. He started 10-of-19 passing for just 65 yards. Passer rating: 70.8.

With WKU down 14-0, Doughty connected with Taywan Taylor for 53 yards, setting up a diving touchdown by Anthony Wales on the next play. Game on.

The Miami Beach Bowl was a bit slow for a half or so, appropriate for a Monday afternoon kickoff. However, Western Kentucky and South Florida kicked things into overdrive in the second half, with the Hilltoppers coming away with a bonkers 45-35 victory.

Both teams combined for 413 yards and 24 points at the half, but the scoreboard lit up through the final two quarters with 56 points and 796 yards, including touchdowns of 69, 55, 34, 26, 53 and 42 yards. WKU pulled away by as much as 17 before USF cut the lead to just three in the fourth. But Anthony Wales busted loose for the final touchdown of the afternoon, and the Hilltopper defense held on downs in the final minutes and ran the clock out.

Western Kentucky just punted on fourth-and-goal in the Miami Beach Bowl. More impressively, Western Kentucky just punted on fourth-and-goal in the Miami Beach Bowl, and it was the right call, and it was PERFECT.

Here’s how this happened:

Western Kentucky finally got on the board in the Miami Beach Bowl with this touchdown run, but the touchdown was reviewed after it looked like the ball may have slipped out of wide receiver Taywon Taylor’s hands before it crossed the plane.

The call on the field of a touchdown “stood” because there was not conclusive evidence to overturn it. ESPN’s referee in the booth, John Sullivan, said “it’s close,” according to the broadcasters. Here’s a look at two still angles.

Last year, Memphis and BYU combined to score 103 points -- and a then got caught up in a wild brawl -- in the first-ever Miami Beach Bowl. With Western Kentucky and South Florida in town for 2015, fans of offense won’t be disappointed in this sequel.

The Miami Beach Bowl will match USF’s Willie Taggart against the team he left behind to take his current job in Tampa. The coach had been in desperate need of a big season with the Bulls after a disappointing start to his tenure. Now, he’s on the brink of locking down a nine-win season in his third year with the program.

For a sport that features such an embedded oligarchy, fortunes sure can change quickly sometimes. Two days into October, Willie Taggart’s USF Bulls were 1-3 with excusable losses to Florida State and Memphis and an inexcusable 18-point loss to Maryland. They were very much living down to the title of my offseason USF preview (“It’s bad”), and it didn’t look like Taggart would be in Tampa much longer.

But after winning just seven of their first 28 games under Taggart, USF then won seven of eight. After scoring more than 21 points five times in two-plus years, the Bulls did so seven times.

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The time has come. The regular season is almost over and bowl season is just on the horizon. Sadly, that means your opportunities to watch good Group of Five football before next fall are almost dried up. Sorry, Army - Navy may be a good historical game, but it’s not going to be competitive this year. Navy will blow the Black Knights out of the water before halftime.

And with more bowl games than ever before, it can be hard to maximize your opportunities to take in good football before we enter the void. Don’t stress. This week, we’re changing things up a bit and putting together a bowl guide to ensure you know which games featuring Group of Five teams are worth your time.

After a brawl put a disappointing cap on an otherwise exciting inaugural edition of the Miami Beach Bowl, the 2015 bowl will look to turn over a new leaf for the game.

When the Memphis Tigers earned a 55-48 victory over the BYU Cougars in 2014, it came after BYU mounted a fourth quarter comeback to force overtime. However, Memphis came out on top thanks to an interception in double overtime, but the game will be best remembered for the bench-clearing brawl that immediately followed the final whistle.