After three consecutive home games, the Western Kentucky University football team will head back out on the road this weekend to face Troy at 2:30 p.m. (CST) at Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium.  The game will be televised on CSS, and can be seen locally in Bowling Green on WKYU-PBS.

u The Hilltoppers are 9-2 all time in games played on Nov. 8. That includes a current nine-game winning streak. The last time WKU played a game on Nov. 8, it picked up a 24-3 win over Northern Iowa in 2003.

u WKU’s 40 points scored against North Texas were the most points scored in a loss since a 59-45 setback at Central Florida on Sept. 24, 1994.

u Troy ranks as one of the best home teams in the nation in recent years. In fact, its .846 home winning percentage since 2003 ranks as the 11th best in the Football Bowl Subdivision. That puts them ahead of such perennial powers as Wisconsin, Georgia and Florida, and just behind programs like Oklahoma, Ohio State and Texas.

u The Trojans have spread the ball around to more receivers than any team in the nation to this point in 2008. Through eight games, 21 different players have caught passes for Troy. Tulane is second on that list with 18, while Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kent State, Kentucky, Louisiana-Lafayette, Miami, Northern Illinois and Oklahoma round out the top 10 with 17 different players with receptions.

u The Hilltoppers are looking to avoid a sixth consecutive loss in a season since it ended the 1990 campaign with eight straight setbacks.

u WKU’s 504 yards of total offense against North Texas was a season high, and the most since it has 510 and 538 in back-to-back games last season against Indiana State and North Carolina Central. It’s also the 11th time during the David Elson era that a Topper offense has gone over 500 yards in a game.

u Hilltopper assistant Mike Chism and Trojan assistant John Schlarman worked together on the staff at Kentucky in 2001 and ’02 — the former was the director of operations while the latter served as a graduate assistant.