If Western Kentucky wants to do what no one else in the Sun Belt has - beat Troy - it’ll have to stop the player no one else in the Sun Belt has contained.

Omar Haugabook, the Trojans’ dynamic senior quarterback and preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year, has done a bit of everything this season - throwing for 2,391 yards and 14 touchdowns, and running for another 419 yards and nine scores.

“Obviously we’ve got to be able to control Omar,” WKU coach David Elson said. “He’s a special player. He’s going to run it, he’s going to throw it, and he throws it a lot better than people realize. He’ll attack you vertically and horizontally. He’s really a complete package there, and he allows them to do a lot of things offensively.”

Haugabook leads a Troy offense that has racked up 34.4 points and 452.7 yards per contest - numbers that include games against major Bowl Division schools Florida, Georgia, Arkansas and Oklahoma State.

A mobile quarterback with experience, Haugabook has the ability to strike at any time, and that big-play threat means the Hilltoppers must stay disciplined on defense.

“We’ll have to contain him; he likes to get out of the pocket quite a bit,” WKU freshman linebacker Chris Bullard said. “We’ll also have to stay in coverage quite a bit longer ... He can make plays and stretch coverage time more than a normal quarterback, because he scrambles a lot.

“On top of that, though, we’ll have to have good run support, because they’re going to try and run it at us, too.”

Making things more difficult is that fact that Haugabook and the Trojan pass attack aren’t picky: Thirteen different players have caught the team’s 18 total touchdown passes. Couple that with the fact Troy averages 168 yards rushing, and the Trojans field a balanced and somewhat unpredictable attack.

“They’re very versatile, they can run the ball and they can throw the ball,” senior safety Marion Rumph said. “And the tough part about it is that you really don’t know what they’re wanting to do, you can’t predict what they’re doing. So it comes back to playing defense and playing what we know, and hopefully we’ll be able to stop them.”

While the Trojans will have other options today - leading rusher Kenny Catthouse comes in with 625 yards and five scores, while top receiver Gary Banks has 551 yards on 45 catches - there is no doubt everything hinges on the signal caller.

“The main part of the whole offense is at quarterback,” defensive end Dan Cline said. “He’s just a tremendous athlete who will probably be playing on Sundays next year. He makes everything go. They’ve also got tremendous skill players with great speed all over the place.”

Simply forcing the Trojans and Haugabook into fourth-down situations won’t be enough, however, as speedy cornerback Leodis McKelvin has three punt return touchdowns this season, with an average of 21.2 yards per return.

“We’re very aware of his success returning kicks,” Elson said. “He’s got a lot of speed back there, and they’ve got a lot of team speed overall - but we really just want to make sure we get good coverage work in there. The plan isn’t to kick it out of bounds, but we’ll certainly be prepared to do that if that’s what we need to do.”

McKelvin (who appears on most experts’ 2008 NFL Draft boards) and fellow cornerback Elbert Mack are the anchors of a Trojan defensive unit that is stingy against the pass, allowing only 181 yards per game. McKelvin and Mack have combined for eight of the team’s 12 interceptions this season, and Mack has returned one interception for a touchdown.

“They have one of the best corners in the country in McKelvin,” WKU wide receiver Jake Gaebler said. “The speed of the game will be different as the speed of that whole defense is just tremendous. You have to work on playing fast and just getting ready for playing against those caliber of athletes.”

So while playmakers are littered across the Troy roster, Rumph said the Hilltoppers simply must stick to the things that have been successful this year.

“I feel like if we execute and do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll be fine,” he said. “No matter what they do, if we execute, we know the coaches will put us in the right position to make plays.

“And as long as we do that, we’ll come out on top.”