With our series of positional previews coming to its conclusion and an unconventional short game week, our coverage leading up to UK’s season-opener against Western Kentucky is going to look a bit different than our pre-game coverage for future games. Keeping that in mind, here’s what you need to know about the Hilltoppers before kickoff at 9:15 p.m. ET on Thursday.Taggart enters second seasonMuch like his UK counterpart, Joker Phillips, Willie Taggart enters his second year as head coach of his alma mater. He played at Western Kentucky from 1995-1998, rewriting the Hilltopper record book in the process. He set 11 school records as a dual-threat quarterback and is still the all-time leader in rushing touchdowns. He played at Western for legendary head coach Jack Harbaugh and was recruited by his son, Jim.He spent his first years after graduation as an assistant at WKU before new Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh hired him as running backs coach in 2007. He was part of a rebuilding effort that saw the Cardinal go from 1-11 in 2006 to 8-5 in 2009. In Taggart’s final season in Palo Alto, Calif., running back Toby Gerhart finished second in voting for the Heisman Trophy.Seeing his role in Stanford’s turnaround, WKU hired him in 2010 hoping he could duplicate the feat. The Hilltoppers are the midst of a transition to FBS from FCS (formerly Division I-AA) that began in 2008. In Taggart’s first season, WKU matched its win total from 2008 and 2009 combined with a 2-10 record.Taggart is still in the process of building a talent base, but the team could take a step forward in 2011 with a number of contributors from last season returning.Rainey headlines Hilltopper attackSenior running back Bobby Rainey headlines the group of returners. He was an absolute workhorse in 2010, leading the nation in carries with 340. He was also fifth nationally with 1,649 yards and ranked in the top 20 in touchdowns with 15. A chunk of that production came in the Hilltoppers’ matchup with UK last year. He tallied 184 yards on 22 carries, scoring a pair of touchdowns in the Wildcats’ 63-28 victory.Phillips said that last season’s performance was a blow to the Wildcats’ pride.”You cannot allow a team to rush for that many yards on you,” Phillips said. “Rushing yards demoralize you. You (have) to stop the run. When people are able to line up and run the ball on you, it’s a slap in the face. Last year was a slap in the face the way they ran the ball on us.”There is no doubt that WKU is going to Rainey early and often. He will be an immediate test of the Wildcats’ revamped defense under co-coordinator Rick Minter. UK will not hesitate to stack the line of scrimmage against the Hilltopper rushing attack, which will run behind an offensive line that returns three starters.”To stop the run, sometimes you have to commit to getting enough people in the box to stopping the run, which sometimes hangs guys in the secondary out to dry,” Phillips said. “Those guys (have) to compete like the dickens outside because we’ve got to try to commit extra people to the line of scrimmage.”Third-year starting quarterback Kawuan Jakes will look to make the Wildcats pay for leaving cornerbacks Anthony Mosley and Randall Burden on an island against Jamarielle Brown and his fellow wide receivers. Jakes is fairly athletic, but he spends most of his time in the pocket. The junior completed 51.2 percent of his passes last season for 1,680 yards and 10 touchdowns. With some uncertainty at the wide receiver position, junior tight end Jack Doyle could prove to be Jakes’ favored target. He caught 37 passes for 365 yards as a freshman and was the team’s leading receiver  with 20 catches in 2010 before his season ended due to injury after seven games. A big target at 6-foot-6 and 248 pounds, he could cause matchup problems for a UK team playing a number of smaller hybrid players along the front seven.Wildcats not the only ones with new defenseThe Hilltoppers were 99th in the country last season, allowing over 33 points per game on the season. The 63 points that UK scored were the most they gave up in 2010. The Wildcats sported a balanced attack, rushing and passing for over 200 yards in a comfortable victory. Junior quarterback Morgan Newton saw mop-up duty, completing two passes for 48 yards.After a rough defensive 2010, Taggart brought in Lance Guidry as defensive coordinator. Guidry coached defensive backs at Miami (OH) last season before serving as interim head coach for the team’s bowl game. UK has looked at tape of the RedHawks in 2010, but Phillips knows there’s only so much that can be learned from that.”You have to watch some film. We watched some Miami film from last year,” Phillips said. “We didn’t go all the way back to McNeese State where he was at. But we did watch the Miami tape. Sometimes it’s hard to get the guys to focus. Hey, we’re not playing Miami, we’re playing Western Kentucky, so we’ll focus just on the scheme.”Three new starters at linebacker will look to lead the charge under Guidry, including the presidentially-named Andrew Jackson. The sophomore played just one game last season, but has emerged in camp as a leader. WKU will turn to two more sophomores in the secondary. Arius Wright and Tyree Robinson entered the starting lineup were inserted into the starting lineup during the season in 2010 and showed significant potential.With Newton throwing to an inexperienced receiving corps, expect UK to rely heavily on an experienced offensive line and running backs Raymond Sanders (who scored a pair of touchdowns against WKU last year) and freshman Josh Clemons to set up the pass, but UK will certainly look to capitalize on Newton’s ability to throw the ball down field.”We haven’t changed much offensively,” Phillips said. “We’ll look the same. I think this guy that we have pulling the trigger can stretch the field. I’m really excited to watch him play.”SummaryMotivation shouldn’t be an issue as these two in-state rivals open the season on an NFL field in Nashville. The Hilltoppers, playing as the home team, will view the game as a big opportunity for the program and will not be afraid of the Wildcats. They will look to establish the run and control time of possession with Rainey. Kentucky has plenty to prove though with new starters all along the offense and a much-talked about new defensive scheme. The Wildcats will be far from a finished product on Thursday, no matter how well they play, but watching how Newton has developed and the aggressiveness of the new defense will be interesting to watch.