Western Kentucky head coach Tyson Helton felt sentimental when he heard Alabama’s Nick Saban had retired. Helton’s father, Kim Helton, had worked with Saban, coaching for the NFL’s Houston Oilers from 1988 through 1989, so Saban was a family friend of the Hilltoppers’ leader, despite the two having not seen each other in several years.

There was also the fact Helton’s WKU team was scheduled to face the Crimson Tide to open the 2024 season.

“There was a side of me that was like, ‘Man, it would have been really cool to be able to play coach Saban,’” Helton told AL.com during a one-one-one interview Wednesday.

Now, the Hilltoppers are faced with a new challenge. Kalen DeBoer is now running the show in Tuscaloosa, and WKU will be the first game of a different era for Alabama.

The Saban retirement happened in January, early enough in the offseason that it didn’t derail game prep for Western Kentucky. Still, it presented a different conundrum: How could the Hilltoppers prepare for the Tide when hardly any of UA’s current players had film in the current offensive or defensive systems?

Fortunately for Helton and company, there were still plenty of resources to turn to.

“We evaluate a lot,” Helton said. “You’d be surprised how far back we go. You gotta examine obviously Indiana, Washington, all those different deals. I know several of the coaches on their offensive staff ‚worked with them and all that. So you’ve got to think about, what do they know about you? And how do you counteract those things? There’s a lot of familiarity as far as coaches are concerned.”

WKU has plenty of player film to evaluate. The Hilltopper coaches are also reviewing DeBoer’s past schemes at Washington and other stops.

“Based on how we play defense, you’ve got to try and anticipate how he will attack that,” Helton said. “And you’ve got to examine, who are his players and who are his best players? Obviously (Jalen Milroe) there is a premier player, so you’ve got to kind of guess based on, ‘OK, this is how he utilized (Michael) Penix, this is how he could utilize the current guy, and just try to go from there.”

The Hilltoppers are also at least somewhat familiar with DeBoer’s top assistants. Helton and company beat Kane Wommack’s South Alabama squad in the 2022 New Orleans Bowl, and fell to Indiana, which featured Nick Sheridan as offensive coordinator, in 2021.

WKU quarterback TJ Finley also beat Wommack’s USA squad last season, while at Texas State.

“When you play a team like Alabama, they’re bringing in a high-quality player, so you know there’s probably gonna be some good quality film to evaluate,” Helton said. “And then you take, coaching’s like a fraternity, at some point in time you’ve probably faced the opponent coaches somewhere down the line.

“So you try to go back and watch film on when you played them and all those kinds of things… Not that (Wommack is) gonna give us all the same looks, but at least you can kind of piecemeal together things and try to do the best you can.”

Alabama has most of the advantages in Saturday’s game. The Crimson Tide is favored by more than 30 points, and boasts a far higher level of talent across its roster, even if there’s growing pains caused by the new systems.

Helton was aware. That wasn’t going to keep him from trying.

He also had discussed another possible positive with his players. A matchup with Alabama can elevate draft stock. Just ask former NFL offensive lineman Forrest Lamp, who shot up draft boards after playing well for the Hilltoppers against the Crimson Tide in 2016.

It’s a chance to shine that Helton emphasized as a motivator.

“It’s about the team first, but we also have individual goals that we all want to attain and achieve,” Helton said. “These kind of games give guys opportunities. Like I told the team, you want to walk off the field with a lot of people saying ‘Who’s number so-and-so?’ And people starting to recognize your name. So that’s the individual goal side of things, but at the end of the day it’s about the team success.”

Alabama and Western Kentucky are scheduled to kick off at 6:05 p.m. CT Saturday. The game will be aired on ESPN.