College football can be a numbers game. So as we continue to preview Wisconsin's 2018 schedule, here's a look at five key numbers to know about the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers before they make the trip to Camp Randall on Aug. 31.

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That's the number of Western Kentucky's rushing plays that went for 20 yards or more last year. Zero. That's hard to do even if you actively avoided running the ball like the Hilltoppers did. Part of that is a function of Western Kentucky having to deal with a few injuries throughout the offense and generally inconsistent play along the offensive line. But the Hilltoppers are losing three of last year's starters on the line, so they're going to have to figure things out with some new faces in the two-deep. The good news is that their top four running backs are all able to return in 2018, so it could be that someone will emerge to give their offense a bit more burst on the ground. But there's nowhere to go but up from where the Hilltoppers were last year.

That's how often the Hilltoppers threw the ball in 2017 - 577 times out of 968 total offensive plays. Needless to say, that's crazy high. For reference, the Badgers (universally considered a run-heavy team) threw the ball 34.0 percent of the time in 2017 (325 attempts out of 954 plays). Now, you have to chalk some that up to necessity - if their running game was struggling so much, what choice did Western Kentucky have? But they also had a senior quarterback in Mike White who completed 65.7 percent of his 560 passes - throwing 26 touchdowns and 8 interceptions along the way.

There's reason to think that the Hilltoppers won't take to the air as often in 2018, though - they'll be breaking in a new starting quarterback, for one thing. But Sanford's previous offenses have been a little more balanced - if still very much pass-heavy. His stint at Notre Dame (2015 to 2016) is a good example: the Irish threw the ball 53 percent of the time in 2016, and 55 percent in 2015.

That's the number of defensive starters the Hilltoppers lost from last year's unit, which allowed an average of 26.8 points per game. The strength of the defense will probably be in the secondary, where several key contributors (and leading tacklers) are projected to return. They will have to replace linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe, who declared for the NFL Draft a year early after leading the team in tackles (85.5 in 2017), tackles for loss (11.5) and forced fumbles (3). The unit as a whole will need to take a step up if they want to challenge teams from Power 5 conferences and get back to the top of the Conference USA - the Hilltoppers allowed 33.5 points per game to teams that finished the year with a winning record last year.

That's the number of games that senior-to-be Drew Eckels has played in for the WKU Hilltoppers over the last few years, so they're not exactly starting from scratch at quarterback. He still has to fend off a few other contenders for the starting job this fall, but Eckels does look like the odds-on favorite to be given the keys to WKU's offense in 2018. He appears to be much in the same mold as White: an accurate pocket passer. Should he end up winning the job, Eckels will have a few young wide receivers to work with after the Hilltoppers lost their top two options from last year.

That's the average number of yards per carry the Hilltoppers allowed last year, the 75th-best rate in the country (out of 130 teams). That could be a problem for WKU when they take on the Badgers, who return most of last year's offense - including sophomore-to-be Jonathan Taylor, who averaged 6.61 yards per carry in his phenomenal freshman campaign. Western Kentucky's run defense would have edged out Rutgers for 10th place in the Big Ten last year, so you can bet that the Badgers will see an opportunity to run their offense the way they want to - setting up their play-action passing game by giving Taylor plenty of work in the early going. If the Hilltoppers want to improve on last year's 4.43 mark, they'll need to take a big step forward in the offseason.

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.