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Western Kentucky coach Willie Taggart's favorite catchphrase is ''chase greatness and you'll catch excellence.''
It peppers every meeting, practice, film session and interview. Sophomore tight end Jack Doyle puts the over/under on the number of times Taggart says it day at around 5,000.
The 33-year-old Taggart, the youngest head coach at a Football Bowl Subdivision school in the country, believes the phrase applies to every aspect of life.
For struggling WKU, however, just catching on in big-time college football would be enough. The Hilltoppers enter the 2010 season on a 20-game losing streak, the longest in the country. They are just 1-26 against FBS opponents since beginning the move from the Football Championship Series in 2007.
It's not exactly the kind of buzz president Gary Ransdell had in mind when he and former athletic director Wood Selig spearheaded the jump from the FCS to the Sun Belt Conference.
Yet there is no sense of buyer's remorse, even in the face of sagging attendance figures by a fan base already tired of losing. The thriving school on the hill 90 minutes south of Louisville has a proud football history, one that includes 12 conference championships and a 2002 Division I-AA national title.
Playing big-time football is appealing, particularly in a state where football is finally making inroads on basketball in terms of popularity. Losing is not.
''I think people realize, 'Maybe it's harder than what we thought, in terms of the transition,''' said athletic director Ross Bjork, who replaced Selig last spring. ''But the ingredients are there. Now it's just a building process.'''
Even if the process is taking a little longer than most anticipated.
Finding a balance between long-term goals and immediate success is difficult one, and WKU raised some eyebrows when it fired David Elson last fall despite assurances from Selig that success wouldn't be measured in simple wins and losses until at least 2012.
Yet watching enthusiasm erode as the Hilltoppers limped to an 0-12 record, the administration felt a change was necessary.
WKU averaged just over 14,000 fans last season at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium, a more than 10 percent drop from 2008. Hardly what officials envisioned when they spent nearly $50 million to renovate the facility in conjunction with the move to the FBS.
Enter Taggart, a former WKU quarterback whose No. 1 jersey has already been retired by the school. Despite his youth and relative inexperience, he beat out several veteran coaches for the chance to reboot the program.
''Willie bough the intangibles that offset a more experienced resume,'' Ransdell said. ''That's a gut feeling that we had to make.''
One that they hope made good business sense too. Taggart's ties, enthusiasm and charisma are part of WKU's rebranding efforts.
Despite the program's rough start in the FBS, season ticket sales are on pace with last year, a fact Bjork credited largely to Taggart and a redoubled effort by the school to sell the program.
WKU recently hired a ticket sales director for the first time and will use students in a marketing class to help generate interest.
''We're trying to be more proactive in our approach,'' Bjork said.
And Taggart has good reason to be a salesman. In addition to the typical bonuses awarded for reaching certain victory plateaus, his contract also includes a $6,000 bump if season ticket sales exceed 10,000 a year.
Corporate sponsorship has also been steady, and there's a waiting list to get into the 832-seat Topper Club, the plush suite level at the top of the south end of the stadium.
The move to the FBS hasn't been cheap, yet WKU has found a way to make it work financially even if it means learning a few painful lessons on the field.
The Hilltoppers schedule for the next four years is littered with nonconference games against Bowl Championship Series heavyweights. Their September slate this year includes road games at Nebraska, Kentucky and South Florida.
Though Taggart says he's already envisioned the joyful plane ride home after WKU upsets the Cornhuskers, the $800,000 guarantee the school will receive for making the trip will be beneficial - win or lose.
That's the way it has to be for the foreseeable future, WKU taking big money to face long odds on the road. It's one way to bolster a $19 million athletic budget. Compare that to Kentucky, whose self-supported athletic operating budget for the 2009-10 season was over $70 million.
It doesn't always make for a fair fight. That's fine by Taggart. He wasn't supposed to be a head coach at 33 either. Yet here he is, in charge of his alma mater trying to chase greatness one practice at a time.
''We're not going to settle just because we're going through the transition,'' he said. ''We don't have to do that. We don't have to buy in to what everybody is telling us, how bad we are. That's a bunch of talk. We've got to go work. Nobody is going to give us anything. We've got to take it.''
