Bowling Green, Ky. – When Tyson Helton rates a quarterback, the head coach of Western Kentucky chanizes the old west.
“There is no damn great quarterback that doesn't go up like John Wayne,” said Helton, his southern Drawl extended the name of the western star an additional syllable.
As an illustration, Helton is in his office and shows his preferred quarterback look – a deliberate cash register to bark precise instructions and intentional show to check the games. He wants a player to be completely untouched at the moment.
Helton then parodies what he hates to shake his leg as if he has bees in his boxers, dramatically hurls his arms and hits his head as if he were expecting Myles Garrett from the edge.
“It doesn't matter whether Brandon Doughty here at Western, Sam Darnold at USC or Bailey Zappe or Austin Reed here,” said Helton and rattled with quarterbacks. “Everyone good, if they go to the series of scrimmage, it is damn that John Wayne is up there.”
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In a college football environment that has been known as wild, Wild West for years, Henton has remained relevant by exuding John Wayne-like calm on the head coach's chair. He opposed the gravity of sport – Power Leagues, the poaching, the portal hike and the limited zero – by finding arms that remain calm and can turn the ball through all headwinds.
The proof is on Helton's CV: Western Kentucky is one of 11 FBS college soccer programs that can play in a bowl in the past six years, and it is the only school school that has selected a player in the first three rounds of the NFL draft in the past four years.
The Hilltoppers made this kind of persistent success both an anomaly and a goal. At a time when programs outside of the power leagues essentially turn talent incubators for top-end conferences-one one one that lost 10 players at strength schools, and almost 70 percent of his production in this year Helton at a time when inconsistency has become an expectation.
Helton has adapted to the seismic changes in college football with the same flat, which he is looking for in a quarterback. “As soon as you have changed it into the portal and zero, it became a transaction business,” he said. “Right?”
He also has a simple transaction plan that WKU has 60 new scholarship players this year: Tirelessly find a quarterback that can be the program of the program.
Helton's next quarterback, FCS Transfer Maverick Mcivor, grew in love in John Wayne and has profound connections to the actor. Wayne led a film “The Alamo” on a ranch from Mcivor's family.
John Wayne from the Mcivor Family Ranch. With the kind permission of the Mcivor family
“If you have a quarterback, you have a chance,” said Helton. “And that's the No. 1 piece that is so important in today's game.”
Helton described himself as a year after year before an early acceptance of college football. He tells the players in the pre -season that he, his employees and all players will evaluate their options at the end of the year. So he only asks a year of engagement in the Fuchsloch. He summarizes modern ethos as follows: “You have to look at people – hey, that won't work,” said Helton. “Just like you look at you and say: 'Hey coach, I have to go on.'”
Then it adapts accordingly. Do you lose a quarterback that breaks through the NCAA record for touchdowns in one season? Helton will find another quarterback that leads the country in the yards, as he did when the Hilltoppers 2021 and 2022 changed from Zappe to Reed.
A star offense coordinator leaves a gig? Helton will advertise an unknown off-field assistant without a trailer coupling. After Zach Kittley spent a year as an offensive coordinator of the WKU, he went to Texas Tech for the same job and then became head coach at Florida Atlantic. His anonymous replacement, Ben Arbuckle, would also do the job for a year and is now the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.
Now that the portal has become a mainstream, Helton said that it has more value in recruitment of the high school and switches back there. Last June, WKU hardly made any official high school visits, but that changed. He has visits this month in three weeks. He has to circle in front of other zags.
“In a place like Western Kentucky,” said Helton, “the way of thinking is always at the top and stays in the game.”
When Caden Veltkamp, the main starter last season, had played for Kittleley near Fau, Helton stated the package -Deal maneuver, which he had contributed to popularization. Helton helped bring the coordinator quarters back package to the mainstream when he picked Christian Kittley and Zappe from Houston Christian in December 2020.
This turn on the carousel snapped that the offensive coordinator from Abilene Christian Rick Bowie and Mciver, who was the FCS FCS FCS, was for ACU last year.
You have great expectations and goals, as Helton Bowie tells the same message that he once forwarded to Kittley: If you do your job, you should be “one-and-hier” and call.
They bring the right perspective.
Mcivor grew in love in John Wayne and would like to throw 6,000 meters next season. Michael C. Johnson-USA do sports today
“You want to be like John Wayne and open the salon doors,” said Mcivor about the position. “That's why Coach Henton says that. It is available. It's so fitting.”
This way of thinking will help Henton make his next and greatest challenge – and replaces almost 70 percent of its production compared to the previous year. He lost all four defensive linemes through Indiana, Auburn, Florida State and Wake Forest as well as two quarterbacks – Veltcamp to the FAU and the injured quarterback TJ Finley to Tulane.
According to Bill Connelly from ESPN, Western Kentucky is the number 125 nationwide when returning the production rankings nationwide.
“I love it,” said Helton. “I love the challenge. [But] Do I want to be in this position? I don't. “
He jokes that WKU should develop a graphic to show how much money the former Hilltoppers have made elsewhere. It is estimated that you have earned more than $ 3 million in the last cycle. Western Kentucky has spent a fraction of about 1 million US dollars for its entire squad, per helton, what individual players do at the electricity conferences. “We have a knife in a shot fight,” said Helton with a laugh.
Nevertheless, Western Kentucky is one of only four non-power conference teams who reach a bowl in six seasons in a row that decreases until the beginning of Helton's term. The Hilltoppers join Louisiana, Liberty and Marshall, in this pint size of consistency, while college football experiences a tsunami of changes, from the portal to Nil to the transmission of rules all, which includes HETTON.
“When everyone put back,” he said in relation to Nil, “it was a way for me to say: 'Hey, I know that the players will take advantage of it. I know that we can choose what we need to win what suits us.'”
The transaction is likely to be the success of Western Kentucky in 2025 the acquisition of McIR from Abilene. Mcivor threw 8,012 yards and 63 touchdowns in three years in three years, including 506 yards in an extension against Texas Tech to open the 2024 season.
This outbreak brought him and Bowie to the radars of the big schools, and they ended up at WKU. Mcivor chose WKU for schools like Wake Forest and Tulane.
McIVOR is 25 years old before WKU is opened against Sam Houston in week 0, and he brings both a name “Friday Night Lights” and a behavior that fits Henton's belief in a Wayne-like series of scrimmage.
Mcivor said that his family in Midland County, Texas, had a ranch in his family called Quien Sabe, often interacted with his relatives on Wayne over the years. Such a tradition meant that Mcivor grew up a huge John Wayne fan, and he even has a picture of the famous actor in his apartment.
He thought it was great that Helton Wayne moves into a model for the quarterback behavior. And he doesn't shy away from what he wants to achieve.
“The perfect script would primarily be a championship in the USA conference,” said Mcivor. “I want that under our belt and to the right of 6,000 meters, 75 percent of my passports and less than five interceptions.”
How did the 47 -year -old Helton WKU built so where these types of numbers have an expectation? The background begins with growing up in a football family when he played at the University of Houston Quarterback on College for his father Kim Helton.
On his way he worked for everyone from June Jones in Hawaii to Jeff Brohm at WKU and his older brother Clay Helton at USC. He chose and selected from the systems and fell and merged the strengths of his coordinators with his core beliefs.
The results of everything that has tinker has provided an incubator to agree with the beliefs of the coordinators and of course bind them with the skills of the quarterback and the surrounding talent.
In the past four years, Western Kentucky has ended tenth place on the offensive with four different coordinators and three different quarterbacks on average nationwide. When Helton was asked to explain his success in this area, he refers to an infinite search to find the next big quarterback.
“I watch pretty much every quarterback of the division I every year,” he said. “I watch her through the season. I know who the backups are. We recruit these boys from the high school.
“I follow the FCS boys. I follow the division -ii boys. I have a recruitment employee who helps me with all of this. I am constantly watching these boys.”
What does Henton estimate in quarterbacks to see what others missed? “Forget the arm strength,” said Helton, emphasizing the importance of manipulation in front of the snap. “The anticipation with the accuracy piece cannot be stopped.”
Scouting quarters back doubles as a possibility to sketch coordinators and playcallers. Mcivor introduced him to Bowie, who came from the Dana Holgorsen -Baum before playing games in the state of Valdosta and Abilene Christian.
Bowie says the air raid is like a steak: all seasons and garnish it differently. Helton's taste will be a form of what you call as research and marry the air robbery with a pro-style run game. This has been built from five offensive coordinators in the past six years to give different concepts in order to poach and develop the WKU-wide scheme from WKU.
“It's more about space and paying than just football,” said Bowie. “I see that it mixes. There is a strong air raid component, but not ruthless and do the best to win the game.”
Mcivor has long been there that he committed himself to Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech, a promise in December 2018. His experience took the opportunity to use WKU what he described as “child's play” because he “the best decision I ever made” before he threw a pass.
There was an urgency to accompany this last year. But Mcivor plans to approach how his trainer approaches the border of the scrimmage.
“This is my job, I will be the best I can be,” he said. “I think if I have the year I have planned and in my thoughts I think I can be a draft selection. And that's my goal.”
And if Mcivor achieves it, this would mean that the pinball numbers and the associated victories for Helton will continue because it opposes wear and repeatedly hunts high -flying crimes.
