Down and Distance: What we learned about WKU at Conference USA Media Day
FB: Tyson Helton, Elijah Young and Upton Stout took to Texas to help preview the upcoming year for the Hilltoppers. Here’s what (we think) they said.
Western Kentucky - as well as the nine other Conference USA member programs - descended upon the Lone Star State on Tuesday for Conference USA’s football media day.
No longer being held at a baseball stadium, this year’s event was held at the PGA Headquarters in Frisco, Texas and, aside from a minor glitch with the ESPN+ live stream show, felt - at least from afar - like a very professional production with each school getting their due.
We also learned a lot from head coach Tyson Helton: The QB job is Caden Veltkamp’s to lose. He openly opined for the Tops to leave CUSA as soon as feasibly possible. He said “Bama don’t want this smoke,” when asked about WKU’s Week 1 opponent.
Okay, maybe we didn’t learn one of those things. Or, for that matter, any of those things. But Helton did speak - as did WKU’s representative student-athletes, Elijah Young and Upton Stout.
Truth be told, not much was said from Helton (not that we were that surprised) and what was gleaned from Young and Stout was what you’d expect - they’re ready for the season and are ready to build upon last year, a disappointing season for WKU by almost any measure.
But, that doesn’t mean nothing was said. Or there isn’t anything that can be gleaned from reading between the lines. After we took a look at what we wanted to learn on Monday, let’s reflect on what we did learn.
Don’t feel like reading this full story? No problem. Jump to the chapter that sounds most interesting to you. Think of this as a table of contents, so to speak.
Parity: Past is Prelude
“What You Do In November, They Remember”
Elijah Young: That Dude
Defense to Steal the Show?
Parity: Past is Prelude
Conference USA should consider itself lucky to have Tyson Helton as one of their head coaches. The man has seen, quite literally, every iteration of the league.
He played at Houston when the league was formed. He’s been on coaching staffs at Memphis, UAB, Cincinnati and is currently in the midst of his second tour of Bowling Green with the Hilltoppers. He’s seen some things. And some stuff. Which is why when he touts the parity in the league, his voice might carry more weight than some others.
“That’s the great thing about preseason polls: Everyone gets to make their pick, but that’s not reality,” Helton said in WKU’s opening press conference Tuesday. “Our conference has done a fantastic job of bringing in really competitive teams in good markets, in good recruiting locations.
“The additions of some of the teams that we’ve added, we just added Kennesaw State. They’re going to be a fantastic football team,” Helton added nodding to the growth and successes of past CUSA programs like FAU and UTSA, who had their biggest tenure of growth while league members before being whisked away by the American Athletic Conference.
“You better show up and play in this conference, because it is anybody’s game.”
It’s a sentiment Helton knows too well, after the Hilltoppers were picked as the head of the CUSA class last season - garnering 18 first-place votes - and missed the title game all together.
Meanwhile, FBS newcomer Jacksonville State was picked to finish second-to-last and finished one win out of second place, becoming the feel-good story of the league last year.
Do I think Kennesaw State is going to come a technicality away from not being able to play in the CUSA title game? No. But, are they guaranteed to finish dead-last in the league? I wouldn’t be shocked if they didn’t, to be quite honest.
“What You Do In November, They Remember”
As the longest-tenured WKU head coach at the FBS level, Tyson Helton’s teams almost always end the year on a high note.
Helton has led the Tops to a bowl game in each of his first five years, with WKU having won four of them, and the Hilltoppers are near money in the final full month of the season.
In November, WKU is 15-4 under Helton. Those four losses:
2019: 9-point loss to eventual league champs FAU
2020: 4-point loss against FAU, again, in what has maybe been Helton’s worse year as head coach.
2022: A typical P5/G5 result at Auburn, a program that was re-ignited just weeks previously when Bryan Harsin was ceremoniously fired.
2023: 9-point loss to eventual league runners-up New Mexico State
This season, that November record is going to get put to the test in a serious way. WKU will alternate games - road then home - against NM State, Louisiana Tech, Liberty then Jax State. The top three finishers in the league from a year ago and a program that’s a historic threat to challenge near the top of the league (though, the Bulldogs have struggled as of late, having won just three games in three-straight seasons).
Helton’s mantra will be put to the test in a major way in 2024. There’s a lot of football to play before then, but hopefully the finish to the season will be more exciting than excruciating.
Elijah Young: That Dude
If there was any doubt entering the season, Helton made it official - at least as official as Helton likes to make things - Tuesday. Elijah Young will be the guy in the backfield.
“He’s kind of our big horse, as I like to call him,” Helton said on ESPN+ later in the day. “He’s a guy where, if you need a ball play, get it to Izzy.”
It was a bit of an arduous journey to get to that point: In WKU’s first six games of 2023, a different player led the Tops in rushing.
In the five of the last games of the regular season, it became the Young Show. When it was all said and done, Young led the Tops in rushing, totaling 474 yards on 104 rushes and three touchdowns, with a season-best 139 yard performance at UTEP.
Young also was a valuable addition in the passing game, totaling 247 receiving yards on 20 receptions and another three touchdowns.
Like much of Helton’s Hilltoppers, we’re not going to know what Young’s role in this offense looks like until the season gets closer to underway. But, with the Tops set to break-in a new quarterback, having a “big horse” as a safety blanket for one of Veltkamp or Finley can only be positive for all parties involved.
Defense To Steal The Show?
Especially as an FBS program, the Hilltoppers have been known for their offense. But, that script could very well change in 2024.
Despite being the third-worst scoring defense in the league last year, and in the bottom third of scoring defense overall (allowing 28.7 points per game), the Tops had some positive things to point on the defensive side of the ball.
Per the ESPN+ show, here’s how WKU’s defense fared in some key categories in 2023:
Fumbles recovered: 11 (7th in country)
Turnovers: 26 (7th)
Interceptions: 15 (15th)
Defensive passing efficiency: 125.08 (35th)
While it’s easy to get caught up in the positive outlook everyone has about their program, returning cornerback Upton Stout - who stiff-armed some power programs in the transfer portal this offseason to return to the Hill - had this to say about the difference between last year’s defensive unit and this years.
“Really, just a whole bunch of people who want it. We’ve add a whole lot of good players and leaders. I feel like that’s the difference with our defense from this year and last year, we’ve got leaders now. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just come in, if you’ve been here: Everybody wants to lead, everybody wants to be a part of it.”
Call me overly optimistic, but I’m taking that statement - “we’ve got leaders now” - as a wink and a nod to what Stout thinks this defense can do this year. Shore up some of those points, maybe be a bit more condensed on rushing yards allowed (190.8, a stat the Hilltoppers finished 120th in last year) and continue forcing some turnovers, and WKU might have a tough squad to face.
That’s just some of what was mentioned throughout media day. We won’t cover literally everything, but here’s a good smattering.
On at least two occasions, Helton was asked to comment on the wide receiver room in some form or fashion. In each occasion, he simply didn’t. In his defense, those questions were often on the back end of a multi-part question - a no-no they teach you in J-school but is still done regularly - so I don’t think it was a purposeful omission on his part. But hearing about the receiving room, especially in the first year post-Malachi Corley, was something I was hoping we’d learn a little bit about. Alas, we’ll have to wait for the Tops to hold local media availabilities.
WKU will return four of last year’s starting five along the offensive line, something Helton mentioned multiple times. The Hilltoppers were tied for eighth in the country with the fewest sacks allowed in 2023 (13.0) and the unit has been a strength for the Tops for a minute now. It’s comforting to know all of the pieces are in place for another successful year up front.
Helton didn’t not discuss the QB battle at all, but didn’t say anything all that interesting, saying it’ll be just that: A battle. But he did praise Finley for his attitude coming into the program, saying he wanted to learn everything he could so he could best be in a position to lead the program if his number is called.
Also on the quarterback battle: Helton was asked to compare and contrast the two options under center. He opted against doing the latter, but did say both quarterbacks play a very similar style: Pocket passers first who could use their legs to damage you if needed.