Down and Distance: What can the past tell us about what's in store for WKU's offense in Year 1 under Will Friend?
FB: Easton Messer says the Hilltoppers offense is going through a bit of a rough patch. With three weeks until kickoff, how much should WKU fans worry?
In four Mondays, we’ll be dissecting the first Western Kentucky football game of the year as the Hilltoppers open the season in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
While the Hilltoppers have never had as much stability within the program in its FBS history, with Tyson Helton entering his sixth season as head coach, WKU simultaneously finds itself in a familiar place with the team not only under new leadership with offensive play calling but having to find a new signal caller under center.
Will Friend has been asked to the Hill to helm what was once a fast and furious offense but lost a bit of it’s muster for much of last year. Before toe meets leather on the season, and his reign as WKU’s OC, what can past performance - both from a WKU and a Friend perspective - tell us about what we might expect this season?
1st Down: Refreshing Honesty
2nd Down: Room For Growth?
3rd Down: Why Can’t We Be Friend(s)
4th Down: Installing a New Offense
Refreshing Honesty
Before we discuss whether or not to worry about Messer’s comments, let’s start with this: How refreshing it is to hear a bit of honesty out of WKU camp.
Normally, it’s Tyson Helton talking about how things are hunky-dory, even if there’s a thing or two that isn’t quite right.
Speaking of, did you hear that after the scrimmage Saturday, the Tops did some good things, but also some not good things? Who woulda thunk? But, when all was said and done, the Tops got better than the day before.
…sorry, I think I fell asleep at my keyboard for a second.
Here’s what Messer said after practice last week.
“It’s been interesting. [On] Offense, having a new coordinator, you would think we got adjusted to a lot of it earlier on in the summer,” Messer told the BG press last week after practice. “But, to be honest, I think we’re hitting a couple of bumps in the road but I know that’s just stuff we have to overcome and I think we’re going to be ready in a few weeks.
“We’ve just got to keep working, keep going to meetings, keep coming out here and practicing hard.”
Growing pains are to be expected, especially with a team like WKU entering the year: A new quarterback will be under center Week 1, a new offensive coordinator is calling the shots and key skill positions (in this case, No. 1 wide receiver).
Room For Growth?
Assuming the growing pains are real and will take more than three weeks (okay, lets give it a month - breaking all of this in against Alabama, even in the first year of a new coach, isn’t necessarily a sure-fire sign of how things are going), what - if anything - can we look to as a guide for an indicator for how long it might take the Tops to find their groove?
For better or worse, there’s not really a clear-cut answer. Under Helton, the Hilltoppers have generally hit the ground running with a new quarterback. For instance, in 2021 when breaking in Bailey Zappe, it took nine games until he failed to throw for under 300 yards. Even then, he was only 19 short and it was still a four-touchdown win.
The following year, with Austin Reed in 2022, the Hilltoppers did take a few weeks to get their legs under them. While WKU finished averaging 352.2 yards per game through the air, it took three games for Reed to throw for more than 300 yards (at Indiana) and even with two-straight 400-yard performances to close out September and open October that year, it still took him and the Tops a few weeks to hit their stride, which came once November opened.
But an offense is more than just the quarterback. While Jerreth Sterns established himself early in 2021, it took time for Malachi Corley to establish himself as the alpha in the WKU receiving corps in 2022.
His first 100-yard game came four weeks into the season. After that, it was a no-brainer, with him logging 100 or more yards in seven of the last eight games. (In the one game he didn’t, he still hauled in 90).
While 12 weeks seems like a long runway, past history would lead us to believe the Hilltoppers usually know what they have to work with inside the season’s opening month.
Why Can’t We Be Friend(s)
Leading the charge at OC for the Hilltoppers this year is Will Friend, who comes to the Hill after nearly a decade of experience in the SEC, mostly as an offensive line coach.
However, he did find success in his previous OC-specific job at Colorado State, which he held from 2015 until 2017.
His final year with the Rams, Friend and CSU ranked 11th in the nation in total yards, averaging 492.5 per game in addition to 33.4 points per game, which ranked 31st in the nation.
But those feats were met with an established quarterback, one he had worked with since he got the job in Fort Collins, and a balanced attack.
Rams QB Nick Stevens posted a career year in 2017, throwing for 3,799 yards and 29 touchdowns, helming a Rams offense that averaged 292.6 yards and 2.2 touchdowns per week. On the ground, the Rams were averaging 200.6 yards and 2.0 rushing touchdowns.
But, when Friend first got to CSU, he found himself in a similar situation at the quarterback position, with Stevens yet to fully breakout as the Rams go-to. That 2015 season saw the Rams average 228.0 yards through the air and 197.8 on the ground, another relatively balanced attack.
For his part, Stevens totaled 2,679 yards and 21 touchdowns, both numbers that were the second-best of his career, for the Rams that season.
The most interesting thing to watch over the first month of the season will be how much Friend brings his balanced attack to the Hill - was that a product of having an NFL running back in the backfield (Dalyn Dawkins) or is it an integral part of his scheme, especially with his background as an offensive line guru.
Keep in perspective, under Helton the Hilltoppers’ most balanced attack came in their weakest year record wise - 2020, when the Tops averaged 165.3 passing yards and 125.7 rushing yards.
I contend Elijah Young, an SEC talent who looked this close to truly having a breakout season last year, could be the workhorse if the Hilltoppers want to balance out their attack. Time will tell.
Installing a New Offense
Friend is a real name in college football coaching. Unlike many WKU coaches, he has a real resume and as long as he actually knows what he’s doing, WKU should significantly benefit from his expertise. Although WKU usually has really good coaches on staff, Western rarely has a nationally impressive staff. Will Friend brings some notoriety to his position.
However, with a new offensive coordinator comes new ideas, a new style of coaching and rhetoric, and maybe the most important thing that we ultimately care about: Changes to the playbook.
For one thing, Will Friend comes from Air Raid friendly systems, so this should not be some massive transition. However, it’s possible he could come in and change some of the language.
It’s difficult working in different offensive systems, but I wouldn’t fret too much about the change. Unless they’re overhauling everything, this should be a very slight adjustment.
As far as all of the concerns about Messer’s comments and wondering if WKU is going to be offensively inept, honestly an OC change could explain a lack of execution. Here’s the thing, though: There were SO MANY seasons at WKU that we weren’t sure how things were going until well into the season. Just because Easton Messer made comments that things weren’t clicked in yet doesn’t mean we need to get into full panic mode.
WKU changes offensive coordinators like they do uniform combinations. Don’t worry about Will Friend. It sounds like Tyson Helton trusts him to just call his own plays and run his own offense, something he hasn’t always done, including last year.
Even if there were people worried, last year’s offensive coordinator Drew Hollingshead is still on staff, as a “co-OC” and QB’s coach this year to help bridge any gaps a new voice may bring to the program.
Will Friend should be a positive injection of experience. Tyson Helton (hopefully) should trust him to run the offense and Helton can focus on being the CEO.
We can’t know for sure how the offense will, but Coach Friend should for sure be a net positive for the Tops.
What say you? Does Messer’s comments have you sweating a bit or do you trust the Hilltoppers to be able to find their footing and have a competent offense come Week 1 (or Week 3)? Let us know.
Before we get out of here, some extra points for this Monday morning.
The 2024/25 WKU athletic year officially begins this week, with women’s soccer at Austin Peay on Thursday. They went 1-0-1 in their exhibition schedule.
Shoutout former Hilltopper sprinter Kyree King for doing his part in the Olympics last week. He was part of the Team USA 4x100m relay pool and ran in the qualifying heats, which the U.S. won rather easily. He ran his leg of the race in 9.21 seconds.
The first full week of the NFL preseason kicked off this weekend. To be completely honest, I was too locked into the final weekend of the Olympics to truly pay attention to any of the action, but here are some of the standouts from a #ProTops perspective:
Malachi Corely: 4 catches (5 targets), 27 yards
Kahlef Hailassie: 5 total, 3 solo
Brodric Martin: 4 tackles, 2 PD
DeAngelo Malone: 4 tackles