WKU Football: Helton Simultaneously Continues Growth, Injects Fresh Blood With Coaching Staff…
Witnessing a coaching transition first hand, there’s a lot of unknowns that coaches, players and staff now face. It’s a scary time for some…
Witnessing a coaching transition first hand, there’s a lot of unknowns that coaches, players and staff now face. It’s a scary time for some of the staff and their families at WKU. But so far, new Hilltopper head coach Tyson Helton has retained two coaches, Clayton White and Jason Veltkamp, along with hiring a new offensive coordinator in Bryan Ellis.
The fate of the other assistant coaches is unknown so far.
“There are great coaches everywhere you go. I was very fortunate to be retained (at UAB) and I learned a lot of lessons from that experience,” Helton said at his introductory press conference on Tuesday. “I think you have to evaluate where you are as a program and if something’s not broke, don’t try to fix it.”
Needless to say, Helton is familiar with both sides of the coin, but has decided to retain a couple of key Topper assistants from Mike Sanford’s staff.
For those of you who were wanting to clean house and start with a clean slate, I urge you not to be too upset (or at all upset) with the retention of Coach White; he actually showed signs of improvement. From a season low of allowing 576 yards at FAU to only allowing an average of 386 yards against UTEP and La Tech.
The defense also had 12 total turnovers before the final two games before forcing six in the final contests of the year (five against UTEP, one against La Tech). Also, considering Coach Helton will need some help in keeping the recruits that Sanford garnered, White has his work cut out for him — by 247Sports’ count, four members of the predicted 2019 class are on the defensive side of the ball.
Veltkamp is an experienced strength and conditioning coach. He has worked for programs like Utah, Louisville, Arkansas, NC State and the Cleveland Browns. He took over the job in 2017 and has worked with the team for the past two years. As we have witnessed, the players have not been overpowered in any game and Brad Stephens reported Veltkamp was requested by players to be retained.
Good on Helton to grant that request.
New to the Hilltopper staff (well, returning I guess), Bryan Ellis has less experience, but more bang for the buck. He first came to The Hill as an offense quality control coach. He was moved to running backs coach in ’15 and wide receivers/passing game coordinator in ’16.
Since then he has been working at USC.
What’s he done with the Trojans? He’s won.
USC is third in the PAC-12 and totaled 2,989 yards passing and 1,602 yards rushing for a total of 4,591 yards. WKU totaled 4,364 total yards in 2018.
According to the numbers, USC threw the ball 65% of the time and ran the ball for 35% of the time. While WKU’s numbers were a little more run oriented (62% passing, 38% running), look for the Tops to be airing the ball out next year (which you’d probably guess after Helton’s presser when he talked about returning to an “exciting brand of football”).
For the first time in a couple of years, WKU fans can be excited about the new era to come in the next football season. Some people may have expected Coach Helton to “clean house” and get a whole new staff. But with some of these coaches coming back it will help to build some rapport with the recruits and current players.
We’re entering a new era in WKU football and while Coach Helton came from Jeff Brohm’s staff, I hope he aims to outdo what Jeff did and his official additions to the coaching staff seem to be a good start.