WKU Football: Shedding light on the Austin Reed Saga

Austin Reed (and other WKU Football Toppers) took heat for sitting out of the Famous Toastery Bowl. There was very little information on why. We're here to give it some perspective.

Source: Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

WKU recently concluded their season by winning the Famous Toastery Bowl 38-35 in overtime in Charlotte Monday. On paper, the matchup didn’t feel that exciting. Shoot, ODU used to be in Conference USA and WKU had a 6-1 all-time record against ODU. But an exciting game it became. Unfortunately, it became exciting for some wrong, ill-informed reasons as much as the incredible on-field performance by Caden Veltkamp, Dalvin Smith, and the rest of a “leftovers” type of roster for WKU.

After two year starting quarterback Austin Reed was rumored to be “sitting out”, Topper fans’ worst fears were confirmed: Turner Helton was the starter because Austin simply “chose” to sit.

Diva. Egotistical baby. Wuss.

You name it: It was pretty much said.

Turner Helton struggled early on, was benched, and Caden Veltkamp, former South Warren standout and high level prospect, became an overnight sensation with a legendary performance.

However, the major story heading into the game was that WKU’s offensive pillar wasn’t going to play. Austin Reed was going to sit out the bowl game. You’ve got to be kidding me.

I am just as guilty as some of you reading this. I wagged my finger and said shame on you, Austin Reed, for not being there when WKU Football needed you most. Towel Rack itself said some off-color things about Austin Reed and others. But after some personal reflection and some insights from my sources, Mr. Reed did nothing wrong.

I refer you to Jaylon Smith, Linebacker for Notre Dame (2013-2015). He was projected to be drafted in the top five of that NFL draft class. He had received the Butkus award for top Linebacker that year, two time First team All-independent (2014 & 2015), and was a Consensus All-American his final year (2015). He was a great athlete, and was doing the “right thing” for Notre dame’s team and fan base.

Then he tore both his MCL and ACL in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.

At that time, what did a bowl game do for him? Was it going to push his draft stock any higher? Probably not. But he played and truly lost millions of dollars.

Jaylon rolled the dice and entered the NFL draft. Instead of a first round pick, he was selected second round, 34th overall.

Let’s try to compare what he might’ve done if he were uninjured. Ezekiel Elliott (RB) was drafted first round, fourth overall and signed a contract with Dallas for four years worth $24.9 million dollars with $16.3 million dollars signing bonus.

Jaylon Smith signed with Dallas for four years for $6.49 million dollars, $4.42 guaranteed and a $2.92 signing bonus.

The difference is around $32 million dollars. Nothing really to sneeze at.

I can almost hear the keyboards clicking away now… “But Devin, you don’t really think Austin Reed is a first round pick!” No. But he is a talented athlete that could easily sign with a team either in a later round or as a free agent. As long as he’s not completely sidelined, he’s gonna get a bag.

If you want a WKU example, what if Forrest Lamp had done more than twist an ankle and miss a couple of games his senior year? Or if you want to name an injured Hilltopper that paid significant cost, how about Quanterus Smith? Q could have easily been a first or second round pick. Instead, he blew out his ACL late in the season and was still drafted in the fifth round. He went from solidly guaranteed three to five years making millions to not even being guaranteed to make it past camp!

Some have said Austin may have had some injury issues in the later parts of the season; he had some rough games towards the end of the year and an injury could’ve been part of the issue. Ever wonder why we didn’t see him take off like he did in the first two games of the season?

He certainly had some of his worst performances as the season progressed. And there were comments from plenty that they “noticed a limp”, that he was stretching his shoulder, or other indications of him struggling physically. Members of Towel Rack themselves had DMs the day of the game with theories that Austin had possibly sustained several significant injuries and that was why he was sitting.

Then after the game, Coach Helton finally answered the media’s questions about Austin, and he said that Austin had several nagging injuries and that it was indeed a choice, but it was way more reasonable than we were all led to believe when the only news was that Austin was sitting because he just didn’t want to play.

To back up a little, this saga began because there was no information. Then it started to leak that Austin Reed may not be playing the bowl game, and at the same time, several key players announced their entrance into the transfer portal. And my how the rumors started flying from there!

WKU Head Coach Tyson Helton does not give out information, and reportedly media members attempted to get info from him and he wouldn’t budge, essentially refusing on and off camera to give any indication of Austin’s intentions (credit to the local media for trying in all seriousness). When we say he doesn’t give out information, he seriously just plain refuses to give details on injuries unless it’s obvious. He kept people on the hook wondering if Michael Mathison would ever play. He made us wonder if Donut Evans would ever play to end the season. No, folks. They weren’t even that close to playing.

So with a vacuum of information quite typical of the Tyson Helton era, Topper Nation wandered into conspiracy theory land combined with the Twilight Zone wearing aluminum foil hats. I mean it got weird, folks. Y’all crazy. Heck, we crazy. But ultimately, the lack of information from anyone within the program created this vacuum and we all drew whatever conclusions we could. We “heard from our sources” certain things, but the truth was, very few knew what was up, and frankly, even the people that knew didn’t know the whole story.

So it really came down to something very simple. Why did Austin Reed sit? The man had several nagging injuries. If he aggravates a sore knee and it becomes a torn ACL, his football career is virtually over. If he blows out a shoulder instead of resting it for a month, he’s done.

Could Austin have used a final performance for the ages with 7 touchdowns and 500 yards at a 90% completion percentage in one half? Sure! But at what cost? If he did that and blew out his knee, it was all for naught.

Austin Reed’s stock stayed quite stagnant this year. Really it dropped from being on most top ten lists to possibly not being considered a top 25 QB prospect heading into draft season. He didn’t have as good of a year as he did last year, and consequently, his draft stock shows at the moment that he will likely be an undrafted free agent. This is not a Jaylon Smith level prospect that will drop a round and still get paid multi millions guaranteed. No. This is a quarterback that has opportunities, but with the wrong formula could possibly fall out of the NFL before he even gets a chance to show anyone anything.

Therefore, what is the most value to Austin’s NFL prospects? It’s not a bowl game against ODU, people. ODU’s defense sucks. ODU kind of sucks in general. (No offense, ODU but you do kind of suck; Tops handed you 28 and you choked to a cobbled together roster.) What would he be showing by destroying ODU? Not a ton.

Now, if WKU had played an App State or South Al, who were nationally respected defenses that WKU shred like computer paper, it may have been more enticing to play, but ultimately, if Austin Reed’s thingamabob was medically fragile, the value for him is to wait. The value for him is to go the East-West Shrine game and get seen by scouts, get instruction, do some interviews. Hopefully he will be invited to the combine. As it stands right now, he may not be invited to the combine, considering he is not considered near the top ten in terms of QB prospects.

However, he can move up with good numbers, with good health, with good interviews, with good Wunderlich scores, with a good pro day, and with good workouts. All of thosse opportunities don’t come if he can’t walk.

So please, folks, the past week or two, most of us are guilty of some kind of ill will or at minimum questioning spirit towards Austin, possibly Malachi Corley, and others.

Guess what? Malachi Corley and Austin Reed could have jetted the heck out of here. Forget Corvettes. They could have had personal jet planes to several Power Five schools and made tons of NIL money. They were offered chunks of change. You know what they did last year when they had the chance? They were loyal! Austin checked it out and turned down seven figures to be a Topper. Malachi didn’t even really flirt with the idea and just wanted to finish his career as a Topper.

So ultimately, if we wanted to know how much they wanted to be here, maybe we should look at the track record!

Austin Reed is a Legend. Period

Austin Reed gave a lot to WKU. You may not be happy that he sat out, but you should be understanding to a young man who has great aspirations to play in the NFL. There will always be people that say that you play if you can. If you’re one of those people, it’s time to modernize your thinking at least a little bit or you will never understand college football as we know it today. However, as WKU fans, we should be happy to see these young men who have played here go on and have success in the NFL. I want these young men to look back on their time at WKU and be happy, not bitter!

Austin Reed gave everything to WKU. He doubled down on his decision to be at WKU last year by staying at WKU another year. Yes, he didn’t have the dream season we all hoped for, but frankly that’s not completely on him. He had a rough year because every. single. position group. had at least one injury or ineligibility at least once this season. Every level of the defense, every position group on offense, and even special teams had injuries and issues.

Yet Austin Reed persevered through what had to be a devastating disappointment of a season and was still very good, still fought, and even though people called from the cheap seats to “BENCH HIM!” on Senior Night, he hung in there and gutted out a win in his last game at The Houch. He followed that up with a really nice performance at FIU.

Austin Reed finishes his WKU career averaging 310.9 yards per game passing, a more than 3-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio, 12 rushing touchdowns, and the most rushing yards by a WKU quarterback since Kawaun Jakes. In fact, Austin’s rushing performance in the 2022 season was surpassed only once by Kawaun, arguably one of WKU’s most mobile QB’s in history and certainly in the modern era.

Austin has a great arm, probably stronger than most of the greats before him. He was a near-Favre level of gutsy, but still managed to keep the interceptions down despite the gunslinger mentality. His rushing ability, especially when fully healthy, made it incredibly difficult for defenses to account for a 300 yards per game passer and a threat to run it on the ground.

Austin Reed should be remembered as one of the great quarterbacks in WKU history. Don’t let a misunderstanding cloud your judgment. He’s got to be a top five or so all-time QB at an institution with multiple record-breaking gunslingers. Austin was making a business decision. When you understand that and understand the potential millions that could be coming his way by staying healthy, understand the general suck of the modern college football landscape, and let’s forgive him if there’s any giving part in our Topper hearts this Christmas season.

Plus it helps WKU as a brand that when other young athletes come here and have aspirations to play in the NFL that when the time comes for them to jump, WKU fans are beyond thrilled for the players taking that leap. Players like Austin Reed, Malachi Corley, Bailey Zappe, Jack Doyle, Antonio Andrews, George Fant, and many many other alumni can show them that it is indeed possible, and that Hilltopper Nation will fully support them as they head into their future careers on or off the field.