I'm pretty confident that the next 10 weeks will be pretty bleak for Virginia Tech football, so in order to embrace a positive outlook, I'm going to (hopefully) put out a couple forum posts to highlight potential coaches who I would be really excited for. I'm going to skip over Sumroll and Golish because they're on everyone's board, and instead focus on some lesser-known candidates.
This week: Tyson Helton
Who is Tyson Helton?
For those who don't know, Tyson Helton is the 47-year-old head coach at Western Kentucky who's been quietly building one of the most consistent programs in Group of Five football. He's the son of former Houston head coach Kim Helton and the younger brother of current Georgia Southern coach Clay Helton.
Helton played quarterback at Houston from 1996-1999 under his father, then immediately jumped into coaching as a graduate assistant at Hawaii in 2000. He's worked his way up through the ranks at Hawaii, Memphis, UAB, Cincinnati, WKU (as OC), USC, Tennessee, and back to WKU as head coach.
His track record of sustained success is unmatched in the G5
Helton is 48-32 overall at Western Kentucky with a 60% winning percentage. WKU has been bowl eligible sixth time in six seasons under Tyson Helton (making WKU is one of only 16 programs that had played in a bowl game each of the five seasons from 2019-23, and one of only seven programs to win a bowl game each year from 2021-23).
He knows how to hire and develop coordinators (unlike our recent coaches)
Unlike Fuente and Pry, Helton has a proven record of finding and developing assistant coaches. Look at his coordinator tree since being at WKU:
- Zach Kittley: Hired as WKU's OC, left to become Texas Tech's OC, now head coach at Florida Atlantic
- Ben Arbuckle: Promoted from an off-field assistant when Kittley left, left to become Washington State's OC, now Oklahoma's OC
- Rick Bowie: Current OC who Helton plucked from Abilene Christian
After Zach Kittley spent a year as the WKU offensive coordinator, he left for the same job at Texas Tech, then became the 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. That's two coordinators in a row who went from WKU to Power 4 gigs and are now thriving.
Contrast that with Brent Pry's hiring record or Justin Fuente's devotion to Cornelson & Co (I know, I know, money was allegedly a factor there)... but I don't have to remind y'all that our last two coaches sucked at hiring.
Helton is not Justin Fuente 2.0
The elephant in the room for any G5 hire is the Fuente disaster. But Helton isn't Fuente. Where Fuente had one great season at Memphis (10-3 in 2014) followed by a solid but unspectacular 9-4 in 2015, Helton has sustained success across six seasons.
And unlike Fuente's Memphis teams that were only successful with Paxton Lynch, Helton has shown he can win in different ways. When he lost record-setting QB Bailey Zappe, he plugged in Austin Reed and Transfer quarterback Austin Reed led the nation in passing yards offensively while Helton's defense led college football in forced turnovers in 2022.
He develops NFL talent better than anyone not in the Power 4
This is the stat that should get everyone's attention: WKU is the only non-Power Conference program to have a player drafted within the first three rounds in each of the last four NFL Drafts. THE ONLY ONE.
The Hilltoppers have now had five players selected in the last four NFL Drafts. That includes a player selected in the third round in each of the last four NFL Drafts: We're talking about DeAngelo Malone (3rd round, Falcons), Bailey Zappe (4th round, Patriots), Brodric Martin (3rd round, Lions), and Malachi Corley (3rd round, Jets).
If you're a recruit and you want to get to the NFL, Tyson Helton has the receipts.
His offense would bring excitement back to Lane Stadium
I (who enrolled at Virginia Tech in 2008) have seen 2 total seasons of fun offenses (2016, second half of 2019, second half of 2023). There have been good offenses in that time. But I just want our offense to be fun and not boring.
Helton's offenses are fun. Remember when Bailey Zappe set new NCAA record in passing yards and touchdowns in a single season in 2021? That was fun. Helton would put points on the board and develop quarterbacks. Need I remind you that is not something VT has done in some time.
He's a culture fit, but has seen other cultures
He's been a coordinator at USC, Tennessee, and back at Western Kentucky, so he clearly at least doesn't mind Appalachia.
YET, he's worked in the SEC, Pac-12, and Conference USA. The dude understands what it takes to recruit and compete at different levels.
He's already proven he can manage the modern game
The transfer portal and NIL era have killed a lot of coaches, but Helton has thrived. Helton has leaned in on early acceptance of college football as a year-to-year business. He tells players in the preseason that he, his staff and all the players will be evaluating their options at the end of the year. And it works. When he loses coordinators to bigger jobs, Helton will promote an unknown off-field assistant without a hitch. When star players transfer out, he finds replacements who fit his system.
All that said... he's not a guaranteed success
Would I have some concerns with a Helton hire? Of course. The dude has never had to recruit against UNC and Clemson and Penn State for the same kids. Can he handle the step up in competition week-to-week in the ACC? That remains to be seen.
But he's a proven winner. Winners win. If we hire Helton, it will be essential to round out his staff with proven recruiters, a GM/Director of Player Personnel, and give him the NIL resources to compete.
All coaches are a gamble, so Helton could fail. There are probably candidates out there with higher ceilings - but if the search committee/new AD/Whit/Sands/whoever announces Helton as the next Virginia Tech Football Coach, I'll be excited.
Comments
This isn't necessarily a good litmus test, but I look at a guy like this and wonder to myself: if he's such a good candidate, why is he still at WKU?
Helton has drawn "interest from three other schools for head coaching jobs but chose to remain at WKU," and WKU has given him raises/extensions to match.
Speculation
I think this has to do with WKU's place in the CFB pecking order... he's probably only getting offers from schools that are a marginal step up (ie; higher level G5 programs) or high paying dead end jobs (there were rumors of Purdue before they hired Odom).
EDIT TO ADD: JMU coach Bob Chesney is making $766,500 this year. I'd say most people consider JMU to be a top G5 job? Well, Helton is making $927,180 this year. So it makes sense that he's not moving for a better G5 job.
So, it's fathomable that VT could be a big enough promotion that he'd be willing to take it, and this would be a gettable coach for VT. Think how it's similar to Kansas State hiring an FCS coach a few years ago (which until this year has been very successful).
Thanks for this, interesting info & speculation.
I worry about VT being close to a dead-end job. We're not there yet, but until Whit is gone, a new AD is hired, and the BOV truly commits significantly more to athletics, I worry about the attractiveness of the role.
Even if the above is solved, the ACC is a sinking ship that is rapidly taking on water and we have no lifeboat.
this is my biggest concern as well. VT and the new(?) BOV may talk a big game and up their investments in football but we're still stuck in a dead league. I don't think any program in the ACC is going to be attractive to good coaches except maybe Clemson and/or FSU since they are widely perceived to be shoe-ins to the P2 when the ACC does inevitably collapse.
That's a huge hurdle that I'm not sure the BOV can get over. Not easily, anyway. If they find a way to get VT secured access to the P2 and infuse the program with much needed resources then I'll start to believe that VT is an attractive job again. But, to be quite frank, I don't think any jobs in the ACC are good jobs for good coaches. The entire league is a dead end. UNC only got Belichick because his girlfriend is from there. I would love to be wrong, but I don't think you're going to see many good coaches coming into the ACC anytime soon.
FWIW, VT is behind in Athletics spending in the ACC, but we're doing fine in Football Spending in the ACC.
This is both a good point (in that I'm glad that we're not behind in both) and a frustrating point (due to the terrible ROI for said spending in football)
So we could offer 3 million a year (what Shane made to start) with significant incentive bonuses for wins, points, etc.
Meh, unlikely. You don't really pay coaches based on their past experience; you pay them based on the norm in the conference. So he'd probably get a median ACC Coaching salary of $4m-$5m or something.
Also, these guys have agents. And those agencies basically have a monopoly. So I don't expect to see a $3m salary with incentives, just because I haven't seen that at an ACC school at any time in the last 5+ years.
Median is well above 5 mil. Using2024 numbers its 6-7m in the acc
Thanks - so yea, zero chance our next coach gets a $3m/year contract.
Yeah the only one in ACC making that money is Lashlee at SMU and I don't believe that number. Keys was making that last year but signed a huge extension and is rumored to be closer to $7m now
Yeah the SMU number doesn't hold water for me with how much they threw at their roster. SMU is private so isn't required to disclose any compensation details. They are also a Nike school that participates in the Nike Summer Camps program which usually brings a big check for the coach.
And maybe he was making that money prior to ACC, and they did well in their first year so im sure they took care of him.
Good stuff. I'm looking forward to this series.
I really appreciate this series as I have lost complete touch with the coaching landscape. Friends keep texting me asking who I think we will hire and I don't know the names on the list, let along anything about them.
I'm going to love this series...thanks bar!
FTFY
I'll give ya the development part but the 99 team (albeit with generational talent) put up 41 points a game and 2000 40 PPG both top 5 in the nation at the time. And 2016 was 35 ppg- good for 33rd in country. So not never but perhaps not due to coaching or scheme but instead to talent.
This is classic Bar1990 high quality TKP material.
To your point about Sumroll and Golish, is this one of your top candidates that also feels feasible for VT?
I think Sumroll and Golish go P2. I think the options are there. Given that there were ZERO SEC openings last year, and there will be... at least 3 this year? You gotta figure that they're going there.
If there's not 3 SEC openings this year, then that signals that we truly are in a new world where paying players is more important that paying coaches (or at least more important that paying buyouts).
Actually answering your question lol:
I want VT football to be fun. The lunchpail is great an all, and obviously I'd prefer to win, but I also don't want a team that looks like Iowa football. WKU is always fun. Next time they play, watch them.
For that reason, I would be super excited about Tyson Helton.
I also like that he has a good eye for coordinator talent. If VT is good, our coaches will get poached at a rate that is very unusual to us. Having a guy who can roll with that is beneficial.
I don't think Sumrall or Golesh are totally out of the realm of possibility, but I agree they are at the peak of their bargaining power and can be patient/choosy when it comes to their next job. I think they will shoot for something higher and more stable (P2, possibly upper crust P2)
Well put - If VT can come up with a Clemson/FSU-level package (Comp, assistant salaries, NIL), then those guys are in play. But VT remains a distance third/fourth in ACC football spending, then I don't think it's compelling enough for those guys.
But I could be wrong. After all, Sumrall was supposedly going to be UNC's HC before donors pushed out Bubba and forced the president to hire Belichik. And VT in more invested in football than UNC sooo... we can hope.
More stable? Most SEC jobs expect success pretty darn fast. You could be out in 2 depending on your performance. What's your definition of stable?
Knowing what your football budget is and what conference you're playing in for the next 3-5 years.
If VT were to go to the B12, that could change your entire recruiting strategy. If the ACC were to lose Miami/FSU/Clemson/UNC (and VT stays in the ACC), then VT probably loses $10m per year.
^that stuff makes a program unstable.
Ah, thank you. I was clearly thinking of it as more like job security.
You go into every job in this sport knowing you're going to get fired 99% of the time. It's more about having the funding/recruiting infrastructure in place, AND no looming conference alignment uncertainty. You're already in the conference you want to be in.
Given the options of Golish, Somroll and Helton, do you have an order which you think you'd pick them?
I'd probably be most excited about Somroll, then Helton, then Golish. I think Golish is fools gold and he beat a pretty bad Florida team a few weeks ago.
I'll be tuning in.
I also hope that the fundamental change we'll have with our Athletic Dept. will allow us to grab (almost) whoever we want.
At the moment, I agree with this. I think Golish's resume is more than just two wins over UF and Boise. But I also... is it?
Next two coaches I want to focus on are Chesneh and Golish I think.
I would lower your expectations... no inside info, but I can't imagine a world where we magically go from being a top 50 funded AD to be a top 25-30 funded AD overnight. And even if we do, can we maintain it log enough to avoid getting lapped (like last time with the assistant pool)?
Even more reason to get a proven winner now. If we get a $200MM+ budget from this reorganization, we have to hire somebody who can win now and spin that into increased revenue and donations to keep pace. Otherwise you're right, we will eventually get lapped.
Last time we got lapped before opening kickoff.
Golish, Somroll, and Helton....
Sounds like something from a fairy tale.
I asked AI:
This was the response I got:
Who's Al?
The only correct answer
There's a Polk High legend that disagrees.
Not me. But if you'll be my bodyguard, you can *call* me Al.
Seems like Virginia Tech Hokies SI decided to run with your idea for this thread. They did the Bob Chesney version.
https://www.si.com/college/virginiatech/football/breaking-down-bob-chesn...
Well, I'm dropping my take on Bob soon too lol :shrugs:
If anybody was watching Western Kentucky versus LA Tech earlier this week, there are some stellar clock management at the end of the game in a comeback from Tyson Helton
Are you on the Tyson Helton bandwagon now?
Mullen/Franklin are 1a/1b - I don't think we can land them though
Huff is 2 for me
Helton is 3.
I think Helton has a lower floor than any of the other 3, but I just like his eye for assistant talent. Also, I just want offense to be fun in Blacksburg. It just hasn't happened in ages.
You had me at "stellar clock management at the end of the game in a comeback".
That said, I like the other (more proven) options better, if they're options.
For me, Mullen and Huff are the safe picks, and Helton is the gambler's choice. I want a coach hungry to "make his bones" and get a huge contract extension after a successful proof of concept at VT following 2-3 seasons of improvement. Not after just one season using the previous guy's players with one impactful transfer like Whit mistakenly did with Fuente. Franklin's not coming to VT, no way I see that happening, and I don't want another PSU product anyway. I would love to see Helton come and give us an exciting offense.
I think I agree. Mullen's floor and ceiling are known. Huff's are a little bit more known. Helton is certainly the biggest unknown of the three (but still more certainty than a Chesney for example)