The Argument for Tyson Helton to be the next VT Football Coach

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.