WKU Football: Picking Steven Duncan is the Right Call for Tyson Helton
On Tuesday afternoon in front of various local media, WKU head coach Tyson Helton announced that Junior Steven Duncan will be the starting quarterback against Central Arkansas.
Duncan beat out Arkansas Grad Transfer Ty Storey, Sophomore Davis Shanley & Redshirt Freshman Kavaris Thomas for the starting job. As you can see in the video above, the battle between Duncan and Storey was pretty much even as Helton went with his gut and chose the rising junior over the grad transfer. With Duncan getting the starting job, Helton stated that Storey will get to play and the competition will continue throughout the season.
Those remarks, in particular, make me think that Helton is giving Duncan every opportunity to not only start the opener against Central Arkansas but keep the job moving forward should he perform well. By knowing that Ty Storey will be ready and available to relieve Duncan should he underperform or get injured, Duncan must take the proverbial bull by the horns and build upon his first year of experience as a part-time starter.
Last season was a mixed bag for Duncan as he started five games (Louisville, Marshall, FAU, UTEP & Louisiana Tech) and also saw relief (Ball State) and mop-up duty in four other games. On the season he threw for 1071 yards on 57.8% passing while throwing for 9 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. He also showed that he wasn’t a statue in the pocket rushing for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns despite being sacked 14 times. Below is his game log
As you can see, Duncan led WKU to its only three victories of the season. As Mike Sanford juggled around quarterbacks, Duncan sometimes had trouble getting in a rhythm and turnovers were a problem (including the Red Zone fumble against Marshall) but Duncan showed the tools (powerful arm) and leadership qualities that could lead to a breakout junior season.
Tyson Helton brought in Storey to push Duncan it looks like he did. Helton stated that Storey will still play and be a part of the team. To me, this reads that he wants to keep Storey’s morale up, especially after losing a hard-fought competition. Having a backup quarterback with SEC experience should come in handy especially if Duncan can’t grow into the fulltime role. Duncan needs to come out and perform well against Central Arkansas to erase the quarterback controversy of last season.
At the end of the day, I think Helton made the right decision by picking Steven Duncan. He has the best combination of experience, upside & longterm viability at the quarterback position. He is a leader and known commodity with his teammates, most of whom have been in the program with him for 2–3 years. He has the size (6–4 230 pounds) & arm strength to give Helton the greatest shot of utilizing the entire playbook (especially the vertical passing game). He needs to build upon last years experiences and take a similar leap forward that Brandon Doughty did in 2014 (went from 14 TD’s/14 INT’s to 49/10).
Should he grow into a solid starting quarterback this season, WKU should excel and push towards bowl eligibility. Having an established starter back at quarterback in 2020 would pay dividends as the team currently has 35 juniors currently on the roster and could peak like the 2015 team before it. Hopefully, 2020 is the year that WKU returns to the top of Conference USA but it all starts by setting the tone this year.
Ultimately it’s up to Duncan to prove that Helton’s gut was correct. He’ll have to produce (especially early) and transform an inconsistent offense into a well-oiled machine. Should he live up to his potential, WKU could be in great shape moving forward.
