Chatter From the Other Sideline: Western Kentucky Head Coach Tyson Helton

It’s a longstanding college football tradition for head coaches across the country to meet with the media early each week, reflecting on the previous game while also looking ahead to their next challenge. These press conferences often provide valuable insight into a team’s mindset, key storylines, and how coaches are preparing for the road ahead. While fans are usually familiar with the comments coming out of their own program’s headquarters, they don’t always get a chance to hear what opposing coaches are saying about their team.

With Indiana set to host Western Kentucky this weekend, let’s take a look at some of the comments the Hilltoppers head coach Tyson Helton made during his Monday press conference when discussing the Hoosiers and the matchup ahead.

Q: Opening Statement

“Get to go on the road to play the national championship Indiana…Excited, what a great atmosphere to go play a game. Been up there several times and have had competitive games in the past, go up there and have another competitive game. I know our guys will be excited, looking forward to it, and they’re an excellent football team and we’ll have a tremendous challenge, but I know our guys will be excited to go up there and play.”

Q: What have you seen from afar, looking at Indiana, that has allowed them to get where they are today?

“Well, one, their head football coach is one of the best in the business. He is really a guy who knows what he wants. He knows what the blueprint to winning is. He knows the personnel that he needs to win. His coordinators have been with him for a while; they do a fantastic job. They get their guys to play at a high level, they don’t make mistakes, they don’t make mental errors. They take advantage of situations, they play really good situational football. They’re always in the right places doing the right thing, that goes back to coaching. 

And then, on top of that, Indiana has done a great job of investing in their program. In today’s world where everyone wants to spend a ton of money, they’ve invested, but they’re not the number one, you know, saying we’re going to throw fifty million dollars at it. They’re up there, but I have a tremendous for from the top-down how they approach how much they want to invest and who they want to invest in. They’re doing everything right and it’s glaring, it shows. From the president, to the alumni base, to the head football coach, to his staff, to the players, everything fits. Everybody is in line and everybody is pulling in the same direction. And that’s why you see the tremendous success that they’ve had.

They’re a great example of doing it the right way. So, it’ll be fun. It’ll be great to go up there and play the best of the best. We’ve gone up there before and had some competitive games, hopefully we’ll have another competitive game.”

Q: Differences between playing an SEC team like Georgia and now a Big Ten team like Indiana…

“…Indiana, they’re going to be a lot more zone coverage. A lot more keep the quarterback guessing. They are multiple with their fronts. They do some simulated blitzes that are hard to deal with.

Offensively, big physical bunch up front – both O line and D line. Quarterback can run and can throw, so they’ll take advantage of that. Running backs are excellent runners and they’ve got great skill. They’re going to take advantage of spreading you out as much as they can, making you run sideline to sideline and see if you can tackle the running back, tackle the quarterback, and then try to throw it over your head as well.”