Austin Reed, Western Kentucky Football News: Draft Scout Player News

08/22/22 - QB Austin Reed, rSr/2024, Western Kentucky

Austin Reed will be Western Kentucky's starting quarterback. The Hilltoppers have named the West Florida transfer QB1, head coach Tyson Helton confirmed after Thursday's practice. Reed was in a quarterback competition throughout the fall with West Virginia transfer Jarret Doege, who has entered the transfer portal. "At the end of the day, I just felt like he gave our team a good opportunity to win," Helton said. "I thought, as I've said all along, both quarterbacks we can win with. We can win championships with both quarterbacks. The job as the head football coach is I've got to pick one of them and that's a tough pick. I just felt like Austin did a couple things that gives us an opportunity to go win. It doesn't mean he's better. It doesn't mean I'm right. Just my gut told me I needed to go with Austin."

The 6-foot-2, 220-pound Reed comes from Division II West Florida, where he went 22-3 as the starting quarterback over two seasons and claimed a national title in 2019. During that time, he threw for 7,507 yards and 78 touchdowns. Helton, at the team's media day, described Reed as "a gunslinger" - "When he goes out there, you don't know where it's headed, but it's headed there fast," Helton said then. "It was my gut," Helton said Thursday. "I just felt like he'd give us a good opportunity to win games. Again, Jarret would've given us a good opportunity to win games as well. I think if you say, 'What's his strengths?' He has big-play ability, he's got a big arm. That doesn't win games - having a big arm - but he's had a lot of good drives that finished with touchdowns. That's really important. The name of the game's put the ball in the end zone. Just some of those things kind of stood out to me." - BG Daily News

rSr/2024