Ty Storey is back in a familiar position.

After three weeks of watching Steven Duncan quarterback a Western Kentucky offense he was in tight competition to lead, the new guy in the quarterback room has an open opportunity for the job again.

Head coach Tyson Helton on Monday announced that Duncan is “out indefinitely” due to a cracked bone in his foot suffered in a loss to Louisville over the weekend.

Storey was runner-up in a close race for the starting job with Duncan during fall camp and has watched all but one play from the sideline through three games.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say it was tough,” the graduate transfer Storey said after Tuesday’s practice. “It was definitely some hard times, but I knew I might get my chance and I knew I had to stick with it, especially for these guys and everybody in case something did happen. I’m really happy to be here and ready to go.”

Although he’ll be the favorite to start Sept. 28 at home against UAB, Helton and offensive coordinator Bryan Ellis said the starting quarterback competition is open between the Arkansas transfer, redshirt sophomore Davis Shanley and redshirt freshman Kevaris Thomas.

“You never want your quarterback to get hurt, but if he’s going to get hurt, I’m glad it happened on a bye week,” Ellis said. “We’ll get the guys reps and we’ll open it back up and see who comes out of this thing next Thursday or Friday and decide who we’re going to go play with.”

Duncan’s injury comes after leading the Hilltoppers offense to 23 points per game while averaging 371.7 yards of offense. The redshirt junior completed 70-of-119 pass attempts for 790 yards and five touchdowns against four interceptions in the first three games.

Helton said the injury against the Cardinals came in the third quarter and X-rays Sunday revealed a cracked bone in his left foot. He’ll have a procedure to put pins in and will be out several weeks, but the team is prepared for the quarterback to miss the rest of the season.

Enter Storey, who joined WKU in the spring as a graduate transfer from Arkansas. He competed in the spring and fall camp for the starting job, but lost out to Duncan on a gut decision by Helton.

“You never know what’s going to happen going into the season,” Storey said. “You just have to stay ready. It’s unfortunate and I hope the best for the guy, but we just have to be ready to play.”

Storey played three years at Arkansas and became the Razorbacks starter in 2018. He played nine games and threw for 1,560 yards and 11 touchdowns with nine interceptions. He played six combined games the two years prior.

The 6-foot-2, 225, Charleston, Ark., native also ran for 187 yards and a touchdown last year.

Although Helton has said during the first two weeks he wanted to find ways to get Storey to impact the game through certain packages, his only play came on a flatlined rushing attempt inside the red zone Sept. 7 at FIU.

Storey said he’s ready to go if he wins the starting job.

“I feel comfortable with it,” Storey said. “I feel comfortable with play-calling and everything they put on the quarterback and I feel like I’m really in control out there. In practice and fall camp, I always felt really in control of this offense.”

Shanley saw action in nine games last year and earned four starts. He completed 96 passes for 942 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Thomas appeared in two games and attempted just one pass and rushed the ball six times.

“Experience is obviously a huge factor,” Ellis said. “Getting to go out there and play live game reps and having done that is a big thing. Shanley is huge and don’t count KT out. He’ll compete over the next two weeks. I think we’re in a good situation. There’s a lot of teams that would be lucky to be in the situation we are when your starting quarterback goes down so we’ll try to get them some reps and get them as ready as possible and hopefully Saturday (Sept. 28) we’ll come out and play well.”