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.”

Doege entered the transfer portal Sunday evening, and Josh Boutwell of the Troy Messenger reported Thursday afternoon that Doege would transfer to Troy. The Hilltoppers are scheduled to host the Trojans Oct. 1.

“Doege did enter the portal. Wish him the best of luck,” Helton said. “What a great guy, great competitor, really good quarterback. Hate to lose him, but understand. He’s a competitor and I get it. In today’s portal world and all those things, I don’t blame the guy, but going to miss the guy because he’s a good person, good teammate and I wish him the best of luck.”

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.”

Reed started his career at Southern Illinois, where he redshirted in 2018 before making the move to Pensacola, Fla., where he won a Division II national title with West Florida in 2019.

Reed said part of the reason he elected to leave West Florida was to move up and compete to be pushed to win a starting job, and WKU was enticing because “they have the recipe for a small-school guy moving up and being successful.”

Bailey Zappe moved up to WKU from the FCS ranks at Houston Baptist. The Hilltoppers were second nationally in scoring with 44.2 points per game and total offense with 535.3 yards per game last season, and they had the best passing attack at 433.7 yards per game. Zappe, who was selected in the fourth round of the NFL draft by the New England Patriots, set FBS single-season records for touchdown passes and passing yards.

Doege came to WKU with Power Five experience after spending the last three seasons at West Virginia. He was coming off a season in which he threw for 3,048 yards and 19 touchdowns on 272-of-417 passing with 12 interceptions. He’s the Division I active leader in career passing yards and touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Lubbock, Texas, native spent the first two seasons of his college career at Bowling Green State.

WKU quarterback Chance McDonald left the program earlier in camp to explore options outside of football. The Hilltoppers’ quarterback room also contains true freshmen Caden Veltkamp and Turner Helton and redshirt freshman Darius Ocean.

“They’re doing awesome. Darius Ocean’s doing a great job. Caden Veltkamp’s doing a great job. Turner Helton’s doing a great job,” Tyson Helton said. “ … All those young guys I think really have a bright future for us at Western. We’ll see. I told Darius and Caden, ‘You guys are competing for the backup,’ and that’s kind of a week-to-week kind of thing for us, but both those guys are doing a really, really good job for us.”

WKU is scheduled to open the 2022 season Aug. 27 against Austin Peay. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Houchens-Smith Stadium.{&end}