UPDATE:
Western Kentucky confirmed Helton’s hiring as its new football coach on Tuesday. The team’s official Twitter account posted a graphic of Helton and announced him as the 21st head coach in program history.
Helton leaves Tennessee after just one season as the Vols’ offensive coordinator. This will be his first stint as a head coach at any level.
Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt’s attention will now be turned to finding someone to fill the offensive coordinator vacancy.
Former Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze, former Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury and Vols offensive line coach Will Friend have been mentioned by fans and analysts as candidates, but Tennessee has not made an official announcement on the search.
Tyson Helton has had a whopping weekend.
As the sun set on Tennessee’s season with a 38-13 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday, questions arose about the possibility of Vols offensive coordinator Helton being fired from his position, which head coach Jeremy Pruitt reportedly denied.
Just two days later, his future seems to have taken a much more positive turn, as Helton has reportedly been hired as Western Kentucky’s head coach.
Helton would be filling the vacancy left when the Hilltoppers fired former head coach Mike Sanford on Sunday. Western Kentucky was 3-9 this season, including a 2-6 record in Conference USA play.
Volquest and GoVols247 first reported the news on Monday.
Helton received criticism throughout the season by some fans over the performance of Tennessee’s offense. Quarterback Jarrett Guarantano threw for 12 touchdowns to just three interceptions this year, but the Vols suffered from abysmal offensive line play and inconsistent scoring performances all season.
Following Tennessee’s loss to Vanderbilt, a report by Footballscoop.com said that Pruitt was likely to replace Helton this offseason, but longtime WNML reporter Jimmy Hyams tweeted on Saturday that Pruitt had denied the rumors.
“‘It’s not true and it’s not going to happen’ Pruitt told me tonight,” Hyams said in the tweet.
Helton joined Pruitt’s staff at Tennessee this season after serving as USC’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2016-2017 and Western Kentucky’s passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2014-2015.
He played football as a quarterback for Houston from 1996-1999 before beginning his coaching career. His older brother, Clay Helton, is the head coach at USC.
