Tyson Helton is an NCAA Football coach for Western Kentucky University, In his first season at the helm on The Hill, head coach Tyson Helton led the Hilltoppers to one of the best turnarounds in the nation. With a 9-4 overall record in 2019, WKU tripled its 2018 win total (3-9) and matched the number of victories from the previous two years combined (9-16).
The Hilltoppers' six-win improvement from 2018-to-2019 tied for the third-best in FBS, behind only Navy (8) and Central Michigan (7). WKU was voted to finish fifth in the East in the preseason Conference USA poll, but concluded the year tied for second with a 6-2 league record.
Because of the team's success, Helton was voted 2019 C-USA Coach of the Year, the first Hilltopper head coach since Jack Harbaugh was the Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2000. It was only the sixth conference Coach of the Year honor in program history, with the previously-mentioned Harbaugh, Jimmy Feix (1973, 1978 and 1980) and Nick Denes (1963) as the only other WKU head coaches to earn the recognition.
Prior to being hired by WKU, Helton spent the majority of his career at a plethora of NCAA universities as their offensive coordinator, special team coordinator, and quarterbacks coach. Helton worked at USC, Tennessee, Cincinnati, UAB, Memphis, and Hawaii.
