This afternoon the indiapolis colts announced they have extended former WKU TE Jack Doyle to a 3 year extension. This deal comes after the Los Angeles Rams decided to extend Tyler Higbee earlier this season. A good year to be former Hilltopper now in the NFL.
To this point Doyle has totaled 36 catches for 377 yards and 4 touchdowns in the 2019 season.
The extension is reportly a 3 year deal worth 21 million guaranteed with a possible for incentives bumping it up to 24 million. Currently 3 former Hilltopper Tight Ends are on active NFL rosters, Deon Yelder (Chiefs), Tyler Higbee (Rams), and Jack Doyle (Colts).
Wouldn’t it be neat if Western Kentucky and Arkansas battle it out inside Diddle Arena Saturday night for 4 star SF Kyree Walker? Essentially that is what is happening Saturday night in Bowling Green.
Walker posted this to his social media account hinting a decision is coming soon.
The monster is ready to be let out it’s cage…It’s time!
As of now, If Walker was to enroll he would not be eligible until the start of the spring semester at Western Kentucky on January 27th. It is not set in stone that Walker will be attending any university as several rumors have him going overseas. If he were to take the college route I’d say it’s down to WKU and Arkansas.
Right now I’d lean toward Arkansas at 70% to land Kyree and Western Kentucky 30%
Here at Western Kentucky we love Willie Taggart, he took a struggling Western Kentucky program and laid the foundation for a program that is built to last (Minus Mike Sanford). Willie took over a 0-12 WKU squad in 2009 to winning 2 games in his first season on the Hill and would finish his next 2 seasons with a 7-5 record (2011-2012) before taking over as the head man at South Florida.
In 2018 to much surprise Willie landed the job at arguably one of the Top 10 college football programs of all time in Florida State. Taggart’s stay in Tallahassee would be short lived, as he would be fired after a 9-12 start not even completing his 2nd season at Florida State.
At South Florida (2013-2016) Willie took a mediocre program over and won 10 games in his final season before taking the job at Oregon. While at Oregon Taggart would have a below average season to Oregon standards and finish 7-5 (2017).
With the 2019 college football season winding down chaos ensues, coaches begin to get fired and players enter their names into the NCAA transfer portal. This offseason Taggart’s name has been floated around programs like USF and ODU according to reports.
It is not known yet if Taggart is looking to jump back into coaching, but when he is, there will definitely be a spot for him.
After a week 1 loss to Central Arkansas Western Kentucky would be ranked dead last in the USA Today rankings the following week.
Now, the Hilltoppers are playing their best football since 2016 and are rolling hot into bowl season riding a 8-4 season in Head Coach Tyson Helton’s first season. Western Kentucky comes in this week at #52 in the country, jumping 2 spots from 54 the week prior. You can view the full rankings here.
Just 2 Conference USA schools are ranked ahead of Western Kentucky in FAU, (see ya Lane Kiffin) and UAB whom Western Kentucky defeated earlier in the season 20-13.
Who would’ve thought Western Kentucky would go from losing to a FCS opponent and being ranked dead last to being ranked in the top half of all college football programs in the same season? I surely didn’t see 8-4 record after a week 1. Lets go bowling.