BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Football put a bow on its 2023 spring season Saturday with an evenly matched performance by the offense and defense at its annual spring game Saturday afternoon.
Saturday's spring game featured 14 series that saw the offense put together seven touchdown drives while the defense made seven stops.
"I thought we had a really good spring. We saw what we needed to see, we got a lot of work in," said WKU Head Coach Tyson Helton. "I think we've got a lot of young guys who needed to get reps, and they got those reps during spring. So, we've just got to build off that going into summer, but I'm really happy coming out of spring."
The defense started the day strong for WKU, earning stops on each of the first-three drives of the game. Two of those three drives resulted in three-and-outs, making quick work of the offense. Rome Weber gave the defense an early spark by making a stop behind the line of scrimmage and breaking up a pass to put an end to the Hilltoppers' first drive of the day.
After Austin Reed started the first-two series and Caden Veltkamp led the third, transfer quarterback Bronson Barron entered the game for the fourth series to help the Tops find the end zone for the first time on the day. He and running back Elijah Young paced the offense on a methodical drive which got all the way down to the two-yard line before Young punched in a touchdown run for the first score of the afternoon.
That series would prove to be the first of three-consecutive touchdown drives for the offense as Reed came in next to earn his first score of the day. Reed threw a check-down pass to running back Markese Stepp who ripped off a big catch and run to get the ball near midfield, and then connected with Malachi Corley over the middle for a big chunk play that placed the ball inside the red zone. A few plays later, Reed hit Michael Mathison on a crossing pattern from five yards out for a touchdown.
Turner Helton took over the next possession at quarterback for WKU and drove the ball to the edge of the red zone where he would then provide one of the highlights of the day. Helton threw a deep ball to the back corner of the end zone where Denzil Alleyne was waiting to make a toe-tap catch while falling to the ground and battling a defender. It was the first of two touchdown connections between Helton and Alleyne as the two hooked up again for a 20-yard scoring strike in the second half.
Reed would only see one drive in the second half, but he made the most of it and threw a 12-yard touchdown to Dalvin Smith. Quarterbacks Willie Taggart Jr. and Veltkamp then led touchdown drives during the second half, giving each quarterback on the roster at least one scoring drive on the day. Taggart hit Jax Cooper for a 14-yard touchdown after scrambling around the pocket, and Veltkamp found transfer receiver Blue Smith in the back corner of the end zone from inside the five-yard line.
"Those guys need to continue to get reps like everyone else," Helton said of his quarterback room. "Austin obviously is pretty polished and dialed in, but we've got to get those other ones where they're game ready. But I've been pleased all spring with them."
The Tops will now break for the summer before resuming fall camp in August. WKU will kickoff the season on Saturday, Sept. 2 when it hosts South Florida at Houchens-Smith Stadium.
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