A lot of teams would falter when their starting quarterback misses multiple weeks with an injury.
If you watch a lot of football, you’ve probably seen that happen more often than not. That wasn’t the case for Western Kentucky this season, however.
When starting QB TJ Finley left with a leg injury in the first quarter of the Week 3 matchup against Middle Tennessee, the Hilltoppers didn’t skip a beat. In fact, they may have even gotten better.
Backup Caden Veltkamp came into the game and finished with 398 passing yards and five touchdowns. That performance earned him Conference USA Player of the Week honors.
Veltkamp has put together an all-conference caliber type of season following that performance. He ranks second in CUSA with 242.4 passing yards per game and his 22 touchdown passes are tied with FIU’s Keyone Jenkins for most in the league.
The senior has been the most efficient passer in the conference and is completing throws at an 87.2% clip.
But most importantly, Veltkamp guided the Hilltoppers to their fourth-ever CUSA Championship game. The Hilltoppers visit Jacksonville State on Friday for a rematch of last week’s regular season finale, where the Hilltoppers won 19-17 to clinch a spot in the title game. College football betting odds have Jax State as a 4.5-point favorite.
It’ll be WKU’s first title game appearance since 2021 as it seeks its first championship in eight years.
We should have known what to expect when Veltkamp took over under center. We saw a glimpse of what he’s capable of during last year’s Famous Toastery Bowl, where he passed for 383 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Hilltoppers to a 38-35 win over Old Dominion. He entered the game in the second quarter when WKU was trailing 28-0 and helped it storm back for the victory.
Veltkamp had initially entered the transfer portal in late November but was still allowed to suit up and play in WKU’s bowl game. He withdrew his name from the transfer portal nine days after that bowl game and, at the time, it was safe to assume Veltkamp would be the QB1 entering the 2024 season.
That changed when Finley committed to WKU less than a month later.
In today’s era of college football, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Veltkamp put his name back into the transfer portal following the addition of Finley. Chances are, there was a program out there that could have used his services a little more, and he would have been the No. 1 guy without much competition.
Veltkamp chose to stay, though, and is now benefiting from that decision.
Finley returned from his injury three weeks ago, but WKU head coach Tyson Helton confirmed that Veltkamp would remain the starter. Since then, Veltkamp has statistically had two of his worst games of the season — both WKU losses.
He came through when the Hilltoppers needed him most, though, and orchestrated a game-winning drive that led to a 50-yard Lucas Carneiro game-winning field goal that knocked off Jax State.
Much like Veltkamp, Gamecocks QB Tyler Huff took over as the starter early in the season and has become one the best QBs in the league. He’s impacted the game differently, however, using his dual-threat ability to keep defenses off-balance.
Huff was injured in the third quarter of last week’s game and didn’t return. He is officially questionable for Friday’s contest.
If Huff is able to go, it’ll be another meeting between two of the top QBs in the league whose seasons have had similar paths. We’ll see if Huff and the Gamecocks can come out on top this time around.
