« Football 2015

Brandon Doughty

School
WKU
Position
Quarterback
Major
Sports Administration

Classroom

Starting quarterback Brandon Doughty has shown a huge emphasis on his studies while on the Hill. He earned a spot on the Sun Belt Fall Honor Roll in both 2013 and 2014, which is given to student-athletes who maintain a 3.5 grade-point average or better during the academic year. He also was named to the 2014 President’s List. Doughty is currently pursuing a master’s degree in sports management after already earning his bachelor’s degree in the major.

Character

Doughty stepped on campus with high expectations and worked very hard while being redshirted during his freshman year. After earning his first career start in the third game of the following season, he would play just three plays before leaving the game with a season-ending knee injury. He battled back to get into the quarterback fold for the 2012 campaign, but he again was out for the full season as his knee had not fully healed and needed to be worked on again. With basically three years off from competition, Doughty has come back to lead WKU to two winning seasons, the school’s first-ever FBS bowl win and into a position of consistently being one of the nation’s top offensive teams. He has thrived under the higher expectations, not throwing an interception at home since October 15, 2013, a span of 388 passing attempts. Doughty returns in 2015 after he was granted a medical hardship waiver for his injuries in 2011 and 2012, and he will look to lead WKU to more success on and off the field.

Community

Even with the amount of time Doughty spends perfecting his football skills and studying, he still puts a large emphasis on his work in the community. Doughty attends meetings and gives speeches regularly at the local high school and junior high Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings. He has served as a counselor at church lock-ins in the Bowling Green area, and he also spends a lot of his time at the nearby elementary schools, attending classes, meeting with the kids and giving motivational speeches before the kids have their yearly standardized testing. Doughty also gives back and helps out at the United Way and Boys of Girls Club in Bowling Green.

Competition

Doughty posted one of the finest seasons by a collegiate quarterback in the history of the game in 2014 as he led the FBS in passing yards (4,830), passing touchdowns (49) and points responsible for per game (24.2). Doughty was named the 2014 Conference USA Most Valuable Player and the Sammy Baugh Trophy winner. As a team, WKU finished as the No. 4 offense in the nation, averaging 534.6 yards and the No. 2 passing offense at 374.3 yards, and broke 49 team and individual offensive records. He led C-USA with four Player of the Week honors and was a four-time recipient of the Manning Star of the Week last season. After leading WKU to its first-ever FBS bowl victory in the Bahamas Bowl, where he was named the Offensive Player of the Game, Doughty was named to the All-Bowl Team from CBSSports.com and NFL.com. He threw for more than 500 yards in a game on a pair of occasions, including a C-USA single-season record of 593 at Middle Tennessee. On 10 occasions, Doughty eclipsed the 300-yard mark and had five or more touchdown passes in five games, including a season-high eight at No. 19 Marshall. His eight touchdown passes in that game were matched only by eight other quarterbacks in FBS history and just two others did it against a nationally ranked opponent. Entering 2015, Doughty was 101 completions away from setting the WKU career record and 767 yards away from passing Jeff Cesarone as WKU’s all-time passing yardage leader.