Austin Herink

Austin David Herink (born August 16, 1995) is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is currently the senior offensive analyst for the UCF Knights. He played college football at East Tennessee State. After going undrafted in the 2019 NFL draft, Herink signed with the Vienna Vikings for the spring 2019 season. He subsequently retired, became an assistant coach at East Tennessee State, and briefly at Vienna Vikings. He is one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the history of East Tennessee State. He led the 2018 team to the third-best record in school history and the program's first playoff game in over 20 years, as well as a share of the Southern Conference Championship. He was also a four-time team captain from 2015 to 2018.

Early life Herink was born to Jeff and Donita Herink and grew up in Cleveland, Tennessee, where he played football for coach Ron Crawford at Cleveland High School. He also won letters in basketball. In his career, he passed for over 6,000 yards, combined for 67 touchdowns (52 passing/15 rushing) and completed 66.8 percent (472-of-706) of his passes. He was named District Player of the Year and an All-State selection.

College career During his recruiting process, Herink was not offered by many schools. He was ranked a two-star prospect. Though he was originally recruited by ETSU, the team ultimately signed another quarterback. Before committing to MTSU he was recruited by UT Martin, Eastern Kentucky and Youngstown State. Most noticeably were the D1 SEC schools that had an interest such as Alabama, Auburn, UTK and Vanderbilt. However, none offered Herink a scholarship during the recruiting process. After graduation from Cleveland High School, Herink joined the Middle Tennessee State football team in 2014. One year later, he transferred to East Tennessee State to help reboot their football team in the 2015 and where there would be plenty of playing time. There would start for all four years (2015-2018) and become one of the best quarterbacks in the school's history. While at ETSU, Herink studied sports management. He was once again named to the SoCon Honor Roll and SoCon Fall Academic Team. He concluded the season with 1,825 passing yards with six touchdowns in 11 games played (eight starts). Two of his six touchdown passes were a season-high 54 yards (vs. Furman (Sept. 22) and Chattanooga (Sept. 29)). Capped off the year with a .591 (156-of-264) completion percentage, completing a season-high 28 passes and 294 yards against Western Carolina (Oct. 27). He tallied 174 yards on the ground in 74 attempts with four touchdowns, and would rank fifth in the SoCon in total offense with 1,999 yards. He finished his career ranked second in program history in pass attempts (1,048), completions (615) and completion percentage (.587), while ranking third in yards (6,994) and fifth in touchdowns (33). !! 44 !! 615 !! 1,048 !! 58.7 !! 6,994 !! 6.6 !! 78 !! 33 !! 27 !! 119.8 !! 342 !! 441 !! 1.4 !! 42 !! 13

Professional career

After completing his collegiate career, Herink began to prepare for the possibility of playing in the NFL. However, he went undrafted and unsigned. He then signed with the Vienna Vikings for the spring 2019 season. Herink was the quarterback and assistant passing game coordinator for the Vienna Vikings, a pro football club in Vienna, Austria. He led the team to a second-place finish in both the Austrian Football League and the European Football League.

Coaching career Herink was named an Offensive Quality Control Coach at his alma mater, East Tennessee State, in 2019. With the Buccaneers, he assisted Head Coach Randy Sanders and the offensive coaching staff with game planning, while also instructing quarterbacks on proper mechanics, game planning and scheme knowledge. Herink also helped coordinate unofficial and official recruiting visits. In 2021, Herink was Associate Director of Football Operations. Herink assists with all facets of the day-to-day operations of the football program, including serving as a liaison with other units within the athletic department, assisting with budgets, team travel, and summer camps and clinics.