Bailey Zappe and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers ran their offense at a tempo that opposing defenses simply couldn’t match.
There were often a few inevitable results. The first was passing yards: A lot of them. Zappe finished his season with 5,967 yards, setting an FBS record. He also scored 62 touchdowns, another FBS record. The second seemingly inevitable outcome was a fake injury. Defensive players would take a dive — something out of the Serie A, the Italian soccer league — and that “injury” would slow down the pace of the Hilltoppers offense. Zappe would generally be the first person to chat with the supposedly injured player.
“You think he’s tapping the guy on the helmet to say, ‘Man, I hope you’re OK.’ But he’s actually going, ‘How about getting your butt up and quit faking and let’s get on with this!'” Hilltoppers coach Tyson Helton said with a chuckle. “So that was pretty fun to watch game in and game out, because that was the only way a defense could stop our tempo.”
