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.