Through three seasons at Houston Baptist University and a fourth at Western Kentucky, Bailey Zappe’s offensive coordinator peddled a seemingly counterintuitive axiom.
“I don’t believe in perfect play calls,” Zach Kittley, now Texas Tech’s offensive coordinator, told Yahoo Sports. “You’re playing against coaches that are really good. They’re going to give you something you’re not expecting.”
Quarterbacks, Kittley believed, could and should change some calls at the line of scrimmage. So he celebrated when Zappe checked out of a run play to execute a passing touchdown, and also chuckled when Zappe’s understanding of a starter play call — it might as well have been considered just starter, given the quarterback’s freedom to change direction — prompted him to wave off his coordinator mid-signal.