WKU Football: 2021 Season Review

A quick review of all 14 games of the 2021 Season

Western football took us on a heck of a ride in 2021. Crowds were back, and so was the program from a boring doldrum of a season in 2020.

Honestly, can you blame them, either? 2020 was just awkward in all areas, but especially big events like concerts, theatrical performances, and sporting events were all virtually shut down for most in-person experiences. Certainly if you went, the crowds were fractions of the size, and half of the crowd that showed up wondered if they were going to get sick.

Well, 2021 brought in new hope, starting probably with the exciting announcement that DeAngelo Malone would come back for a sixth season on The Hill. Then with the announcement of signing Adam Cofield, a really productive running back from North Dakota State, then some other very interesting transfers like Will Ignont from Tennessee, Daewood Davis from Oregon, and still others, the Hilltoppers were starting to open some eyes to the possibility of a really good team. The most momentous moments came with the new offensive coordinator, then said new OC Zach Kittley bringing in four offensive players from his former program, Houston Baptist, really brought in some firepower.

In comes Bailey Zappe, Jerreth Sterns, his younger brother Josh, and Ben Ratzlaff. In hindsight, the two most major player additions were clearly Zappe and the older Sterns brother, although Josh has plenty of eligibility and shows tons of promise if he can get his hands right. Unfortunately for Ratzlaff, he struggled most with the transition, seeing the field some but not making a game changing impact at any point this season. But he brought depth and experience and maturity to a receiver group that really needed exactly that.

So as WKU headed into 2021, WKU fans were hoping for an undefeated season (and Zappe actually said he planned on it), and the outsiders were predicting WKU to possibly get to bowl eligibility.

Heading into the opener against UT-Martin, all things seemed positive, and the coaches and players were talking like they had something. Word from inside the program felt very similar: They had something here. But could Zappe make the transition to the FBS?

Thursday, Sept. 2: vs. UT-Martin

Western opened its season with an offensive explosion, scoring 59 on the Skyhawks, a point total they hadn’t breached since November 2016 during Mike White’s junior season. Against an FCS school, of course 59-21 means little to nothing, but to those paying attention, the gaudy numbers put up by the offense, along with the fact that little help came from the defense at all, spoke to the potential of this team if the defense could show up and play well as the most known quantity in the Hilltopper locker room besides the special teams unit. UT-Martin ended up being a quality FCS opponent, going 10-3 and losing in the second round of the FCS Championship to Montana State, who is actually doing battle with North Dakota State in the FCS Championship Game on January 8. By the way, Preseason Mackey Award Watchlist member Joshua Simon was knocked out late in this game.

Saturday, Sept. 11: at Army

This game figured to be a game Army should probably win. Spoiler alert: They did. However, the way in which it happened was shocking. As aforementioned, WKU’s defense was supposed to be a really solid unit with a bunch of experience and key transfers in to positions of need. Unfortunately, that unit did not really begin to do anything of consequence until the second conference game (more on that later).

Army got out to a 14-0 and 21-7 lead on WKU before WKU cut the deficit to seven at halftime. Army seemingly put the game away, especially with the triple option running attack the Black Knights take pride in. They were up 35-14 with 10:31 left in the fourth quarter. And here’s where the legend of Bailey Zappe really was borne: The Tops ended up reeling off a 21-3 run and had a chance to win it at the end, despite being down to the most impossible of all opponents to be down three touchdowns to. It was incredible. Bailey Zappe almost overcame the most impossible task in all of college football: Coming back on Army with no time left. WKU ultimately fell 38-35. Army ended up being solid as they usually are, falling slightly short of their preseason expectations, finishing 9-4 with a thrilling bowl win against Missouri.

Saturday, Sept. 25: vs. Indiana

WKU was now 1-1, but the Army game gave lots of hope, but it was obvious WKU needed to shore up its defense, giving up tons of yardage, especially on the ground to both UT-Martin and Army. IU starting quarterback Michael Penix jokes aside, Indiana seemed to be at the time a pretty decent Big Ten team. They ended up not being so, but WKU’s defense took a much needed step forward, forcing several field goals instead of giving up touchdowns. They still gave up over 500 yards, but the defense was not really the reason the Tops lost this game.

WKU’s offense actually showed some weaknesses, not being able to move the ball significantly on the ground, as well as what ended up being one of Bailey’s Zappe’s worst games, “only” throwing for 365 yards and three touchdowns. At the time, Indiana’s defense seemed to be the best defense WKU would face all season. Indiana proceeded to be absolutely horrendous going forward, not winning a single game after playing WKU. Indiana had horrible drama the rest of the way, with few offensive players even playing the whole season. Michael Penix entered the transfer portal and only played five games this season. In all, 18 IU players are in the transfer portal already. And these are not slouches leaving. These are starters on both sides of the ball. Anyway, WKU showed an ability to compete with what was at the time a decent team that was fully engaged in its season. Only later did the wheels fall off.

Saturday, Oct. 2: at Michigan State

At this point, WKU was 1-2, and the two “tough but winnable” games were already in the loss column. This game felt like a possible blowout, simply because MSU was undefeated, looking good, and had a budding Heisman candidate in Kenneth Walker III that was tearing up the field every game. For the fourth straight game, WKU dug itself a hole, this time to the tune of 21-3. Michigan State actually used some miscues and special teams blunders to extend their lead to 42-16 at halftime.

In what would become known as typical 2021 fashion, WKU fought and surprised. Instead of laying an egg and getting utterly blasted by Sparty, WKU outscored MSU 15-6 in the second half, actually bringing the game within two touchdowns with 8:24 remaining. To fight and claw within shouting distance of what ended up being a New Years Six quality team showed how good this WKU team could be, even without a defense that had struggled up to this point. If only the defense could stop somebody…that was absolutely the conversation at this point.

Saturday, Oct. 9: vs. UTSA

At 1-3, it was now time to just focus on Conference USA. What was clearly an incredibly talented team struggled in the early part of the year to remotely slow anyone down. The past few games, WKU had showed some ability to play defense at times. UTSA and WKU was to the level of “an interesting matchup” at this point. UTSA looked to be a possible dark horse for a C-USA Championship from the beginning of the year, but no one could imagine them ending up ranked and ultimately winning C-USA. UAB was the slight favorite over UTSA in the West. WKU looked like any one of four or five teams that could make a run at it in the East.

At this point, WKU had started establishing that it was pretty much going to score in the 30s or more, and UTSA’s offense was good but not incredible statistically. So the question with WKU from this point forward started becoming, “What team can play the defense to slow down WKU enough, but also produce enough offensively to keep up with WKU’s ridiculous offense?” It turns out UTSA could, to the tune of a 52-46 instant classic where WKU got within five yards of a game-tying touchdown, pending the extra point. A few plays later, after a controversial call put WKU in a more difficult position, UTSA would drop a lineman, and he would make a diving play to finish off the game. WKU was now in a hole, sitting at 1-4 and 0-1 in Conference USA, with still no proven defense, but a much weaker schedule was to follow. More info to come on UTSA’s finish to the season.

Saturday, Oct. 16: at Old Dominion

For the first time all season, WKU jumped all over its opponent, leading 30-3 at halftime and 33-6 after three quarters. Western would end up winning 43-20 in a game that frankly could have been even worse, especially with some short fields that WKU squandered. And Bailey Zappe established a pattern of making a few silly mistakes a game. Up until this point, it wasn’t clear if he was going to be a quarterback that threw for 40 touchdowns and five interceptions or 62 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. It ended up being the latter. Old Dominion ended up 6-7 on the season, actually reaching bowl eligibility and finishing tied for second in the East Division.

Saturday, Oct. 23: at FIU

Another performance where WKU’s offense pretty much had to tank itself to lose, WKU got down 6-0 after giving up a touchdown to FIU in the first quarter. WKU’s offense took a little bit, but the Tops got rolling and WKU led at one point 34-12 before allowing a late touchdown to make the game look closer than it ever was. WKU’s defense had officially been the bigger factor two games in a row. It was really nice to know the defense could win some games if it had to. FIU ended up 1-11 overall on the season, not winning a conference game.

Saturday, Oct. 30: vs. Charlotte

This was WKU’s first significant conference test. FIU and Old Dominion had already pretty much worked themselves out of the standings. Charlotte was the first true conference test after the landscape of the East Division was taking place. UTSA was a game WKU could afford to lose, as long as they won their other games. As WKU headed into this game, the Tops were in a four way tie for first with Charlotte, FAU, and Marshall. Everyone stood at 2-1, and this was a chance to severely cripple a contender. With tiebreakers, whoever lost this game was virtually eliminated from contention. Well, cue a heck of a performance. For whatever reason, this was the game that everything clicked. Charlotte fought hard, but after cutting it to eight with 3:06 remaining at a score of 21-13, WKU would reel off 24 unanswered en route to a 45-13 victory. This was the first comprehensive victory of the season where WKU just dominated on both sides of the ball from start to finish. Even with Bailey Zappe throwing two interceptions, one while marching down the field, the other deep in his own territory, WKU was able to completely dominate.

This was the first true statement to Conference USA that WKU might actually be really good. Old Dominion and FIU were clearly discombobulated with backup quarterbacks in at the time. Charlotte was a legitimate dark horse with enough talent to compete in the East. Most importantly, it was time for WKU to step up and play its best, and the Tops really did that. But the scary thing again was that there were points still left out there offensively. WKU was now starting to catch attention as a decent team. Now back to .500 overall and 3-1 in conference, WKU was sitting in the driver’s seat for a championship appearance. At this point, FAU and Marshall were probably more in the limelight (even within Towel Rack staff) as the favorites to actually represent the East. Charlotte faded to end the year, finishing 5-7 and losing five of its last six games after a promising start.

Saturday, Nov. 6: vs. Middle Tennessee

MTSU was still technically in the running for the East Division, and in hindsight, if the Blue Raiders had beaten WKU and all other results held true, MTSU would have represented the East. Go figure. At the time, it really felt like WKU just had another important division game to secure more tiebreakers and eliminate another possible land mine in the quest for a championship appearance. WKU dispatched Middle to the tune of 48-21. In a bizarre game, Bailey Zappe had his worst statistical performance, but WKU’s defense was unbelievable, forcing a ton of turnovers (7). Western easily won, mainly because of the defense and the offense’s ability to convert with a short field. Middle ended up 7-6 on the season, winning the Bahamas Bowl against Toledo in a nice win for C-USA. This was also the day Marshall beat FAU, so WKU now stood tied with Marshall for the division lead.

Saturday, Nov. 13: at Rice

This was literally a throw away game. It still had ramifications, but if WKU had lost and won its other games, it would have represented the East Division and traveled to the West Division winner. This wasn’t a watershed moment, except it was another time where everyone in the conference got to say, “Wow,” when looking at Western. Western took care of business over Rice, winning 42-21 in their sleep. Rice ended up 4-8 on the season and fifth in the West Division at 3-5.

After ten games and starting 1-4, WKU had reeled off five straight, hadn’t allowed more than 21 to anyone since UTSA in early October, and had now scored at least 31 points in every game regardless of the level of competition. This was also the week UAB beat Marshall, so WKU found itself atop the East by itself, with Marshall needing to win out to claim the crown and FAU fading away, losing to Old Dominion in what was a shocker at the time. It ended up that ODU was much better after switching quarterbacks for the WKU game.

Saturday, Nov. 20: vs. FAU

Former WKU legend and Head Coach Willie Taggart was coming to town, and his team was hanging on to the thought of bowl eligibility. Their hopes were dashed for a championship, but all they needed to do was win one of their final four games. Spoiler alert: They couldn’t do it. In probably the most impressive performance in terms of perceived quality of opponent, talent level, and overall matchup problem, WKU absolutely slaughtered FAU in its undoubted best performance of the season up to that point, 52-17.

WKU got off to a good start, maintained a lead, finished the game, and shut down one of the nation’s best rushing attacks for barely a yard a carry. FAU totaled 276 yards, while WKU was over 500 total. Bailey Zappe did have two picks, but he canceled a lot of that issue out with six touchdowns. This performance was clearly the biggest statement of the year and had to terrify everyone paying attention. WKU now looked ready to take on Marshall for the East Division, and at this point, it was obvious to WKU fans that it was going to take a special kind of team and performance to beat WKU at all the rest of the year. Western stood at 7-4 after a 1-4 start, now with what at the time was a quality win against a team with a good resume.

Saturday, Nov. 27: at Marshall

In a game for all the marbles, both teams simply had to win to earn the rights to play UTSA, which had already locked up its spot in the C-USA Championship game. Regardless, the winner would go to San Antonio to take on the Roadrunners. So everything was known about the ramifications of this game except who would represent the East Division the following Friday. Survive and advance. WKU came out against Marshall and was about as awful as possible. Bailey Zappe was absolutely his worst accuracy wise. At one point, he was 4-of-14 for 17 yards. Marshall was plugging every hole, and the Herd had the bodies to match up with WKU. Marshall had seemed far and away the biggest threat to WKU of anyone the whole season, including UTSA.

Tyson Helton had labeled Marshall’s quarterback, Grant Wells, a future pro and said he had all the tools. A few minutes into the second quarter, WKU superstar DeAngelo Malone got loose and made one of his video game like hits on the opponent’s signal caller, knocking him out of the game. From that point forward, the tide slowly turned to WKU. Marshall had come out and created a 14 point cushion due to a combination of mistakes by WKU and great execution. Perhaps the sign of the turning point was that WKU played its worst half of football with Marshall turning in its best defensive performance possible and WKU was only down eight heading into the break.

Coming out of the break, WKU stuffed Marshall for a drive that went -2 yards in three plays, sprinted into the end zone after two plays, and kicked an extra point to go down 14-13. At the moment, it stood out as basically a middle finger to Marshall: WKU wasn’t even worried about the margin at this point. The Tops planned on scoring many more points, and by God, they did. All told, WKU found itself in a hole 14-0. The final tally? Get this: 53-21! And Marshall scored that last touchdown after WKU had scored 36 straight points.

Obviously this result was mind-boggling. WKU literally played its worst half of football in almost every way. Penalties, missed field goals, red zone chances wasted, turnovers on downs, touchdowns given up on defense, you name it. Then the Tops came out and literally butchered what was the third or fourth best team in C-USA this season, seemingly like it was no big deal. If WKU had operated at its second half pace in the first half, the Tops would have scored 94 points. So actually heading in to the C-USA Championship, WKU was now the slight favorite against UTSA, who had just lost to North Texas in a shocking blowout in the rain.

Friday, Dec. 3: Ryan Conference USA Championship Game at UTSA

All things from a WKU perspective pointed to what should have been a blowout victory for the trophy. Western had won seven in a row and had a defense that didn’t exist against UTSA the first time. WKU had proven it could play defense when its offense wasn’t marching down the field every drive. Western hadn’t given up more than 21 points in nearly two months. UTSA also had some rumors that the quarterback had some issues and members of the already average secondary were injured and may not even play.

My formula for UTSA to win was for WKU to absolutely screw up everything it could and for UTSA to defy the odds and score 46 or more again, somehow with a quarterback that didn’t seem to have his best arm “stuff”. Well, by God, UTSA did everything it had to do, and WKU did everything it could to screw it up. The positive of scoring on the opening drive in less than a minute aside, WKU handed UTSA a massive lead, missed opportunities to score big points, and allowed UTSA to do whatever it wanted. UTSA busted big play after big play, and Western allowed San Antonio’s Sincere McCormick to go for over 200 yards, and QB Frank Harris had nearly 100 yards rushing himself. All told, UTSA found five touchdowns on the ground alone, barely needing the passing game for a little over 200 yards through the air. The major difference? UTSA converted virtually every opportunity it had to score besides a long field goal attempt. WKU left 22 points out on the field in the first half alone between made field goals and field goal attempts and the potential to score seven on each of those drives. Add in the two turnovers to begin the second half, and that was 36 points worth of mistakes that can be pointed out with a few minutes of research.

Even after WKU shot itself in the foot with muffed punts, interceptions, untimely penalties, and just horribly timed gaffs, Western had its chances once again to find a way to win and UTSA just stepped up and made enough plays to get it done, 49-41. It was a gut punch not many in Topper gear could compare to a recent memory. Perhaps losing to Marshall in the C-USA Basketball Championship game with a much better team in 2017-18 was the most recent comparison, but across Western sports, it seems like for the most part, when WKU is truly “destined” to win, they do it. And occasionally, WKU will pull out an upset. But rarely is WKU feeling like the favorite and choking away the championship so much that you just don’t even know how it physically happened. That was how this felt. UTSA did what they had to do to get it done. Unbelievable.

Saturday, Dec. 18: RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl vs. Appalachian State

After the gut punch that was the C-USA Championship, WKU drew possibly one of the most interesting matchups in all of bowl season. Two very similar teams, WKU and App. State both lost in their conference championship games in rematches to better opponents. Both teams could score, and both teams took care of the football and took the ball away from the opponent. Both teams had really good special teams.

WKU had this other-worldly, record-setting offense, while App. State was clearly one of the best defensive teams in the country, only allowing 325 yards per game and sacking and hurrying the quarterback seemingly on a majority of plays against opposing offenses. App. State had stars at every level on defense, and had really good players at every position, except maybe quarterback. But then again, he was an ACC transfer that has found a home and is definitely a good fit to have an incredible 2022 season.

That being said, this was a monumental task for WKU, but again, the formula to beat WKU was a very complicated one. Could App. State keep up with WKU’s offense? Western had the track record of just simply not scoring less than 31, so could ASU score 32 or more? And what if WKU’s offense just went off?

Western and App. went toe-to-toe for the first half, trading sucker punches offensively, never separating more than one touchdown’s difference the entire first half. WKU took the momentum into the break in a track meet to their liking, leading 31-24, and that was all they needed. WKU’s defense was now playing with a lead, and they had just held App. to a field goal late in the half, among other bright moments amongst the 24 points given up in the first half of the game. Meanwhile, by halftime, Bailey Zappe had set the NCAA record for passing yards in a single season, and under three minutes in the third, Bailey also broke Joe Burrow’s passing touchdowns record, as well.

Coming out from half, the defense walked out there with some confidence, they came out, and got a stop by whatever means necessary, turning the ball back over to the offense after allowing App. State into the red zone. WKU and Bailey Zappe took the opportunity from there, splitting open the score and never allowing the Mountaineers within two touchdowns after 12:49 left in the third quarter.

A Christmas Bow on 2021

WKU finished the season 9-5, something that Topper fans should be thrilled with after a 5-7 2020. But this season was so much more layered than a nice 9-5 record. Western really struggled coming out of the gate defensively, giving up at least 396 yards of offense in every game until the seventh game of the year against FIU, when the Tops suddenly held the Golden Panthers to 290. Meanwhile during those first seven or so games, Bailey Zappe was setting himself up for flirting with history. He was averaging well over 400 yards per game passing, something that if he could continue for the rest of the season would put him in the top 10-15 all-time by the end of the regular season. If WKU went bowling, he could possibly get close to the all-time single season passing record. Meanwhile Jerreth Sterns, receiver transfer and BFF of the Zappe Attack, had nearly 1,000 yards receiving through six games. He was looking like a potential record setter himself before teams starting decided he would not beat them. Then Mitchell Tinsley took over for several games as the go-to receiver before Sterns finished the season off strongly.

So on top of this incredible offense was this horrible defense, which by the way was supposed to be pretty good. They were not of any account for the first half of the year. But you look and shake your head at the first half of the season. What if the defense had been together against Army? Indiana? Michigan State?!? UTSA? The way WKU was playing late in the season, I would’ve considered picking them as a possibility to win against anyone in the country. They may not have been able to compete with the true upper echelon of the FBS, but I would not have been afraid to go back up against Michigan State or a team equal to their caliber, for example. And Michigan State ended up assigned a New Years Six Bowl! But I’m telling you, there were very few teams that could match up with WKU at the end of the year in 2021.

Western’s amazing offensive season set all kinds of WKU records. Mike White and Brandon Doughty now stand a couple of games’ worth of yards behind Bailey Zappe. In fact, everyone ever stands behind Bailey Zappe, who broke Joe Burrow’s touchdown record and slowed down late in the year to do so. Zappe never threw for less than three touchdowns all season. And he did all of this without a significant running game, which showed up in spades against Appalachian State to the tune of 216 yards. Before that, no Topper team rushing performance amounted to more than 157 total rushing yards.

Oh and let’s just shoutout the offensive line really quickly: This offensive line was the best offensive line in three years in college football blocking against the pass. Shoutout to the guys up front for not allowing a sack and a half per game for the greatest passing offense in college football history.

Once WKU’s defense got rolling, the Tops were something to behold. During the seven game winning streak, WKU gave up 362 yards per game. The rest of the season? 509.6.

So it was a really interesting year, for sure. Western was its best and most accomplished since winning C-USA with Mike White at quarterback in 2016. Western was 9-4 in 2019, but this team was unquestionably better with a much higher level of competition. And the greatness across the board did not compare to 2019. The non-conference portion was comparable in some ways, with the exception being playing a Michigan State instead of an 8-5 Louisville. But this year’s C-USA was loaded with really good teams. At least five teams could have won C-USA, and one was ranked most of the season (UTSA). WKU’s competition in the bowl game was also on a different level from 2019. Certainly the margin was much smaller for the 2019 season vs. 2021. WKU did what it could to “only” win nine games this season vs. doing everything it could to find nine wins in 2019 against a tougher schedule.

So Tyson Helton has this program going in the right direction. As it seems every offseason will go, tons of guys are leaving the program and transferring elsewhere, and Godspeed to them. But for those that stay, Tyson Helton is building more foundation blocks for a really strong program in Bowling Green. If WKU can keep its core together as much as possible and fill in some holes, find a quarterback either on the roster or in the transfer portal who can run an Air Raid style, and get a little lucky in some places, WKU could be right back there next year. After the 5-7 COVID season of 2020, WKU seemed in a pretty bleak place and headed in the wrong direction. However, a few key pieces and some time to jell mixed with good roster management and WKU nearly got back to its elite program level status of 2015-16.

Topper fans may be in a panic after seeing so many declare for the draft or enter the portal, but Tyson Helton proved he can manage the portal and find ways to fill out a roster, and this next season, he should have less major holes to fill than ever before. The light of the future burns bright in Bowling Green, and with a community ravaged by multiple tornados recently, maybe that was the catalyst needed to finally bring BG and western Kentucky together to unite behind the Hilltoppers.