Western Kentucky Football: Can offense catch up with the defense?

If the offense improves enough to go along with a good defense then Western Kentucky could be in for a special season in 2021.

Tyson Helton has had a good run at Western Kentucky only two years into his time there, but there has been one glaring issue that has not been solved yet: the offense. The Hilltoppers have had back-to-back top forty defenses under Helton, but offensive ineptitude has kept them from going any further.

Now, Helton went out and got a new offensive coordinator and a new transfer quarterback to help ignite Western Kentucky football. If these new changes can be beneficial for the team, Western Kentucky football can bounce back from a 5-7 season and be back contending in the C-USA.

The theme for Western Kentucky this offseason changes. From new members on the coaching staff to transfers, there are going to be a lot of new faces in Bowling Green this fall. After not having gained the traction needed on offense, Tyson Helton went out and got Zach Kittley, who has been the offensive coordinator for Houston Baptist and coached Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech, and Kittley is an exciting hire for the program.

Kittley is not the only offseason addition from Houston Baptist that is coming to Western Kentucky. Transfer quarterback Bailey Zappe is coming in to start for the Hilltoppers and he was a prolific quarterback for Houston Baptist.

WKU has had a tough time finding consistent quarterback play and they are hoping that Zappe is the answer.

As for the defense, coordinator Clayton White left for a job at South Carolina, and now co-defensive coordinator Maurice Crum is going to step into the full-time role. White had done a fantastic job with the defense the past two seasons, so Crum has some big shoes to fill.

Western Kentucky is a program that is used to winning and they are hoping to get back to it in 2021.