The Boca Raton Bowl 2021 will feature two of the best non-champions in the Group of Five, meeting for the first time in more than two decades.
Western Kentucky, the runner-up from Conference USA, will meet Appalachian State, the runner-up from the Sun Belt Conference.
Both of these teams, who lost by one possession to ranked teams in their respective conference championship games, are incredibly disciplined football teams.
Let’s take a look at three reasons why you should be tuning into this match-up of the Appalachian State Mountaineers (10-3) and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (8-5).
Western Kentucky QB Bailey Zappe is one of the best passers in college football
Unless you’ve been tuning in to Group of Five match-ups, you may not realize that the quarterback who has amassed the most passing yards this season is not Alabama’s Bryce Young or Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud.
The leading passer is none other than Western Kentucky’s Bailey Zappe. The senior from Victoria, Texas has recorded 5,545 passing yards and 56 passing touchdowns. He’s first in the country in total passing yards and total passing touchdowns.
Zappe had five games in which he threw five or more touchdowns. One of those games was against UT-Martin in which Zappe threw an astonishing 7 touchdowns.
Zappe was tossing bombs, even against really solid defenses like Michigan State (3 TD passes), Army (3 TD passes), UTSA (9 touchdown passes in two games).