Now that the pushing rules have been lifted it's entirely possible for a player to grow that fast and have troops. I'm not even sure how someone would grow that fast anyways w/o having troops, if you're not farming, you're not growing fast.
Oh.. I just realized.. I wasn't even pushed and I have lots of troops, and started feb 15th and I think I had more villas than 23 when this was posted.. so it's entirely possible. I didn't even have a coplayer or sitter for a week or several.