Postgame quotes from Austin Peay head coach Kirby Cannon following Austin Peay's 20-13 Ohio Valley Conference victory against Murray State, Saturday night:

Feelings and emotions after the victory:

"You know I felt all along that we could come around and that we would have a performance somewhere along the line this year where we could show our improvement and the kids bought into the game plan on Tuesday. You know we had a lot of respect, a lot of respect for Murray's offense. We knew we were going to have to do a lot of things right, and a lot of kids did a lot of things right. I'm just happy that we have this type of environment at Austin Peay and it's just been a tremendous night."

Talking about this being a "complete team victory":

"No doubt. I thought we had good special teams play, we had turnovers in special teams. Rod Owens if he's not OVC Player of the Week then something is wrong; with two picks and a fumble recovery he just led the way. It was just a great night. I don't know how to explain it other than it took a while to get here. Not much of a better opponent to beat than Murray. You know, I've already gotten about 15 messages from John Ogles and people like that saying 'great job' and 'good luck.' You know, this game has a way of humbling you and sometimes it humbles when you win and you realize just how many people were involved in winning."

On it being a mental or physical ball game:

"I tell you what, sometimes when you get leads, it's tough to be physical because you're afraid of making mistakes and that is hurt us this year. I just think that tonight that they just understood that we were not going to have the game handed to us, we had to earn this. You know, they only turned it over a few times and so did we, but it was just a great victory for the program and everyone associated with it."

About Mickey Macius' performance:

"I know this: that the throw he made that got the first down that literally ended the game was thrown right on the money. Same thing with (wide receiver Jared) Beard, you know just an incredible route, they were just standing on the sticks. You know he's such a strong young man and just made a great catch and it took great protection. I told Josh Richards our offensive coordinator, I did not want to play soft and give them (Murray State) opportunities; that we needed to win the ball game. The mentality the whole game was to win the ball game not just not lose it. He made the call and our kids went out and just executed it."

On Macius' big game-ending pass and further performance:

"I just think that he knew where he wanted to throw it. You know he spent extra time like all the quarterbacks did this week, you know he felt like there were some things we matched up well with. We had some personnel groupings out there that were different, but he just ran the whole show. It's an incredible performance for a freshman."

On Otis Garren's performance:

"He's tough, he's got great balance, and I was glad to see him just come back. The game before, there were negative people out there who wanted to say 'he did it after the game was over,' and you know that's not true. But the game was never over tonight and he pounded up in there for 100-something yards and that's an incredible performance for a freshman."

On Jared Beard's performance:

"Well I think Beard and (Freshman wide receiver Malik) Boynton are as good as anyone in the league and their future is unlimited. They're good kids too; they're good students and they're guys that do things right. You know we've got a whole team of them."

On the Govs defensive performance:

"You know, again, they bought in on Tuesday and we put them to the coals on Tuesday and Wednesday with the hurry up and we've been susceptible to that like most teams are. We were able to get in 20-30 plays in hurry up calls. Murray State wants you to run one defense and one coverage and just walk the ball up the field, and our kids just took it on themselves and we got that done. You know, there were a couple plays where we were a little late, but they were so well schooled I think and you've got to give a lot of credit to the defensive coaches just making sure they're ready to go. We played fresh, we had kids give tremendous effort. We lost (sophomore safety) Jalen Miller midway through the second quarter, and (junior safety) Mikhail Creech who hasn't played since Memphis went out there and did a very acceptable job as a high safety. There were two seniors, (Buddy) Mitchell and (Montez) Carlton just played hard and it's great for those guys to go out with something special like this."

On having good coverage and passing game:

"Well, we mixed up a lot of looks and a lot of pressures and fake pressures. I think we faked coming on blitzes more than we actually came, but I thought in the first half we had them guessing and wondering and their feet weren't set and he's (KD Humphries) a tremendous quarterback and he's been player of the game these last two weeks in the league. I don't know what his stats were but they probably turned out to be pretty decent. You know, it still wasn't what he wanted and it's not what he's used to getting, you know, Coach Hatcher was great after the game and I know he doesn't have a great history sometimes with Austin Peay, but then again, that's what it's supposed to be with Austin Peay and Murray."