Game Notes: UT Martin 38, Austin Peay 14
The loss drops Austin Peay to 25-35-2 all-time against UT Martin. The Govs have lost the last five games in the series.
Junior Darryl Clack caught both Governor touchdown passes on the evening, doubling his career total. He's the first Gov with multiple touchdown receptions in one game since Devin Stark caught two touchdown passes against Southeast Missouri, Oct. 27, 2012.
Juniors Johnathan Shuler and Montez Carlton each had their first interceptions of the season.
Senior running back Tim Phillips left the game with a triceps injury after the first drive and did not return to the game.
Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Tyler Miles made his first start this season.
Austin Peay's 14 point-evening was the Govs highest-scoring output this season, and with two touchdowns they also equaled the amount of touchdowns they had scored in the previous seven games combined.
Junior wide receiver Javier Booker had a season-high 26-yard reception and later took off on a reverse that netted 24 yards.
Sophomore running back Omar Williams finished the contest with a career-high 122 yards on 25 attempts, making it his second 100-yard rushing effort this season.
As a group, the Govs gained a season-high 218 yards on 37 carries against the Skyhawks, a 5.9 yards-per-carry clip.
Junior Jamaar Embry caught six passes for 46 yards, both season-highs.
Junior linebacker Steven Rich made his first fumble recovery of the season.
This was the Governors first Sergeant York Trophy game this season, making the Govs 0-1 in the 2013 series.
With his eight punts in the contest, junior punter Ben Campbell now has 61 punts on the season. With four games left, Campbell is just 21 punts behind Grad Wright's single-season record of 82, set during the 1990 season.
Freshman quarterback Timarious Mitchell became the Govs third different starting QB in the last three games. He also had a career-high 12 completions on 26 attempts, tossing no interceptions and two touchdowns.
Head Coach Kirby Cannon Quotes
On Timarious Mitchell
Not bad I thought he stood in the pocket very well a few times and thought he made a bad decision on the 4th and 4. You know that ball has got to come out of your hands. You really have to attack the endzone on that one and cut it to 35-21 but that's a coachable error. He played well and I thought he made some better decisions that he had been making. He had the one balloon ball up the middle that he heard about but I thought he did a nice job.
On catchable balls
He had a couple that were really close and then there was what I thought was an obvious interference call on that same drive that forced us to go for it on 4th and 4, but again, I think he played well. I think he did some things better in today's game that we'll get in practice and I think that's a good sign.
On losing Tim Phillips and having Omar Williams step up
Omar ran really well. I thought he was more decisive on a lot of his runs. He is not the pass threat that Tim is and maybe doesn't have the flat out speed. You know the one run he broke Tim will score on that one but Tim's injury we'll just have to see. It's a torn triceps muscle and that can balloon up and give him no flexibility in his arm or it could just be.. You know he's one of those guys that has lots of muscles so it may just be one of those things where there's some torn muscles in there and it may swell and be sore as can be but we hope he can come back. If it's truly torn, he'll be done for the season.
On the defense stepping up
Yeah early it was one of those “where's the ball going routine” and we didn't define the ball as well as we'd like off the edge. The ball is coming back and it bounces back out and people and find it. You know you can't find the ball carrier you can't take a good angle you have to readjust and if you're not faster than everybody it becomes tough. After a while we started fast spinning a lot of their run plays and I thought the kids were very physical on a lot of their tackles. Out on the edge not as well but I thought our pressure game towards the end was a lot better too. We had become hesitant to run a lot of blitzes because of bum corners and just concerned about giving up the big play. We got after them pretty good tonight. I think they were real happy with blitzing late and that's just going to be us we're going to play all the wait through. I think he used that excuse a couple years ago about throwing balls late.
On turnovers and getting a short field
We called the cannon ball on the end. We were trying to hit one of those up guys and get a deflection back to us. I didn't really think it would be a 45 yard onside kick but that's how it turned out. We wanted to put that ball on the ground and see if we couldn't get a bounce to go our way and we did which was real late in the play. We asked him to hit it as hard as he could right at somebody and get that turnover. We want to be that type of team that uses that to gain momentum and confidence then go down there and do that. So that was good cause we haven't seen much of that all season.
On intensity and excitement
You Know when it's going good it's good. The crowd is always good and the band is always outstanding. There were some moments over there that felt real good about the future. It's really fun when the kids are playing like that and enjoying it. We have 23 seniors and the clock is ticking on those guys. I want to salvage something from this season and see if we can't just go out and win a ball game. I don't just want to get a few pats for playing hard for sixty minutes that should be given in a real good program. That should put us in a situation to win one.
