As players gathered around the Governor logo at midfield after the spring game, there was some apprehension on Gunnar Scholato's part.

That apprehension turned to confusion when his name was called.

"Everyone was nervous, because usually when we circled around the Gov head after practice, that meant we were going to do up-downs," Scholato said. "When Coach (Will) Healy called me into the middle, I thought, 'What did I do to make us do up-downs?'"

Turns out, all Scholato did was impress his coaches and teammates with his work ethic, tenacity and willingness to sacrifice for the team.

Impressed them enough to earn a scholarship, at least.

When Healy announced Scholato would be placed on scholarship for the upcoming season after walking on last fall, his teammates erupted and mobbed the sophomore from Hendersonville, who disappeared, smiling, under a sea of hugs from his teammates.

"When I stepped forward, he started naming off traits and qualities of our football players," said Scholato. "I was thinking, 'I didn't do anything against those principles.' Then he said (I was getting a scholarship) and that was really awesome."

Healy called it simply, "the coolest moment I've had in coaching."

With his parents on hand to witness the event, Scholato saw his hard work since arriving at Austin Peay last summer pay off.

"It was a bit of struggle (not being on scholarship)," he said. "You're doing the same things as everyone else, in some cases you're doing more, and it's just aggravating. You keep pushing and keep trying and believing that good things will come if you work hard.

"You have to love the game. You have to love it a lot, because you're doing it for free. You've got classes, practice, weights, homework and you try to have a social life in between all that. It's hard. It's really easy to quit, but I've never quit on anything."

It's a nice story for Scholato and a feel-good story for a program under a first-year coach who seeks to establish an identity and engage a fan base that needs some good moments after a rough last few seasons. But Scholato's contribution is not going to end at being a fun footnote to Healy's first spring.

After the departure of three-year starter Adam Noble and some positional maneuvering during the spring, Scholato emerged as one of the leaders to snag a starting spot heading into fall camp. Although nothing is set in stone yet—Healy brought in five linebackers as part of February's recruiting class—Scholato stands to see a significant increase in playing time in his second season as a Governor.

"I worked with the first unit all spring and the coaches told me they were really impressed with me and they had a lot of nice things about me (in my year-end evaluation)," Scholato said. "I hope I'm a big part of the defense next year; I plan to be."

Scholato's scholarship was just one of Austin Peay's best YouTube moments last year. Here are some others:

Jessica Cathey's big win

Austin Peay's senior stand-out ran away from the field with a six-shot win at the 2015 F&M Bank APSU Intercollegiate, becoming the first Governor to win the event since Staci Lynch in 2006 and leading Austin Peay to its first team victory in its home event since 2002.

Horton's Big Dunk

In a season and career full of top moments, Chris Horton's monster jam at Lipscomb was both a harbinger of things to come and an exclamation point on what, to that point, was the best game of Horton's career. The Decatur native poured in 37 points on 16-of-17 shooting in the Dec. 20 contest—the best shooting night from the floor in the last five seasons—to go with 13 boards in APSU's 92-84 win.

The Governors Address

Jared Carkuff and Aubrey Marsellis brought life and personality to this new feature for LetsGoPeay.com each week, but their last installment was no doubt the best of the lot.

Austin Peay State University – 2016 OVC Champions

We'll just leave this right here.