Note: This article originally appeared on LetsGoPeay.com in Fall 2016 as Josh Eargle was in the midst of his first season as a coach on Will Healy's staff at Austin Peay. His daughter, Landrey, has since been identified as the first person in the United States to be diagnosed with the condition of a rare gene mutation of the CSNK2B gene. She battles myoclonic epilepsy, intellectual disability, a congenital heart defect, and immunodeficiency. To read more about Landrey and her battle, click here; to donate to a GoFundMe set up for Landrey's medical expenses and other needs, click here.

Sometimes in life everything just happens at once. 

When Joshua Eargle was pounding the pavement on behalf of Austin Peay State University football team during a hectic recruiting season, he was juggling a lot. He had a new job in a new city with an all-new staff, spending day after day in new towns across Tennessee trying to find the next Governors crop. He, along with the rest of Will Healy's coaching staff, was charged with reviving a program in need of rejuvenation—which turned out to be a success, considering the top-five class hauled in on National Signing Day.

But doing all that, with his heart and mind constantly back in east Texas with his family during a crisis, requires a tremendous amount of faith. Fortunately for Eargle faith is one thing he has in abundance.

"I think we've all got a set of core values, whether we think about them each day or whether they're just kind of subconsciously there," Eargle said. "Your core values are reflective of the decisions you make, and for me it's my faith and relying on the knowledge that God's got a plan for my life and my family. At a time like that, nothing takes more precedence than your faith, with your family right behind it."

"A time like that" references a frightening situation for Eargle's youngest daughter Landrey. Now four years old, Landrey already has faced a hard road; a heart birth caused her to undergo open-heart surgery at a very early age and a difficult first seven months of life saw her ward off death multiple times and endure a procedure to patch a hole in her heart.

This past January, as the Govs were getting ready to host official visits, Eargle received a phone call no parent wants to receive.

"It was an exciting time and a stressful time for us as a staff," Eargle remembered. "Right when the big snow storm was about to hit in Clarksville, my wife gave me a call telling me that Landrey was sick and had to be admitted to the hospital again. She had gotten some real bad pneumonia down in her lungs and it had gotten pretty serious. There was a question around the first official visit weekend for us about whether or not I needed to go home and see Landrey, possibly for the last time."

From hundreds of miles away, Eargle could only pray and rely on God to help pull his daughter through another tribulation in a short life already full of them. It helps to have someone to lean on at home, though, and heaven knows where Eargle would be without the support of his wife.

"Kristen is the backbone of our family," Eargle said. "She's a phenomenal woman and definitely my better half. She's someone that's been a big blessing to me and I'm so thankful God's allowed us to travel this journey together. She's a strong woman, and through everything with our second little girl, she has become such a strong individual. She was handling everything at home, and I was trying to support from far away, but it was all her."

Although it wasn't easy, Landrey's health road took a turn for the better. Her recovery is one of many blessings the Eargle family has enjoyed recently. In addition to a healthy and happy Landrey, the Eargle's welcomed Stallings, their first son, in June and saw oldest daughter, Kourtney, begin kindergarten in August.

It's hardly a surprise to learn that Landrey is a fighter since her daddy made his name in overcoming adversity. During his playing days at Memphis, he was accorded the first 'Top Tiger' award from longtime head coach Tommy West, overcoming a devastating knee injury to play

his final season. He's risen to the occasion at every coaching stop along the way, from assistant stints at FBS heavyweights like LSU and Southern Miss to building a powerhouse of his own at East Texas Baptist, his most recent coaching stop.

Having led a turnaround at ETBU that saw the Tigers go from a three-win team in Eargle's first season to sharing the 2015 conference title, Eargle could have continued building a dynasty in Marshall, Texas. His family is from Texas—he could've pumped out championships for years right in his own backyard. 

But the allure of Austin Peay was too strong.

Simply put, once Eargle got to Clarksville, he knew he had to be involved in what was happening at Austin Peay.

"I don't think there's ever been a better time in the history of Austin Peay State University," Eargle said. "You look at all the improvements in the last five years; you've got somewhere over $130 million in renovations, with a large part of that in Fortera Stadium. You see Dr. White come in (as University president), you see Ryan Ivey come in as an Athletic Director and the ball's just rolling faster and faster.

"Everything's just lining up for our athletic programs to succeed, for our academic programs to be first-class, so when you recruit a student-athlete, they want to come here and study at Austin Peay and they want to come here and play and be treated like a Division I athlete. It's an exciting time."