Untested. Unproven. Unknown. By and large, these were the descriptors attached to the Austin Peay defensive line heading into 2019.

There were a few commodities the casual fan would know. Matthew Gayle had enjoyed a few starts. Shaun Whittinghill has been here so long he's practically been granted tenure. Kwame Sutton had cracked the rotation in 2018. They'd seen some snaps, gotten their feet wet over the years. But Mason Harwell? Josephus Smith? John Wesley Whiteside? Little was known, less expected. If Austin Peay was going to enjoy success on defense, it would be thanks to a veteran secondary or a linebacker corps led by stalwart Pat Walker, at least early on. That line was going to have to grow up fast, and that often involves growing pains.

Or, well… not. Because if the first three games are much of an indicator, the front four—from the starters on down—is as deep and talented as any unit Austin Peay has ever had.

After three weeks, the Govs have allowed 128 yards—total—on the ground. On 90 carries, that's 1.4 yards per rush, and 42.7 yards per game. That's second in FCS to Davidson—whose first three opponents were the not-exactly-formidable trio of Georgetown, Virginia-Lynchburg and West Virginia Wesleyan.

It was easy to pooh-pooh the notion that these Govs could be this good through the first couple of weeks. Once North Carolina Central got down double-digits in the opener, the Eagles essentially abandoned the run game in a 41-10 drubbing, while Central Arkansas—despite its national ranking and seeming ability to be good at most things—currently ranks 116^th of 116 teams in FCS in rushing offense. So the numbers, while good, had yet to be severely tested.

Then came Mercer, which averaged nearly 200 yards on the ground in two games before the Govs got ahold of them. Mercer, with preseason All-Southern Conference tailback Tyray Devezin. Mercer, with four of its five starters on the offensive line juniors or seniors, anchored by two-time All-SoCon pick Austin Sanders.

And there went Mercer, which gained all of 43 yards on 31 carries against the Govs. Here's how good the Govs were, how impenetrable their front—in the second quarter, Mercer's Deondre Johnson gained two yards on 2^nd-and-6, which allowed him to finish with three carries for two yards.

He was Mercer's second-leading rusher. The Govs bottled up Devezin (16 carries, 47 yards, most of it coming on a relatively harmless 21-yard scamper in the third quarter with the Bears already down two scores). And with no progress being made in the run game, the Bears threw the ball, perhaps more than they would've liked and especially when down big and needing to make things happen. Kordell Jackson can tell you how that turned out.

"The standard for what we do around here is really high," said assistant head coach and defensive line coach Marquase Lovings. "That starts with Coach Hud and trickles down. We hold our kids to a really high standard. Our kids have handled everything well and responded to every challenge, and we still have so much room to improve."

It's no one person doing all the heavy lifting up front. Harwell got a lot of push in the first two games, but he was out of action against Mercer and the Govs didn't miss a beat. Gayle is killing it off the edge and has all season. Whiteside had nine tackles and 3.0 TFL as a one-man wrecking crew against the Bears, and without his usual partner-in-crime Harwell there to attract attention. Smith has lived in opposing backfields, Whittinghill opportunistic in his time and Jequaries Martin commanding attention at all times.

And yes, there's likely some regression due. That's not down to the Govs getting worse or the caliber of opponent getting better—it's because the average man (call it somewhere between 5-10 and 6-0, I'm not here to debate your idea of average male height) could run to the line of scrimmage and just fall forward and average more than 1.4 yards per attempt. By holding their opponents to the ridiculous numbers they are down to, the Governor run defense is, in essence, defying the very laws of physics. That'll be tough to pull off for—at least?—nine more games.

What won't be tough to replicate is the effort, intensity and drive the Governor front four puts forth with each snap. Lovings won't allow that, and he doesn't expect to have to do much policing in that department.

"They control their attitude and their effort, and that's something that can remain at a high level no matter what's happening around them," Lovings said. "We want to be physical and run to the ball. We're trying to build that brand here, and we're starting to establish things we want to get done. These kids are taking ownership of that, of what they want to be. Everybody has bought in."