When Marquase Lovings became Austin Peay's interim head football coach in July, he didn't have to go far to find the man who would take his old spot as associate head coach.

A short elevator ride down to the Fortera Stadium lobby, down the hall toward Marion Street and left into the weight room. That's where Chris Campbell keeps his office as Director of Sport Performance and where Lovings knew he could turn for a right-hand man.

Campbell's ascent is unique; among active listed associate or assistant head coaches in FCS, only Campbell can lay claim to Director of Sport Performance as his primary duty in addition to being the head coach's consigliere. His twin roles help the sport performance role take on grander significance in the overall construction of the program, while giving Lovings a more direct line to understanding exactly how his guys are receiving instruction that will affect their physical health, overall performance, stamina and resistance to injury.

For Campbell, it's an honor and a privilege to reach such lofty heights, particularly this early in his coaching career—less than a decade ago, he was a student assistant at Iowa State. Now he is, in some ways, a revolutionary figure in his field, holding two of the most pivotal roles in the power structure of a football program.

But that won't change Campbell; being who he is, consistently, is what helped him get to this point and he won't abandon those principles now.

"I'd heard of it, but I never thought it would happen to me now," Campbell said. "I take a lot of pride in that just because that shows that he has a lot of respect for me, and I think that it's an honor. It is an honor to be able to be an associate head coach as a strength coach.

"But I'm still going to be doing a very similar job. I added a few more things on my plate, but it's things that will help me in my career to be able to understand the whole layout of the actual football team rather than just position or just running stuff like that. It's going to allow me to see the entire layout of an entire program and that is only just going to help me later on in my career."

For Lovings, the choice was easy.

"I trust him," he said. "I've known him for a long time, I know what he's about and how hands-on he is with our young men. They believe in him and I believe in him."

It's not difficult to discern what Lovings saw in Campbell. Meticulously detail-oriented and knowledgeable, Campbell dispels the notion of the thick-necked, muscular weight coach often associated with college football. He advocates strength, certainly, as football is a sport often defined by being stronger than the guy lined up across from you. But from structural integrity—he identified the post-chain muscles (hamstrings, glutes, lats, etc.) as a big focus off the bat when he came to Austin Peay—to conditioning, Campbell's all-encompassing methods have paid huge dividends since he came to Clarksville.

With the addition of associate head coach to his title, Campbell has added responsibility and increased visibility within the program. But given how much respect he had already earned based on his work since joining the staff, don't expect that to change how the man works.

"I think everyone looks at me the exact same," he said. "I don't act different. I try to be the exact same person every single day. I think that consistency is huge within coaching right now. I think it's just an easy thing to be consistent, and one of the biggest things for players to see in their coaches."

In These Uncertain Times, Campbell has had to get creative with how he trains his guys. The summer session mostly didn't exist. With another season on deck during the spring, Campbell and the Govs won't get the extended winter weight sessions they otherwise would've enjoyed in the dead of winter, nor the typical education-and-install sessions of spring ball. They'll likely shoehorn that into the period between the end of the fall session and throughout the winter before whatever the conference slate looks like next year.

But that's for later. And no question, Campbell has a plan to bring the best out of the Govs. With Lovings' blessing and the buy-in of the players, the spring version of Austin Peay football could be very impressive.

"Sport performance has become such a bigger focus and a more vital part of the everyday program," Campbell said. "The thing that I've been extremely blessed with and lucky with is every single head football coach that I've been in contact with or been under, they've always had a respect for strength, conditioning and sports performance, so I haven't ever had to be around someone who doesn't really agree with the things we do. They always agree, and they always think that the athletes need to continue to be to get stronger and get faster."