GOVS-COLONELS POSTGAME NOTES

Notes following Austin Peay's nonconference contest against Eastern Kentucky, Saturday, at Roy Kidd Stadium.

FROM THE TOP

• A 28-yard run at the end of the first quarter put Ahmaad Tanner over 2,000 career rushing yards, he is the ninth Governor all-time to top the 2,000-yard mark on the ground and moves into seventh all-time with 2,085 career rushing yards.
• Austin Peay's four-game winning streak against FCS opponents came to an end, the Governors had not lost to an FCS foe since they fell to UT Martin on March 21, 2021.

CAPTAINS/COIN TOSS

• Captains Bucky Williams, Jack McDonald, Kordell Jackson, and Ahmaad Tanner took the coin toss for Austin Peay.
• Eastern Kentucky won and deferred, Austin Peay elected to receive the opening kickoff. The Govs are 2-2 when losing the toss this season.
• Weather in Richmond at kickoff: 64, Overcast, Winds west at 10 mph.

SERIES UPDATE                                           

• Austin Peay falls to 6-47 all-time against Eastern Kentucky.
• The Govs are now 3-25 all-time against EKU in Richmond, Kentucky.
• The Governors and Colonels continued a back-and-forth trend, with each team winning twice in the last four meetings, but neither side able to pick up back-to-back wins.

THOSE ARE THE BREAKS

• Austin Peay is 4-2 under head coach Scotty Walden and 2-1 this season when leading at halftime.
• The Govs are 1-2 under Walden and 0-2 this season when trailing at the end of the third quarter.

OFFENSIVE SPARKS

• Tanner ran for the 20th and 21st touchdowns of his career, he is the sixth Governor to rush for 20 touchdowns in a career and passed JaVaughn Craig for sole possession of sixth all-time – he is two touchdowns away from tying Terrence Holt (23 TDs) for fifth all-time.
• Tanner recorded his longest rush of the season on a 34-yard burst on the first drive of the second half.
• Baniko Harley caught a touchdown for the fourth-straight game to start the 2021 season, that is the longest streak of games with a touchdown in his career, besting a three-game streak from the 2019 season.
• Harley matched his season-high with six catches in the first half alone, he finished the game with a career-high 9 grabs for a career-high tying 136 yards.
• Draylen Ellis attempted a career-high 55 pass attempts.
• The Govs ran 91 offensive pays, the most since running 90 plays in 34-28 lose at Virginia-Wise on November 6, 1999.

DEFENSIVE STANDS                                        

• Jack McDonald racked up a season-high seven tackles in the first half alone, he finished the game with 10 tackles and 2 tackles for loss.
• McDonald is the third Governor to record double-digit tackles in a game this season.
• Hunter Scholato made a career-high four tackles in just the first half, he finished the game with 6 stops and a half tackle for loss.
• Terrell Allen recorded his first sack of the season in a four-tackle performance.

SPECIAL TEAMS SPRINTS

• Maddux Trujillo connected on field goals of 36 and 29 yards, he has made five of the first six field goal attempts in his Austin Peay career and has made two kicks of 35-or-more yards.
• Antoine Williams forced and recovered the first fumble of his career of an Eastern Kentucky punt, setting the Govs up at midfield early in the contest.
• Harley returned a punt 30 yards in fourth quarter, that is the longest punt return of his Austin Peay career.

GOVS-COLONELS POSTGAME QUOTES

Austin Peay head coach Scotty Walden

Opening Statement… "This loss is on me. I take 100 percent ownership of it. Our word of the week was ownership. I didn't put our players in the right position to make plays and didn't have them prepared on the road and that is totally on me… I think we're taking great strides as a program and I felt like we didn't put our best foot forward today and that's ultimately on me. We had way too many mistakes."

On the EKU defense "Eastern Kentucky played really physical upfront. For us to rush for 102 yards on 36 carries is unacceptable. Anytime we've got an unbalanced approach where we have 55 pass attempts and 36 rush attempts, we are out of whack. That is not how our offense operates. We struggled to find a rhythm. We could never get the run game going and it left everything hindered."

On the Govs defense… "Our defense played really well today. They only gave up 268 yards and we ran 91 plays compared to the Colonels 54. Defensively, what I want to see from us is responding to adversity, I want us to have that mindset on defense. I know we do, but we just have to execute on it. If we have a short field, let's bow our neck. Just because they got an interception, doesn't mean we have to give up a touchdown. It's unacceptable offensively to put our defense in those types of spots that we did tonight."