GOVS-TRAILBLAZERS POSTGAME NOTES

Notes following No. 14 Austin Peay's 30-17 United Athletic Conference win over Utah Tech on Military Appreciation Day at Fortera Stadium in Clarksville, Tennessee.

FROM THE TOP

• Austin Peay is the first team to clinch a share of the inaugural United Athletic Conference championship.
• Austin Peay won its program-record eighth straight game, eclipsing the seven-straight wins by the 2019 team.
• The Governors have won conference championships in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.
• With three conference titles in the past five seasons, Jau'Von Young and Bryce Robinson are the first Austin Peay student-athletes to win three football championships in their career.
• Maddux Trujillo was 3-for-3 on field goal attempts and finished the day with 38 career made field goals, breaking the previous APSU career field goals record of 35, which was held by Stephen Stansell (2009-12).
• Jevon Jackson rushed for 192 yards and eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for the 2023 season. With 1,119 yards this season, Jackson is the 10th 1,000-yard rusher in program history and the first since Ryan White rushed for 1,100 yards in 2011.

NAME THE CONFERENCE

• In the past five seasons, the Governors have won conference championships in the Ohio Valley Conference (2019), Atlantic Sun Conference (2022), and United Athletic Conference.

CAPTAINS/COIN TOSS

• Captains Mike DiLiello, Jordan Goco, Ethan Myers, and KT Owens took the coin toss for the Governors. Jalen Armstrong, Travis Bates, Sam Howard, Kam Thomas, and Jau'Von Young served as alternate captains. Jeremiah Collins served as Austin Peay's honorary team captain.
• Austin Peay lost the coin toss and fell to 2-8 at the opening coin toss this season.
• Utah Tech deferred its option until the second half and Austin Peay elected to receive the opening kickoff.
• The Govs are 6-2 this season and 13-10 under Scotty Walden when they loss the opening coin toss.
• Weather in Clarksville at kickoff: 63 degrees, clear skies, winds northeast at 9 mph.

SERIES UPDATE            

• Austin Peay won its first-ever meeting with Utah Tech, improving to 1-0 in the all-time series.
• The Governors improved to 2-0 all-time against the State of Utah.

WALDEN; OR, LIFE AT AUSTIN PEAY          

• Scotty Walden improved to 25-13 as the head coach at Austin Peay.
• Walden has the fourth most wins by a head coach in program history and is just five wins away from becoming the fourth APSU coach to win 30 games.
• Walden is also eight wins away from matching Emory Hale for the third most wins by a head coach in program history.

DEFEND THE FORT          

• Austin Peay improves to 4-0 at Fortera Stadium this season.
• The Govs have won 10-straight games against FCS opponents at Fortera Stadium.

NOVEMBER AIR

• Scotty Walden improves to 7-1 overall and 7-0 against FCS opponents in the month of November at Austin Peay. 
• The Governors have won 13-straight FCS games in November – with six wins on the road – and last dropped a game in the month when they fell to Eastern Illinois in 2018.

THOSE ARE THE BREAKS

• Austin Peay improved to 6-0 this season and 19-3 under Scotty Walden when leading at halftime.
• The Govs improved to 6-0 this season and 20-3 under Walden when leading after three quarters.

OFFENSIVE SPARKS

• Austin Peay rushed for 215 yards as a team, its third 200-yard rushing performance of the season.
• Jevon Jackson has rushed for 100-plus yards in six of the last seven contests and has 1,027 yards in just those seven games.
• With 1,119 yards this season, Jackson has the fourth-best single-season rushing total in APSU history, he is just 224 yards behind Chris Fletcher (2007) for the third-best season in program history.   
• Mike DiLiello threw two touchdown passes to improve his season total to 27, which is just one shy of JaVaughn Craig's (2019) single-season record of 28.
• DiLiello also tied Brian Baker's career passing touchdown record of 48 in just his 21st game as a Governor.
• DiLiello passed for 279 yards and now has 2,868 yards this season, which is the second-best season in APSU history. He is just 340 yards behind Craig (2019) for the APSU season record.
• With 5,315 passing yards in his Austin Peay career, DiLiello is just 38 yards behind Jesse Kellogg for the second-most passing yards in APSU history and is 272 yards behind Baker for the program record.
• With two touchdown passes, DiLiello is now responsible for 61 touchdowns in his Austin Peay career. He is the first player in program history to be responsible for 60-plus touchdowns in their career.
• Tre Shackelford had six receptions for 125 yards and a touchdown, it was his third 100-yard performance of the season. He finished the day with 732 receiving yards and five touchdowns for the season.
• Trey Goodman also caught his team-leading seventh touchdown and has a touchdown grab in three of his last four games.
• Kam Thomas had a four-yard rushing touchdown for his first-ever score on the ground.

DEFENSIVE STANDS      

• Austin Peay held Utah Tech to just 67 rushing yards, marking the third-straight game that the Govs have held their opponent to less than 100 yards on the ground. 
• The Govs recorded their first turnover gained since a two-interception day against Gardner-Webb, Oct. 14, with Tyler Long's second-career interception and first as a Governor.
• Long also led Austin Peay with nine tackles to go along with a pair of pass breakups and the interception.
• Kory Chapman recorded eight tackles and a pass breakup.
• Cedarius Doss had six tackles with all six solo stops.
• Sam Howard and Xavier Smith each had five tackles with Howard recording two PBUs and Smith recording one.
• Travis Bates and Darius Richmond shared a sack, it was Richmond's first sack as a Governor.

SPECIAL TEAMS SYNOPSIS

• Trujillo improved to 13-for-14 on field goals this season and is now just one field goal shy of the APSU single-season record, which is held by himself (2021) and Tom McMillan (1987).
• Trujillo went 3-for-3 on PATs and his 123 career PATs made are 36 behind Logan Birchfield's APSU record.
• With 12 points scored against Utah Tech, Trujillo has scored 237 points in his APSU career, eclipsing Logan Birchfield (234) for the second-most in APSU history. Trujillo is just 33 points behind Chris Fletcher for the most points scored in program history.
• Riley Stephens punted four times for a 43.0-yard average with two kicks downed inside the 20-yard line.
• Stephens also kicked off seven times for a 63.7-yard average and five touchbacks.  

GOVS-TRAILBLAZERS POSTGAME QUOTES

Austin Peay head coach Scotty Walden

Opening Statement… "I am just so proud of this university and our players. I remember sitting there and talking to our guys after the SIU game and feeling down in the dumps and was just really embarrassed with the way we played the game that day. For this group to come back after being down 0-2 and everything they've gone through, it's unbelievable. I don't care how we win games, how many points we put up, or how many points we give up as long as we have one more point than the other team, that's all that matters. Give Utah Tech credit, that's a good football team. I think everybody sees how good this conference is and how tough it is. These games are not easy, and you know I definitely don't think we played our cleanest game today, but great teams find a way to win. This group is so persistent, and nothing phases them. They fight like all get out. I get choked up just talking about it because they're special. You should know what goes on behind the scenes, the things they're saying, and the way they lead. Our captains lead with integrity and their leading is just unbelievable. So, to be conference champs back-to-back years, the first team in school history to do that, it's unbelievable."

On Jevon Jackson… "He's unbelievable. He's the toughest runner I've ever coached. He's such a physical back and he trains that way. I thought he had a great week of preparation at practice. He ran hard at every practice. When you're a running back at this level with as many carries he has under his belt, it's impressive to see how he takes care of his body to play at the level he does. It's the stabilization of our offense, we talk about being an explosive offense, we're a throw-it-down-the-field style of offense, but sometimes it's like in the NBA you walk into a gym and three-pointers just aren't falling, so you know you have to do something else… that's kind of the equivalent for us with the run-game. Sometimes you have to be able to use a tight end to block. You saw a lot of old-school run plays today and a lot of the counter and power runs because that's Jevon's cup of tea… giving our staff a ton of credit, they had their guys coaches well. We knew coming into this game that it was one that we had to run the ball really, really well and we did."

On the accolades achieved… "It's awesome. It really is a product of their hard work and trust in the process. Maddux Trujillo, you talk about a guy that has been lights-out the last two years. And then you talk about Jevon Jackson, Tre Shackelford, and all these guys that have been here for two to three years now that have stayed the course. They've worked so hard in the offseason and all that hard work pays off. It's really fun to watch them in the dark when no one's around or when we're doing drills in the indoor, helping with campus tours, or just helping around campus. Or even when we're working in the volleyball put at 6 a.m. doing mat drills, nobody sees that, but it's really gratifying as a head coach to see all these guys' hard work pay off to get the accolades that they deserve."

Austin Peay running back Jevon Jackson

On the turning point of the season… "I feel like the turning point was after the Tennessee game. After that loss, we really just knew what we needed to fix and that we had to try and get better each week, and that's what we've been doing. We've been progressing each week and trying to figure out how we can get better and continue to win."

Austin Peay Linebacker Tyler Long

On this program… "Everything that coach talked about when I was committing, it's all happening, literally. Every single thing that we talked about is happening right now. What initially made me commit was just their energy. They bring the energy at every practice and in every meeting. It doesn't matter what we're doing, they bring the energy and you can feel that it is genuine. There is not a single thing that they fake and they are not making it up, it's just who they are. I just felt so at home when I came here. God let me here because it really came out of nowhere, so I just want to thank God because being here, it's a blessing."