GOVS-VOLUNTEERS POSTGAME NOTES

Notes following Austin Peay's 30-13 loss to No. 9 Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

FROM THE TOP

• A sellout crowd of 101,915 was on hand to watch the Governors take on the No. 9 Volunteers in their home opener. 
• Austin Peay scored on a 45-yard Maddux Trujillo field goal on its first drive of the game, it was the first time in six games against FBS opponents the Govs scored on their first possession. The last time the Governors scored on their first possession against an FBS program was a seven-yard Ahmaad Tanner rushing touchdown against Central Florida on Oct. 28, 2017. 
• Prior to today, Tennessee had only been held without a touchdown in the first quarter twice since Josh Heupel took over as the head coach. Austin Peay joins Florida and Geogria – both during the 2022 season – as the third team to keep the Volunteers out of the end zone in the first quarter in the last three seasons.

CAPTAINS/COIN TOSS

• Captains Mike DiLiello, CJ Evans Jr., Sam Howard, and Jau'Von Young took the coin toss for the Governors. Jalen Armstrong, Kory Chapman, and Kam Thomas served as alternate captains. Jeremiah Collins served as Austin Peay's honorary team captain. 
• Tennessee won the opening coin toss and deferred until the second half. Austin Peay elected to receive the opening kickoff. 
• Austin Peay is 0-2 at the opening coin toss this season. 
• The Govs are 0-2 when they lose the opening coin toss this season. 
• Weather in Knoxville at kickoff: 80, mostly cloudy, winds from the north at 5 mph.
• The start of the game was delayed by 30 minutes due to lightning in the Knoxville area.  

SERIES UPDATE                                           

• Austin Peay falls to 0-2 in the all-time series against Tennessee with the Volutneers winning the first meeting in 2013 as well.

THOSE ARE THE BREAKS

• Austin Peay fell to 0-2 this season and 2-7 under Scotty Walden when trailing at halftime.
• The Governors also dropped to 0-2 this season and 2-8 under Walden when trailing at the end of the third quarter.

OFFENSIVE SPARKS

• Quarterback Mike DiLiello completed a career-high 29 passes, the best mark by a Governor since he completed 29 at Central Arkansas (10/1/22).
• DiLiello's 260 passing yards are his best single-game total since he threw for 326 yards at North Alabama (11/5/22).
• DiLiello also led the Govs with 36 rushing yards, including a game-long 45 yard carry on fourth down in the first quarter. 
• Tre Shackelford led the Govs a career-high seven catches, he also added a career-high 58 receiving yards. 
• Trey Goodman led the Governors with 70 receiving yards, including a game-long 52-yard reception that went for his first score of the year. 
• MJ Singleton also had a career-best five catches for 30 yards. 
• Jaden Barnes made his first collegiate reception and finished the night with three catches for 28 yards.
• Chandler Kirton made his first career start at center for the Governors with Jalen Armstrong shited from center to left tackle for the first time as a Gov. Brady Odom also made his first start at right guard for Austin Peay.
• With Brady Odom's first start for APSU, it marked only the third start by an APSU offensive lineman not named Armstrong, Kirton, Harrison Wilkes, Brennan Smith, or Isaiah Wright.

DEFENSIVE STANDS                   

• Austin Peay held Tennessee to 30 points, the fewest a ranked-FBS opponent has scored against APSU in program history.
• The 30 points also were the fewest points scored against the Govs by an FBS foe since they held Cincinnati to 26 points in 2017. 
• The Governors have now held back-to-back Southeastern Conference opponents to fewer than 35 points after previously holding Alabama to 34 points in the 2022 season finale. 
• Sam Howard's 13 tackles were a career-high, topping his 10-tackle performance at Southern Illinois in Week 1.
• Howard now has double-digit tackles in back-to-back games. He is the first Governor with back-to-back double-digit tackle games since Shamari Simmons in the final two games of the 2022 season. 
• Howard also recovered a fumble and added 1.5 tackles for loss. 
• Jaheim Ward also picked up a career-best 10 tackles.
• J'Vian McCray recorded his first-career sack. 
• Kory Chapman had seven tackles and a pair of pass breakups. 
• Cedarius Doss recorded six tackles, one pass breakup, and a forced fumble.
• Tyler Long and Travis Bates each had a half tackle for loss.

SPECIAL TEAMS SYNOPSIS

• Maddux Trujillo connected on field goals of 45 and 34 yards, he improved to 3-for-3 this season.
• Riley Stephens punted four times for 161 yards, a 40.2-yard average, and a career-long 47-yard punt.
• Stephens also added a tackle for the Governors punt coverage. 
• Stephens is averaging 40.2 yards on 10 attempts this season.  

GOVS-VOLUNTEERS POSTGAME QUOTES

Austin Peay head coach Scotty Walden

Opening Statement… "Obviously we lost the game, but I think it is very evident that we played a different football game this week. We got back to playing Austin Peay Governor football, no doubt about it. We played physical. We played fearless. I'm just so proud of this team because we had some hard conversations this week. This was not an easy week for our program. It wasn't. As I said last week, the way we played against SIU was not to our standard. It's not the culture we want to depict. I'm just so dang proud of our football team. They came out with grit. We had great leadership, player leadership. Like I said, we had hard conversations as a staff. We had hard conversations from a player standpoint and they responded. I just got done praising them because they could've had a miniscule mindset with those coachable moments. If you have ever been a student-athlete before, it is hard. It is very hard to sit and watch that film and get critiqued and get coached in front of your teammates in there when it's not good. They took coaching. We made too many mistakes to beat a really good team. They're a top-10 team in America. They are a College Football Playoff team, no doubt about it. They have as good of personnel as anyone in the country. I thought we did a lot of things schematically to give ourselves a chance. Kudos to our players, they fought their hearts out. That's Austin Peay  Governor football. That execution, that effort, now we just have to put it all together. We are going to get there. I really believe that. I am really proud of our coaching staff, proud of our team and I'm proud of Gov Nation for how they traveled and supported us."

On expecting the unexpected… "I think we frustrated them in a lot of ways. We want to be that FCS team that no Power 5 school wants to play. I know my AD doesn't want to hear that, he probably likes those checks. We want teams to think twice before they schedule the Governors because they won't get a team that is going to lay down. They are going to get a team that's going to fight. It's going to be uncommon, it's going to be cutting-edge. We did a lot of things to disrupt their tempo and disrupt their rhythm. Again, I'm just so proud of the kids. They bought into the game plan. I'll tell you one thing, I thought we did a great job as a coaching staff communicating the game plan because it was uncommon. Using unbalanced formations, mixing up our pressures on defense, and different ways to stop their tempo when they got going on offense. They were unconventional. When you're playing a team like that you have to be unconventional in a bunch of ways. I thought we came out and surprised them. It's an art of war. You have to be where the enemy doesn't expect you when you're playing a really good opponent. I thought we did a great job at keeping them off-balance."

Austin Peay quarterback Mike DiLiello 

On the atmosphere and the Govs performance… "You play the music loud at practice, but you can never prepare for this. I'm proud of this football team. We executed our game plan almost to perfection, credit to our offensive line. We made a statement today to the FCS nation of what we can do. We come in with a mentality, we play a faceless opponent every week, just 102,000 people showed up."

Austin Peay linebacker Sam Howard 

On the Govs' defense… "Defensively we lost a lot of leverage and missed a lot of tackles last week. We wanted to come out and play our brand on the field. It wasn't a perfect game, but I feel like we took steps forward today. Tennessee is coached very well, and their tempo is really fast. Our guys just made plays and we were ready to show we were better than what we put on the field last week."