It's been a long time since Austin Peay did that.

The Govs have had their wins and their successes and become a solidly good football team over the last few seasons, winning titles but also performing consistently enough, often enough, that it has put "all of that" (as I like to think about the old, less successful days of Austin Peay football) firmly and comfortably in the rearview mirror. Winning is great; losing is also no longer another peg in the long slog of 11 or 12 games ending in a state of denial, and that has its merits too.

But that performance?  

It's been a hot minute since Austin Peay welcomed any comparably skilled FCS team to this stadium – under any name, housed in any conference, across a history that could be considered storied or not – and put them in a rear-naked chokehold for 60 minutes. But the final score Saturday – Govs 63, ETSU 3 – requires one to think behind the box score and really consider how rare and special it is to beat an opponent – any opponent – by 60 points.

The unrelenting maw of dominance that is Georgia football last posted a 60-point win in 2021.

The Alabama Football Machine's last 60-pointer was in 2020.

Ohio State? 2019.

Michigan? 2016.

This isn't all that common even for the greatest, steadiest war machines in college football.

The last time the Govs put sixty points between their final tally and an opponent was in 1994 against Morehead State, a blistering 73-6 performance that saw the Govs roll up nearly 700 yards of total offense. Not only was nobody on the active Austin Peay roster born on or before that date; current Govs head coach Scotty Walden was less than a month away from his fifth birthday.

Saturday night was for doing the things that secure legacies and etch names into record books for a long, long time. Quarterback Mike DiLiello's night will be remembered for decades to come, and not only because he set the single-game passing yards record at 441 – taking down a record that stood for nearly 25 years. DiLiello was efficient as well, completing 80.4 percent of his passes on the night – the fourth-best mark in program history.

The three men ahead of him attempted 17, 22, and 24 passes in their high-efficiency outings; DiLiello put the ball in the air 30 times just in the first half, including deep shots in the first quarter to Trey Goodman, Jaden Barnes, and MJ Singleton to help the Govs build a 28-0 lead they'd never look back from. All told, he attempted 46 passes and completed 37 of them, easily picking apart every look he saw throughout the night.

The Govs posted that rarest of scoring feats Saturday, getting scores from special teams (an 89-yard Kam Thomas punt return), defense (a five-yard fumble recovery by Garrett Hawkins), and offense (umm… myriad examples) – the first instance of this particular hat trick since 2007 and third in program history. Thomas, by the way, is halfway to Terrence Holt's school record of six combined kick return touchdowns and has equaled Holt with three special teams scores from 80 yards or more.

Everything clicked against ETSU. In all three phases of the game, the Govs played their best ball of the season and maybe authored one of the signature performances of the Walden Era (so far).

"This group comes to work," Walden said postgame. "[The first two games] just the ebbs and flows of execution were off and I feel like this week we settled into an in-season rhythm and had a consistent week of practice. It was awesome to see a complete team victory; if you look at us you know we have just built, built, built each week and I'm so proud of the guys for what they did tonight."

The Govs may have got this right-right now after a couple of early bumps. After an explicable – if disappointing – loss at Southern Illinois and an encouraging – if that's a thing – loss last week in Knoxville, the Govs have a win. An encouraging win. A record-shattering, earth-salting win that signaled their intention of being a factor this season. UAC, FCS… the Govs are here. And they're not going anywhere.