It's a short list.

The two pick-six game for Kordell Jackson against Mercer. The Johnathon Edwards interception trifecta against Eastern Illinois. Rod Owens' do-it-all game against Murray State in 2014, securing the win for the lone bright spot in a sea of futility that defined the program for years. The Jason Vanatta game against the Racers in 2008, when he registered 17 stops, picked off a pair of passes, and added a safety for good measure.

There are only a handful of these kinds of performances that come along for a defense over the course of nearly two decades of football—the kind that make the average box-score peruser's eyes bug out of their head cartoon-style when they see them.

I won't be the arbiter of where Montreze Smith Jr.'s performance last week ranks among those performances, but after 12 tackles, one for loss, and a pair of interceptions to snuff out marches by the Lions late in the game, it has to be at least mentioned among the greatest defensive performances by a Gov since the scholarship football returned to campus in 2007.

For Smith, the two-pick game was something he'd never done. Ever.

"A two-interception game?" he said postgame Saturday. "Never. It's crazy even to get one."

A slight difference is that some of the rest of those on that list came from veteran players putting together the best game of inarguably good-to-great careers, the first thing that will come to mind when they're remembered above all others. The double pick-six game? The coming-out party for Jackson that propelled him onward to a Hall of Fame-caliber career. The triple? Helped make Edwards an Associated Press All-American as a senior in 2021. Owens had no picks and no fumble recoveries in his 18 career games before recording two of the former and one of the latter in one afternoon against the Racers; he finished his career with eight interceptions and 31 pass breakups as one of the bridge players to the modern era of success. Vanatta had enjoyed a fruitful career at safety for the Govs; his performance against the Racers came at the midway point of his senior year, the high point of his time at Austin Peay.

Montreze Smith Jr.'s performance against North Alabama? That was in his eighth game as a Gov. He is, as head coach Jeff Faris is fond of reminding people, still getting his feet wet in college football after playing four games for Duke last year. After a brief stopover at Western Kentucky during the spring semester, Smith arrived in Clarksville in June. He is, in every conceivable way, still getting used to all this.

And yet, four months later, there he is on the 2025 STATS Perform Jerry Rice Award Watch List, reserved for the best freshmen playing FCS football. Previous winners include Cooper Kupp, Cam Ward, and Shedeur Sanders, among other luminaries. To sum it up succinctly, only A-listers are getting nominated for an award named after literally Jerry Rice.

Smith is one of those A-listers. Given that he's already mentioned in the same breath as the best players in his class, and given that he's also already putting together the sort of performances that some of the best defenders in the history of the program have enjoyed on their best days, it's hard not to let the hype train run wild anticipating who and what Montreze Smith Jr. can become while wearing an Austin Peay uniform.

That's part of the fun for Faris, who has a front-row seat to watching his young difference-maker improve each and every week.

"To be this productive this early speaks volumes about his work outside of the building," Faris said. "Coach (Greg) Jones does an unbelievable job with this defense, but I wouldn't say it's simple; it takes a lot of hard work to pick it up. And Montreze is always in [linebackers coach] Brandon Williams' office, watching film. He's a real student of the game, and that's really helped. You're starting to see Montreze just play and not worry about overthinking."

Smith keeps getting better each week; Saturday was great, but he's already hungry for more.

"It gives me the maximum possible confidence going forward," he said. "I can show exactly who I am and why I was highly thought of as a recruit coming out of high school."

A young player like Smith benefits from the room he's in, and alongside a talented stable of linebackers at Austin Peay, he has no better place to learn and grow as a player. An eager learner, Smith is siphoning up knowledge from his elders and quickly advancing as a player.

"Those guys like him," Faris said. "He's not a really outspoken guy, but he's a young guy with a huge heart who is a great fit in the locker room. He enjoys football, and he's got some older guys in that room with him—Will Middleton, Davion Blackwell—who have helped him come along. That's not an easy position to play in our defense, but he's done a great job."

Asked about Smith's potential as a leader, Faris referenced a former teammate of his own who spoke softly and carried a big stick.

"I played with a guy named Harrison Smith [at Knoxville Catholic High School], and Harrison Smith wouldn't say two words, but he was an unbelievable leader by example, and we want our guys to lead in their way, because they're all different. We want our players to be the version of a leader that they can be, and he's already doing that.

Harrison Smith, it should be noted, has gone on to a pretty nice career as a six-time Pro Bowler for the Minnesota Vikings. Yet again, you just can't seem to escape the comparisons for Montreze Smith Jr. to other great players. And he's just getting started making a name for himself at Austin Peay.