Things That Didn't Exist Yet in 1987: A Brief List
- Chipotle
- Text messaging
- Seinfeld
- Patrick Mahomes
- USB ports
- Google
- Jeff Faris
- EA Sports NCAA College Football video games
- Overtime in college football
- Conference title games
- College Gameday going on the road
- Conference USA
Look at that. Look at what we were, as a society, the last time Austin Peay beat an FBS football team. You couldn't text people about the Govs while eating Chipotle. No Google AND no Seinfeld? I don't know how the ancients did it.
We weren't even calling it the FBS yet; that wouldn't come along until 2007. But by whatever name you want to associate it, Austin Peay hadn't beaten a big boy on the gridiron in 37 years, 11 months and 25 days. More than 330,000 hours. 13,874 days. There is a non-zero chance that Freddie Mercury or Ronald Reagan had a conversation centered around, "Hey, did you hear about the Govs beating Kansas State?" the last time Austin Peay took down an FBS team.
But in defeating Middle Tennessee 34-14 on Saturday night, Austin Peay did more than simply beat an FBS school. The Govs owned the contest from first whistle, controlled both lines at the point of attack and never, for a second, yielded to what was supposedly the stronger, faster team.
Flukes can happen. Every year, FCS teams take down FBS teams and often, the games follow a predictable pattern—low-scoring, mistake-filled wars of attrition where a couple of bounces define the outcome. To use a recent example, Southern Illinois beat Northern Illinois 14-11 in 2023; the Salukis gained all of 217 yards in total offense but Northern Illinois threw three picks and missed two field goals and when that happens, you might only need two drives of more than 30 yards to win a game. It's always a pretty good bet that when one team scores 11 points in a football game, you've got a weird one on your hands.
You know what a 34-14 win is, though? It's not weird. It's not an aberration defined by good luck and good fortune. 34-14 is a beating. It's a dragging. With all and sincere apologies to our friends down in Murfreesboro, y'all let us in the building and we left with our second-largest win in the history of a series that dates back nearly 100 years. I'm sorry but that's going to be defined in Webster's as a whooping. Go look. I can wait.
"Last year we built a culture and we learned how to fight, and we struggled to finish games," said Austin Peay head coach Jeff Faris. "Tonight, we finished the job. Now, my message to this team is can we be the most improved team in the country from week one to week two? Can we handle this success? I'm excited to see how they come back ready to work, because I am so proud of those guys and what they did on the field this week."
As recent FCS-beating-FBS history goes, a 20-point win is a rarity. Austin Peay's 20-pointer against Middle Tennessee is just the 12th margin that large in an FCS win against an FBS team in the last decade, and some of those portended incredible things for their programs that year. After thumping East Carolina in 2017, then-FCS James Madison went all the way to the FCS title game. After ETSU shut down Vanderbilt in 2021, the Bucs won the Southern Conference and advanced to the FCS quarterfinals. Our old friends at Sacramento State were in the FCS quarterfinals a year later after a 41-10 win against Colorado State; ditto Idaho after running through Nevada the year after that. Sometimes a beating is just a beating; sometimes, it's something more.
The win is the story of course, but the how is always more nuanced than that and in Austin Peay's case, Saturdays how was provided by a defense that never let the Blue Raiders catch their breath for even one of their 59 plays from scrimmage. The Govs recorded five sacks and four hurries on the night, with an additional three stops behind the line of scrimmage. And when the quarterbacks were able to get the ball away for Middle Tennessee, they were often trying to fit into tight windows against incredible coverage by an Austin Peay secondary that broke up seven passes on the evening, led by Ellis Ellis Jr. with three. For the game, the Blue Raiders tallied a mere 153 yards of total offense; research suggests it's lowest total yardage allowed by an FCS to an FBS since Jacksonville State surrendered just 156 yards to Florida International in 2020.
"Eleven brothers are hard to beat," Ellis said postgame. "When you've got your 11 and they stick true to their technique, stay disciplined and stay true to each other, they're going to come out with the win every time. We have to take every day, every game step by step, because that's what it takes, every guy locked in."
The Govs didn't have One Weird Trick to beat the Blue Raiders. This was a methodical win driven by process over results, with every man playing his role perfectly. Chris Parson was electric under center for the Govs, routinely extending plays with his feet and keeping the Middle Tennessee defense on its heels; when he went out late, Austin Smith stepped right in and engineered two fourth-quarter scoring drives to put the game away.
Here's one more point that needs making, too, because there's a lot of "feels like 1987!" floating around and as an old SID, I can't let us forget our history. After beating Kansas State that year, the Govs lost nine of 10 to close the season; after winning at least five games each of the previous four seasons, Austin Peay wouldn't have back-to-back five-win seasons for the next three decades.
I was barely alive in 1987 and certainly had no general ideas about Austin Peay football, but given what came before it and certainly what came after, the Kansas State win has always seemed like a blip, a moment of wonder in a sea of struggles. Saturday night felt different; not a crossing of some sort of sacred rubicon, separating before and after, but of solidifying who we are now. Austin Peay is a team that can hang with anybody; the Govs can beat FBS schools, and they can win titles and they can go far in the FCS playoffs. I know these things because I've seen these things. They happened. They're real.
1987 might have been a long time ago, but I'd be very surprised if the Govs need nearly four decades to secure their next FBS win.
