If you've never listened to a happy flight home full of football players celebrating a top-25 win, I highly recommend it.

That's the kind of flight the Govs got to take out of Pensacola on Saturday night.

Mission accomplished. Business handled. It was time for jokes, for laughter, for celebrating a job well done. Happy players, flush with success and victory, blowing off steam and celebrating together.

I don't see how that ever gets old.

One of the reasons we try to show off those behind-the-scenes locker room celebrations on social media — aside from the fact that, yes, those tend to do numbers with the metrics — is because of how much fun the whole scene is.

Football is fun.

Winning is fun.

And being present when a bunch of guys are fired up and going crazy because of something they just accomplished together? We want to share that with y'all, too.

This flight was like that.

But there was a little more to celebrate than just another win.

It's the kind of flight you get to take after going on the road and picking up the sixth ranked road win in the history of the program. The kind of flight you take after winning by more than three scores on the road — a program-record margin, just so you know.

It's the kind of flight you get after doing something that, in the moment, feels like a lot of fun but becomes more significant the further you get away from it.

Austin Peay's win at West Florida was another program-defining one.

Another one of those wins that gets filed away somewhere in the history books, another marker along the way for a program that has spent the better part of the last several years making a habit out of doing things Austin Peay football hadn't done before.

And this one came on the road, against a ranked opponent, in a game that eventually turned into a three-score-plus demolition.

There was plenty to celebrate.

For those scoring at home, there were only five previous road wins against ranked opponents in program history. We can list them. It won't take long.

• 30-20 over Chattanooga to open the 2021 season.
• 13-10 over Jacksonville State during the spring 2021 campaign.
• 42-28 at Sacramento State in the 2019 FCS playoffs.
• A 34-27 win at Tennessee Tech in 1994.
• You might have noticed there was a pretty significant gap between bullet point three and bullet point four.
• 16-7 over Middle Tennessee in 1984.

That's the list.

Five games. Five nights that occupied a pretty exclusive piece of Austin Peay football history.

And now Pensacola gets to join them.

That's worth appreciating.

Because sometimes you get so accustomed to the good stuff that you forget how unusual it actually is.

For a program that spent decades searching for moments like these, they're becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Road wins against ranked opponents. FBS wins. Conference championships. Players earning national recognition. The Govs showing up in places where, historically, Austin Peay football hasn't always been accustomed to showing up and leaving with the result it wanted.

And now a top-25 road win by more than three scores.

That's not the norm, if you go by the record book.

It is, however, becoming increasingly normal around here.

There is a temptation, after a win like Saturday's, to immediately move on to the next thing. That's the nature of the business. There's another opponent. Another practice. Another game plan. Another Saturday. The calendar doesn't care that you just did something significant.

But there should be room for a little joy, too.

There should be room to enjoy the flight home.

And the Govs did. For a little while, anyway.

That's football, too.

You get to enjoy it. Then you get back to work.

Head coach Jeff Faris said as much after the game. Enjoy this one, but get ready to work.

There's a balance to all of this that is easy to miss from the outside.

The players get to celebrate because they earned it. They get to laugh and dance and yell and hug each other in a locker room because they spent the previous week doing the less glamorous stuff that makes those moments possible.

The meetings.

The walkthroughs.

The practice reps.

The corrections.

The weight room.

The film.

The little details nobody sees.

Then, finally, the payoff.

A win.

A big one.

And on Saturday night, that payoff happened to come in Pensacola.

The Govs had earned the right to enjoy it.

They had just beaten a ranked team on the road. They had just posted the largest road margin of victory in program history. They had just added another significant road win to a list that, not all that long ago, would have been considerably shorter.

So put the headphones on. Pull the hood up. Laugh with the guy sitting next to you. Watch the video. Relive the touchdown. Talk a little trash. Enjoy the view out the window.

You don't get many flights like that.

At least, historically speaking.

Around here, though?

Maybe we're getting used to them.

Eventually, the laughter quieted. The celebration gave way to sleep. The plane headed back toward Nashville, and Saturday night became Sunday morning, and the next game started creeping into view.

That's how quickly this thing moves.

UT Martin awaits on Saturday.

Another game at The Fort. Another opportunity. Another chance to prove what these Govs are capable of doing.

But that's this week.

Last Saturday night belonged to Pensacola.

The work had paid off.

The business had been handled.

The Govs had won.

And, for a little while, they got to enjoy the flight home.