Kickoff: Saturday 5:00 P.M, Spectrum Stadium.
TV: ESPN 3.
Radio: AM 740.
ORLANDO, Fla. – The Knights (6-0) take on the Governors (5-3) this week in Spectrum Stadium. The Knights are coming off their nearest margin of victory of the season after beating Navy 31-21. This week SHOULD be a little less stressful. Austin Peay is an FCS school, and hasn’t done much winning in recent years. Their first win this year ended a 29-game losing streak.
Austin Peay brought in coach Will Healy at the end of 2015. The program was in complete disarray. Healy is slowly bringing the program around. Last year the team went 0-11, but this year they are 5-3. With two of their losses coming against FBS schools.
It will be interesting to see how Austin Peay performs this week. They are treating this week like a bowl week. According to The Leaf-Chronicle, the team plans for this week include; Go to Disney World, get messages on their private jet, and do their walk-through practice on the beach.
“This is going to be like the super bowl for them. They’re coming down here and treating this like a bowl game,” Frost said on Austin Peay’s mentality headed into Saturday. “I’ve been on a team like theirs when I was at Northern Iowa, and when you get to play an FBS team there’s nothing in the world you want more than to knock a team off and beat them.,”.
Offensively the Governors have been switching quarterbacks throughout the year. Jeremiah Oatsvall and Craig JaVaughn have both seen significant reps. JaVaughn is recovering from injury, so Oatsvall has received much of the reps the past 2 weeks. Jeremiah Oatsvall is a Freshman quarterback, he has completed 57.5% of his passes, has 3 passing TD’s, and 3 running TD’s. He does it all the governors, even punting the ball for the team on 7 occasions.
Austin Peay runs the ball a majority of the time, they have rushed for 246.8 yards per game. Expect to see an array of running backs on Saturday. They have many weapons offensively they shift in and out. Kentel Williams leads the way with 614 yards, averaging almost 7 yards per attempt.
“They present a lot of problems, a lot of formations, a lot of motions, a lot of different plays,” Coach Chinander speaks to the challenges of facing the Governors Offense.
Austin Peay has played well defensively this year, only allowing 19.9 points per-game. They have 48 tackles for loss, 18 of those were sacks. Their opponents have averaged less than 300 yards of total offense per game. Much of this success is due to a pair of upperclassmen in the middle of their defense. Gunnar Scholato and Jeremiah Mitchell have produced 127 tackles, 10.5 for loss, and caused 4 turnovers.
“This is a team that is a really good FCS team. They gave Cincinnati everything that Cincinnati wanted early in the year.,” Coach Frost said on Monday. “We have to approach this like any other game and that’s the way our kids showed up to go to practice today.”
Expect to see some of UCF depth this week, especially if the UCF starters take care of business early.
