By Derek DeBurger
In our pursuit of extensive coverage of Louisville Cardinals football, we often neglect to sprint 10 yards in our opponents’ shoes.
Our new series of articles — Birds of a feather — looks to correct that with interviews of Sports Editors from the student newspaper of each week’s opponent. The first of our interviewees is Jennifer Lindahl of Austin Peay’s The All State to give her perspective on Saturday’s season opener.
Austin Peay is coming off of an FCS playoff appearance after steadily improving over the last four years, however, Scotty Walden parlayed his success into the head coaching job at UTEP. Jeff Faris has taken over as the new head coach with a brand-new staff behind him. Faris comes from the David Cutcliffe coaching tree—a coach known for his ability to bring the best out of his quarterbacks—and was recently a part of Chip Kelly’s staff at UCLA. With Faris’ impressive background, what’s the general level of excitement for this new era of Governors football and what do you think are realistic expectations for his first season at the helm?
The excitement for the new era of Governor’s football is a whole different level than ever. Coach Faris already had inherited some amazing players and the team that he’s built has come together quite nicely. I think when a team comes together the way ours has, it will shine on the field.
The opportunity to play Louisville, and other teams ranked the best, was a big decision for Faris to come to APSU. This gives Austin Peay football a tremendous opportunity to show who they really are, which I think last year playing the Vols opened the nation’s eyes, and the guys are extremely fired up. This will be one of the best seasons that we will see from the Govs.
Maybe this biggest news coming out of Austin Peay football unfortunately is the arrest and resigning of former co-offensive coordinator Patrick Kugler amid human-trafficking allegations. Something as serious as that can derail a season, but Athletic Director Gerald Harrison has praised Faris’ handling of the situation. Do you think this incident will have a lingering effect on the players? Does this wrench change the way you quantify success in Faris’ first season?
The situation involving Patrick Kugler is extremely unfortunate. Faris, and APSU’s athletic department, handled the situation very well and with a lot of grace. Of course, this situation has had its effect and impact on the players. While this is something that could derail a season, Faris has an incredible team of coaches that have stepped up and kept Gov’s football on track. At the end of the day, while unfortunate as it is, Gov’s football must go on and we will let the proper authorities handle the rest of it.
Austin Peay has had very strong offenses recently, averaging over 31 points per game the past three seasons. The core of the offense, however, is experiencing quite a bit of turnover with quarterback Mike DiLiello graduating, standout running back Jevon Jackson following Walden to El Paso and leading receiver Tre Shackelford transferring to Washington State. With so much production out the door, do you believe the offense can continue its dominance from past seasons and who do you expect to be the new offensive leaders?
Faris is confident in this year’s offense being able to keep up with previous offenses. Of course, it’s going to look a little different with the schematics, but he’s inherited some of the best guys on offense that APSU has. Alec Pell is a great tight end and La’Vell Wright and O’shaan Allison are playing at high levels. As for who to look out for, Allson and Wright are looking like excellent leaders. Faris also praises returning players Harrison Wilkes and Chandler Kirton as phenomenal and says they do everything upfront.
Finally, there’s no hiding that this is an FCS vs. FBS matchup. FCS teams rarely keep these games close, let alone win. How do you expect Saturday’s game to play out, and what is your prediction of a final score?
I think Saturday’s game will be an interesting match. With the Govs coming in as a brand-new team and Louisville not having tape to watch, I think we’ll be able to come and strong and keep Louisville on their toes. However, Louisville is aggressive and they’re coming in with a brand-new offense as well so I’m excited to see what both teams do. Keeping with the tradition of domination on FCS teams I see the final score prediction, 47-10 Louisville.
Photo Courtesy // Caleb Jones, Louisville Athletics
