Governors hope to bowl over Knights
ORLANDO, Fla. — Austin Peay football coach Will Healy wants his team to enjoy its trip to the Sunshine State, and he wants the Governors to upset Central Florida — in that order.
They weren’t even scheduled to make this trip, but since the Football Championship Subdivision program was added to the schedule by Central Florida — the Football Bowl Subdivision’s Knights (6-0) are ranked 18th and off to their best start ever — Healy has been treating it like a bowl game for Austin Peay (5-3).
The Governors arrived in Orlando on a special charter flight Thursday with the coaches’ families in tow, and the Austin Peay contingent immediately headed to Disney World for six hours of fun. They planned on enjoying some time Friday at Cocoa Beach, about an hour away, before tending to a bit of business with a walk-through in preparation for what they have jokingly dubbed the “Peay Bowl.”
Healy is a Chattanooga native who was a high school star at Boyd-Buchanan, and he spent seven seasons on the staff at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga before taking over the Clarksville, Tenn., program. He is in his second season leading the Governors, who went 0-11 last year but are 4-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play this year, with their overall win total already their highest since a 7-4 record in 2007.
The Austin Peay roster includes several players from the Chattanooga area.
“I wanted to treat this like a bowl game, down to having a bowl gift on their beds when they got there,” Healy said. “I wanted to make sure these kids can never have a better experience playing a college football game than what our guys are going to do this week.”
It could be dubbed the Hurricane Irma Bowl. Neither team was scheduled to play this weekend when the season began, but that storm forced the Knights to cancel their September home game against Georgia Tech. Central needed an extra game; Austin Peay was available.
“This is going to be like a Super Bowl for them,” Knights coach Scott Frost said of the Governors. “They’re coming down here and treating this like a bowl game. I’ve been on a team like theirs when I was (an assistant coach) at Northern Iowa, and when you get to play an FBS team, there is nothing you want more in the world than to knock a team off and beat them.
“So I know they are going to come down here hungry, and our guys have to ready.”
Healy, whose team entered the season ranked last in Division I football after losing 27 straight games, isn’t expecting anything less than the Knights’ best. He understands what’s at stake for Frost, his staff and his players.
“They’re fighting for something a lot bigger than just this week,” Healy said. “He’s got those kids’ attention, and they know they can do something really special this year and I think they will.”