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When Jeff Faris was offered the position of head coach at Austin Peay, he accepted because as a Tennessee native, “this is home.”
But it has been more than 15 years since Faris, who grew up in Knoxville, last lived in the state. And in that time, the Governors have undergone a dramatic evolution.
The past seven seasons have been the most successful in program history. Under coaches Will Healy, Mark Hudspeth and Scotty Walden, the Govs have won 50 games — tied for ninth-most in the Football Championship Subdivision — with three outright or shared conference championships and two appearances in the FCS playoffs.
Austin Peay is a far cry from the program that went 42 seasons between conference titles, dropped to non-scholarship football for a decade and went winless in 2013, 2015 and 2016.
On Monday, Faris, 33, was introduced as the 22nd football coach in APSU history after spending the past two seasons as the tight ends coach at UCLA. He’ll be tasked with leading a program on the rise, rather than building one completely from the ground up.
“(Athletic director Gerald Harrison and president Michael Licari) have done a phenomenal job, and it’s our job to continue to do that,” Faris told the Leaf-Chronicle. “The school, everything, it’s trending in the right direction.”
Harrison always keeps a short list of potential coaching candidates, “just in case.” It came in handy Monday, when Walden was hired by UTEP after coaching the Govs to a 9-3 season, United Athletic Conference championship and playoff berth in 2023.
Faris was on that list, but he wasn’t the only person APSU looked at. Harrison had more candidates — many with lengthy résumés — than he did in either of his previous two football coaching searches, in 2018 and 2020.
“I talked to former SEC head coaches, I talked to offensive coordinators in Power Five…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/austin-peay-football-coach-jeff-035906289.html
Author : The Leaf-Chronicle
Publish date : 2023-12-12 03:59:06
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