The School: Austin Peay State University. Named for former Tennessee Governor Austin Peay. Per Wikipedia, Austin Peay’s most notable accomplishment was signing into law the Butler Act, which barred the teaching of the theory of evolution in the state’s public schools and led directly to that longtime national embarrassment, the Scopes Monkey Trial.
It says a lot about how seriously the state of Tennessee takes public higher education that a university is named for this man.
Record: 1-0. Beat Gardner-Webb and its first-year head coach Kris McCullough 35-17 last Thursday night. Kris McCullough was promptly suspended due to an off-field incident. It is very possible that by watching that game, I watched the entirety of the Kris McCullough era at Gardner-Webb. Which doesn’t relate to this week’s opponent, but it does make a funny side note.
Ranking: #14 in FCS.
Mascot: The Governor. Who looks suspiciously similar to the Monopoly man.
Location: Clarksville, Tennessee. For a summer during law school, I commuted to Clarksville from Nashville for an internship. These days, Clarksville is most notable for making me learn who this guy is.
Coach: Jeff Faris. Played at Duke from 2008-11. So he’s younger than me. Great.
Conference: The UAC. What’s the UAC? Why, that started out as a strategic alliance between the Atlantic Sun and the WAC, until the WAC lost a bunch of members and was left with three and decided to rebrand as the United Athletic Conference, absorbing all of the A-SUN’s football-playing members including Austin Peay. When Austin Peay decided a while back that they didn’t want to play in the Ohio Valley Conference any more, I don’t think playing in a conference with Tarleton State and West Georgia (two schools that were Division II a decade ago) was what they had in mind.
All-Time vs. Vanderbilt: 0-2.
The last time we saw these guys: 2015. Vanderbilt won 47-7. Austin Peay did not win a game that season.
Is Vandy Favored? Yes, by a lot of points. It’s about what you expect playing an FCS team.
Most Potent Offensive Threat: Quarterback Chris Parson, who threw for 308 yards and ran for 62 more in the Peay’s season opener. Somehow, Austin Peay got this guy to come back in spite of interest (and, presumably, dollars) from FBS schools.
Most Potent Defensive Threat: Hell if I know. You think I’m looking that hard at Austin Peay’s defense?
Matchup to Watch: Blaze Berlowitz vs. Jared Curtis. Because, let’s be honest, if the actual matchup between Vanderbilt and Austin Peay is one to watch, this is going to be a long season.
On the other hand, Vanderbilt’s quarterback battle in fall camp concluded with Berlowitz being named the starter for the Austin Peay game but everybody sort of suspects this will be Curtis’s job before long. A strong performance by the five-star true freshman (who is going to play) and this will probably happen sooner rather than later.
Interesting fact: Austin Peay fired a theatre professor for posting a Newsweek article quoting Charlie Kirk saying that gun deaths were worth it to keep the Second Amendment. That professor sued them, got his job back and $500,000 for his troubles.
You know, in case naming a university for the governor who banned the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools wasn’t enough of an embarrassment.
If Austin Peay wins, we: bring the pitchforks back out of storage, where they’ve rested since September 2024. Actually, we’ll probably do this is the game is even close. I know you guys well enough.