Clarksville, TN – The second half battle between Tennessee State and Austin Peay made up for a lackluster first as the Tigers (2-3, 1-0) fought off the Governors (2-4, 0-1) to a 24-22 victory in an Ohio Valley Conference contest.  TSU Tiger QB Geremy Hickbottom led his offense with a TD run of 44 yards and two TD passes.  The Governors challenged right to the bitter end after failing on a two-point conversion late TD with less than two minutes remaining.

Uneventful start

     Punts, missed field goals, and a Tiger fumble marked time for the action of the first half.  Not until 4:15 remained before intermission did TSU put three points on the board with a 25-yard FG by Antonio Zita.  After that conversion, both teams failed on subsequent field goals attempts before heading to their locker rooms. If the action continued this way in the second half, we envisioned this game matching our record lowest scoring game ever going back to 1981 when Rutgers defeated Virginia in The Meadowlands by that final score, 3-0.

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Second half starts slow

     A punt-fest continued into the second half until a roughing the kicker penalty put APSU at the TSU 49 with renewed life. A 29-yard pass to Baniko Harley placed the Govs at the Tiger 12.  Maddux Trujillo finally put three on the board to knot the score.  The tie seemed to spark life into both squads for the rest to the game.  The Governor crowd got into it with chants of “Let’s go Peay!”, and the Austin Peay band across the way added much to the spirit through the end.

Sparks start to fly

   Hickbottom lofted a long pass leading WR Rodell Rahmaan nicely toward the end zone with an over the should catch down the left sideline for a 63-yard TD pass. AP blocked the ensuing extra point attempt.  On the very next Governor possession, the offense found sudden energy as RB Brian Snead burst through a hole for a 66-yard TD sprint to put his team up for the first time for a 10-9 lead. That lead did not last long, however.  Hickbottom broke out of the protected pocket and raced 45 yards to pay-dirt to regain the lead.  He connected with Rahmaan on a short slant over the middle on the two-point conversion giving TSU the 17-10 lead going into Q4.

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     Austin Peay’s first two possessions in the final period resulted in Trujillo field goals from 24 and 39 yards respectively.  Up 17-16, Hickbottom completed a 37-yard pass to Zaire Thornton to get to the Gov’s 38.  After a loss and a penalty, he connected again with Rahmaan on a crossing pattern for a 45-yard catch and run down the left sideline for a 24-16 lead.  With 5:53 left in the game, a lot of fans started to leave.  With young, energetic HC Scotty Walden leading AP as we’d seen at Chattanooga, the Govs could still win this game!  However, after three consecutive incompletes, his team had to punt the ball away to put Tennessee State back in control under first-year HC Eddie George.  AP Freshman QB Draylen Ellis (25 for 54, 254 yards, TD) is still a work-in-process.

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Fight to the finish and beyond

    The APSU defense forced TSU to a three and out late in the fourth.  Starting from the 25, Ellis came through to lead a drive culminating with a 10-yard TD pass to WR Baniko Harley (5 catches for 85 yards, TD) to close within two.  On the ensuing two-point conversion, the ball fell from the intended receiver’s hands a few yards short with 1:56 left.  Suddenly, the night sky opened up with hale-like rain, and the remaining fans ran for cover where they could find it. Maybe the ones who left earlier knew this was coming. 

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    There was no quit in either team.  They continued to fight. AP’s onsides kick bounced high and out of bounds.  TSU took possession at the AP 45.  Using two remaining time-outs, the Governors D forced another TSU punt for a touchback.  Time ran out to end any possible AP comeback, and as the two teams met at midfield after, a few scuffles broke out and campus security, some pretty big ones, stepped on to help quell the situations quickly.  The intensity that started late in the game festered after time expired. Great game that started off slowly and intensified into a late, great, exciting finish.  Our last-minute scheduling change resulted with the type of finish that we always hope for.

Next up:

Austin Peay remains at Fortera Stadium next Saturday to host OVC foe Southeast Missouri State (1-4,1-1) whose only win is over the TSU Tigers, 47-14.  Tennessee State has a week off before returning to Nissan Stadium in Nashville to host Tennessee Tech (1-4, 1-1) whose first win came over SE Mizzou this past weekend, 28-17.  It seems the OVC playoff bid may be wide open based on these results. 

     As for us at Collegefootballfan.com, we may be calling another audible as the Thursday night game to see No. 15 Coastal Carolina at Arkansas State (1-4) may be cancelled on our end. The CCU Chanticleers (5-0, 1-0) average 46 ppg.  The ASU Red Wolves’ defense allows about the same per game to their opponents.  As we always say, we like to find the most competitive games.  Of course, this is a Thursday night game and would be nice to see the highly-ranked Chants.

  However, into our first year of retirement, we are learning how to use our new-found flexibility to our advantage.  The Chants play at Appalachian State (4-1, 1-0) on Wednesday, October 20, in a key SunBelt battle for first.  We’re looking to pull this off to add to our schedule.  Keep an eye on this website for updates.  And if this works out, we still have a great ACC game on the slate next Saturday when Virginia (3-2, 1-1) travels to Louisville (3-2,1-2) for our first game at Cardinal Stadium.  Both teams have explosive QBs in Brennan Anderson for the Cavaliers and Malik Cunningham for the Cardinals.  The Cavs and Cards average over 30 points per game, and both have already fallen to Wake Forest. This should be a good one.

Extra points:

Punter Kaleb Mosley averaged 40.7 yards on seven punts for TSU with a long of 58.  However, AP punter Matthew Rigney outdid him with 46.6 yards on eight with a long of 60.  We usually don’t acknowledge punters, but they dominated the first half and made some other critical kicks throughout.  One or both of these guys could end up playing on Sundays in the future.

After all these years, we never knew we had been missing “the greatest tradition in all of college football” according to the PA announcer before the start of this game. Surely, not many others outside of the Austin Peay community are aware of this.  Their fantastic-sounding marching band traditionally plays the Monkees’ hit, “The Last Train to Clarksville,” to wind down their pre-game show to get the AP fans fired up!   Never knew that. The way this game started, the Governors didn’t play fired up football. “Last Train to Clarksville”?  Oh no, no, no!  Besides, we already witnessed and heard their best and most unique tradition down in Chattanooga when AP fans chanted, “Let’s go Peay!” But what do we know? What other unique college traditions have we missed after attending 619 college football games to date? Always learning something new, and that makes going to all these games at new venues a lot of fun!

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