At Austin Peay

[FUBeAR]

...been there. Home side is nice. Visitors side is a dump - like Woffy, but even dumpier. Military town, but some kinda cool places to eat.

https://www.blackhorsebrews.com/pubs/clarksville

Can stay in Nashville & drive up on GameDay.

Field turf or grass?

Turf...was about 120 degrees in Aug/Sept of 2015 ... and the visitors side concessions ran out of water / Gatorade before halftime...and didn’t restock @ half. HOT AND THIRSTY.

Shouldn’t be an issue 11/30/19 - still a dump on the visitors side though - unless they’ve renovated that side since 2015. The home side was renovated before 2014, I believe - watch for sinkholes though...

[The Jackal]

They lost to ETSU by 6 and beat Mercer 48-34 in a shootout where Mercer turned it over 3 times to APSU 0.

We are slightly higher in Sagarin 135 to 144. Adjusting for home field it’s basically a pick em game.

Coach Hendrix also mentioned that we've already seen them a few times on film this year.

I watched most of their game against Mercer (back when Mercer was sort of a dark horse in the conference). It was a competitive game, but APSU converted two pick sixes that made the final scoreline a little gnarlier than it would have otherwise been.

My recollection is they have some really good athletes at a few skill positions and try to feed those guys the ball a lot.

It looks like their star running back, Kentell Williams, hasn't played the last two weeks.

[FurmAlum]

APSU is my hometown team and I am exited to be able to attend my first FCS playoff game ever! I can't give much of a scouting report as I haven't been to a game this year. I've been staying home and watching FU on ESPN+. I agree with GF that this is a good match-up for us, but if anybody thinks this is going to be an easy win you better think again.

I used to go to a lot of games back in the 80's and 90's when we couldn't get the Furman games here on T.V. APSU football fell on hard times and as recently as 2016 they were 0-11. Will Healy came from Chattanooga, he was an assist to Huesman, and revitalized the program and they went 8-4 in '17, and felt they deserved to be in the playoffs. Last year they were 5-6 and Coach Healy left went to FBS Charlotte.Coach Mark Hudspeth is in his first year and this is the first time APSU has ever made the FCS playoffs.

I have a lot of APSU friends and I'm going to have to eat a lot of crow if we don't win, HaHa.

With good QB play and a good game plan I think we will win. Go Paladins!

[palafan]

Hard to express how impactful that Wofford loss was.

Win that game, and we are sitting with a bye week and potentially two home games. With a loss, we barely make the field and will endure multiple cross country flights to keep the dream alive.

And yet we were told that the team wasn’t ready to play. Pretty stunning how that was possible with everything on the line. Oh well. Moving on, I would love to win Saturday and have a second game at a big seed. I think if we play our game and get good QB play we could win two games.

And the Citadel!

[FUpaladin08]

Only two things I need to know:

1. Do they run the option?
2. Do they have a stout run defense?

If those are “no” I feel good about a win.

[FUwolfpacker]

Supposedly they do have a good run defense (86ish yards per game), but they don’t run the option.

[FUBeAR]

Only two things I need to know:

1. Do they run the option?
2. Do they have a stout run defense?

If those are “no” I feel good about a win.

Don’t run ‘the option,’ but their QB is definitely a dual threat - seen him play 2x - he killed Mercer running the ball in his debut as a True FR in 2016...seemed less likely to tuck & run in 2019, but he can.

As far as Run Defense - Top 5 in FCS - they have some Dudes on D...

RUSHING DEFENSE - Last updated November 24, 2019 - Through games November 23, 2019
RANK TEAM G OPP RUSH OPP RUSH YDS YDS/RUSH OPP RUSH TDS YPG
1 James Madison 12 357 754 2.11 6 62.8
2 Sam Houston St. 12 390 839 2.15 9 69.9
3 Central Conn. St. 12 334 855 2.56 3 71.3
4 N.C. A&T 11 367 835 2.28 13 75.9
5 Austin Peay 12 403 1038 2.58 7 86.5

[purplehorse]

I think it depends a whole lot more on how we play vs our opponent per se. Will the good Firman team show up or the bad Firman team? That includes the QB play.

If we can’t be up for this game and be energetic then there is a problem somewhere. No reason we cannot win two games in playoffs.

Interesting that our “aggressive” bid was trumped by a team that has never been in the playoffs.

[gofurman]

I wonder if the University even submitted a bid to host the game.

They did.. But alas, still not enough.

2019 AT Austin Peay
2017 AT Elon
2013 AT SC State (that's the kicker - SC State can barely keep the lights on - how the heck can we not outbid them??? I recall a moderate donor to our athletics was Pisseed at this one)
2006 AT Montana State.

I am so glad we are in. I also love playing Austin Peay !

But I do think one thing we could do as a University to show support is bid enough to get a home game... I get that it may be hard to outbid larger State universities - it's the SC State one that still kills me. They were/are underwater financially

[The Jackal]

Hoping to see a good Furman contingent up there. We've had good showings the last few years for road games in Birmingham, the Triangle, Wofford and Atlanta. Clarksville isn't too far from Nashville. Hopefully we see a big contingent of our Tennessee brethren heading up.

[gofurman]

Hard to express how impactful that Wofford loss was.

Win that game, and we are sitting with a bye week and potentially two home games. With a loss, we barely make the field and will endure multiple cross country flights to keep the dream alive.

And yet we were told that the team wasn’t ready to play. Pretty stunning how that was possible with everything on the line. Oh well. Moving on, I would love to win Saturday and have a second game at a big seed. I think if we play our game and get good QB play we could win two games.

If we get consistent QB play, I'll give us a puncher's chance against anyone.

We're going to play a team that lost to the SoCon's worst team.

they lost to ETSU AT ETSU (though I still don't see how ETSU only won one SoCon game as they held us to a 17-10 win for the good guys) but they also beat Mercer AT Mercer ... so we didn't get to see them play a top-tier SoCon team but actually probably rare we get an OVC playoff opponent that played Two SoCon teams..

[gofurman]

Only two things I need to know:

1. Do they run the option?
2. Do they have a stout run defense?

If those are “no” I feel good about a win.

Don’t run ‘the option,’ but their QB is definitely a dual threat - seen him play 2x - he killed Mercer running the ball in his debut as a True FR in 2016...seemed less likely to tuck & run in 2019, but he can.

As far as Run Defense - Top 5 in FCS - they have some Dudes on D...

RUSHING DEFENSE - Last updated November 24, 2019 - Through games November 23, 2019
RANK TEAM G OPP RUSH OPP RUSH YDS YDS/RUSH OPP RUSH TDS YPG
1 James Madison 12 357 754 2.11 6 62.8
2 Sam Houston St. 12 390 839 2.15 9 69.9
3 Central Conn. St. 12 334 855 2.56 3 71.3
4 N.C. A&T 11 367 835 2.28 13 75.9
5 Austin Peay 12 403 1038 2.58 7 86.5

FUBeAR can speak more to this w better schematics but I watched the Austin P v Mercer game. They have some 370 pouind NG types. HUGE boys DL. seriously.

TWO QUESTIONS I need to look up - is the star RB back?
Is the starting QB back? He went out vs ACU I think. But the backup is a senior and led them for much of the year so it's not the large dropoff it would be elsewhere.

If anyone knows I would appreciate it bc I want to compare final polls to playoff participants to see who was correct this year. I bet it's NOBNOWLS and AGS before I look

[Jasper]

Haven’t been there since stationed at Fort Campbell with the 101st. Probably not going to revisit that whole episode but maybe just the game. Proud of the Dins. Way to go!

Did you know Jimi Hendrix?

I did not. Same era but I had shipped out before he got there. Heard he got his start playing in the Clarksville army beer joints. Real nice places.

[DungeonRealm]

With this one our last 8 playoff games have all been on the road, but sure beats the heck out of staying at home watching others play on the tube

[fufanatic]

With this one our last 8 playoff games have all been on the road, but sure beats the heck out of staying at home watching others play on the tube

Last home playoff game was 2005 first round?