Let’s continue our tour of Georgia’a 2025 opponents with the powerhouse Austin Peay Governors.
Actually, powerhouse may be overselling it a bit. Nevertheless, the Guvs are on the schedule, so the Guvs get the preview treatment.
The Austin Peay File
Location: Clarksville, TN
2024 Record: 4-8, 3-5 United Athletic Conference
Home Stadium: Fortera Stadium (capacity 10,000)
Notable Governor: Relatively slim pickings to be honest. It’s possible the most well-known Austin Peay alum is actor David Alford, best known for for playing Bucky Dawes on television’s Nashville.
Jeff Faris returns as the head coach in Clarksville after an inaugural season that saw the Governors struggle to a 3-5 record in the United Athletic Conference.
Offense: A Handful of Happy Returns
The Governors have some pieces back from 2024. The bad news is that they don’t score a ton of points last season, so those pieces need to be a little more productive to get them above .500.
Chief among the returners is graduate QB Austin Smith. After starting 16 games at Eastern Michigan the Jonesboro, Ga. native took over last season in Clarksville and had a fairly solid season. The 6’3, 209 pound Smith completed 62.3% of his passes for 15 touchdowns, and added 4 more scores on the ground. But he also accounted for 7 interceptions, and needs some help to get more points on the board in 2025 for a unit that only averaged 22.4 points per game last season.
Leading 2024 rusher La’Vell Wright (608 yards, 5 touchdowns) has transferred to Western Kentucky. However 5’8, 166 pound sophomore Corey Richardson returns after going for 291 yards and a touchdown on 47 Carrie’s last season. Richardson is also a solid threat in the passing game, where he pulled in 6 receptions for 61 yards as a freshman.
Up front Chandler Kirton returns as an all-conference selection at center. Kirton has started 13 games at center and 23 at right guard through three seasons. But overall the Governors don’t have a lot of big bodies on the offensive front, and there are a lot of new faces. Among the FBS talent who transferred in for a chance at playing time: former Georgia Southern guard Nate Lewis, former Purdue tackle Joshua Sales, and former North Carolina tackle Eli Sutton. Another transfer, Eli Edwards from Mercer, also could see action. Unfortunately for the Guvs there’s a chance the Bulldogs get to them before this group has gelled, and that could be bad news.
Defense: An inapt Animal House Metaphor
Like Otter, Boone and the rest of the boys at Delta house, Austin Peay’s defense just needs the du(d)es.
Defensive back Ellis Ellis, Jr. was voted preseason All-UAC off a 26 tackle, 3 interception, 6 PBU effort in 2024. And Edge Davion Hood (27 tackles, 7 TFL, 2.5 sacks in 2024) is a productive leader up front.
But leading tackler linebacker Dion Hunter (97 tackles) is gone, as is second leading tackler safety (96.0 tackles) Jaden Lyles, who transferred to Western Michigan. Third leading tackler Bo Spearman (54 tackles) declared for the NFL Draft. Sending a pattern here? Austin Peay gave up a pedestrian 28.2 points per game in 2024, and while I’m not sure they’re going to beat that in 2025, I’m pretty sure they won’t hold the Bulldogs below that total.
The Bottom Line
This game is a tune up between a semi-solid FBS opponent (Marshall) and the SEC opener against Tennessee. The goal will be to put this Governors squad picked by league media to finish 6th in the UAC away quickly on a hot afternoon in Sanford Stadium and move on to more important things. Anything less than that will be suboptimal.
Prediction: Georgia 55, Austin Peay 10.