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Instant Peay Play: APSU Govs hope to impress at OVC Football Media Day

Instant Peay Play - APSU SportsClarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University head football coach Will Healy will be making his second appearance at the Ohio Valley Conference Media Day, in Nashville, TN, July 24th looking to tell the conference’s media members why this year’s Govs are ready to make some noise in conference play.

So far there hasn’t been much in the way of respect for the Governors, who finished the 2016 season winless at 0-11 and 0-8 in OVC play, with several preseason polls all having Austin Peay as a distant last-place ninth in the projected standing, including Street & Smith, Lindy’s Sports and the OVC Media picks that came last week.

Austin Peay Football hosts Tennessee State this Saturday at Fortera Stadium.
Austin Peay Football hosts Tennessee State this Saturday at Fortera Stadium.

The OVC will announce its official conference predicted order of finish, as well as the All-OVC preseason team, during the media day activities – with Jacksonville State the odds-on favorite to repeat at conference champion, as well as being nationally ranked in several polls.

Tennessee State has also been listed in national ranking.

Despite the winless season in his initial season, Healy has recorded his second nationally ranked recruiting class that should help close the talent gap between the Govs and the rest of the OVC.

And while hopefully Healy’s two recruiting classes do their part, several of the Govs conference opponents have several questions of their own, with more than half of the schools in the conference having to replace their starting quarterbacks from 2016, with Eastern Illinois and Tennessee Martin having the projected top signal callers returning.

But Austin Peay should be one of the two conference school’s – along with Tennessee State and Florida transfer Treon Harris — that should get the most positive reaction among the media with incoming quarterbacks with freshman Jeremiah Oatsvall.

Oatsvall was is ranked as a three-star prospect from 247sports.com and a two-star prospect by Rivals.com, as well as the 17th-ranked dual threat quarterback in the country coming out of high school last year.

But Oatsvall is just the beginning for the Govs, who’s squad will number more than 50 percent freshmen and sophomores among their overall numbers that will go up against programs like Tennessee State that have 18 of 22 starters returning in 2017.

So while the opening day of the upcoming football season is still about six weeks away for the Govs, the OVC Media Day will give the conference’s media members and fans their first chance to dig a little deeper into what will hopefully a turn the corner season for the APSU football team.

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