The Governors are coming: Austin Peay visits Sacramento State in FCS playoff game
Sacramento State football is now on notice: The Governors are coming.
The mascot belongs to Austin Peay of Clarksville, Tenn., which will visit Sacramento State on Saturday in a Division I FCS playoff game at Hornet Stadium. The 6 p.m. kickoff and game will be televised on ESPN3 and carried locally on ESPN1320 radio.
The Governors (10-3) are a program three years removed from an 0-11 season, weeks removed from its first Ohio Valley Conference championship in 42 seasons and days removed from its first FCS playoff victory, a 42-6 rout of 18-time FCS playoff entry Furman.
Saturday also marked the first playoff victory for Austin Peay, which started playing the sport in 1930, and the win total is also a program record. That’s quite a leap for a program that has suffered mightily in this sport. The Governors from 2013-16 where the worst program in the land, going 1-45, including a 29-game losing streak.
This is all a new ball game for Sac State as well. The Hornets (9-3) started playing football in 1954 and just won their first conference championship since 1995 while securing their first playoff berth in 31 seasons and second overall.
Both programs are led by first-year coaches, Sac State with home-grown Troy Taylor and Austin Peay with Mark Hudspeth.
Taylor said his expectations were to improve every day and to some day win championships. He proved to be a quick worker.
Hudspeth told reporters after Austin Peay’s win Saturday: “After our spring football practice was over and I saw the work our players put in, I felt like we had a chance to be pretty dang competitive.”
JaVaughn Craig of Austin Peay passed for 264 yards and three touchdowns in the rain and wind against Furman.
Sac State has also been led by a quarterback star, Kevin Thomson, who last week earned Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors a year after injuries played a role in Sac State going 2-8 last season.