As Austin Peay is still basking in the glow of a goal-posts-are-down kind of win on campus Saturday, the Governors found out some more good news Thursday afternoon. The program was approved by the NCAA to add a 12th regular season game as FBS opponent Central Florida has had to modify its schedule because of Hurricane Irma. FCS teams normally stick to 11 regular season games because of the playoff structure.
UCF announced the news via Tweet this Thursday at around 4 p.m. (ET).
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The game in Orlando will be played on Oct. 28, and Austin Peay head coach Will Healy told HERO Sports that his program will treat this game like a bowl game. They will charter a jet as opposed to ride a bus 10 hours down from their home state of Tennessee. They also will stay in a nice hotel in Orlando and may even try to figure out a way to see Disney World — all experiences he would like his team to have. There will be the typical large payout by Central Florida, which should easily help offset costs — just like there was against Cincinnati in week one and Miami-Ohio in week two, both being FBS games that the Governors were competitive in.
In the meantime, the Governors are looking to take their new "streak" from one win to two wins after enduring the fifth-longest losing streak in FCS history (29 games). Austin Peay will take on rival Murray State, a team that is no guaranteed win, but a team Austin Peay can certainly play with and potentially beat on the road. Austin Peay posted 69 points on FCS opponent Morehead State on Saturday, prompting the student body to tear down the goal posts. Healy told HERO Sports the program actually purchased new goal posts earlier this year, but he told the team he wouldn't have them put in place until the old ones were torn down.
Well, they got that chance.
Junior Gunnar Scholato leads the team in tackles and had 8 in the last win, along with 10 against Miami-Ohio and 9 against Cincinnati. A former FBS signee himself at Western Kentucky before transferring to Austin Peay, Scholato is enjoying the positive vibe that came from being competitive with two FBS teams and winning decisively in his team's first FCS game.
"Saturday was a great payoff, we've been working since last season when we finished 0-11," Scholato told HERO Sports. "Since then we've been grinding hard January through the summer … There was no question in our minds going into this season we knew it wasn't going to be just one win either. We knew we were capable of winning."