Lyndon B. Johnson was the President of the United States, Neil Armstrong had yet to walk on the moon, and two cans of Coca-Cola cost just 27 cents… the year was 1964 and that's the last time an Austin Peay football team recorded back-to-back shutouts.
In his second season at Austin Peay, head coach Bill Dupes led the Governors to a 29-0 shutout win against Tennessee Tech on Nov. 14 in Clarksville. Seven days later, Dupes took his team on the road, and they shut out UT Martin, 35-0. Dupes led the Govs to an 8-1-1 record in 1964, they went 5-1-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play and he earned Roy Kidd OVC Coach of the Year honors at the end of the season.
Fourteen coaches and 58 years later, head coach Scotty Walden has led the Govs to back-to-back shutouts again with a 63-0 win against Presbyterian and a 41-0 win against Mississippi Valley State. That's 104 consecutive unanswered points, just a few more than the 64 unanswered scored by Dupes' Governors back in '64.
But aside from the points (there will be PLENTY of time to talk about the offense this season), it is the way the defense has shut people out that stands out. It's the fact that the Govs were up 42 and 41 points, respectively, at halftime each of the last two weeks, and that means you probably aren't going to see much of the starting defense in the second half.
And during both of the last two games, Presbyterian and Mississippi Valley State have had a fourth-quarter drive that ended on downs inside the Austin Peay 15-yard line. Both teams went for it on downs, and neither came away with points. The Governors' defense, not the starting unit, but the reserves, have made fourth-down stops with their backs against the wall to keep the shutouts intact.
"We just want to be dominant," said graduate defensive back Kam Ruffin. "We want to dominate every team we play. We want to put it in people's minds that it's not going to be easy to score on us, wherever you are at on the field, even if you are on the one. You are going to have to put 110 percent in to put that ball in the end zone.
"When you are out there on the field there is no first team, second team, third team – you are on the field. If you see the person in front of you or see the game going on and you see we haven't let them score anything, you should have the same confidence to come out there and not let them score nothing. Even if they do get to the one-yard line. They are going to try and go for it on fourth down, and we can't let them get in."
It's the mentality of the defense as a whole and you can see it late in the game when the starters – who are no longer playing – are locked in and pulling for the defense on the field harder than anyone. Just ask the head coach…
"Kam said it best. When that drive was going on, you had the one defense behind me, behind us on the sideline just yelling at the twos," said Walden. "If I had a dollar for every time we said 'they don't score, they don't score' I'd be a millionaire man, I'd get a big-time raise. It starts with our leaders, our captains, and then our coaching staff, we did not want to give those guys points. If they would have tried a field goal, I was going to use all my timeouts. We did not want any points on that dang board. And just give our kids credit, the fire they had to come out and get that stop, that to me, two weeks in a row, unbelievable to get that kind of stop."
Two interceptions, a fumble recovery, and 16 punts – 10 of which came after a three-and-out – that has been the level the Austin Peay defense has played at in the last two weeks. Dating back to the Western Kentucky game, the Govs haven't allowed a point in 123:17 of game time and it's been since Oct. 30, 2021, against UT Martin that they allowed a point in the third quarter – that's six-straight games.
The Governors allowed just 121 yards of total offense against Mississippi Valley State, 50 yards through the air and 71 yards on the ground, this was seven days after holding Presbyterian to 221 yards with just 91 yards on the ground. And sure, shutouts aren't a common thing in college football anymore, just look around the country and you'll see way more than a handful of teams that just want their defense to keep them in the game enough to win the shootout with the other team's offense.
"It's obviously great to get zeros on the board – that is always what your goal is going to be – and that is not very common in college football these days," said assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Chris Kappas. "But I think it is a product of number one, our players taking a lot of pride in their day-to-day preparation, how they approach practice and when they do those things in every single practice, that is going to translate directly to the game.
"We also talk about the process; little things are going to add up to the big things. So, when you get into a game situation, your eyes are in the right place every snap, you're in a good stance every play, you know your assignment every single time, and you win one play at a time, sometimes those zeros will show up."
The process. If this is the process, I for one am going to trust it. The zeroes have been showing up and showing up in bunches. So why not another shutout? The program record for consecutive shutouts is four and that streak spanned the 1946 and 1947 seasons, it was a different age of football, and accomplishing that feat in the modern era would be quite the achievement.
But if the Govs want another shutout, it will have to be away from Fortera Stadium. The show goes on the road next week, but I'm not sure that will be a concern for the defense. They want another shutout and just to prove it, I'll leave you with one last thing Kam Ruffin said:
"We want that shutout, it fuels us. Those shutouts do something to us and it makes us stronger. We want it every week, not saying we are going to get it, but we are going to try hard to shut anybody we play out. If you don't come with it, we are going to play hard and we going to shut you out if you aren't on your p's and q's."
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