Austin Peay Governors football

The Austin Peay Governors Football program is the intercollegiate American football team for the Austin Peay State University located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the Ohio Valley Conference. The school's first football team was fielded in 1930. They were previously a member of the Pioneer Football League from 2001 through 2005. The team plays its home games at the 10,000 seat Fortera Stadium After a 1-34 record from the years 2013–2015, (32 losses by double digits) former head coach Kirby Cannon was relieved of his duties. On December 21, 2015, Austin Peay hired Will Healy as the football program's 19th head coach. Healy held many titles in his seven seasons as the quarterbacks coach, wide receivers coach, passing game coordinator and recruiting coordinator at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. After a standout prep career at Boyd-Buchanan (Chattanooga) in which he was a two-time all-state honoree and a Mr. Football finalist, Healy went to the University of Richmond, where he was a quarterback on the Spiders' 2008 Football Championship Subdivision national title team.

Contents

• Classifications
• Conference memberships
• Notable former players
• References

Healy followed Richmond defensive coordinator Huesman to UTC when Huesman was named the Mocs' head coach in 2009, and he coached quarterbacks in his first season before taking over as the receivers coach the following season.

Healy was involved in three consecutive conference championships and back-to-back FCS playoff appearances at UTC.

Following National Signing Day 2016, and in less than two months after being hired, Healy worked to produce the #132 ranked recruiting class in the nation for APSU, and #5 overall at the FCS level.

The new Governors Stadium opened the 2014 season following the completion of a massive $16.9 million renovation that replaced the west side grandstands with a new structure that includes state-of-the-art amenities for student-athletes, coaches and fans as well as skyboxes, club-type seating and new chairback seating.

Fortera Stadium originally was named Municipal Stadium when it opened in 1946 due to its construction by the City of Clarksville. The city owned and operated the facility while permitting the University use of the stadium for an annual sum. That arrangement lasted until 1970 when the city conveyed title to one-third of the stadium to the State for the university and signed a cooperative agreement with Austin Peay State University, Montgomery County (to which it also gave one-third of the stadium's title) and the city to form the Municipal Stadium Authority to operate and maintain the facility.

Following the 1993 season, the University agreed to purchase Municipal Stadium from the Stadium Authority and Montgomery County. With the purchase, the University installed a new playing surface and, more importantly, changed the name of the facility to Governors Stadium.

Since 1993, the University has made several updates to the facility, replacing the playing surface in 1993, 2004 and in 2014 while adding a new scoreboard and video board combination on the stadium's south end in 2007.

However, the greatest change to the facility since its construction was approved in 2012 when the Tennessee Building Commission approved a $16 million renovation project. That project saw the stadium's west grandstand razed and replaced with a four-story structure that includes state-of-the-art amenities for student-athletes, staff and fans.

The first floor of the new facility includes the Bill Dupes Locker Room, the new home for the Governors football team. Football student-athletes also have access to new athletic training facilities and their gear is stowed in a new equipment room. In addition, fans can purchase their game day tickets at the football ticket offices with windows located in the center of the facility.

Fans are able to access the main grandstand from the second level. That area also includes new concession stands and is the home of the GovsGear.com store which provides fans the opportunity to purchase the latest in Austin Peay athletics apparel every game day.

The third and fourth levels provide club seating and 13 skyboxes, respectively. The skyboxes offer tiered stadium-type seating with up to 22 seats. The 8,000-square-foot Club Level seats 386 spectators and is designed to offer catered meals on football game days.

To the south of the new stadium facility is the Blake Jenkins Plaza, which provides an expansive concourse for fans to enter the facility. In addition, the Hendricks Fox Walk of History is located in this area and will feature the name of every football player to have donned the Governors uniform.

In a separate project, the stadium's east grandstands, while not razed, were renovated to move the stadium's in-game operations into the press box. In addition, space under the grandstands was renovated for the university's track and field program.

The improvements at the stadium are not yet complete. Space exists within the facility for a new strength and conditioning facility as well as coaches offices – each to be completed sometime in the future.

In April 2016 the Fortera Credit Union purchased the naming rights to Governors Stadium, which is consequently now Fortera Stadium.