CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – On Sept. 16 2017, those in attendance at Fortera Stadium witnessed history as Austin Peay football put an end to the nation’s longest active losing streak with a 69-13 shellacking of Morehead State.

A sea of red engulfed the field after the win, with students and fans banding together to tear down the goalposts in each end zone in celebration of snapping the 29-game skid.

Though success is ultimately a team effort, many Governors fans would argue that the most instrumental piece of Austin Peay’s turnaround was then 30-year-old head coach Will Healy.

In his first season at the helm for the Govs, Healy took over as the second-youngest coach in Division I football and entered with very low expectations. After finishing the 2017 season winless with an 0-11 record, Healy still knew that the program was on the verge of a breakthrough. All he needed was one more season to turn the doubters into believers.

Despite the lack of success in year one, Healy would go on to capture the nation’s attention in season number two and have everyone around the country buzzing.

The Governors began the 2017 season 0-2 before capturing their first win since October 2014 which came as a surprise to many in the Clarksville area.

However, Austin Peay wasn’t done there, as Healy led the Govs to an 8-4 season that included a program-record seven conference wins, narrowly missing out on the FCS Playoffs.

In 2018, Austin Peay introduced a new athletic director by the name of Gerald Harrison after then AD Ryan Ivey accepted the same position at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Ivey was the first to take a chance on Healy, a decision that paid off in more ways than one.

After taking over as AD, Harrison said his first order of business was to figure out how to keep Healy in Clarksville, understanding that other schools, including Group of Five programs, had begun to inquire about the charismatic coach.

Unfortunately for the Governor faithful, Healy later departed for Conference USA’s University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he has led the 49ers to a 2-1 start in the 2019 season.

The coaching search continued for a bit before Mark Hudspeth was hired, marking him the 20th head football coach in Austin Peay State University history.

It wasn’t that long ago, that coaches with a similar pedigree to Hudspeth’s would’ve scoffed at the idea of making such a decision.

Now the former Mississippi State associate head coach and former coach of Louisiana has the Governors poised to continue doing damage in the OVC.

For the Governor football program, change has not come quickly, but with the support from boosters, the university and the Clarksville community, brighter days appear to be on the horizon for Austin Peay.