CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.- (CLARKSVILLENOW) Austin Peay took home two major awards and had six All-OVC and three All-Newcomer picks in voting conducted by league head coaches and sports information directors and announced on Tuesday.
Austin Peay quarterback Jeremiah Oatsvall was named OVC Freshman of the Year while his coach Will Healy earned the Roy Kidd OVC Coach of the Year honor.
Austin Peay had nine selections across the three teams.
A year ago, Healy inherited a team in a tailspin and used his first year as a collegiate head coach to change the culture. After an 0-11 campaign, the team started the 2017 season with close back-to-back losses to FBS opponents, leaving the program with a 29-game losing streak. In fact, the program had won just one of its previous 48 games at that point. But a convincing 69-13 victory over Morehead State on September 16 began a turnaround that saw the Governors finish 8-4 overall and 7-1 (second place) in the OVC. The eight total wins tied the school record established by the 1977 OVC Championship team, while the seven Conference wins were the most in program history.
Along the way the team snapped a 21-game OVC losing streak and a 45-game road losing streak; the Govs finished the year with four road victories, which was more than the program won in the previous nine years combined. Healy, a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, also led the team to its first three-game winning streak against Division I opponents since 1980, its first regulation shutout since 1980 and its first win over a nationally-ranked opponent since 2009. Healy helped the Austin Peay defense improve from 120 out of 122 FCS teams a year ago (506.6 yards/game allowed) to 16th nationally this season (310.1 yards/game allowed). Healy is the third Austin Peay coach to be named OVC Coach of the Year, joining Bill Dupes (1964) and Boots Donnelly (1977). The OVC Coach of the Year award is named after Eastern Kentucky legend Roy Kidd, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, who won the award a record 10 times during his career (1964-2002) and retired with 314 victories, the second-most in I-AA/FCS history.
The highly-recruited Oatsvall saw split time at quarterback through the first half of the season before taking over the main signal caller duties after an injury to the starter in the first possession of the Tennessee State game on October 14. In the final six games of the season, Oatsvall led his team to a 5-1 record, with the only loss coming to nationally-ranked Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) foe UCF (who is currently undefeated on the season). In those six games he accounted for 1,178 yards of total offense and 11 touchdowns (6 passing, 4 rushing, 1 receiving), including multiple scores in four of those games, and was named OVC Newcomer of the Week three times. He had a season-high 209 yards passing at UCF, and a season-best 82 rushing yards against Tennessee State. He had a trio of touchdowns in victories over Southeast Missouri and a come-from-behind road victory at Eastern Kentucky, where he scored the game-winning touchdown with 53 seconds remaining. Oatsvall is the first Austin Peay player to be named OVC Freshman of the Year since the award was first given out in 2004.
2017 OVC Football Award Winners
OVC Freshman of the Year: Jeremiah Oatsvall (QB), Austin Peay
Roy Kidd OVC Coach of the Year: Will Healy, Austin Peay
FIRST-TEAM DEFENSE
DL – Jaison Williams, Austin Peay
LB – Gunnar Scholato, Austin Peay
FIRST-TEAM SPECIALISTS
RS – Kyran Moore, Austin Peay
SECOND-TEAM OFFENSE
QB – Jeremiah Oatsvall, Austin Peay
OG – Ryan Rockensuess, Austin Peay
OT – Kyle Anderton, Austin Peay
ALL-NEWCOMER TEAM
OT – Kyle Anderton, Austin Peay
QB – Jeremiah Oatsvall, Austin Peay
RB – Ahmaad Tanner, Austin Peay.