After going 0-11 during his first season at Austin Peay in 2016, Chattanooga native Will Healy led the Governors to an 8-4 record a year ago and earned the Eddie Robinson Award as the coach of the year in the Football Championship Subdivision.Having spent nearly half of his existence in college football, whether as a Richmond quarterback, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant or the head coach at Austin Peay, Will Healy is well aware of the 60-minute aspect to each game.
Which is why he is approaching Saturday’s opener between his Governors and No. 3 Georgia inside Sanford Stadium one snap at a time.
“It’s about setting as many short-term goals as you can,” Healy said. “Let’s get a first down on our first series. Let’s hold them where they don’t get points on their first drive. Let’s try to get points in the first quarter. Once you get one of those goals, then you can act like they’re ready to beat the Green Bay Packers.
“Beating the No. 3 team in front of 93,000 sounds really hard, and it will be really hard, but getting a stop on the first series may zone us in a little bit.”
Healy, who remains Chattanooga’s career prep passing leader after compiling more than 7,700 yards as a Boyd-Buchanan standout, is days away from facing the most talented opponent of his life. Yet challenges are nothing new for the 33-year-old, who in December 2015 eagerly took over the worst program in NCAA Division I.
The Governors had lost 16 in a row when Healy grabbed the reins, and their reputation as a Football Championship Subdivision doormat only grew his first season with an 0-11 record. A 27-game losing streak this time last year became 29 when Austin Peay lost its first two games to the Football Bowl Subdivision tandem of Cincinnati and Miami of Ohio, but the Governors emphatically snapped their skid with a 69-13 rout of Morehead State and rolled to an 8-4 record.
Austin Peay went 8-1 a year ago against FCS opposition and 7-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play, setting a single-season school mark for league wins. Healy, who had worked seven years for UTC as an offensive assistant under Russ Huesman, received the Eddie Robinson Award as the FCS coach of the year as a reward for the staggering turnaround.
All of last season’s success has added up to a very different August in Clarksville, as the Governors enter Healy’s third year ranked No. 22 and No. 23 in the two major FCS polls.
“It’s ridiculous how different it is,” Healy said. “It’s what you hoped and dreamed that this place would be. There are expectations. People are excited. We’ve got preseason rankings, and media people are wanting to talk about us playing the University of Georgia on ESPN on the opening weekend of college football.
“I’m not concerned that our kids can’t live up to the expectations or the hype or whatever. I hope their expectation is not to finish second in the league, but you want to make sure they’re as hungry as they were a year ago. We have more talent on our roster, but we need to keep the same chip on our shoulder.”
Healy’s ties to Chattanooga have resulted in a roster littered with talent from his hometown area, a list that includes quarterback JaVaughn Craig (McCallie), running backs Jalyn Shelton (Ridgeland) and Ahmaad Tanner (Dalton), offensive linemen Tristen Pierce (Ringgold) and Bucky Williams (Ringgold), defensive linemen Jaylen Moore (Red Bank) and John Wesley Whiteside (Dalton), linebacker Tyler Reid (Ooltewah) and defensive back Malik Davis (Red Bank). Healy said Craig has been tremendous this month while backing up starter Jeremiah Oatsvall, the OVC preseason player of the year out of Brentwood Academy.
“We will have five to 10 players from the Chattanooga area who will dress against Georgia with a chance to help us,” Healy said.
Healy isn’t going to write down a pregame speech this week, admitting he is more effective off the cuff, but he does plan to practice the victory formation during practice. He admits there are risks in playing a foe of this magnitude that counter the exposure from ESPN, most notably his chief concern of staying healthy.
With kickoff only six days away, Healy said Georgia is providing a video study unlike any other he experienced during his first two seasons as a head coach.
“Imagine turning on your film exchange, and you’re used to watching Austin Peay versus Eastern Illinois,” he said. “Now you’re watching the SEC championship game and the national championship game. You’re looking for weaknesses and tendencies on a team that just played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the national championship.
“You’ve got to get over the hump of watching the game and saying, ‘I remember this play. This is a great play.’ Now I’ve got to pay attention to when they have three down linemen or four, or which direction they like to run most of the time. It takes a little while to get past the awe of playing the University of Georgia.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.