CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Jeff Faris wants to leave for his office – a 12-minute drive, he notes – by 5:15 a.m.
So, naturally, Faris is backing out of his driveway at 5:13 and beating the standard by a minute when he’s parking in the first non-handicapped spot outside Austin Peay’s Fortera Stadium 11 minutes later.
If early is on time, then the 34-year-old still ranking among NCAA Division I football’s youngest head coaches entering Year 2 aligns with the Faris ethos. He’s somehow a 13-year coaching veteran blending an unrelenting pace with an uncompromising belief in relationships as foundational tenets in his vision to return the Govs to the FCS playoffs and, well, bigger dreams.
The Clarksville community is booming, the school’s precocious athletics director Gerald Harrison knows from time at both Duke and Tennessee what big and good look like; Faris’s own staff also has a former FCS head coach, multiple former Power 4 assistants and a new defensive coordinator in Greg Jones that makes Faris say, more than once, “I think we got something with our defensive coordinator.”
Today is Practice 12 of Austin Peay’s second spring camp under Faris, but 12 months, 12 games complete and numerous roster and staff adjustments reflect a program microwaving its advancement in quicker time while building a culture of accountability, care for one another and sustainability.
“We want the last week to be the best week we’ve ever had at Austin Peay,” Faris says, “and then we’ll keep better.”
Shortly after 5:30, Faris is heading into the weight room – a morning ritual that’s part workout, “part greeting the guys, checking on them … and messing with them.” Strength coach Justin Collett already is there; so is offensive coordinator and former Duke staffer Quinn Billerman.
Redshirt-freshman Antori Hamilton, a defensive lineman, somehow beats Faris into the facility.
“I got up around 4:30, ate some breakfast and walked over,” says Hamilton, a Knox Catholic product – alma mater of his head coach and the reason Faris “feels old.”
“I played against his dad (Antonio) at Fulton,” Faris says. “His dad was a beast. This kid works his tail off. He was a walk-on but we put him on scholarship.”
Calling David Cutcliffe, for whom he both played and coached, a “hero” and Chip Kelly, his former boss at UCLA, a key mentor, Faris, unsurprisingly, is fastidious with details.
His players are fed in the facility Monday through Thursday throughout the offseason, an element in which he and Harrison are in lock-step; there’s nearly $40 million in stadium enhancements set to be online by the 2026 season; everything is charted, tracked, monitored, which is why as the 7 a.m. team meeting opens that Faris knows precisely which two players are coming off a Tuesday practice with 20 mph Catapult times and a total team effort above 92 that still reflects a slight dip from the 93-plus the previous Saturday.
“Today needs to be a 95 team effort, “ Faris, whose formula consists of total number of practice plays, full efforts and loafs, tells the team. “Everything we do, the pillar of our program is to compete. There ain’t no difference between our practice today or the Jock-n-Roll (campus athletics talent show). Everything is earned.”
He then springs a pop-question on the audience via fill-in-the-blank form.
“We coach our () players the (),” he asks.
“We coach our best players the hardest,” is the answer.
Position meetings follow by 7:30. Faris joins Billerman with the quarterbacks. It’s a deep room, full of competition and the opportunity for multiple guys to play. Billerman drills the group on plays, protections and more in advance of today’s session which features multiple live team periods and crucial goal-line work.
“This is actually a Riley Leonard special from when he was at Duke,” Billerman says of his former protégé and 2025 NFL Draft prospect after guiding Notre Dame to the College Football Playoff championship game.
Defensive line coach Deon’tae Pannell, a former Penn State player with experience from the NFL’s Bill Walsh program and Power 4 work at UCLA, delivers a simple message to all before practice.
“E.O.E.,” he bellows. “Execution over everything.”
Players hear from multiple coaches about the importance of owning short-yardage situations. The Govs coaching staff even has their own NFL study to illustrate their message.
“Because we are Austin Peay and we have high expectations, and our expectation is 90% or above conversion on short-yardage and goal line, you run through somebody’s face,” coaches intone. “No jump-cuts. Run through their face.
“NFL teams convert 57-66% short-yardage on Sundays. The two lowest teams in conversion last fall? Miami and the (New England) Patriots. They were sub-50% conversion last season. They didn’t make the playoffs.”
Defense carries an edge in practice, the last of the week before Faris gives players a rare late-camp weekend off and coaches prepare to depart to points around the country for professional development. Speaking of development, Faris is loving the impact of new cornerbacks coach Rodney Saulsberry Jr, a former Govs standout-player and son of Memphis-area prep coaching legend Rodney Saulsberry.
But at 10:17 a.m., the quarterback darts and outside-slant throw to the right corner of the end zone. Coaches are throwing up their hands in a touchdown signal before the catch is made.
It’s made, and the entire offense celebrates in their teammates’ moment. This minor thing is a big thing. “We want guys cheering for one another’s success,” Faris says.
Practice’s end facilitates another Faris staple: Gov Growth Thursdays.
Jordan Smalley, on staff at nearby Lifepoint Church, prays with about 30 players who stay around to hear his message on the “attributes of a game-changing leader.”
“Game-changing leaders don’t just blend in,” Smalley tells the players relaxing on the field turf near the end zone. “We need game-changing leaders now more than ever. Game-changing leaders are servant-leaders.”
He quotes from the David Brooks book about leadership, noting “Leaders show up on teams and say, ‘There you are.’” He notes the power of empowering those around them.
There’s lunch with much of the football staff in Clarksville’s old downtown area, where brick inlaid sidewalks, new hotel construction and myriad restaurants reflect the community growth. Talk centers on potential ramifications of the impending 105-man rosters in college football, as well as the inevitable replaying of several moments of practice. Some golf talk. The cheeseburger eggrolls appetizer doesn’t result in any scuffles, but nor are any of the staff-favorites left on the plate.
Staff meeting, before the weekend break, is set for 2:30.
Obviously, it starts at 2:24.
One of the things that most pleases Faris has absolutely nothing to do with either that day’s practice or anything on a football field.
“Now, 83% of our roster is already registered for fall classes,” the coaches learn during the meeting, Faris reinforcing the importance of that nugget.
Every live rep from practice is dissected.
“See how guys around react when he does something good,” Billerman says of the quarterback. “That’s got me fired up.”
Faris loves a dump-pass out of the backfield to the running back that ends in a nearly 30-yard touchdown, as well as an interception – well, he doesn’t love the interception – that sees the defender slide to the turf to end the “half” rather than risk turning possession back over to the offense.
“Look, contact starts outside the 10 (yard line),” Faris says on the touchdown pass. “He finds a way to finish. That’s everything we teach.”
There is five more months of teaching, growing, learning; ignoring no detail. Austin Peay kicks off its 2025 season Aug. 30 at Middle Tennessee; the Govs, a bit cruelly, travel to Athens, Georgia, to face Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs Sept. 6.
The schedule has play against fellow FCS competition starting Sept. 13 at home against Morehead State.
It is too early to tell where these Govs will end up. Their roster is undoubtedly improved, both through retention and addition. The coaching staff is gelling nicely, Faris believes, after some offseason changes.
How much of a leap is reasonable in the fall? Consider a day in the life of Jeff Faris.
Always ahead of schedule.
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