Sometimes, a coach's sheer energy steers a situation.
Consider that the case at Austin Peay.
Sources tell FootballScoop that first-year Govs head coach Jeff Faris is making a bold move on the offensive side of the ball. Austin Peay is nabbing top young coach Antonio Bradford to handle running back duties, with Bradford likely also serving as Austin Peay's running game coordinator, while also putting Michael Gehl in charge of the Govs's offensive line.
No less than three Middle Tennessee prep coaches reached out to FootballScoop about Gehl, who already was recently elevated from a graduate assistant post into a full-time, on-the-field assistant's role.
Most recently a part of Ben Fox's rising Maryville College program in East Tennessee, Bradford also has previous experience at South Alabama.
He returns to Austin Peay, where Bradford previously also coached on the offensive side of the ball.
Additionally, Bradford has NFL experience from coaching internships with both the Tampa Bay Bucs and Detroit Lions.
An Alabama State graduate, Bradford has been consistently praised for both his technical teachings to players and his work relating to his troops.
Faris, part of FootballScoop's Fresh Faces, FCS Places series, is in his own right considered among college football's top young coaches.
The 34-year-old Knoxville, Tenn., native and former Duke player under David Cutcliffe had served on staffs at Duke with Cutcliffe as well as at UCLA with Chip Kelly.
Excitement around the Austin Peay program is at a record-high mark, as evidenced by the school's recent announcement that it had sold a new all-time high in season tickets as well as also renewed more than 90 percent of its last year's season ticket sales, also an all-time mark.