As Jeff Faris positions his Austin Peay Govs football program for a potential 2026 Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs run, the third-year head coach is doing so with some significant moves along his coaching staff.
Sources tell FootballScoop that Faris is adding tight ends coaching responsibilities to Lucas Reed, the program's top, young special teams coordinator who arrived at Austin Peay in January 2025 after spending extended time at Football Bowls Subdivision program Rice.
Additionally, Faris has moved quickly to fill the vacant role of defensive line coach in the Govs program. Sources tell FootballScoop that Faris is hiring Darien Moody.
A veteran coach who spent the past three years on Chris Hatcher's Samford Bulldogs staff in the Southern Conference, Moody has significant coaching experience in the South despite hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
Like Reed, Moody has FBS coaching experience from time on staff Southern Miss, where he helped the Golden Eagles have a nationally ranked defensive unit. He's also coached at Mississippi Valley State and starred collegiately at storied HBCU program Alcorn.
Austin Peay just punctuated one of its best seasons in football history in Year 2 under Faris. The 7-5 Govs posted a dominant win against Derek Mason's FBS MTSU Blue Raiders to open the season, the program's first win against an FBS program in more than three decades, and just missed an FCS Playoffs spot in a season-ending overtime loss at eventual No. 4 seed Tarleton State.
Faris made the moves with Reed and Moody to fill the voids left by the departures of ex-tight ends coach George Quarles and former defensive line coach DeOn'Tae Pannell.
A national high school record-setting head coach earlier this century at Maryville High School (Tennessee), Quarles was lured back to the prep coaching space last month when he was hired atop the prestigious Knoxville Webb School program.
Pannell, a former Penn State standout-offensive lineman, is returning to his alma mater to join the defensive staff of new Nittany Lions coordinator D'Anton Lynn, a former Penn State teammate and roommate of Pannell's. The duo also worked together previously at UCLA in 2023.
Faris already scored a significant offseason victory last month when Austin Peay retained star quarterback Chris Parson, a former Mississippi State signal-caller who was the United Athletic Conference's top quarterback in 2025. Parson had drawn significant Power Conference interest on the heels of his breakout-campaign but re-signed with Faris and the Govs to "run it back" in 2026. His return also helped Faris secure additional members of his Govs roster.
Austin Peay, like virtually every single FBS and FCS program in the sport, is presently preparing to host official visitors from the NCAA's Transfer Portal, which opened Friday and runs through Jan. 16 in the Portal's first-ever single-window session.