How Jeff Faris began path to becoming Austin Peay football coach under David Cutcliffe

The sight would warm David Cutcliffe's heart.

As early as the Duke football coach liked to get to work, he wasn't always the first in the building. Cutcliffe's office was next to offensive line coach John Latina's, and often, right before Cutcliffe opened his door, the first thing he'd see was Latina holding court with Jeff Faris .

It made Cutcliffe smile for a few reasons. One, even though Faris was the Blue Devils ' wide receivers coach, he wanted to learn as much about offensive line play as possible. Two, Faris was over 30 years Latina's junior. Not only did Cutcliffe admire Latina's willingness to mentor his young colleague, he was in awe of Faris's hunger to grow.

"John chuckled about how Jeff would just wear him out," Cutcliffe said.

Faris sometimes got grief from other members of the Duke coaching staff, who poked fun at him for seemingly never taking a break. But the ribbing came from a place of respect. In Faris, they saw a prodigy — one of the youngest assistants in Power 5 football — but never saw that label get to his head.

Now the prodigy has his own program: Austin Peay . Faris, who at 34 is the fifth-youngest coach in all of Division I, will make his debut Saturday when the Governors face Louisville (11 a.m., ACC Network). While Faris doesn't know that he expected to become a head coach so early, those present for his formative years never had any doubts.

"You just can't out-recruit him," Cutcliffe told The Leaf-Chronicle. "You're not going to get up earlier than him. You're not going to get more work done in a day than he does. You're not going to get more organized. Maybe more importantly, nobody's going to smile as often as Jeff does."

Jeff Faris learned from David Cutcliffe, worked with Manning brothers

Technically, Faris's coaching career got started not in Durham, but his hometown of Knoxville. Starting in middle school, Faris coached youth flag football, basketball and baseball, and while he played high school football at Knoxville Catholic, he knew coaching was his future instead.

"I was pretty self-aware that the NFL was not for me," he said. "So I was able to plan for the next step in my life."

It helps when you count David Cutcliffe as a family friend. During his stints as a Tennessee assistant coach from 1982-98 and 2006-07, Cutcliffe developed a relationship with Jeff's parents, John and Sondra. He went to church with the Farises and helped out with their oldest son's Little League team when he could. When Cutcliffe was hired by Duke, he offered Jeff a spot as a walk-on safety.

That Faris appeared in just three games during his four seasons at Duke was beside the point. Cutcliffe saw him as a foundational piece; someone to create a culture for a program that had been to two bowls since 1960. As a senior in 2011, Faris received the Micah Harris Trinity Teammate Award, presented each season to a Duke player "who displays the traits of a true team­mate: character, unselfishness, compassion and pride."

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Cutcliffe had never had a scout-teamer request to sit in on meetings for the opposite side of the ball — until Faris, then a sophomore, asked if he could join the quarterback meetings. Faris wanted to see the game from a quarterback's eyes and use his defensive knowledge to help the Blue Devils' offense. "He can mimic an opponent better than anybody I've ever been around," Cutcliffe said.

Faris became a graduate assistant in 2012 and in 2014, Cutcliffe elevated him to wide receivers coach. He tried to make his mark on the program wherever he could. During the offseason, Peyton and Eli Manning would always come to Durham to spend some time working with Cutcliffe, who they both played for in college. Faris came to their workouts, and rather than just basking in the Mannings' presence, he busied himself with shagging balls and helping run drills.

In 2018, Faris moved to coaching tight ends. He spent three seasons in that role before shifting to quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator in 2021, calling plays for a Blue Devil offense that averaged 419.1 yards per game.

"He had a lot of opportunities that he could have went after that maybe would have been easier and maybe would have earned more money," said Kirk Benedict, then Duke's special teams coordinator. "But I think going to Duke as a walk-on, being a part of Coach Cutcliffe's first true recruiting class, going there, losing games, losing games, and then seeing it develop into a winning program ... shows that he loves football."

How Jeff Faris brings energy to Austin Peay football

Hosea Knifeley Jr. didn't need much time to decide.

The defensive end could have entered the transfer portal like many of his APSU teammates did after Scotty Walden was hired by UTEP last December. Instead, he had a nearly half-hour conversation with Faris at a Govs basketball game the day Faris arrived, learning about his new coach's vision for the program, and was soon all-in.

"He wants us to be the toughest football team in America," Knifeley said. "He wants us to be a close-knit team — one mission, one family. And third, he just wants us to be dominant and disciplined."

MORE: What to know about Austin Peay football as Govs open 2024 season Aug. 31 at Louisville

Walden's calling card was hyperactivity, and Faris isn't all that far off. He paces, talks fast and wears long-sleeved shirts even in the baking heat of August in Clarksville — practice, in a way, is also his chance to work out. He ups the ante in practice with what he calls "random periods," an exercise he got from Cutcliffe. Faris blows the whistle and the Govs are given a random down and distance. Coaches have to think fast to call the right play; players have to execute. Whichever side — offense or defense — "loses" the rep has to run a lap.

"We want to be at our best when we're tired," Faris said. "So we try to replicate that in practice."

Right guard Chandler Kirton doesn't think much about APSU has changed with Faris leading the program — maybe the addition of a few tweaks from his time at Duke and at UCLA, where he coached tight ends under Chip Kelly from 2022-23. Faris recognizes that turnover is inextricable from today's college football, but to him, that's always been the case.

"We talk about growth over comfort," Faris says, believing a culture that emphasizes growth will succeed no matter how much changes from one season to the next.

"If you love them and show them that you care, they'll run through a wall for you."

Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.

This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: How Jeff Faris began path to becoming Austin Peay football coach under David Cutcliffe