Story by Keith Jaco
Staff writer
rjaco@murraystate.edu
Murray State’s football team will look to rebound from an 0-2 season start when it meets in-state opponent UK on Saturday.
This week, the Racers will look to use what they learned against the University Central Arkansas in hopes of knocking off a resurgent UK team.
Murray State Head Coach Mitch Stewart was pleased with the team’s effort Saturday, when the team gave up just 26 points and limited turnovers to two, but believes there is still room for vast improvement heading into week three.
“There are some things that we’ll talk about in our meetings that I was proud of; some plays and tremendous effort,” Stewart said. “But there’s also a lot of execution things, lack of execution and that kept us out of being able to win that ball game, and those are things we have to get corrected and our guys know that.”
Murray State will face UK for only the second time in school history on Saturday afternoon. In their prior meeting, the Racers suffered a 37-6 loss in the second game of the 2003 season, as former UK quarterback Jared Lorenzen threw four touchdown passes to lead the way for the Wildcats.
The Racer defense will have their hands full Saturday with UK junior running back Benny Snell Jr. Snell has posted 303 yards on 47 attempts in two games this season, rushing for 178 against the University of Florida alone, and is showing no signs of slowing down heading into the matchup with Murray State.
Senior linebacker Quincy Williams understands the task at hand in containing Snell come Saturday afternoon.
“They have a really, really great running back,” Williams said. “He’s a very big guy, the way he runs is very physical with downhill running so our biggest thing will be stopping him and forcing them to play in the air.”
On offense, sophomore wide receiver Sylvaughn Turner believes the key to the Racers’ success lies in sticking to the game plan.
“They’re looking at us like we’re a cakewalk,” Turner said. “But we’re going to come out and play our ball and do what we do best, which is playing fast and hitting people in the mouth.”
Stewart expects his team to enter Kroger Field on Saturday ready to compete against a soaring Wildcat team.
“We have nothing to lose,” Stewart said. “It’s still going to boil down to one thing and that’s effort, and that will never change. That’s non-negotiable. We focused on that last week; we watched tape on that last week, and we constantly showed examples of that. We’re going to go up there and we’re going to play with the same effort, if not better than last week; that’s the charge.”
UK is entering week three with a 2-0 record – its best start to a season since 1986. Much of this success comes from the running game of Snell, as well as important defensive stops from senior linebacker Josh Allen. Allen was awarded SEC Defensive Player of the Week as a result of his five-tackle performance against the University of Florida.
Allen also contributed to the only takeaway in the contest, sacking University of Florida sophomore quarterback Feleipe Franks as the Wildcats delivered the improbable late Saturday night.
UK Head Coach Mark Stoops had a similar game plan as Stewart and the Racers: limit the turnovers.
“We will continue to work on them,” Stoops said. “You don’t ever want your team to play with any fear. You want them confident and making throws and things of that nature, but securing the football and fumbles are something we cannot tolerate and will not tolerate.”
UK defeated Florida for the first time since 1986 Saturday evening in Gainesville, Florida. The Wildcats had been unsuccessful in knocking off the Gators in 31 consecutive chances until their victory Saturday night. Coming off this historic win, Stoops reminded his team of their expectations and the importance of moving onto the next opponent.
“I think we have to talk to the team about what our standards are,” Stoops said. “Every team is different and every year is different. I really love this group and how they handle things, and I expect them to handle this game the same way. Going back to worrying about us and creating our own standards and living up to them is important.”
Murray State will travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to face off against UK at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15 at Kroger Field.