Story by Keith Jaco
Staff writer
rjaco@murraystate.edu
The Murray State Racers’ football team is off to its best OVC start since 1997 after a statement win at home last Saturday, Oct. 13. The Racers will look to keep the momentum going as they head to Richmond, Kentucky, Saturday, Oct. 20 for an OVC matchup with Eastern Kentucky.
Although the Racers have rattled off three consecutive conference wins, Head Coach Mitch Stewart is staying with the same week-to-week approach as before.
“We’ve got to continue to focus on the work at hand,” Stewart said. “The biggest thing I’m concerned about right now is being able to practice today. We’ve got some weather today, so we’re making sure whether we go outside in the rain or if we’re in the indoor facility on the third floor that we have the best Monday practice and we get the preparation we need for this week; that’s it.”
The Racers are coming off of their third victory in a row following a dominant performance from senior quarterback Drew Anderson against Tennessee State. Anderson threw for five touchdowns and rushed for one, and was named National Offensive Player of the Week by the FCS and OVC.
The Racer defense showed out as well on Saturday, holding their opponent TSU to 7 second-half points with the help of two interceptions.
Murray State’s defense will be in need of another strong performance this week as it hopes to contain EKU junior running back Daryl McCleskey Jr. McCleskey has rushed for 493 yards on 88 attempts with five touchdowns.
Eastern Kentucky is coming off a huge come-from-behind win on the road against UT Martin in which the Colonels moved to 2-1 in OVC play. EKU will be back home Saturday, Oct. 20 as it looks to end Murray State’s OVC win streak in front of a homecoming crowd.
Stewart knows the task at hand and is hopeful his team can stick to the game plan in the matchup against Eastern Kentucky.
“They’ve got a lot of inventory that we’ve got to be ready for,” Stewart said. “It starts with alignment assignments and after that it boils down to the same two things we’ve been talking about: effort and enthusiasm. How hard are you going to play, and how excited are you to play that hard? If we can do those things on a down-in down-up basis, then we have a chance.”
Murray State will face Eastern Kentucky at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20 at Roy Kidd Stadium.