Gage Johnson
Sports Editor
gjohnson17@murraystate.edu
After a 2018 fourth-place finish in the OVC, the Racers are looking to continue their improvement in the upcoming 2019 season.
Head Coach Mitch Stewart said they had a longer camp with the beginning of school and made it as taxing as possible to best prepare the group for the upcoming season.
“We’re ready to go,” Stewart said. “It’s finally game week. We’ve got a little bit more urgency. You’d like to think you practice like game week all the time, but with human nature, you just don’t. There’s a little extra something in the tank and there’s just a different vibe on the field. Just really excited to watch this bunch hit the field and execute at a high level Thursday.”
The Racers are coming off a season in which they finished 5-6 overall with a 5-3 record in OVC play. Their season came to an end with a 48-23 loss to Austin Peay in a battle for third place in the conference. While they finished fourth, the OVC deemed them to finish seventh overall in the conference in the 2019 OVC Preseason Polls.
Despite the step forward taken by Racer football from 2017 to 2018, the team looks very different from a season ago. Only four seniors grace the first depth chart of the year. Add that to losing guys to the NFL or graduation, like Kenny Wooten, Quincy Williams, Drew Anderson and Marquez Sanford, and you have big shoes to fill.
However, Stewart believes that the team has had players step up and it will be crucial to the future of Murray State football.
“I think it’s good for the growth of the program,” Stewart said. “You’ll see some young guys and you’ll see some guys step up this year in starting roles, Jacob Bell being one of those. He was a guy that we were able to redshirt last year that will step into that starting wide receiver role Thursday. There’s a couple of guys like that.”
The team will also be without the player who was presumed to be a starting wide receiver and the “Miracle in Murray” return-man Malik Honeycutt.
“We tried to keep it as quiet as we could for as long as we could,” Stewart said. “Malik messed his knee up and he will not be back for the year. Could possibly have a chance at coming back towards the end of the year, but we will evaluate it at that time.”
While he may not be able to make an impact on the field, Stewart believes Honeycutt can still be an important part of the Racers’ success on the sidelines.
“Now his role is that he has to be the leader that he was on the field, he has to be that off the field,” Stewart said. “They really need his personality and who he is and his work ethic. They need to see him do that even when he’s not playing, and that’s going to be a very unique experience for him.”
With Anderson gone, redshirt sophomore Preston Rice will step in as the starting quarterback in week one for the blue and gold. While Preston is only in his third season with the Racers, the connection he and Stewart share is not a luxury every football team has.
“Me and Preston have a long relationship,” Stewart said. “I’ve known him since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. He’s taken every chance that he’s had to learn. He never once came into my office wanting to transfer or leave. He’s always wanted to know how he can get better.”
Rice’s tenacity and want to just go out and play football is something that Stewart expects to help him and the team thrive.
“The first scrimmage we put him in he looked really uncomfortable and said ‘Coach I can’t play like this,’” Stewart said. “He said ‘This red jersey has got to go. You have to let me play football. We have to go live.’ So that’s what we did.”
On the defensive end, senior linebacker Kendrick Catis feels that the group is more than capable of filling in the shoes of those who have gone on from Murray State.
“I know we lost Kenny and Quincy, but we have another Racer that stepped up in Tay (Carothers) and we added (Grayson) Long,” Catis said. “So I feel like the defense has more talent than it’s ever had since I’ve been here.”
Fans can get their first taste of the Racers on the gridiron at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29, at Roy Stewart Stadium.