Nick Kendall
Staff Writer
After a 59-20 victory over Pikeville, the Murray State football team will head to Athens, Georgia, on Saturday to play the No. 3-ranked FBS and SEC powerhouse University of Georgia Bulldogs.
The last time the teams met was in 1949 when the Bulldogs defeated the Racers 49-0 on their home field.
While there have been notable upsets over the years, FBS teams have usually had no problem beating FCS teams.
However, redshirt junior linebacker Anthony Koclanakis believes if any FCS team like Murray gives it their all they can compete with any FBS team.
“I think a lot of FCS teams are motivated to get in there,” Koclanakis said. “I feel like a lot of players that play FCS just are talented, they just didn’t have the same exposure as some of the other players that got into FBS schools.”
Head Coach Mitch Stewart plans to clean up the many mistakes he saw during the victory against Pikeville; most importantly, unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
“I had a notebook full of things that we had to go over,” Stewart said. “Some of the things that happened after the unsportsmanlike penalties, like our special teams—they did not do some of the techniques that we did and kind of did their own thing. We did not play as good as I thought we played in a lot of different areas. So a lot of things to clean up. For us there’s a lot of Murray State issues before we ever get to tackling UGA issues.”
Stewart explained a game against an opponent such as Georgia like a boxing match. Everyone is always bloody and bruised so that’s how the Racers have to play if they want to keep things interesting.
“We’re not going to play scared,” Stewart said. “That’s probably the biggest thing is offensively and defensively. We’re going to attack, we’re going to play football the way that we want to play it and we’re going to try to execute at a high level no matter who’s in front of us. Will that be tough this week? Absolutely. Will we get bruised up and bloodied? Absolutely, but we got to make sure they are too. That was our message to the team this week.”
Stewart, the Georgia native and a former Valdosta State University quarterback, also made it clear that Murray is his home so going down to Athens is just another game for him.
“My home is here,” Stewart said. “My girls were born here. My home is here. I’m going back to where my parents live. I’ve had to deal with my brother, who’s a graduate from UGA. He wanted some tickets to the game. I told him it depends on what t-shirt he’s wearing at the game. It’s another chance for us to have an ESPN 2 game. It’s a chance for us to put that logo out there publicly in front of a big crowd. I’ll be able to shake Coach Smart’s hand because I haven’t seen him in a long time. I probably owe him all this that’s happened to me. I probably owe a lot of it to him because he was the one who got me down to Valdosta many years ago when I was in high school.”
The Bulldogs went 11-2 and finished first in the Eastern division of the SEC last year. Their run to the College Football Playoffs was cut short by the University of Alabama Crimson Tide’s win against them in the 2018 SEC Championship.
Kick-off is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sep. 7 at Athens, Georgia.
