Murray State vs. Florida State Prediction

Murray State is dreaming of upsetting Florida State but it's not going to happen.

Why? Size is the reason the Racers will lose this game. Oh yes, the Seminoles are huge compared to the Racers. Their offensive line has 18 guys that are over 300 pounds. The Racers have two offensive linemen that are over 300 pound.

Fans may tell me that size doesn't matter. It does when the Racers had a problem with stopping the run last year. Four opponents were able to run for over 200 yards last year against Murray State. Don't be surprised if it happens again. However, in the end this game will end up being a tuneup for the Racers.

Florida State Week: Seminole Rap vs Murray State Anthem

To get Florida State week officially going, let us examine two rap videos created by each school. I think it's safe to say Primetime isn't on Trubz and Matlock's level. 

Western Fans Are Mad at ESPN

Earlier this week, ESPN released rankings for the top 50 basketball programs in the last 50 years. Murray State received 241 points using a point system by the ESPN Stats and Information department, putting them at #28.


"28. Murray State 241 Points 

Positives:  The Racers' active streak of 25 straight winning seasons ranks fourth nationally (behind Syracuse, Kansas and Arizona). Their 22 conference titles since 1962 trail only Kentucky, UCLA, Kansas and Penn. Their 15 conference tourney titles in the Ohio Valley are more than UNLV, UConn and Gonzaga have racked up in their respective conferences."


WKU was put 30th with 236 points....and Hilltopper fans can't believe it and have resorted to their last line of defense to help themselves feel better by coming to the conclusion that ESPN is "clueless." 

Racers to Host Old Dominion

The newest marketable game for Murray State is set to be played on November 24th at home versus the Monarchs of Old Dominion.

I know fans really wanted to see VCU come into The Bank this season but with that not working out, it is nice to add another recognizable opponent. The Monarchs are coming off a 22-14 season with a quarterfinal loss in the CIT and also gave the eventual National Champion Kentucky Wildcats a tough game early in the season at the Mohegan Sun.

Monday Morning Murray Links

We're still counting down the days until the Racers kick-off the 2012 football season in Tallahassee and for our first link of the day we send you over to the folks at goracers.com for the first time.

Check out this video summarizing 2012 Camp and the scrimmage held Friday.

Shifting gears over to the basketball court, Dick Vitale selected Isaiah Canaan as one of his top three choices for National Player of the Year. The other two were Cody Zeller from Indiana and Doug McDermott of Creighton. 

You can read the full article by Dickie V HERE.

Racer Recruiting Update: Justin McKie on Lineage of Champions

2013 shooting guard Justin McKie is reportedly down to two schools, Murray State and Wright State but he's receiving a lot of attention from other mid-major schools.

Lineageofchampions.com published an article on McKie claiming is "one of the most sought after mid-level recruits in the southeast." You can read the rest of the article here.

McKie is ranked 3rd in his state of South Carolina and 54th at the shooting guard position.

OVC Roundup

Your weekly OVC Roundup is brought to you by Conor Revell. These are the top OVC stories from this past week.

This week was busy for OVC schools. Students are returning to campus and so are the athletes.

The biggest news comes out of Belmont, where Alicia Hsu is trying to defend her National Figure Skating title. Austin Peay's men's basketball team is hanging out with a bunch of northerners in Canada, and SEMO's gymnastic team has a bunch of nerds.The good news is that every OVC school made the list this week, so there's something for everyone.

Derrick Rose's Rehab and Future

Derrick Rose is the main factor for the Chicago Bulls acceleration to the top of the league for the past two years, but last year completely changed that mind-set when we all him grab his knee in agonizing pain.

D-Rose's blinding quickness and gravity-defying moves to the basket has no doubt been the reason the Bulls have had the best record in the league for the past two years.  Last year the expectations for the Bulls were championship or bust and it seemed like they were on the track for winning it all when they came away with the best record in the league again and were going to play the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round.

Then the injury came that shell-shocked all of Bulls nation.  The one person who had never missed more than 5 games his whole career until last year came away from Game 1 of the playoffs with a torn ACL.  Rose went down for the rest of the season on April 28th and had his surgery May 12th.  And according to doctors, he is 2 or 3 weeks ahead of his rehabilitation schedule, which was supposed to keep him out to mid-December to January.

Tyrann Mathieu Rumors

Rumors have been swirling about Tyrann Mathieu possibly transferring to Jacksonville State. Mathieu is also known as Honey Badger.

Today, we learned that Jacksonville State has not been given permission to talk Mathieu. LSU won't allow JSU to talk to him yet. Of course, that doesn't mean, he won't end up at Jacksonville State. Look at how long it took Berry to register at Murray State.

Florida State's Heisman Candidate QB In Walking Boot

EJ Manuel, Florida State's Quarterback, was held out of a scrimmage today for, what is said to be, precautionary reasons and is reportedly in a walking boot.

We're still 18 days away from playing the Seminoles and losing their starting QB doesn't mean the Racer's will now have a chance. If you are going to lose by multiple touchdowns you want it to be with their best team anyways, so hopefully EJ is okay.

Updates on Manuel will be provided as they come in.

RacerNation's Thursday Thoughts

With only 18 Days until the start of the 2012 football season, the weather is cooling down but things are starting to heat up around these parts. For the first time in many years fans all down Purchase Parkway and beyond are getting excited about Murray State football.

The newest FCS poll from The Sports Nation has Murray State receiving 292 votes putting them at 26th behind The Crimsons of Harvard. EKU comes in at 18th and Jacksonville State 22nd. Murray State home opening opponent Central Arkansas is 24th.

Murray State Picks Up Darrell Smith From Arkansas

Darrell Smith is now the fifth player to come from an SEC school on the 2012 roster. Smith played two seasons under Bobby Petrino before transferring to Murray State.

Although he played mostly special teams for Arkansas in his two years there, look for Smith to get most of his minutes at the defensive back position.

Smith was a three-star recruit coming out of high school in Florida. He was listed as the 78th best safety according to ESPN.

Murray State's defensive backfield looked a little shaky a few weeks ago but now after a few transfer DB's have signed to play for Coach Hatcher, teams may not be throwing all over us, like we previously thought.

Questions Around the NFL

Lingering Questions for the 2012 NFL Season

Any true NFL fan has questions going into the season. Here are some of the more pressing questions for each team as training camps, preseason battles and depth charts are being concluded before Week 1 approaches.

Breaking News: Jaamal Berry is Officially a Racer

Tom Annino of WPSD is reporting that Jaamal Berry has officially enrolled at Murray State University. Berry is a transfer from Ohio State University, and was a four star recruit at one time.

Berry will begin practice tomorrow, but he has not been cleared to play yet. The season starts in a little less than three weeks, and the question is, whether or not he'll be ready for the Florida State game. If he is cleared, the Racers will be sitting in fine shape at the running back spot.

So what does this mean for the Racers?

Murray State's Defense Improving With Help of Transfers

Our Murray State football expert, Conor Revell, posted a couple weeks back that our defense would ultimately be our downfall this season. In the last week, however, the Hatch Attack has snagged two huge transfers to help Murray improve it's defensive woes.

First it was Fred Harvey, a 6 foot 230 pound linebacker from Memphis. Harvey was rated a 3-star out of the high school class of 2010 and after redshirting his first season with Tigers has joined Murray State. Harvey will be a sophomore heading into the 2012 season.

Then after a second commitment on Saturday, two players have transferred over to Murray State from South Carolina. The first to do so was Corey Addison in January. Addison is a 6 foot 208 pound Junior Linebacker/Safety. He was listed as the 21st best safety in the nation.

On Saturday Racernation was given the news that, Addison's former Gamecock teammate, Cardarious Sanders, will also be joining the Racer defense. Sanders, a cornerback was rated a 3-star in the class of 2010 and could certainly find himself as a starter in 2012.  (To see Sander's highlight video, click below.)

Jamaal Berry Not Coming to Murray?

It's getting close to a month now since it was reported that former Ohio State tailback, 4-star recruit out of High School, Jamaal Berry would be coming to Murray State and would be eligible to play this upcoming season. The newest report from a writer at PhilSteele Magazine, a publication devoted to college football, reports that this will not be happening.

His words were "despite reports, OSU RB Berry is NOT going to Murray State this year."

I am not sure if that means that Berry will not end up at Murray at some point or if this means we will never see him take the field at Roy Stewart.

Racer Recruiting Update: Demarcus Croaker Cuts List to 3

A Rivals Top 150 Recruit, Demarcus Croaker, headlines this weeks recruiting update. The 2013 shooting guard from Orlando, Florida has shortened his list to Florida State, Texas and Murray State.

Once again Steve Prohm and company find themselves targeting a big name recruit against a couple of bigger schools.

It could be challenging to get Croaker to leave his home state of Florida but Texas already has 7 underclassmen that our guards four of which who are Freshman. Which means Croaker may not be promised any playing time for next year and will have to battle for a position the next few years.

OVC Roundup

Your weekly OVC Roundup is brought to you by Conor Revell. These are the top OVC stories from this past week.

It was a quiet week for the OVC. Most athletic departments are gearing up for the football, volleyball, and soccer season which is just a few weeks away. Just about all of the football,volleyball, and soccer players have arrived back at their respective campus.

The big news this week, would have to be EKU announcing their Hall of Fame class for this year, Morehead State finalized their basketball schedule this week, and SEMO's starting QB is out for the season.

Lakers Begin a New Era...Again

We've seen the old Lakers teams. Their lineup was stacked from top to bottom through the Magic and Kareem era.  But now the Lakers begin a new era and I highly doubt anyone will be able to stop this train.

Dwight Howard finally got his wish:  He's out of Orlando.  The Los Angeles Lakers acquired him via a 4-team trade which included the Philadelphia 76ers, the Denver Nuggets, and of course the Orlando Magic.

Master Debaters Installment 1: Replay in Baseball

MLB fans will remember this blown call for a VERY long time. Could replay have prevented it?

The folks here at MKYSports would like to introduce you all to our newest series of articles: Master Debaters. Every now and then-actually pretty much all of the time-sports fans find themselves in a disagreement. Many times, this disagreement has nothing to do with a rivalry or like/dislike of a certain player or anything of that sort. That's the case here.

In this first installment of Master Debaters, Ryan and Dj debate the increased use of replay in baseball. So...here we go.

Women's Soccer Takes Humbling Defeat

Murray State's Women's Soccer Team fell to Illinois State 6-0 in it's exhibition opener at Cutchin Field this afternoon.

The Racers were able to hang around for the first half allowing only one goal early as Kyla Cross found the back of the net to get the Redbirds on the board first.

The final 45 minutes of the game all belonged to the away team as Illinois State scored five more times the last of which coming on a penalty kick by Allie Newsom.

That is all for the bad news. The good news is it's only an exhibition and the Racers will have one more tune up before regular season play starts. The final exhibition is against Middle Tennessee on Sunday at 1 PM at Cutchin Field.

Missouri State Post Game Festivities

Missouri State is trying to bribe fans to come out to their home opener September 15th against Murray State by offering a fireworks display and a concert from a band I have never heard of.

So now I am really hoping the Racers put a smackdown on the bears, driving folks out of the stadium before the 4th Quarter and force the band, "A Rocket to the Moon," to perform in front of empty seats.

Doomsday for the Big East

The days of the Big East Conference being a powerhouse conference is almost over. 

Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and Syracuse have already left, or will be leaving the Big East.

Who will leave next? It could be Louisville and Cincinnati. If that happens, the Big East is no longer a top tier conference.

Quick Hits: The Tennessee Titans

With only 30 days remaining before the start to the NFL Regular Season, stories are developing fast out of training camps around the league.

Throughout the season, we'll be covering the Tennessee Titans as much as possible, simply because the team is in our backyard.

A few thoughts on the team and where they are today:

Monday Morning Murray Links

In this weeks installment of Monday Morning Murray Links, it is all about Racer basketball and the Adidas Camp that Isaiah Canaan and Ed Daniel attended this weekend in Los Angeles.

Once again people were very impressed with Canaan who is mentioned in THIS ARTICLE by nbadraft.net. (As was Robert Covington of TSU)

Ed and Isaiah were all over twitter this week with journalists and scouts praising them. As Canaan finished with 21 points last night in a scrimmage, Jonathan Wasserman of nbadraft.net tweeted this:

Racer Recruiting Update: Rashawn Powell Narrows His List

One of the major recruits Murray State is pursuing for the 2013 class is the star point guard out of Orlando, Florida, Rashawn Powell who just recently trimmed his list to seven schools.

According to Coast2Coast Hoops, Powell has narrowed his choice of colleges down to Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Illinois, Memphis, Alabama, Seton Hall and Murray State.

Rashawn Powell is currently ranked 77th on ESPN's Top 100 Recruits for 2013 and is rated a 4-Star prospect by ESPN and many other recruiting analysts.

OVC Roundup

Your weekly OVC Roundup is brought to you by Conor Revell. These are the top OVC stories from this past week. There were some big headlines this week, none bigger than the news that came SIUE.

SIUE is finally an official member of Division I in the NCAA. Morehad State and Tennessee Tech, have ties to the Olympics in London. A former SEMO player is now playing for the Kansas City Chief. Austin Peay finally put out something that was more news worthy than their new basketball court, and much more. 

New Faces....Any Superstars?

The Chicago Bulls have added many new players to their roster after gutting their bench to clear cap space.  The big question will the new faces be able to contribute at all?

After losing the likes of center Omer Asik, three-point marksman in Kyle Korver, defensive threat in Ronnie Brewer, and two reliable point guards in CJ Watson and John Lucas III, the Bulls had some major revamping to do.  With Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler being the remaining members of the acclaimed "Bench Mob," there were major holes to fill.

The first addition came when the Bulls decided to bring back Chicago favorite Kirk Hinrich.  He will be a suitable replacement for the absence of Derrick Rose as he rehabs a torn ACL.  The next acquisition came in the draft when the Bulls drafted Marquis Teague out of the University of Kentucky.  A thrasher like Rose but has a lot of improving to do before he can contribute at all.  In my opinion, the Bulls could have picked a different player in the draft that could contribute in a much better way than Teague, but we will see what becomes of this.

Friday's Racer Round Up

So who else is ready for September to get here? I don't speak for everyone but I, for one, am football starved and more than ready for the opening kick-off of the NFL and Murray State Racers football.

Speaking of kickoffs, the Murray State Women's Soccer Team has their blue and gold scrimmage tomorrow at 4 so if you are in the Murray area head down to the soccer fields for some soccer action on a Saturday afternoon.

In basketball recruiting news 2013 PG KC Goodwin is said to have offers from Murray State (of course), UMASS, Illinois State and College of Charleston.

Florida State Will Be Ranked #7 When Racers Come to Town

The first FBS Poll of the season has been released and Murray State's first opponent of the season, the Seminoles of Florida State, comes in at #7.

Playing an FBS top ten team on the road is an awfully tough start to the regular season. Yet it gives Murray State a chance to shock the world if the incredible upset can be pulled off, however being a realistic fan, I think it would be unfair to say that I believe the Racer's will come out of the Sunshine State with a "W".

With all of that said, it is also worth mentioning that Murray State will play more ranked teams in week one than, our friends 4 hours northeast, in Louisville will all season if these rankings were to hold up.

Marcus Harris to Tennessee Titans

Former Murray State wide receiver, Marcus Harris has signed to play with the Tennessee Titans after leaving the Detroit Lions.

Harris finished his career at Murray State as the schools all time leader in receptions with 216 and holds the school record for most receiving yards with 2,471 total yards.

If you are one of the many Tennessee Titans fans also asscoiated with Racer Nation (like myself), this has to be exciting news for you as now you will get to cheer for a former Murray State player on your favorite NFL team.

Racer Football Talk with Conor: Linebackers

Huzzie at OVC Media Day

The Murray State linebackers is the one of the few bright spots on the Murray State defense this year. Murray State linebackers, Qua Huzzie and Sam Small were named to the 2012 Preseason All-OVC Football Team.

However, there's a catch, the Racers don't have much depth at the linebacker position this year. Huzzie and Small will be the two returning starters this year, and they will anchor the defense. Only one other guy that saw significant playing time last year is back. If an injury occurs, the Racers will have to rely on linebackers who have not had much experience playing college football.

Qua Huzzie spent his first two year at the University of Kentucky. Last year, Huzzie came into Murray State, and made 80 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. The Racers will need him to step up again this year.