Murray State University Athletics
Pannunzio optimistic about 2004
8/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Murray State head coach Joe Pannunzio had his first press conference of the season today, as he met the media in MSU's annual Media Day, held in the Racer Room at Roy Stewart Stadium.
Citing a change in team attitude brought about by an emphasis in discipline and team chemistry, Pannunzio said, "I'm excited about where we're going and what's ahead of us. I think we have a chance to win the Ohio Valley Conference, but to win it, we're going to have to do it the hard, hard way. We've got to beat, probably, the top four teams, and we're going to have to beat them on the road."
The Racers (4-8, 3-5 OVC last season) visit Jacksonville State on Oct. 2 in what the Gamecocks see as a rematch game against the only league team to beat them last year en route to the OVC title. Murray State also travels to Eastern Illinois on Oct. 16, Eastern Kentucky on Oct. 30 and Tennessee State on Nov. 20.
Murray State has five home games in the 11-game schedule, but no two are back-to-back. MSU alternates home and away games beginning Sept. 18 at Indiana State.
Pannnunzio said that he and his staff began off-season training two days after the last game of 2003, and went back to the days of earlier Racer success.
"The first thing I looked at was when we were successful back in the days when Coach (Frank) Beamer was here, and they ran the wide-tackle six," he said. "So, we went out and hired a guy who was very, very familiar with the wide-tackle six, and he's doing a great job with our kids. His name is Dennis Therrell. He was the coordinator at Army the last four years, and before that, he was at Illinois State.
"It's just night and day in terms of how our kids are committed to what we're doing. All it was was just old-fashioned discipline, and the results -- when you get to come to practice, or you get to see us, hopefully, on the 28th, you're going to see that the kids really and truly care about each other, they really and truly have character and they're kids that are working hard.
"My feeling is, the team that's going to win, and the team that's going to win the OVC and eventually go to Chattanooga (for the I-AA championship) is the team that plays as a team, and that's what we're really shooting for and working hard for."
Murray State began working out in full pads today, and will have a scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 14, at 3:30 p.m. at the intramural field between 16th Street and Waldrop Drive. The team has the first of its six two-a-day practices tomorrow morning (Wednesday) at 6:30.
