Murray State University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Spring Spotlight: Special Teams
3/27/2019 5:02:00 PM | Football
This spring the Racer football team returns to Roy Stewart Stadium in preparation for the 2019 season. Over the course of the entire spring camp, Go Racers.com will shine the spot light on each of the position groups and talk with their specific coach to get their thoughts on the spring in general, who is returning and what they will be working on over the next five weeks.
Who's Returning
The special teams unit for the Racers will enter the spring as one of the most veteran and decorated units on the team. Three Murray State specialists earned first-team All-OVC accolades last season including punter Steve Dawson, kicker Gabe Vicente and return specialist Malik Honeycutt.
In his first year playing American football, Dawson impressed by 42.1 yards per punt with long of 66. The Aussie also had 10 punts of 50-plus yards, 16 that went inside the opposing 20-yard line and just four touchbacks in 54 punts.
For Vicente, he continued to be one of the most accurate kickers in school history making 34 of 36 extra point attempts and 14 of 18 field goal tries including a 50-yarder, the second of his career.
While he may not have become the Racers main return guys until the waning seconds of MSU's second-to-last game of the season, Honeycutt made up for it in production and style. After returning a kick-off 79 yards with three seconds left to complete an improbable comeback against SEMO, Honeycutt did it again the following week, this time on an 80-yard punt return in the season finale at Austin Peay.
In addition, Chandler Moody also returns as the long snapper, while Dawson will enter his second season holding for field goals and extra points.
Who's Gone
None
Coach's Corner
Special Teams Coordinator Tate Omli
GR: Who are some of the returners out her for you this spring and what you are expecting out of them?
TO: We have Steve Dawson coming back at punter, Gabe Vicente at kicker and Malik Honeycutt at returner and all three were first team all-conference last season and that's pretty cool for us. However, as a team, we have talked about making sure we take the next step and focusing every day, as we start a new year. Those guys didn't earn those accolades by showing up every day and not going hard and not focusing on the little things. So what it really all comes down to on special teams is operations. Because some of the guys that were not on that All-Conference list like Chandler Moody, his snapping for us on punts and kicks was phenomenal last year, and then Steve when he went to hold for Gabe was really good. So our focus this year is to earn it again and be elite in our operations.
GR: Unlike the fall, there is no opponent in the spring, so you can just focus on yourselves. What will some areas of focus for you guys over the next five weeks?
TO: We're just focusing on fundamentals here in the spring and getting our guys better at the little things. When you go back last year and look at things and scheme-wise, there are always little things you look at and wish you had done a little different. However, where we missed out and missed plays came down to two things. The first was consistent effort, maybe a guy not quite finishing all the way, and those little, tiny fundamentals. So we are trying to get better at those little fundamentals and see what guys can be great for us.
GR: What are some opening day observations you had of your unit today?
TO: We did a cool thing with our specialists at our first practice, something we haven't done before and that was right after every team session they came out and kicked. So I thought it was really good to see them run through some live operations on the first day. It really tested them, as opposed to kicking with no pressure, it puts some pressure on them and with the wind and it was a little bit of a challenge. So it was really cool to see those guys focus and come out and get in their groove and own it and I'm excited to see what we can do over the rest of the spring.
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Who's Returning
The special teams unit for the Racers will enter the spring as one of the most veteran and decorated units on the team. Three Murray State specialists earned first-team All-OVC accolades last season including punter Steve Dawson, kicker Gabe Vicente and return specialist Malik Honeycutt.
In his first year playing American football, Dawson impressed by 42.1 yards per punt with long of 66. The Aussie also had 10 punts of 50-plus yards, 16 that went inside the opposing 20-yard line and just four touchbacks in 54 punts.
For Vicente, he continued to be one of the most accurate kickers in school history making 34 of 36 extra point attempts and 14 of 18 field goal tries including a 50-yarder, the second of his career.
While he may not have become the Racers main return guys until the waning seconds of MSU's second-to-last game of the season, Honeycutt made up for it in production and style. After returning a kick-off 79 yards with three seconds left to complete an improbable comeback against SEMO, Honeycutt did it again the following week, this time on an 80-yard punt return in the season finale at Austin Peay.
In addition, Chandler Moody also returns as the long snapper, while Dawson will enter his second season holding for field goals and extra points.
Who's Gone
None
Coach's Corner
Special Teams Coordinator Tate Omli
GR: Who are some of the returners out her for you this spring and what you are expecting out of them?
TO: We have Steve Dawson coming back at punter, Gabe Vicente at kicker and Malik Honeycutt at returner and all three were first team all-conference last season and that's pretty cool for us. However, as a team, we have talked about making sure we take the next step and focusing every day, as we start a new year. Those guys didn't earn those accolades by showing up every day and not going hard and not focusing on the little things. So what it really all comes down to on special teams is operations. Because some of the guys that were not on that All-Conference list like Chandler Moody, his snapping for us on punts and kicks was phenomenal last year, and then Steve when he went to hold for Gabe was really good. So our focus this year is to earn it again and be elite in our operations.
GR: Unlike the fall, there is no opponent in the spring, so you can just focus on yourselves. What will some areas of focus for you guys over the next five weeks?
TO: We're just focusing on fundamentals here in the spring and getting our guys better at the little things. When you go back last year and look at things and scheme-wise, there are always little things you look at and wish you had done a little different. However, where we missed out and missed plays came down to two things. The first was consistent effort, maybe a guy not quite finishing all the way, and those little, tiny fundamentals. So we are trying to get better at those little fundamentals and see what guys can be great for us.
GR: What are some opening day observations you had of your unit today?
TO: We did a cool thing with our specialists at our first practice, something we haven't done before and that was right after every team session they came out and kicked. So I thought it was really good to see them run through some live operations on the first day. It really tested them, as opposed to kicking with no pressure, it puts some pressure on them and with the wind and it was a little bit of a challenge. So it was really cool to see those guys focus and come out and get in their groove and own it and I'm excited to see what we can do over the rest of the spring.
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