Spring Football Outlook: The Eagle Offense

PART 1 - DEFENSE

This is the second of a three-part series looking at the Morehead State football team during spring drills. Class designations reflect each player's year for the 2016 fall season. Today: Offense.

Spring drills 2016 mark a time when it feels good to be in charge of the Morehead State offense.

The Eagles, whose 7-4 campaign last season was their best in 10 years, appear to be well stocked again.

Patrick St. Louis is starting his second year as MSU's offensive coordinator. He plans to make spring drills a time to fine tune a team that led the Pioneer Football League in total offense with 416.6 yards per game last season.

"We want to be a little bit more explosive," St. Louis said as spring drills got underway last week. "We want to up our yards per play. And a big thing we're focusing on in spring is our yards on first down. … We want to get our completion percentage up a little bit with some of our quick stuff, and we think that will help us accomplish those goals."

Of course, quarterback is the natural place to start when sizing up an offense. And the Eagles have a dandy.

"But we've got a lot of guys up front with a lot of experience who either started or played a ton," St. Louis said. "And our skill positions, we've got a lot of guys back. So we feel good about where we're at and being able to evolve some of the things we do this spring."

But start with that quarterback.

Austin Gahafer, a 6-foot, 187-pound senior out of Louisville's St. Xavier, is reigning PFL Player of the Year. He started all 11 games last year, leading the league with 294.9 passing yards per game and 24 touchdowns.

"He's a young man that the Cleveland Browns were here last week – testing him and worked him out," MSU head coach Rob Tenyer said. "He's got an NFL-caliber arm. So he does a great job. I think he's continuing to grow in our offense and he finds way to get better and make improvements."

Gahafer has a chance to rewrite the MSU record books, displacing in most cases his position coach, Zach Lewis.

St. Louis credits much of Gahafer's success to work ethic.

"Everything doesn't always come natural," St. Louis said. "He works hard at everything and he's a special player. He understands what we want to do and he goes out there and performs. He's just got that quarterback mentality."

At running back, MSU lost Rob Harden to graduation but the cupboard is not bare.

Brent Holman (407 rush yards, 2 TDs) and Ryan Watkins (205, 1) are back after seeing playing time as freshmen. And redshirt junior Lawrence Jones will be in the mix after missing last season due to an ACL injury.

Redshirt senior Jake Raymond, who finished second in the PFL to now-graduated teammate Justin Cornwall with 6.5 catches a game, is the top returning receiver. He caught 72 passes for 722 yards and six touchdowns last year, earning honorable mention all-PFL.

Christian Robinson, who also is a special teams standout, will be in the slot. Out wide, targets will include fifth-year senior Darius Pritchett and sophomore Marcus Floyd. Others who could factor in include redshirt sophomores Jawan Grey, Nathan Sames and Jarin Higginbotham.

The offensive line includes a pair of all-PFL honorable mention designees in fifth-year senior C.J. Phillips and redshirt junior Liam Maloney.

For the third time in four years, MSU led the league in sacks allowed last season, giving up only 11 in as many games. The Eagles also had the fewest turnovers in the PFL, 15.

Also back on the line are a pair of redshirt juniors who started last year before going down with injuries, Will Currie and Kyler Corbett. Redshirt sophomore Kris Jones also saw significant action last season.

St. Louis anticipates that a strong freshman class will help to make his unit deeper all the way around.

"I think we've got a lot of skills in this class," he said. "Last year was big-guy heavy. And we signed some big guys in this class, but we're more skill-heavy in this class. And I think some of the explosiveness they're going to be able to bring is really going to be beneficial for us."

After taking this week off for spring break, the Eagles will resume spring drills March 29. The annual Spring Game is set for April 16.

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Players Mentioned

#21 Rob Harden: RB; 5' 10"; Redshirt Senior

#8 Justin Cornwall: SLOT; 5' 10"; Redshirt Senior

#57 Kyler Corbett: OL; 6' 2"; Redshirt Junior

#10 Marcus Floyd: WR; 6' 1"; Sophomore

#15 Austin Gahafer: QB; 6' 0"; Senior

#13 Jarin Higginbotham: WR; 6' 0"; Redshirt Sophomore

#3 Brent Holman: RB; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#54 Kris Jones: OL; 6' 1"; Redshirt Sophomore

#6 Lawrence Jones: RB; 5' 8"; Redshirt Junior

#55 Liam Maloney: OL; 6' 4"; Redshirt Junior

#75 C.J. Phillips: OL; 6' 2"; Redshirt Senior

#2 Darius Pritchett: WR; 6' 3"; Redshirt Senior

Players Mentioned

#21 Rob Harden
: 5' 10"; Redshirt Senior
: RB

#8 Justin Cornwall
: 5' 10"; Redshirt Senior
: SLOT

#57 Kyler Corbett
: 6' 2"; Redshirt Junior
: OL

#10 Marcus Floyd
: 6' 1"; Sophomore
: WR

#15 Austin Gahafer
: 6' 0"; Senior
: QB

#13 Jarin Higginbotham
: 6' 0"; Redshirt Sophomore
: WR

#3 Brent Holman
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: RB

#54 Kris Jones
: 6' 1"; Redshirt Sophomore
: OL

#6 Lawrence Jones
: 5' 8"; Redshirt Junior
: RB

#55 Liam Maloney
: 6' 4"; Redshirt Junior
: OL

#75 C.J. Phillips
: 6' 2"; Redshirt Senior
: OL

#2 Darius Pritchett
: 6' 3"; Redshirt Senior
: WR