Football Eagles Looking to Improve All Facets With Solid Spring

By Mark Maloney, MSUEagles.com

If spring has sprung – and it has – that means it's time for the Morehead State football team to start paying special attention to what the coaches are saying. The Eagles held the first of 14 spring workouts Monday in Jayne Stadium.

Typically, the team will put in four on-field workouts per week, plus two days in the weight room, before wrapping things up with the Spring Game on April 21.

"I think spring is really a teaching time," said Rob Tenyer, who is in his sixth spring as MSU's head coach. "It's the teaching phase of our development for our players. It's an important time for that reason.

"You can talk all you want about fundamentals and techniques, but you're trying to teach schematically what you want to teach your players. We've got a lot of guys returning with game experience, which is exciting, probably the most we've had since '15. And we've got a lot of young guys that we're really excited about that we're trying to evaluate and 'coach up' and help them transition from the weight room to the practice field. All of them are a little bigger, a little faster."

With that wealth of game experience comes leadership.

Tenyer cited All-Pioneer Football League quarterback Lawson Page, wide receiver Jarin Higginbotham and linemen Kris Jones and Josh Poe as leaders on offense. Cornerbacks Chauncey Johns and Brandyn Duncan, along with lineman Patrick Rice, linebacker Kordell Brown and defensive back Starr Hutcherson stand out among defensive leaders.

The Eagles have one January enrollee among the 2018 freshmen, Cary Enos, a quarterback out of Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C. NCAA rules prevent Tenyer from discussing other specific recruits until they are official.

For that matter, recruiting has not finished. Five-to-seven junior-college recruits are expected to visit campus, and Tenyer says he has a couple of high school recruits still on his radar.

"So we're finishing up at a few positions," he said. "But overall, from a size and speed standpoint, it's going to be a really impressive class. Our objective was to get bigger, and

I think we were able to do that with this recruiting class. I'm excited about the offensive line and just the prospects that we recruited."

In addition to new players, Tenyer has several new faces among his coaching staff.

NFL veteran Dovonte Edwards has taken over as defensive coordinator. Adam Mueller is the new defensive line coach. Omar Cook is in charge of cornerbacks. Killian Markworth moves up from an intern role and is in charge of tight ends.

"Schematically, we're going to be a little different," Tenyer said. "I think we've adapted on both sides of the ball – just after evaluating last year's film, breaking that down, understanding the dynamics of our conference and what we have to face each week. I think that has a lot to do with how we've changed.

"And it's not wholesale. It's just 'what are some things that we've done? What can we be better at? What are some things that we may not be able to do?' And remove those as well. It's just finding the right mix and putting our players in a position to be successful."

Tenyer has the task of monitoring the "temperature" of his team, thus knowing when to install schemes and when it's better to review. He says spring is a time to focus on the team's bread-and-butter – the things the Eagles expect to do best.

Morehead State finished 4-7 in 2017, 3-5 in conference play. MSU went 4-1 in Jayne Stadium, 0-6 on the road. Fixing that road rut is an obvious area of concern. Another is stopping the run.

While MSU rushed for 14 touchdowns and an average of 106.5 yards per game, opponents racked up 39 TDs and a 261.2 average.

"We're going to have a little different philosophy on the defensive side of the ball and the way we play within the box and the line of scrimmage," Tenyer said. "We're going to be a lot more versatile with our fronts and our packages. We're going to try and obviously put our players in a better position to be successful. You hear all the time we've been here … 'we've got to stop the run.' And we've got to have a better run defense if we want to be competitive in this conference. Coach Edwards understands that. Our defense understands that. It all starts with the guys up front – defensive line, offensive line. Those are the groups that have got to set the tempo for us if we want to win a championship."

Another area of emphasis will be special teams. The Eagles converted on only two of eight field-goal attempts last season.

"We've got to be better in that capacity," Tenyer said. "We get the 'plus' field, we've got to feel like we can come away with points."

Whether discussing defensive line, kicking or some other aspect of the game, Tenyer says that getting positive results boil down to one word: consistency.

"That's what we need to improve on," he said. "We've got some really good players. We've got some elite players. We've got some players that we're still developing. But at the end of the day, it's about being productive and consistent. And, really, that's what spring's for."

The Eagles will open the regular season with a Thursday night game, Aug. 30, at Eastern Kentucky. The home opener is set for Sept. 8 against Mount St. Joseph.

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