Opponent Breakdown: Murray State Racers Offense

Dean Hood will bring his Racers team to Louisville with the hopes of keeping his season on track after a solid win last weekend. The Racers finished last season with two wins but Hood has only led two losing seasons in his entire career. The offense put up points last week and they showed an ability to spread the ball around with a balanced attack.

DJ Williams was lost for the season last year shortly into the first game of the year but he has returned this year and looks like a guy who is ready to win. Williams has good size at 6-3/211 and he can use his legs when needed, but for the most part, he likes to stand in the pocket and deliver the ball. Where he struggled last week was with his deep ball. He consistently overthrew or underthrew receivers and didn’t have great touch on the ball.

The running back group is a rotating committee but every back I watched last week showed an ability to get chunk yardage when they had the space. There isn’t one guy that looked like a gamebreaker but I was impressed with the overall speed of the group. They could definitely take advantage of a running lane if UofL doesn’t shore up the run defense issues we saw in the first half last week. Jawaun Northington is a guy to look out for. The former Manual star was the second back to enter the game last weekend.

The quarterbacks didn’t give the receivers much of an opportunity to show out but Taylor Shields finished the game with two touchdowns. Shields was the leading receiver last year and the veteran looked good as a deep threat. He is the one guy on this offense that I would expect to make a play or two. He won’t likely shy away from the moment. Golden Oke and Cole Rusk are two transfers to watch out for. They both have FBS experience and good size.

The offensive line gave the quarterbacks a lot of time last week against a lesser opponent. While they had some holding calls, I was impressed by how they created a pocket and worked together. The running backs had room to run as well but there were some issues on the backside of their stretch runs. While the space was there, things closed down when backs tried to cut back at times. I think the pass protection will be key for the Racers as UofL showed last week that they still have plenty of ability to put pressure on the quarterback.