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Interview: Murray State Head Coach Mitch Stewart · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:00
Speaker 1: J. P. Shadick with Murray State Racers head coach Mitch Stewart, coach,
0:05
Speaker 1: it's great to talk to you. How how's it going man?
0:08
Speaker 1: Any better? And I'd beat you guys. I appreciate the
0:10
Speaker 1: phone call. Yeah, it's uh. The draft is over. Things
0:13
Speaker 1: are going well around here, of course, but certainly at
0:16
Speaker 1: Murray State. You've been there for four years as the
0:19
Speaker 1: head coach, nine years total. You just signed an extensions.
0:22
Speaker 1: Congratulations to you on that after a solid conference season
0:26
Speaker 1: a year ago. But now your players are going on
0:29
Speaker 1: to the next level. So you had three players this
0:30
Speaker 1: year go to the NFL, including two to the Jaguars.
0:34
Speaker 1: We'll get to those coming up, starting with Quincy Williams.
0:37
Speaker 1: You know, coach, you have a lot of Alabama guys
0:39
Speaker 1: on the roster, guys from that state. Um, how did
0:42
Speaker 1: you come about Quincy and what were your first impressions
0:45
Speaker 1: of him when he arrived in Murray, Kentucky. Well, he
0:49
Speaker 1: was actually, um and I've all this story a couple
0:52
Speaker 1: of times now since everything has happened. He is my guy, man,
0:58
Speaker 1: He's he's got a soft spot my heart because he
1:01
Speaker 1: was actually the last guy that I recruited and signed
1:04
Speaker 1: as an assistant UM as an offensive coordinator. I had
1:07
Speaker 1: the Birmingham area UM and and we do, we do
1:11
Speaker 1: recruit a lot of guys out of the state of Alabama.
1:14
Speaker 1: Just we we've we've had some uh the way our
1:17
Speaker 1: scholarships work and and how how different kids cost different
1:22
Speaker 1: you know, prices in different states. But Alabama has always
1:24
Speaker 1: been one of our main states we recruit out of
1:27
Speaker 1: and that was my area and UM went down. Had
1:30
Speaker 1: to fight for him to get him approved. As a
1:32
Speaker 1: matter of fact, the defensive coaches we had he played
1:35
Speaker 1: safety in high school and we had two other safeties
1:37
Speaker 1: on the board that we were going to bring in.
1:40
Speaker 1: UM Quincy was a guy that uh, a lot of
1:42
Speaker 1: people that dropped off of UM. He had okay, great,
1:46
Speaker 1: but I think he had a low test CORPS I
1:47
Speaker 1: remember correctly, so he wasn't right there qualified and that
1:51
Speaker 1: probably heard him in the recruiting process. I held on
1:54
Speaker 1: to the very end. And uh a matter of fact,
1:56
Speaker 1: how I got him approved as I told the head
1:59
Speaker 1: coach at the time that I would take him as
2:00
Speaker 1: a running back, and I just I just you know,
2:03
Speaker 1: I said, man, we need this kid on our football team.
2:05
Speaker 1: And got him approved and signed him. One of the
2:09
Speaker 1: coolest things about him that I learned through the recruiting
2:11
Speaker 1: process he was actually UM going to he was he
2:15
Speaker 1: was on the docket to go to the Olympic trials
2:18
Speaker 1: for swimming. Um. He could have been an Olympic swimmer.
2:22
Speaker 1: And that's probably the first thing you'll notice when you
2:25
Speaker 1: see him in person, as he has these massive arms.
2:28
Speaker 1: Um that he has like an eight one inch wingspan
2:30
Speaker 1: or something like that that should go on the body
2:33
Speaker 1: of a six seven guy. But he has his huge
2:35
Speaker 1: hands and huge arms and shoulders. Um. But he's just
2:39
Speaker 1: a beautiful kid. Like I said, he's always he's always
2:42
Speaker 1: had a soft spot in my heart. He's a big
2:44
Speaker 1: smile and kid, has a great personality. Uh, just a
2:48
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of a zest for life type
2:50
Speaker 1: of guy. Is not lazy, you know, you know, they
2:52
Speaker 1: don't walk around rubbing his eyes and all of that
2:54
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. He's the type of guy when his
2:56
Speaker 1: seat at the floor, he has a purpose in what
2:57
Speaker 1: he's doing. Coaches. Their Their family story is pretty remarkable.
3:02
Speaker 1: They lost their mother a while back, of course, and
3:04
Speaker 1: the father raised the kids up the right way and
3:07
Speaker 1: and now that success is paying off in the National
3:10
Speaker 1: Football and you see and and and his brother's interviews.
3:13
Speaker 1: We haven't really seen Quincy interviewed yet. How did the
3:17
Speaker 1: family background and how they came up on the west
3:20
Speaker 1: side of Birmingham help him in college and now into
3:22
Speaker 1: the NFL. Well, I think that having that close family
3:27
Speaker 1: structure and that tight knit UM you just about you
3:32
Speaker 1: just about have to have it. And and and I
3:34
Speaker 1: say this, and I'm gonna say this cautiously because I
3:37
Speaker 1: still love that area in recruiting and I don't want
3:39
Speaker 1: to I don't want to UM say anything that would
3:42
Speaker 1: that would hurt those guys are be seen negatively to
3:45
Speaker 1: those guys. But I'm I went to see Quincy um
3:49
Speaker 1: uh in a game when he was in high school.
3:51
Speaker 1: And I was driving up to the stadium and it
3:53
Speaker 1: was a pretty big rival UM rival game right there
3:56
Speaker 1: and this is this is intercity Birmingham, and I remember
4:00
Speaker 1: UM about a mile from the stadium, I can see
4:02
Speaker 1: the stadium lights up ahead of me, and I see
4:05
Speaker 1: some some police lights, some siren lights, and I figured
4:08
Speaker 1: they were just helping people park and this is this
4:11
Speaker 1: is no line now. I pull up and they had
4:13
Speaker 1: a body chalked on the sidewalk. Um, there had been
4:18
Speaker 1: I I don't know, maybe somebody got hit by a
4:21
Speaker 1: car or I don't know, but it was a The
4:24
Speaker 1: body was gone, but you could see where it was
4:26
Speaker 1: still chalked chalked out on the sidewalk. Sidewalk, so UM,
4:30
Speaker 1: it was a rough area, you know, to come up in. UM.
4:33
Speaker 1: And I think that's why I was so important for
4:35
Speaker 1: them to have the family structure that they had. His family,
4:38
Speaker 1: his grandparents and his dad after the loss of his mother,
4:42
Speaker 1: did a tremendous job keeping um. All of his sibling
4:46
Speaker 1: and him and he's got two brothers and a sister,
4:48
Speaker 1: all of them on the right path and going in
4:49
Speaker 1: the right direction. Coach Mitch Stewart with us from Murray State,
4:53
Speaker 1: the Racers head coach going into his fifth season as
4:56
Speaker 1: the headman in Murray, Kentucky. When you finally got him
4:59
Speaker 1: in a building, though, Um, how long did it take
5:02
Speaker 1: for him to really take on a leadership role. I
5:05
Speaker 1: know it's tough as a freshman coming in. You're a
5:07
Speaker 1: new guy in a new state. The whole deal. At
5:09
Speaker 1: what point in his career there could you lean on
5:12
Speaker 1: him on the defensive side. Well, I think the one
5:16
Speaker 1: thing that I respect the most about Quincy is is
5:18
Speaker 1: he did it the tough way. Now, he did it
5:19
Speaker 1: the hard way. He was here for five years. He
5:21
Speaker 1: did the red shirt deal his first year. UM, which
5:25
Speaker 1: you know, anybody who's even remotely familiar with college football
5:30
Speaker 1: now everybody knows kids aren't into that, uh, that schedule anymore.
5:34
Speaker 1: They want it now, you know. And usually when they
5:37
Speaker 1: don't get it now, they'll transfer it. And and it
5:40
Speaker 1: just kind of the college landscape and and the way
5:43
Speaker 1: it is now. He he never was that type of guy.
5:46
Speaker 1: He came in, he red shirted. Um, he did the
5:49
Speaker 1: look squads, you know, he went down there. He would
5:51
Speaker 1: come to the offensive side, do the look squads, all
5:54
Speaker 1: of that type stuff. Um. And he was a five
5:56
Speaker 1: year guy and um and uh, I think it probably
6:02
Speaker 1: his third year here. Because the unfortunate thing for Quincy
6:06
Speaker 1: was we always had to move him, um and just
6:09
Speaker 1: and and and not out of maliciousness, just out of necessity.
6:12
Speaker 1: We always had to move He played bakery, played safety,
6:15
Speaker 1: go back to backery, come back to safety. Um, just
6:18
Speaker 1: because we have an injury. And at the FCS level,
6:21
Speaker 1: you know a lot of times the backup is not
6:23
Speaker 1: the one that plays. It's the next best guy. You're
6:25
Speaker 1: just trying to get the best of leving on the field.
6:28
Speaker 1: And um, that hurt him a little bit from his development.
6:31
Speaker 1: I think I'm a new defensive coordinator. Jack Jake Johnson
6:34
Speaker 1: did a fabulous job with him this year. In his
6:37
Speaker 1: first year as being defensive coordinator, Quincy was a guy
6:39
Speaker 1: that he just kind of year marked and said, Hey,
6:42
Speaker 1: he's gonna play backer. He's gonna stay at backer. I'm
6:44
Speaker 1: not moving back there to safety. I want to see
6:46
Speaker 1: how good this kid can get. And uh, so, you know,
6:50
Speaker 1: he's always been a very passionate kid. Um, he's always
6:54
Speaker 1: wanted to lead. UM, and his about his third year
6:57
Speaker 1: he started voicing that, you know, and and really he
7:00
Speaker 1: started being the one to try to get practice going
7:04
Speaker 1: in the right direction and things like that. But obviously
7:07
Speaker 1: it wasn't until his junior and senior year to where
7:09
Speaker 1: he kind of had the quote unquote street credit to
7:11
Speaker 1: do so and guys started listening to him. But Stewarts
7:14
Speaker 1: of the head coach at Murray State, we're discussing Quincy Williams,
7:17
Speaker 1: the Jaguars third round pick linebacker in uh strengths as
7:23
Speaker 1: a linebacker, though just watching the video. As we said,
7:26
Speaker 1: he can run, he can hit, and that really just
7:28
Speaker 1: stands out on tape, doesn't it. Yeah, Yeah, that is
7:31
Speaker 1: that's his biggest strength. What we call it, what we
7:34
Speaker 1: call it around here. Every scout that came through, we
7:36
Speaker 1: would say, hey, this guy's got old school contact courage.
7:40
Speaker 1: Um and uh we we we talk a lot about that.
7:44
Speaker 1: And and when you watch his tape, like you said,
7:46
Speaker 1: that's probably the first thing you see, you know, the
7:49
Speaker 1: act of hitting somebody's kind of um, it's it's not
7:53
Speaker 1: normal for the human reaction. You know, most of the
7:55
Speaker 1: time when something is coming at you or something you're
7:58
Speaker 1: gonna hit something, the normal human action is to two
8:01
Speaker 1: duck or move by the way or dodge or turn
8:03
Speaker 1: your head, you know, or stop your feet. And that's
8:06
Speaker 1: the one thing you always try to teach these defenders
8:09
Speaker 1: is to get your feet hot and run your feet
8:11
Speaker 1: on contact. And that was the thing that probably stuck
8:16
Speaker 1: out immediately now as day one on campus. Immediately, Um,
8:21
Speaker 1: that kid Quincy had never had that issue, never had
8:24
Speaker 1: that issue. He's always been a bend your face math.
8:27
Speaker 1: I mean, he tries to bend your face mask every
8:30
Speaker 1: chance he gets. And he's always been a guy. I've
8:33
Speaker 1: never seen him get knocked back on contact. And it
8:35
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what programs we faced, even the the big
8:39
Speaker 1: money games for us, when we play an SEC team
8:41
Speaker 1: or or or an a SEC team, I've never seen
8:44
Speaker 1: that kid get knocked backwards. He's always going forward, coach.
8:48
Speaker 1: If you had to estimate, I mean, I guess most
8:50
Speaker 1: teams come through Murray with scouts at some point, But
8:54
Speaker 1: how many were really dialed in on Quincy and your estimation, um,
8:59
Speaker 1: I mean but pretty good. It would probably be easier
9:02
Speaker 1: for me to say who wasn't you know? There was
9:04
Speaker 1: only a handful of teams that uh and and really
9:08
Speaker 1: I'm probably lying down. I I don't remember anybody who
9:11
Speaker 1: just kind of wrote him off. Everybody was pretty dialed in.
9:14
Speaker 1: Every there was even the day of the draft, we
9:17
Speaker 1: were getting calls, you know, and and hey man, just
9:21
Speaker 1: one last time, let me let let me ask you
9:23
Speaker 1: about this kid. UM really thought that he would be
9:26
Speaker 1: taken in the fourth round. From the phone calls we
9:28
Speaker 1: were getting even even the day of sounded like there
9:31
Speaker 1: was a couple of teams that we're gonna try to
9:33
Speaker 1: take him Um, either later on in that third round
9:37
Speaker 1: or or in their next pick in the fourth round.
9:40
Speaker 1: So most everybody was interested, you know, especially when he
9:44
Speaker 1: started putting a couple of weeks on tape where people
9:46
Speaker 1: started seeing the physicality that he plays with. UM. But
9:51
Speaker 1: I will say this one thing for for for for
9:54
Speaker 1: the Jaguars organization. Now watched the general manager to his
9:57
Speaker 1: UM press conference of Quincy after the pit and one
10:01
Speaker 1: thing that he said that that I just I have
10:03
Speaker 1: the utmost respect for was they because you know a
10:08
Speaker 1: lot of people like you said, we're going, man, who
10:10
Speaker 1: is this kid? We just took this kid in the
10:11
Speaker 1: third round. Who is this kid? He's an SCS guy. UM.
10:15
Speaker 1: And he made the statement he said, you know, we
10:18
Speaker 1: have a scouting department and we have scouts, we have
10:20
Speaker 1: regional scouts. We have all of these people in the
10:23
Speaker 1: scouting department that do this job and they evaluate these
10:25
Speaker 1: guys and they get the information on these guys. We
10:28
Speaker 1: go see him at their pro days and we decide
10:32
Speaker 1: through that evaluation if we want them or we don't
10:34
Speaker 1: want him, and how high we want them. And this
10:36
Speaker 1: was a kid that we evaluated, we liked, and we
10:39
Speaker 1: wanted no matter who else was interested, no matter what
10:42
Speaker 1: other teams were interested, and we took him because we
10:45
Speaker 1: felt like he was good enough for this round, um
10:48
Speaker 1: and this pick, and he feels a need he'd be
10:51
Speaker 1: you know, he feeled a need that the organization had.
10:53
Speaker 1: And UM, when I heard him say that, I just
10:55
Speaker 1: had a lot of respect for that, because we're talking
10:58
Speaker 1: awful lot about that in recruiting, you know, about how
11:00
Speaker 1: we don't try to sign kids just because they have
11:03
Speaker 1: other people who have offered them, or other people in
11:05
Speaker 1: the conference who've offered them. We go off of our
11:07
Speaker 1: evaluation and trust our evaluation. And to hear him say that, Man,
11:11
Speaker 1: I just had an awful lot of respect for that.
11:14
Speaker 1: In the process that they went through, you got to
11:16
Speaker 1: eliminate the noise from the outside. Coach, there's a lot
11:20
Speaker 1: of noise out there, uh, Coach Mitch Stewart with us
11:23
Speaker 1: from Murray State. Let's move along to marquess Sanford, undrafted
11:27
Speaker 1: rookie free agent from Murray State, signed with the Jacksonville
11:31
Speaker 1: Jaguars by ft ten hundred eighty six pounds or making Georgia.
11:35
Speaker 1: What stands out about Sanford's career with you? Um, well,
11:39
Speaker 1: you know, he he started day one as a freshman.
11:42
Speaker 1: A matter of fact, I'm pretty sure his first game,
11:45
Speaker 1: his first college start, I think he had to pick six. Um,
11:49
Speaker 1: I know it was his first conference game is against
11:51
Speaker 1: Eastern Illinois and he had to pick six. And U
11:55
Speaker 1: he was just a guy who came in from the
11:58
Speaker 1: get going played because one sing that you'll notice about him,
12:01
Speaker 1: he has tremendous confidence, um in himself. Um, he's not
12:07
Speaker 1: gonna turn it down against anybody. UM. You know when
12:10
Speaker 1: he gets into that in the three day camp and
12:13
Speaker 1: and all of those things, is he's not gonna be
12:16
Speaker 1: one that's intimidated by any of that. Um. He's he's
12:19
Speaker 1: always he's very comfortable in man coverage. He's very patient
12:22
Speaker 1: in man coverage. He does not get out of his
12:25
Speaker 1: pedal too early to try to run with receivers. And UM,
12:28
Speaker 1: he's not He's not going to be the fastest. UM.
12:30
Speaker 1: He's never had lightning speed. A matter of fact, his uh,
12:34
Speaker 1: his girlfriend ran track here and UH we used to
12:39
Speaker 1: always tease him because she could. We used to always
12:41
Speaker 1: tell him that your girlfriend could smoke you way faster.
12:45
Speaker 1: And boys used to set him off. But he's always
12:48
Speaker 1: had um an extreme work ethic. He's always stayed here
12:52
Speaker 1: through the summers because we've um uh just this past
12:55
Speaker 1: year was our first year having an actual summer program
12:58
Speaker 1: where we had the budget to keep eyes here and
13:01
Speaker 1: and and put him in class and all that. And
13:03
Speaker 1: even before that, um Black, that's what we call him.
13:06
Speaker 1: Black is his name. He's always found a way to
13:10
Speaker 1: stay here and work and work out and and be
13:12
Speaker 1: around and train. So he's gonna be a fun one.
13:15
Speaker 1: He'll be a lot of fun to have in camp.
13:17
Speaker 1: Um and and I believe that he'll turn some hands
13:20
Speaker 1: when he's in camp because he's just got that confidence
13:22
Speaker 1: about it. Five career interceptions with Murray, state pass breakups
13:27
Speaker 1: in his time and Murray as well. And you had
13:29
Speaker 1: another NFL signing, your quarterback Drew Anderson going to Arizona.
13:33
Speaker 1: And you know, I guess the highlight last year was
13:36
Speaker 1: when he struggled in that first half against Southeast Missouri.
13:40
Speaker 1: Everybody kind of knows about this. If you know what
13:42
Speaker 1: you're about to find out. Thirty one nothing was the score.
13:45
Speaker 1: He threw three picks and a fumbled the ball in
13:47
Speaker 1: the first half and then rally to win the game.
13:51
Speaker 1: How did that? How did that come about? So it's funny.
13:55
Speaker 1: So my offensive coordinator Nick Coleman bringing him over because
14:00
Speaker 1: we scored right before half, okay, and and and and
14:04
Speaker 1: when I say right before, I mean like seconds before
14:06
Speaker 1: we go into half. We finally scored. So we're going
14:09
Speaker 1: to halftime thirty one seven. And and the announcements at
14:13
Speaker 1: the game they made the comment they said, merch date
14:15
Speaker 1: has a one percent chance to win this ball game.
14:18
Speaker 1: That came on the ESPN deal. So we've kind of
14:21
Speaker 1: taken that rant ran with it. We we have some
14:23
Speaker 1: things here in the program. We talked about one percent
14:26
Speaker 1: and how how much that means. But anyway, Uh, coach
14:29
Speaker 1: Coleman brings Drew in at halftime. He says, hey, buddy,
14:32
Speaker 1: I believe in you. I know you believe in yourself,
14:36
Speaker 1: but damn boy, you gotta do something so those other
14:38
Speaker 1: guys believe in you, and you gotta do it quick.
14:41
Speaker 1: And uh, he said, you gotta make some mother folks
14:45
Speaker 1: leap too. And it was just one of those weird
14:48
Speaker 1: deals where it was the worst half of football you've
14:53
Speaker 1: ever said, And it wasn't. We weren't we weren't playing bad.
14:55
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, Um, right before half, I
14:58
Speaker 1: looked up on the score board and you know how
15:01
Speaker 1: they do the endgame stats, you know, on the scoreboard,
15:04
Speaker 1: and I've never done this before in my career, but
15:07
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and I feel about as bad as
15:10
Speaker 1: I can feel in this in this first half of football,
15:13
Speaker 1: and we're just getting our fani spanked and we've played
15:16
Speaker 1: so and I look up at the school board and
15:18
Speaker 1: we were actually winning in every statistical category, so that
15:23
Speaker 1: I'm looking up their yards yards per play, um, first downs,
15:28
Speaker 1: all except for the turnover margin and the score. And
15:32
Speaker 1: I just I thought to myself, I said, you know what,
15:34
Speaker 1: we're not playing bad. We just keep doing stupid things.
15:38
Speaker 1: And I was literally kind of what we talked about
15:40
Speaker 1: at halftime. UM, guys like Drew and and Quincy and
15:44
Speaker 1: some of these guys, I leaned on them and I said, listen,
15:47
Speaker 1: we've got to be very mature and realize what's going
15:49
Speaker 1: on in this front all game. And I need you
15:51
Speaker 1: guys as help because we're not playing bad. We've just
15:54
Speaker 1: had a lot of bad things happened to us. So
15:57
Speaker 1: let's just cut that out and go play ball. And
16:00
Speaker 1: and they did that, you know, they helped me rally
16:01
Speaker 1: the troops at halftime and kind of made everybody start
16:04
Speaker 1: believing that we weren't playing that bad. We were just
16:07
Speaker 1: doing some really stroupid things and um, and then obviously
16:11
Speaker 1: Drew had uh. Probably he went from having the worst
16:14
Speaker 1: half of football I've ever seen to having one of
16:15
Speaker 1: the best half of football I've ever seen. To finish
16:18
Speaker 1: the game, Coach Mit Stuart from Murray State, the Racers
16:22
Speaker 1: headman talking Quincy Williams, Marquess Sanford and another player his
16:27
Speaker 1: Drew Anderson going to the Arizona Cardinals. Coach, great visit,
16:31
Speaker 1: really good to talk to you, really appreciate it. Hey,
16:33
Speaker 1: thank you guys. Any time, if we can ever do
16:35
Speaker 1: anything for you guys up here, you just call and
16:38
Speaker 1: let us know.