FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As Tommy Stevens departed the visiting media room beneath Donald W. Reynolds Razorback room, he looked for his brother, Aycen.
The youngest of the five Stevens children, Aycen, or ‘Tank,’ as he’s known, had yet to see his older brother play at Mississippi State due to his own Friday night games at Decatur Central in Indianapolis where he plays quarterback and linebacker.
Saturday, Tank and the rest of the Stevens clan trekked to Fayetteville to watch big brother Tommy and Mississippi State take on Arkansas.
For Tommy, injuries and inconsistent play led to his benching at halftime of the Tennessee game Oct. 12. But after leading the Bulldogs to a 54-24 victory over the hometown Razorbacks, Saturday served as a shared experience for he and his family.
“You start thinking about that and you kind of start getting emotional,” Stevens said. “I remember being 10, 11 years old, everyone in the back of the van piling up and coming to watch me play baseball or everyone going in and huddling up for the basketball games. My brother and sister definitely had to do things that I never had to do growing up.”
Just one of the numerous tales players shared this past week on the reasoning behind their desire to play football, Stevens’ postgame sermon served as a peek inside the psyche of the MSU program over the last seven days.
Speaking to the team last week, coach Joe Moorhead posited a simple question to the room: “What is your ‘Why?'”
Riding a four-game losing streak that had promptly put the season on the brink of disaster, Moorhead hoped the exercise would bring inspiration to his struggling squad.
As part of the activity, each player turned in a letter describing their ‘Why.’
For Stevens and junior backer Erroll Thompson, it’s family that serves as their driving forces. For senior nickel back Brian Cole II, it’s a combination of family and religion.
“There’s a lot going on and it’s crazy that this is my last year,” Cole said. “But my ‘why’ will always be the same. It’s family and God. I feel like I wouldn’t be playing this game, I feel like I wouldn’t still be healthy or things would never have worked out the way they did without God and my family.”
After sifting through the letters, it was sophomore safety and West Point alumnus Marcus Murphy’s note that caught Moorhead’s eye.
For Murphy the past year has been riddled with heartbreak. On Jan. 7, his mother, Demtrick Murphy, died unexpectedly at just 40 years old.
Further troubling, Murphy’s toddler son, Mason, was diagnosed with a rare genetic abnormality and is awaiting a bone marrow transplant.
Moorhead shared Murphy’s tragic tale during Friday night’s team meeting.
“With my situation I feel like (football) helps me be more focused in everything I do,” Murphy said Saturday. “Makes me more passionate, makes me attack life differently because I know don’t have another choice. Everything I do is dedicated to my mom and my little boy.”
Speaking postgame, Moorhead addressed gathered reporters on the exercise — going as far to share his own ‘Why.’ Referencing his father’s past as a longtime steel mill worker who peddled side jobs as a janitor and bartender to put he and his siblings through school, he began to choke up a touch as he spoke.
“He essentially gave up a lot of his life and things he wanted to do to make sure my brother, sister and I were in a great position,” Moorhead said. “He taught me when times were adverse you bow your back and bow your neck and keep working and I was proud to be able to dedicate this game to my mom and my dad.”
Whether it be family, friends, faith or some iteration of all three, Moorhead’s message clearly resonated. The Bulldogs romped the Razorbacks for 460 yards rushing — a program record record against SEC competition — while Stevens finished his first start in three weeks 12-of-18 for 172 yards passing and added another 74 yards rushing on 15 carries.
But perhaps most powerful was Murphy’s second quarter 32-yard interception return for a touchdown. Jumping in front of a Ben Hicks pass, he sprinted down the sideline. Crossing the goal line, Murphy took a quick look up to the sky.
“I looked up to the sky like I know my Mom was watching,” he said. “That was my mom. She guided me through that whole play.”
Whether the win over Arkansas proves to be an isolated event remains to be seen. But if Saturday proves anything, it’s that Moorhead’s exercise served its purpose.
“I think it definitely (came at the right time),” Stevens said.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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