Alcorn Game Notes | Alabama State Game Notes | Live Radio | Live Stats
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alcorn State University football program will seek vengeance Saturday when it heads to Alabama State for a 2 p.m. game at ASU Stadium.
The Hornets (2-2, 1-0 SWAC) handed the Braves (3-2, 2-0 SWAC) their only conference loss last season. Alcorn outgained Alabama State 530-240 in total yards, but the Hornets outlasted the Braves 28-25 in a five-overtime marathon.
Nevertheless, the Braves head to Montgomery this year with momentum after picking up SWAC wins in back-to-back weeks. They prevailed in a 45-41 shootout against Prairie View A&M before pulling away from Mississippi Valley State 45-19.
Junior quarterback
Felix Harper is the two-time reigning SWAC Offensive Player of the Week winner. Over that span, he's thrown for 676 yards, eight touchdowns and no interceptions. Harper was also named the HBCU National Player of the Week winner after the win over PVAMU. Harper entered the season as the backup quarterback and came in against McNeese State when senior
Noah Johnson left with an injury.
Senior
Corey McCullough, the kicker and punter, is the two-time reigning SWAC Special Teams Player of the Week winner. He's tallied 18 points over the last two weeks. In the Alcorn career record book, McCullough is the all-time leader in field goals made with 38. He broke the record in the season-opener with a 44-yarder at Southern Miss.
Senior wide receiver
LeCharles Pringle is having a breakout season. After recording 128 receiving yards and two touchdowns last year, he's already up to 302 yards and four touchdowns this season. He's coming off a three-touchdown outing against MVSU, which came after he hauled in a career-high 144 yards against PVAMU.
On defense, senior
Solomon Muhammad is the team's leading tackler with 39 and ranks 14th in the FCS in solo tackles per game with 5.8. He was the SWAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year honoree.
The Hornets are coming off a bye week. They opened conference play with a 23-20 win over Grambling State. Alabama State kept it close with UAB in a tight 24-19 defeat in the first game of the season.
At quarterback, junior KHA'Darris Davis returns and has thrown for 840 yards and eight touchdowns. He threw for 155 yards and two touchdowns last season against the Braves.
Defensively, Alabama State has been tough to throw against and leads the league in passing defense, allowing just 136.8 yards per game in the air.
The game can be heard live for free on 91.7 FM or wprl.org with Charles Edmond, Emanuel Barnes and Cedric Tillman on the call.
NOTES
- Alcorn is 23-19 all-time against Alabama State, and 2-1 under head coach
Fred McNair.
- The Braves are 15-2 against SWAC East Division opponents over the last five seasons. McNair carries an 18-7 career SWAC record.
- Alcorn has outscored the opposition 49-24 in the fourth quarter this year. It came after it outscored the opposition 102-42 in the fourth quarter in 2018.
- The Braves are 16-0 when leading at halftime since 2017.
- Alcorn is one of six teams in the country to carry a perfect 100 percent conversion rate on fourth downs. The Braves also rank ninth in the country in fumbles recovered (6), 15th in total first downs (111), 15th in turnovers gained (10) and 16th in red zone percentage scoring (.933).
- Alcorn ranks first in the SWAC in fewest points allowed per game (24.4), fewest first downs allowed per game (18.6), and total defense (354.0 ypg). Individually, senior
Chris Blair leads the league in yards per reception (21.1), Harper is second in passing touchdowns (10) and junior
LeCharles Pringle is second in receiving touchdowns (4).
- In addition to Johnson, the Braves have been without senior running back
De'Shawn Waller due to injury. Freshman running back
Niko Duffey has filled it and ranks top-20 in the country in total touchdowns with six. He's rushed for four and caught a pair.
- Alcorn remained at No. 3 in the national HBCU Top-10 and is also receiving votes in the STATS FCS Top-25 Poll.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Fred McNair
Recapping the MVSU game
"First of all, I'd like to give my thoughts and prayers out to the Mississippi Valley family and those kids who were involved in the accident last weekend.
As far as the game was concerned, I thought Valley came in with a great football team, came in with a lot of fire, they competed and really strained themselves. Coach Dancy - what they're doing under the circumstances with the kids they got - he's doing a great job with those young men. Hats off to that guy, his guys have really improved over the course of a year, it's a great football team, well-disciplined football team, and only had three penalties. We just have to improve on third down conversions, getting off the field and converting on third down on offense. It was a good football game, but we always have to improve. We're now going up against a good, solid Alabama State football program. Coach Hill-Eley is doing a great job with that group of kids and we have to be ready to play our A-game again this week."
On Noah Johnson's status for this week
"Work in progress. We'll make a decision. I thought Felix came in and played an extremely well ball game last week. We'll just see how Noah feels and we'll go from there."
On what changes for Alcorn going from Noah to Felix
"We still throw the ball, we still run the ball, so we don't have to change much. We let Felix run the offense if he needs to and he's done a great job. Next man up."
On De'Shawn Waller's status
"He didn't play at all last week, but we've been taking a close look at him this week. It's the same as Noah. We've been evaluating them and we'll make a decision."
On what stood out from last year's game against Alabama State
"Well it was a good ballgame I thought, we just didn't make the last field goal so we lost a very competitive ballgame. I thought both teams competed well and it just came down to who made the last kick, which was Alabama State. They're well-coached over there at Alabama State and they know how to win ballgames. We've got to prepare ourselves as coaches and young men for a battle."
On whether he's surprised how much Alabama State has improved in such a short period of time
"I'm not surprised at all. Coach Hill-Eley has done a great job with the staff he's got. They're flying around on defense, and they're doing a great job of play calling from what I've seen on the film. I think everyone in our league has gotten better, but I'm not surprised at all by Alabama State. They're a good football program with where they stand right now."
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