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JACKSON, Miss. – Looking to secure home field advantage for the SWAC Championship for the second year in a row, the Alcorn State University football program will conclude the regular season Saturday at 2 p.m. against Jackson State at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The game will be nationally televised on ESPN3.
Alcorn (7-3, 5-1 SWAC) has already clinched the SWAC East Division for the sixth consecutive year. The Braves will become the first team to ever play in six straight SWAC Championships.
The Braves can lock-up home field advantage with a win Saturday. With a loss, the host will either be Southern or Grambling State.
Alcorn clinched the SWAC East Division in thrilling fashion. In a game that featured over 1,000 yards of combined total offense, it was the Alcorn defense that made a stand in the very end to beat Alabama A&M 34-28 last weekend. The Braves got a stop when AAMU had the ball on the 14 yard-line with four seconds left.
Senior
Juwan Taylor is the reigning SWAC Defensive Player of the Week winner. He recorded 10 tackles, an interception and 0.5 TFL against AAMU.
Freshman
Niko Duffey is the reigning SWAC Newcomer of the Week winner. He turned in a 100-yard rushing performance and a touchdown against AAMU.
At quarterback, junior Felix "Triggerman" Harper has thrown for 2,113 yards, 25 touchdowns and just five interceptions this season. He took over as the starter after senior
Noah Johnson, the SWAC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, went down with an injury in the third game at McNeese State.
Of his 25 touchdowns, 11 have been to junior
LeCharles Pringle. He's nearing the all-time single-season Alcorn record of 14 touchdown catches, set by Tim McNair Sr. in 1994. Pringle's 11 touchdowns ranks eighth in the nation.
Defensively, senior
Solomon Muhammad is the team's leading tackler with 74 on the year. He ranks 19th in the country in solo tackles per game with 5.3. Muhammad was the SWAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year honoree.
The Braves rank first in the SWAC in scoring defense (20.6 ppg), total defense (346.7 ypg), fourth down conversion percentage (1.000) and offensive efficiency (153.6).
Nationally, Alcorn is the only team in the country to maintain a perfect 100 percent conversion rate on fourth downs. The Braves also rank fifth in the nation interceptions (16), sixth in turnovers gained (24) and sixth in red zone defense (.676).
JSU (4-7, 3-3 SWAC) has had a back-and-forth season, but will try to end it on a high note against the Braves. The Tigers went on a three-game winning-streak with overtime wins over MVSU 31-28, PVAMU 38-35 and a regulation win over UAPB 21-12. Though, losses to AAMU 48-43 and Southern 40-34 the last two weeks knocked them out of the hunt in the division.
The Tigers have played two quarterbacks the majority of the year. Derrick Ponder has thrown for 1,387 yards and 12 touchdowns, while Jalon Jones has thrown for 780 yards and nine touchdowns. Jones is also a threat on the ground with 411 rushing yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns.
JSU ranks second in the SWAC in passing defense, allowing just 196.5 passing yards per game.
NOTES
- Alcorn is looking to defeat Jackson State for the second straight year. Last season, the Braves won 24-3 as senior
De'Shawn Waller rushed for a game-high 124 yards. Alcorn scored 24 unanswered points in the victory.
- The Braves are 17-2 against the SWAC East Division over the last five seasons. They are 3-0 this year with wins over Mississippi Valley State 45-19, Alabama State 35-7 and Alabama A&M 34-28.
- Harper has won three SWAC Offensive Player of the Week awards. He was named the HBCU National Player of the Week winner after the win over Prairie View A&M where he threw for 280 yards and two touchdowns, and also rushed for a score. Harper also earned a helmet sticker on ESPN College Football Final after the win over Savannah State.
- As a team, Alcorn has won 12 SWAC Player of the Week awards this year. Harper has won SWAC Offensive Player of the Week three times, while senior
Corey McCullough has won SWAC Special Teams Player of the Week three times. Muhammad has won SWAC Defensive Player of the Week twice, Taylor once and junior
Malik Holbert once. Duffey won SWAC Newcomer of the Week twice.
-
Fred McNair, the reigning SWAC Coach of the Year winner, is in his fourth season as head coach. The Braves have won the SWAC East Division and played in the SWAC Championship all four years under McNair. He carries a 21-8 SWAC record.
- Harper is on both the CFPA and the Walter Payton Award Watch Lists, which go to the player nationally in FCS. He currently ranks sixth in the nation in offensive efficiency (165.2), eighth in points responsible for (18.3 ppg), 17th in passing TDs (21) and 22nd in points responsible for (146).
- The Braves are 19-0 when leading at halftime since 2017.
- Alcorn has outscored the opposition 73-44 in the fourth quarter this year. It came after it outscored the opposition 102-42 in the fourth quarter in 2018.
- Senior
Chris Blair ranks 11th in the nation in yards per reception (21.3). He's the team's leading receiver with 640 yards on the year and has also hauled in five touchdowns.
- McCullough, the kicker and punter, is the all-time leader in field goals made in school history with 43. He broke the record in the season-opener with a 44-yarder at Southern Miss.
- Duffey is the team's leading rusher with 673 yards and six touchdowns. He and senior
De'Shawn Waller have flip-flopped in the starting running back role due to injuries to both student-athletes.
- Junior
Qwynnterrio Cole leads the defense with four interceptions, and his 0.4 interception per game average ranks 23rd in the country. Cole is also second on the team in tackles with 67.
- Alcorn sits at No. 2 in the national HBCU Top-10 Poll and is also receiving votes in the STATS FCS Top-25 Poll.
- The Braves announced their 2020 schedule. It includes non-conference games against Auburn, Fort Valley State and Virginia-Lynchburg. The SWAC will play an eight-game conference schedule.
Quoting Alcorn head coach Fred McNair
On last week's game vs. AAMU
"Just a tough fought ballgame by both teams. I was impressed just watching film of Alabama A&M and the way they play. Their offense is explosive, we knew that coming into this game and Coach Maynor's staff has those guys playing with high intensity. Defensive-wise, we saw some things that they did and we just had to make sure that we were on our game as far as how we were supposed to play and what kind of product we put on the field. It was an outstanding ballgame. I emphasized to my group all week the importance of starting fast because we know they were explosive. I think both teams put the best product on the field they could - great ballgame, great atmosphere."
On what makes this division title different from last year
"Every year we lose our starting quarterback. It's been some kind of Cinderella story for
Felix Harper coming in playing behind
Noah Johnson, which Noah took us to the SWAC Championship last year and won it after replacing [Lenorris] Footman a couple years ago. It's a unique thing, it's always been that way. Felix is playing great football and what he's doing after becoming the starter has become special."
On defensive coordinator Cedric Thornton's impact on the coaching staff
"He has a great impact. When I brought Coach Thornton in to be the linebackers coach, I looked at his personality, coaching style, and the way they relate to these players. It's about respect, you give it, you get it. I think that what we did with Coach Thornton is the same thing we did with Coach [Elliott] Wratten, I saw within him that he had been a defensive coordinator before when he was at Alabama State so it was the perfect job for him to come in and be the coordinator for this program. He's doing a great job and I'm just pleased to have this good group and coaching staff around me. I'm not a micro-manage guy, I let these coaches coach and it's more of an administrator job for me, making sure that these guys have everything they need to be successful as far as football players and the coaching staff."
On how the team is approaching the Jackson State game
"We got a ballgame to win and there's no exception. Everybody to work hard, everybody's going to practice and everybody's going to play. We are going into this game to win the ballgame, there's no different approach than the other 10 games we played. We've got to win this game and that's what we intend to do."
On whether he feels his fan base is spoiled, being in contention for the Celebration Bowl each year
"We got one more game before that and that's the SWAC Championship we got to win that first. My main focus is on trying to get the Jackson State game out the way and making sure we do everything in our power to win against a good football team. Coach [John] Hendrick's got those guys playing with high intensity, the magnitude of the game's going to be high so it's what we need to expect. We'll just cross that path when we get to it and you know fans are always going to be spoiled when you win, that's just the nature of it, they get used to it and I think they kind of have fun with it themselves. We just got to continue to do what we do as coaches and players to make sure that we're doing it right and make sure that we're ready."
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