Football Awaits Jackson State For Highly-Anticipated SWAC Showdown At PNC Stadium

• Texas Southern returns to PNC Stadium for the first time in more than a month for a key game against nationally ranked Jackson State on Saturday night at 6 p.m.

• Texas Southern will play before a sellout crowd at PNC Stadium for the first time ever. The stadium holds 22,039 fans as tickets sold out earlier in the week.

• Saturday’s contest will feature live audio on KTSU 90.9 FM and will be shown live on ESPN+. • TSU will face Jackson State for only the second time since 2016. JSU returns to Houston for the first time since 2016 and its third meeting at PNC Stadium. JSU was TSU’s first opponent inside the formerly named BBVA Compass Stadium in 2012. Since the SWAC started divisional play in 1999 both teams have only met 16 times. JSU has won seven straight over TSU as TSU’s last “official” win over JSU occurred in 2000.

• Led by third-year head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders, JSU has lived up to the hype with an undefeated record and are ranked No. 5 and 9 by several FCS polls. JSU boasts the SWAC’s top offensive (480.6) and defensive units (194.1). JSU is the SWAC’s defending champions as they fell in the Celebration Bowl in 2021. JSU quarterback Shedeur Sanders is the top passer in the SWAC with 2,425 yards and 24 touchdowns.

• The win on Oct. 22 gave TSU its best SWAC start since 2016 as the team has three SWAC wins. In addition to the wins, it also marked the first time TSU has won two true road contests inside an opposing SWAC stadium in a single season since 2017.

• TSU’s .500 record (4-4) is its best mark at this point of the season since a four-win season in 2016.

• Something will have to give as TSU holds the fourth-best rushing offense (167.6) in the SWAC while JSU has the top rush defense (80.9).

• The Tigers feature fourth-year head coach Clarence McKinney. A Houston native, McKinney at- tended high school across the street at Jack Yates High School and played collegiately at Montana State and the University of Mary. He also served as head coach at Yates before joining the staffs at Houston, Texas A&M and Arizona.

• Clarence McKinney is the 17th head coach in the history of Texas Southern Football. McKinney has a task ahead as the program has only had 28 winning seasons in 76 years of existence and hasn’t record-ed a winning season since 2000.

• McKinney won as a student at Yates High School and helped the University of Mary post three winning seasons as a student-athlete in college which made school history. As head coach at Yates, McKinney posted a mark of 30-8 over three years before moving on to the collegiate ranks as an assistant. As an assistant at Houston, Texas A&M and Arizona, McKinney has only experienced three losing sea- sons in his 11 years of collegiate coaching.