Football Opens Up At Home Against Southern Saturday Night

• Texas Southern plays at home for the first time this season as they’ll host Southern at BBVA Stadium on Saturday evening.

• TSU is looking for its first SWAC win of 2021 and first win over Southern since 2011.

• The SWAC opted for a spring schedule due to uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 in the fall. Most of the FCS teams are playing a spring schedule as the SWAC will host a championship game at the end of the year.

• Southern opened with a win over Alabama State but dropped its home opener to Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The Jaguars rank fourth in offense with 350 yards per game and fifth in defense yielding 342.5 per outing. TSU ranks sixth with 327 yards per game and fourth in defense yielding 320 yards per game.

• TSU opened the season with an opportunity to make a statement but fell short in the final minutes at Prairie View A&M. Despite the outcome, the Tigers looked to have improved tremendously on both sides of the ball as tonight’s game will be another test.

• TSU hasn’t played Southern in Houston since 2017 as the 2019 contest was moved to Dallas, Texas. Next year’s contest is scheduled for Arlington, Texas at Globe Life Park.

• The Tigers feature a second-year head coach in Clarence McKinney. A Houston native, McKinney attended 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 74 years of existence and hasn’t recorded 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 seasons in his 11 years of collegiate coaching. 

• TSU is 10-28 overall in BBVA Stadium since its opening in 2012. TSU’s last win inside BBVA came in 2018 as they defeated Mississippi Valley State 42-14 on Oct. 27, 2018.

• Due to Alcorn State opting out the 2021 spring season, TSU was awarded a win via forfeit by the SWAC.