Football Prepares For Start Of Historic 2021 Spring Season Saturday Night At Prairie View A&M

Football 3/5/2021 11:39:00 PMTSU Sports Information

• Texas Southern opens up an historic chapter in football history as they prepare for their first-ever spring season Saturday evening at Prairie View A&M. The game will be shown live on ESPN3 and heard live on KTSU 90.9 FM.

• TSU was originally scheduled to face Arkansas-Pine Bluff last weekend but the aftermath of a winter storm in the Pine Bluff, Ark. area affected operations. The game will be rescheduled for Apr. 24.

• 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.

• Normally played on Labor Day weekend, the game has rotated between both schools’ home sites since it became a home-and-home affair in 2011. Since 1985, the game has been played at Delmar Stadium, Robertson Stadium, the Astrodome, NRG Stadium, Rice Stadium, Panther Stadium and BBVA Stadium. This marks TSU’s third trip to Prairie View A&M.

• TSU and PVAMU both featured high-flying offensive units in 2019 as TSU finished fourth in the SWAC and PVAMU finished first. However, both teams will have new looks on offense as both quarterbacks who started in last year’s Labor Day Classic have moved on along with playmakers on both sides of the ball.

• 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. 

• The winner of the TSU-Prairie View A&M contest receives the traveling Nicks-Durley Trophy. Named after legendary head coaches at both schools, the trophy has remained on the PVAMU campus since 2014. TSU holds a 20-14 margin in the classic series (dating back to 1985) while Prairie View has won the past five games. TSU’s last win came in 2014.

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