Football Returns To Baton Rouge For The First Time Since 2016

Football
10/28/2023 10:20:00 AM

TSU Sports Information

• Texas Southern returns to action on Saturday as they’ll travel to Baton Rouge, La. to face Southern University at 4 p.m. inside A.W. Mumford Stadium.

• Texas Southern has not played in Baton Rouge since 2016. The series shifted to Dallas/Arlington, Texas from 2018-22. The 2021 spring contest was played in Houston.

• Saturday’s contest will feature live audio on KTSU 90.9 FM and will be shown via the Jaguar Sports Network.

• TSU is coming off a tough 31-21 loss to Florida A&M last weekend and starts a critical two-game road stand to Baton Rouge and Jackson, Miss.

• TSU has won two straight over SU and a win would tie for its longest winning streak over SU in series history. TSU won three straight from 2009-11 but the contests were vacated. TSU won three straight over SU from 1970-72 as former United States Secretary Of Education Dr. Rod Paige served as head coach in two of those wins.

• Picked to win the SWAC West, Southern overcame a sluggish start and has won four of its past five games as they’re in a logjam at the top of the division standings. For the second straight week, TSU will face a top defense as SU leads the SWAC in scoring defense (16.1 ppg) while the unit ranks second overall in total defense (284.6).

• Southern head coach Eric Dooley is 4-1 against TSU lifetime. He previously served as head coach at Prairie View A&M. Last year’s win was TSU’s first over Dooley.

• TSU has played a pair of quarterbacks this season in Andrew Body and Jace Wilson. Wilson has taken over the top spot due to an injury to Body.

• Running back LaDarius Owens has surpassed the career 2,000-yard rushing mark with 2,449 yards. He needs 486 more yards to become TSU’s all-time rushing leader which is currently held by Thomas Sieh with 2,934 yards. He’s currently fifth all-time with 18 rushing touchdowns.

• The Tigers feature fifth-year head coach 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 76 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.