Tigers Prepare For Big Contest At Grambling State Saturday Afternoon

Football 10/15/2021 1:03:00 PM TSU Sports Information

• Texas Southern heads to North Louisiana to face Grambling State Saturday afternoon at Robinson Stadium for a 2 p.m. SWAC showdown.

• TSU earned its first SWAC win of 2021 and first since 2018 last week against Southern. TSU is looking for its first SWAC winning streak since 2016 and first three-game winning streak also since 2016.

• TSU has been an active participant in Grambling State’s homecoming for quite some time. Grambling State will be facing off against TSU in its Homecoming game for the third time since 2017.

• Saturday’s contest will feature live audio on KTSU 90.9 FM and broadcast on Grambling State all-access.

• The SWAC opted for a spring schedule due to uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 last fall. TSU could only get two games in due to COVID-19 protocols surrounding the opposing team or at TSU. The contest against Baylor marked the first time TSU played back-to-back weekends since the final two weekends of November 2019. 

• Last week’s game against Southern was TSU’s first SWAC game in more than a month. This also marks TSU’s first contest outside the state of Texas in 2021.

• Grambling State enters with a 2-4 overall mark and a 1-2 SWAC record. GSU fell 24-20 at Alcorn Sate last weekend but defeated preseason favorite Alabama A&M the weekend before.

• TSU’s roster is a full of youth in key areas as 58 players are either true or redshirt freshmen.

•  Grambling State holds a six-game winning streak over TSU with TSU’s last win in 2013 at Grambling. TSU has struggled to win at Grambling State as TSU has only three wins in Grambling since 1996 (2013, 1999, 1996).

• The Tigers feature a third-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 75 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. 

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