Tigers Travel To Grambling State For SWAC Showdown Saturday Afternoon

• Texas Southern heads to North Louisiana to face Grambling State Saturday afternoon at Robinson Stadium for a 2 p.m. SWAC showdown. Two of the final three games are on the road for the Tigers.

• Saturday’s game is Grambling State’s homecoming. TSU has been GSU’s homecoming opponent for the past two games when they traveled to Grambling (2017/2015).

• TSU defensive coordinator Jeff Ceasar is a former player at Grambling State and teammate of head coach Broderick Fobbs while wide receiver coach Jerwin Wilson is a native of Arcadia, La. whose twin brother, Derwin, played for Grambling State.

• TSU had six turnovers in last weekend’s loss at Mississippi Valley State with three turnovers leading directly to MVSU scores. 

• Grambling State holds a five-game 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).

• Saturday’s contest will feature live audio on KTSU 90.9 FM.

• The Tigers feature a new 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 73 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 two losing seasons in his 11 years of collegiate coaching. 

• After a slow start, Grambling State has found itself back in the SWAC race as they’ll need to win out in order to win the SWAC West.

• TSU has scored 187 points in its first seven games this season. It took eight games last season for the Tigers to score 170-plus points.

• TSU is ranked No.4 in the SWAC with 423.6 yards of total offense per game. The Tigers are the No. 4 passing team and No. 9 in rushing.

• Freshman Richard Garcia III is 11-of-13 on field goal attempts with a long of 45 yards. He ranks 11th nationally in field goal percentage (84.6%).