JACKSON, Miss. – Signs of late October are everywhere.
 
Plenty of pumpkins and candies line the grocery store aisles (and yes, holiday ornaments have started to make an appearance as well.)
 
The World Series is headed toward the middle games of the series this weekend (yes, the CUBS really are in the World Series…against Cleveland no less), and yes, college football games with championship implications are on the docket nationwide.
 
Prairie View A&M University football returns to Southwestern Athletic Conference play to begin the stretch run of the season. As the Panthers (4-3 overall, 4-1 SWAC) travel to Jackson State to face the Tigers (2 p.m.; KPVU 91.3 FM), title game and playoff aspirations are one in the same as the final four games of the regular season feature a full schedule of big-game hunters.
 
Oct. 29 – at Jackson State (currently tied for 1^st in the SWAC Eastern Division)
 
Nov. 5 – home vs. Alcorn State (two-time defending SWAC champs; currently tied for 1^st in the East)
 
Nov. 12 – home vs. Southern (currently tied for first in the SWAC Western Division)
 
Nov. 19 – at Arkansas-Pine Bluff (only team to win at Alcorn this season) 
 
Welcome to the playoffs?
 
"We're in the mindset that we're in a one-game playoff" said Prairie View A&M head football coach Willie Simmons said. "Everything is on the line. We're still a game back in the standings of Grambling, who's playing really good football right now. We have to assume they will continue to do so. We have to go into each game prepared to play 60 minutes and give ourselves a chance to win, as that's the only way our dreams and goals stay alive. We have that playoff mindset and hopefully that channels the guys the right way and helps us focus on the task at hand and not look ahead to what may come. We have to take care of what's ahead of us this week."
  
The Tigers (3-4, 3-2) have won three of their last four games under first-year head coach Tony Hughes, who's team is second in the league in total defense.
 
"Jovancy Jones has been a force in the league since the day he stepped on campus at Jackson State," Simmons said. "As a defense they run to the ball well. They have a scheme that allows them to move around, and it puts pressure on the offensive line to communicate and be sound in their run schemes. It was going to be tough challenge for us to go against a defense that's ranked as high as theirs. Hopefully our guys will be up for it, and we can go in and make them execute."

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