The Prairie View A&M University football team will play its first home game in three weeks when the Panthers host Jackson St. Saturday at 4 p.m. at Panther Stadium.
Panther Nation is encouraged to wear PVAMU Purple to the game, with festivities starting at Noon with a tailgate at the Prairie View A&M Tennis Courts. At 1:45 p.m., the football team will make its Panther Walk through the area as they enter the stadium.
Tickets are available online at pvpanthers.com/tickets and are available at Panther Stadium on gameday.
The radio pregame show begins at 3:30 p.m. on Synergy Radio 1480 AM in Houston and online at pvpanthers.com/sportsnetwork prior to the 4 p.m. kickoff. There will be a live video stream of the game at pvpanthers.com/sportsnetwork.
The Panthers (1-2 overall, 1-0 SWAC) will look to build on the momentum gained from last week's 34-0 shutout win at Alabama State, the first such win since 2009.
"I've seen a group of guys starting to understand weekly how to prepare to be successful and the attention to detail needed," said Prairie View A&M head coach
Willie Simmons. "We're a little banged up, and we have some young guys starting to realize their time to play is coming quicker than they anticipated. We'll have to rely on some of the freshmen that we've signed and some of the junior college transfers that we signed to give us some quality snaps this week. That's why we brought them here. They understand that. They've worked really hard to understand the playbook and what we expect from them."
Similar to Prairie View A&M, Jackson State (0-4, 0-1) has played a tough schedule. After opening at TCU, the Tigers played tough against ranked FCS teams Tennessee State and Grambling State, and lost at home last week in overtime to Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
"They have played a very tough four-game stretch, and they have played better than the record indicates. They played as well as to be expected against a Top 10 FBS program. The other three games they been right there. Jackson State had the ball with a chance to win against Tennessee State, and the kicker made the kick but timeout was called, they iced him and he missed it. They had the lead against Grambling before GSU came back to win the game. Last week against Pine Bluff, they led by 11 in the fourth quarter. Jackson State is a team that is dangerous. You can't look at their record and say they're not very good. They've shown they can play with some really good football teams down to the wire."
Tigers' RB Jordan Johnson is third in the league rushing yards (268) with a pair of touchdowns.
"Offensively, they are going to try and establish the run. They want to run the football," said Simmons. "They haven't been able to run it as well as they would like. (RB Jordan) Johnson had some nice runs last week, so they are starting to get it going. They are big up front and will try to come at us. We have to do a good job of using our quickness to our advantage.
Jackson State ranks third in the SWAC in total defense, led by Preseason Defensive Player of the Year DL Keontre Anderson.
"Defensively, they want to try and keep everything in front and make Lavell (McCullers) beat them throwing the football," Simmons said. "We've been able to run the ball effectively, so we anticipate them trying to make us throw it."
