Racers End Season With TSU at Home

Date (Time): Nov. 22 (1 p.m.)
Opponent: Tennessee State
Site (Venue): Murray, Ky. (Roy Stewart Stadium)
Audio: Froggy 103.7 FM (PxP: Neal Bradley; Commentary: Josh McKeel)
Web Stream: OVCDigitalNetwork.com
Live Stats: GoRacers.com
MSU Record (Streak): 3-8, 1-6 OVC (L3)
TSU Record (Streak): 5-6, 2-5 OVC (W1)
All-Time Series vs. TSU (Streak): MSU leads 13-12 (L1)
Last Meeting: TSU 17, MSU 10 (Nov. 16, 2013 – Nashville, Tenn.)
MSU Last Game: L 36-43 at Eastern Ky. (Nov. 15)
TSU Last Game: W 31-27 at Austin Peay (Nov. 8)

The Game
Murray State will play its 2014 finale this week when it hosts Tennessee State. Post time at The Track is set for 1p.m. It can be seen on OVCDigitalNetwork.com and heard locally on Froggy 103.7 with Neal Bradley and Josh McKeel.

Saturday Weather
Temperatures during the day will reach a high of 54° F with showers expected on a 50% chance of rain. The wind will be strong out of the south southeast at 10-15 miles per hour.

vs. Tennessee State
Murray State currently leads the series with TSU by a slim 13-12 margin. Despite the Tigers putting an end to MSU's five-game win streak in the series, the Racers have still won each of the last four meetings with TSU at the Track. The last loss for MSU in Murray came in 2003, when it fell 35-10.

MSU's Last Time Out
Despite a 27-7 lead at halftime, the Murray State was not able to withstand a second half onslaught at EKU and fell 43-36. Dy'Shawn Mobley led the offensive barrage for the Colonels with a school record five rushing touchdowns, as well as receiving touchdown. He rushed for 227 yards and caught an additional 100 yards.

Pokey Harris began the game by returning the opening kickoff for 100 yards, for the second straight week. For his efforts, he was named as the adidas® OVC Specialist of the Week for the second consecutive week.

KD Humphries turned in his fourth 300-plus yard performance of the season by completing 43 of 60 passes for 396 yards. He threw one touchdown pass and rushed for an additional two scores and 38 yards.

Jonathan Jackson led the MSU defense with a game-high 19 tackles, while Anthony Hayes followed with 13. Joe Ciccoria had 10 tackles with a forced fumble and an interception, while Felton Collins added 10 take downs, a sack, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a quarterback hurry.

Scouting Tennessee State
The Tigers come into the final game of the season at 5-6 overall and 2-5 in the league. TSU is coming off a bye week, two weeks removed from rallying to top Austin Peay, 31-27, in Clarksville.

Rod Reed is in fifth season with the Tigers and is 31-27 during his tenure. Last season, Reed guided TSU to an FCS playoff win over Butler, before falling to OVC rival Eastern Illinois in the second round.

The Tigers are currently averaging 25.8 points on 386.5 yards per game, while allowing opponents to score 21.9 points on 280.9 yards. The TSU offense is pass heavy with 255.0 yards per game in the air, compared to just 131.5 yards on the ground.

Michael German has racked up 2,383 yards and 16 touchdowns as the go-to quarterback for the Tigers this season. His number one target this season has been Weldon Garlington who has 795 yards on 54 catches this season for seven touchdowns and an average of 72.3 yards per game. Ryan Mitchell follows Garlington with an average of 51.7 yards per game for 517 total yards on 34 receptions and two scores.

While no one running back has had a breakout season this year for TSU, the Tigers do have four rushers with over 200 yards. Tom Smith leads Tennessee State wit 385 yards, while Darion Hall follows with 245. Stephen Hopkins has posted 222 yards on the ground for TSU, while Telvin Hooks has 218.

Nick Thrasher is the leading tackler for Tennessee State this season with 121. His 11.0 tackles per game is currently seventh in the FCS and second in the OVC. He also has 11.5 tackles-for-loss for a total of 55 yards and 3.5 sacks for 22 yards.

Gabe Terry leads TSU in sacks with 8.5 for 65 yards, while Anthony Bass has 6.0 sacks with four quarterback hurries. De'Ante Saunders leads the Tiger secondary this season with four interceptions, including one for a touchdown.

One More Time
Just a week after becoming the first player in MSU history to run back a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, Harris repeated the feat against EKU in the opening play of the game

Hatcher vs. Reed
Both Chris Hatcher and Rod Reed arrived at their respective coaching posts in 2010 and have met on four occasions. Reed picked up his first win in the series last year and put an to his school's four-game skid against the Racers.

Rare Air
With his second 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, Pokey Harris is now the third player in OVC history with two 100 yard kickoff returns for a touchdown, the second player to have two in the same season and the first-ever to do it in consecutive games.

Leading The Pack
Pokey Harris kickoff return touchdown against EKU was his third of the season, which ties the OVC single-season record and currently leads not only the FCS, but all four levels of NCAA football. He also leads the OVC in kickoff returns and is fifth in the nation with 28.8 yards per return.

KD 3K
With his 396 yards against Eastern Kentucky, KD Humphries became just third different MSU quarterback to pass for over 3,000 yards in a season. His 3,021 yards marks the fourth time a Racer play caller has reached the milestone with Casey Brockman doing so twice and Justin Fuente once.

Movin' On Up
With one game left in his breakout sophomore season, KD Humphries has shot up several single-season MSU record lists. He is currently fourth in passing yards at 3,021, third in attempts with 421, third in completions with 286, sixth in touchdowns with 22 and third in 300-plus yard games with four.

Seeing Red Again
For just the second time this season, MSU scored each of the five times it made it to the red zone. The only other time the Racers were perfect inside the 20 was when they went 4-for-4 against JSU. Murray State is currently 36-for-48 on the year in red zone offense for 75 percent.

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Players Mentioned

Felton Collins

Pokey Harris

Anthony Hayes

KD Humphries

Jonathan Jackson

Murray State University