CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College football team will hit the road for the first time this season, traveling to Melbourne, Fla. to face Florida Tech on Saturday night. Kickoff at Panther Stadium is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (CT).
The Choctaws are led by 5th-year head coach
John Bland, who had the team off to their first 2-0 start since 2010. Last week, MC put up a season-high 42 points and 451 rushing yards but fell to #13 Valdosta State, 63-42.
Ja'Mori Mark (147) and
Detric Hawthorn (131) each rushed for over 100 yards and two touchdowns in the loss.
The Panthers are led by 6th-year head coach Steve Englehart, who has posted a 31-25 record since starting the program back in 2013. The most successful season under his reign came in 2016 when the team went 8-3 and advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs.
This will be the 5th all-time meeting between the two schools with Florida Tech holding a 4-0 edge in the series. The Panthers have won the previous two meetings by a combined score of 76-0. The last time the teams met in Melbourne, FIT picked up a 41-0 victory at Panther Stadium
WHEN MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE HAS THE BALL
The MC offense is the 2nd-ranked rushing group in all of Division II, averaging 320.0 yards per contest and 6.2 yards per carry. Hawthorn (112.8) leads the GSC in yards per game and has six rushing touchdowns. He has also thrown for 397 yards and three touchdowns.
Mark (63.5 ypg) has scored four touchdowns on the ground, while
Tiberias Lampkin (70.2 ypg) is second on the squad with 51 carries and scored a touchdown against West Florida.
Drew Croegaert (30.2 ypg) is the team's leading receiver with 121 yards and a touchdown on four catches.
Defensively, J.T. Hassell leads FIT and the GSC with 49 tackles and has twice been named GSC Defensive Player of the Week. He also has 5.5 tackles for loss with a team-high 4.5 sacks, while Adonis Davis has a team-best 8.0 tackles for loss.
WHEN FLORIDA TECH HAS THE BALL
Defensively,
Derric Hawthorn has a team-high 21 tackles to go along with two pass breakups and a forced fumble.
Turner Rotenberry is second on the team with 19 tackles and has already set a single-season school record with 157 interception return yards on three picks.
Trent Chmelik paces the Panther offense with 211.8 passing yards per game and eight touchdowns with three interceptions. Antwuan Haynes (60.0 ypg) leads the team in rushing, while Romell Guerrirer has a team-high 26 catches for 433 yards and six touchdowns.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Drake McCarter handles all the kicking duties for the Choctaws, averaging 43.0 yards per punt with a long of 61 yards. He is also 3-of-5 on field goals and has kicked seven touchbacks this season.
Trey Schaneville is 3-of-4 on field goals for the Panthers with a long of 31 yards, while Kyle Gullikson has kicked four touchbacks this season. Gullikson is also averaging 39.4 yards per punt.
GAME NOTES
The Choctaws are 11-3-1 all-time in their 106-year history as a football program when they play on October 6th. MC won 7 straight contests on the date from 1951-1990.
The Choctaws are 9-16-2 all-time against teams from the State of Florida. The most common opponent from the Sunshine State is Stetson, but MC has a pair of teams in the Gulf South Conference in Florida (Florida Tech and West Florida).
The Choctaws have seven student-athletes on the team from the State of Florida:
Paul Anderson (West Park),
Blake Atteberry (Cantonment),
Gavin Greene (Destin),
Mike Hall (Boynton Beach),
Kobe Lewis (Sanford),
Marcell Quince (Boynton Beach) and
Alex Young (Pensacola).
The Choctaws have implemented a new offensive strategy in 2018 that will be spearheaded by new offensive coordinator
Tommy Laurendine. He has had two Gulf South Conference stops in his career at West Georgia (1992) and West Alabama (1997-00) and brings the specialty of the triple option attack. Through the first five weeks of the season, the Choctaws lead the GSC and rank 2nd nationally with 320.0 rushing yards per game.
Of the 11 regular season games for the Choctaws in 2018, six will come against teams that are at least receiving votes in the AFCA Preseason Top 25. West Florida (2), West Alabama (12) and West Georgia (19) are all in the Top 25, while Delta State, Florida Tech and Valdosta State received votes.
The Choctaws will be back on the road next Saturday to face old Gulf South Conference foe, North Alabama. The Lions are currently transitioning to Division I and have opened the season 3-2 against five D-1 opponents. They are facing West Florida this Saturday in their first matchup with a former GSC opponent in 2018.
Mississippi College is a private Christian university located in Clinton, Mississippi with an enrollment of over 5,000 students. MC recently finished their transition process back to NCAA Division II and the Gulf South Conference and will be competing for conference and national championships in the 2018-19 academic year.
The athletic department sponsors 17 intercollegiate athletic programs: Baseball, Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Football, Golf, Men's and Women's Soccer, Softball, Men's and Women's Tennis, Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field, Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field and Volleyball.
For more information on Mississippi College athletics, please contact
David Nichols at 601-925-3234 or
nichols@mc.edu.
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