After a miraculous effort and win against the Texas Southern Tigers 22-19 in overtime, all eyes will be on A.W. Mumford Stadium come Saturday. The Southern Jaguars are scheduled to take on the Alcorn State Braves for homecoming. However, in a more important headline, this is a pivotal matchup in deciding which team will control their destiny in the SWAC West en route to the SWAC Championship. The best way to put it is that Southern and Alcorn State are at a crossroads.
Last year, these two teams faced off in a similar scenario, but the Jags were victims in a beatdown, losing 21-44 in Lorman, Mississippi. Ironically, the defeat came after an overtime win against Texas Southern.
In the all-time series, the Braves have had Southern’s number, leading the series 41-29-2. However, in the last three matchups, Southern is 2-1 against Alcorn State. However, Alcorn State is leading the SWAC West standings, but it is only due to Alcorn having played more conference games than Southern. Now, Southern is sitting strong being ranked number two in the standings, and with both teams being undefeated in conference play, it sets up an intense atmosphere on top of an electric atmosphere due to homecoming festivities.
The numbers tell the story for this matchup. The Southern Jaguars are ranked 8th in the SWAC in points per game (PPG), averaging 20.7 points per game. The Alcorn State Braves are ranked 6th in the SWAC in PPG, averaging 23.8 PPG. Alcorn State and Southern are ranked 3 and 4 in the SWAC in total offense. However, Southern has the 2nd best defense in the conference compared to 5th best for Alcorn. With a deeper dive into the defense of Southern, they rank 4th in rushing defense, but Alcorn has the number one and number three ranked rushers in the conference Xzavier Vaughn and Jacorian Sewell. Of course, to no surprise, Alcorn has the number-one-ranked rushing offense, averaging over 200 yards a game.
With all this being said, this will be a good old-fashioned chess match where one mistake could drastically hurt your team’s chances of winning. Also, Alcorn State is coming off beating Grambling State, so they are motivated to come and beat Southern for homecoming.
However, with the inconsistencies in Southern’s play, I expect Southern to lose in a physical matchup 21-10.
