SAVANNAH, Ga. – Savannah State University's football team is preparing for a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game Saturday at North Carolina Central after Hurricane Matthew threw the lives of SSU players and coaches into disarray.

"Fortunately, everyone is safe," SSU head coach Erik Raeburn said Tuesday at T.A. Wright Stadium after the Tigers' first practice since the Category 2 hurricane struck Savannah.

"We don't have everyone back. We got about two-thirds of them back last night. Most of the rest of them (came) back today. We're still missing just a few of them that are having travel issues, you know, getting back from where they evacuated to, getting back on campus."

SSU evacuated campus last Wednesday and postponed last Saturday's home game against Morgan State.

"You either had your choice to go home or go to family," Raeburn said. "If you didn't have any way to get to family, the college bused everybody to Fort Valley. All of our students who didn't have ways to get off, they bused them to Fort Valley. We only have one player who went to Fort Valley. All the rest of them either got home or went with a teammate.

"Today is our first day back," Raeburn continued. "We practiced last Tuesday and then today, so we've had a week where we just had basically nothing."

SSU (1-3 overall, 1-1 MEAC) will play NCCU (4-2, 3-0) at 2 p.m. Saturday at O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium in Durham, N.C. The game will be radio-broadcast by WHCJ 90.3 FM and it will be live web-streamed on SSUAthletics.com.

"Hopefully, this puts things in perspective," Raeburn said of the hurricane. "We're getting to play a football game. It's not life or death like we sometimes make it out to be. Maybe they'll just relax and play a little bit looser, not play as tight or feel as much pressure. Hopefully, the situation with this hurricane, I don't know if it will be a rallying point but I hope it kind of puts things in perspective, and gets them to relax and play hard, have fun, on Saturday."

SSU is coming off a 19-14 loss to Florida A&M on Oct. 1 in Tallahassee, Fla.

"It's been unique for sure," Raeburn said. "I've never had that long a period of time during the season where you didn't have practice and meetings, lifting, and all that stuff. And then to have the players scattered everywhere has just been a challenge as well to try and check up on everybody, communicate.

"But, obviously, a lot of them, their homes have been damaged, that live in Florida and Savannah and South Carolina. Some of them that didn't have their homes damaged had family members affected. There have been no injuries or anything like that. We've been pretty fortunate. This is my first (hurricane). I'll be happy if this is my last one, too."

JOHVONTE SINGLETON'S HOUSE DAMAGED
The home of SSU linebacker Johvonte Singleton, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound junior from Savannah's Memorial Day School, suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Matthew.

"The ceiling of his mother's house fell in," Raeburn said. "They got a leak in the roof and got some water in the attic, and it caused the ceiling to come in. He's at practice. Last night, he was trying to help his mother as much as he could. And today, when he didn't have practice, he was helping her.

"We've had some guys who have had limbs and trees fall on their cars, stuff like that, but to my knowledge he was the only one in town whose house got significant damage."

SPECIAL THANKS TO CLARION SUITES AND SISTERS RESTAURANT
Raeburn said SSU's football team would like to thank Clarion Suites near Al Henderson Blvd. and Sisters restaurant on Skidaway Road for providing accommodations during and after Hurricane Matthew.

"Mrs. Patel at the Clarion Suites, she put our guys up," Raeburn said. "That was about the only place that had power and could accommodate us. She was great. Talking with her, she had been there since the (beginning of the) storm. It was her and one other person that made up their entire staff that stayed there 24 hours a day for five days now because most of her staff had to evacuate. We're grateful to her.

"And Sisters restaurant right down here on Skidaway. The hotel, they fed us breakfast, and Sisters made the guys lunch, and they're doing dinner for them as well.

"We had 88 players. We had some local guys who were able to stay at home. Last night they put up 88 of our players and a handful of coaches. She's fantastic."

STUDYING GAME FILM IN ATLANTA HOTEL
Raeburn was unable to stay with the team in Savannah because there was not enough room for him, his wife and their three children at the Clarion. They stayed in a hotel in Atlanta, as did three SSU assistant coaches.

"Before I left, I downloaded the North Carolina Central (game) film," Raeburn said. "So in Atlanta I was able to watch film of a few of their games. Three of the other coaches were in the same hotel in Atlanta that I was in so we were able to spend some time watching film.

"The (players) have not been able to watch film. They have the capacity to do it except our server is down because of the power being out. All of the videos are on there but they can't pull that off. Typically, they would have the ability to watch film when they were scattered around but with the power outage we just didn't have it."

MORGAN STATE AT SSU GAME NOW NOV. 26
SSU's game against Morgan State has been rescheduled for Nov. 26 at T.A. Wright Stadium. A kickoff time has not been determined. It will be the Tigers' final game of the season.

"Luckily, we'll get to make that one up on Nov. 26," Raeburn said. "We only have four home games this year so if that would have gotten canceled and we wouldn't have been able to make it up that would have been tough. But, fortunately, we were able to reschedule that with Morgan State for Nov. 26. So all of the preparation that we started for them we'll just kind of put on the shelf until the end of the season."

NCCU OUTLOOK
North Carolina Central repeated as co-champions of the MEAC last season with a 7-1 conference record. The Eagles are 8-2-1 in the series against SSU, which won in 2010 and 2011.
NCCU's offense is led by quarterback Malcolm Bell, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound redshirt senior from Richmond, Va. Bell is 79-of-141 passing for 1,131 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions.

"They have one of the top returning, if not the top returning, quarterbacks in the conference," Raeburn said. "He is a good player. You know how it is on offense, if you have an excellent quarterback you're going to be twice as good as the talent you have on offense. They are dangerous on offense with him back there. He's a mobile guy but what makes him one of the best quarterbacks returning is his ability to throw. He can hurt you with his feet but he's not one of those guys who looks to run all the time."

The Eagles' defense is led by defensive back Alden McClellon, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound sophomore from Lake Butler, Fla. McClellon has made a team-leading 43 tackles.

"Defensively, they're really fast and can really fly around," Raeburn said. "I've been most impressed with their D-line. They're able to play the run and get pressure with those front-four guys. That allows them the luxury of playing a lot of different coverages and doing a lot of different things on the back end because they are so good up front.

"And it's not just four guys," Raeburn continued. "They've been able to rotate guys in there. They're six or seven or eight guys deep on the D-line. I've been impressed not just with their depth and that they're talented, but that they play hard. I've been really impressed by that. No matter what four guys they have in there, those guys go. They're relentless. They go like crazy to the football. We're very young and inexperienced on the offensive line. That's a spot where we've really got to keep working hard to improve. That will be a difficult matchup for us on Saturday."