Football | 8/29/2018 11:47:00 AM

GAME CENTRAL

GAME CENTRAL

Savannah State Tigers I Game Notes: Click Here
(0-0, 0-0 MEAC)
Vs.
Alabama at Birmingham Blazers I Game Notes: Click Here
(0-0, 0-0 C-USA)

Legion Field
(Birmingham, Ala., 7 p.m. -- CST)

Savannah, Ga. -- The Savannah State football team will play travel to Birmingham, Ala. to play its season opener against the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Thursday night at 7 p.m. (cst).

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The Series:  First Meeting

Tiger Bites

- SSU plays in its second Thursday night game since entering Division I. The last time the Tigers played on Thursday was in the 2007 season opener when the Tigers lost to Morgan State, 47-7, on Aug. 30th.

- Coach Raeburn is 15-3 in season debuts during his 17-year coaching career. He won 14 consecutive season openers from 2001 to 2015.

- SSU is 2-14 in season openers since entering Division I in 2002 and 0-7 in openers since entering the MEAC in 2011.

-  The last time SSU faced a C-USA member was in 2016 when the Tigers lost, 0-56, to Southern Mississippi.
 
SSU/UAB TIES-
Former SSU coach Greg Green is currently the coordinator of student-athlete support services at UAB. Green worked at SSU from 1995-99 and served as judicial affairs coordinator, academic coordinator and coached football and tennis.
 
THE RAEBURN FILE
SSU head coach Erik Raeburn is known as a rebuilder. In his first head coaching job at Coe, he had back-to-back 6-4 seasons. In his third season, his team went 10-2 and made the Division III playoffs. At Wabash, he made the Division III playoffs his first two years. He went 8-2 in his third year, but bounced back to go 12-1 in his fourth season and earned another trip to the Division III playoffs. SSU went 3-7 in Raeburn's first season with the Tigers and 3-8 a year ago so there is optimism in the air on the marsh.
 
PRESEASON HONORS
Five SSU players received preseason honors from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Senior defensive lineman Stefen Banks was named to the First Team Defense; junior place kicker Giovanni Lugo was named to the Second Team Special Teams; senior tight end Paris Baker was named to the Third Team Offense; Brandon Carswell, a senior defensive lineman, was named to the Third Team Defense; and sophomore return specialist JaMichael Baldwin was named to the Third Team Special Teams.

WATCH LIST
Senior defensive lineman Stefen Banks has been named to the Black College Hall of Fame 2018 Black College Player of the Year Watch List.
 
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
The SSU roster is made up of players from nine states (Georgia, Florida, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland and Connecticut) and the Bahamas.
 
ROAD TRIPS
The football team plays in five different states this season plus a trip to the District of Columbia. In addition to playing in Georgia, SSU will also have road games in Alabama, Florida, Delaware and South Carolina.
 
200 CLUB
Stefen Banks needs 27 tackles to reach 200 for his career.
 
WELCOME TO THE MARSH
Shawn Quinn, Tom Sims and Paul Humphries joins the coaching staff this season. Quinn will serve as defensive coordinator/linebacker coach, Sims will coach the defensive line and Humphries will mentor the safeties.
 
BROTHERLY LOVE
Randy and Randall Moss are the only set of brothers affiliated with the team. The Jacksonville, Florida natives are twins and serve as team managers/student coaches.
 
WHERE'S THE BEEF
Eight members of the SSU team weigh at least 300 pounds.
 
PRO TIES
Defensive line coach Tom Sims, safeties coach Paul Humphries and corner back coach Glenn Davis all played professional football. Sims played defensive line in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs, Indianapolis Colts and Minnesota Vikings. Humphries played for a pair of seasons in 1997 and 1999 in the Canadian Football League for the British Columbia Lions and Toronto Argonauts. Davis played with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL and three years of arena football with the Orlando Predators, the Carolina Cobras and the Wilkes-Barre Pioneers.
 
HOME GROWN- Seven members of the team hail from Savannah and come from six different of the local high schools (New Hampstead, Islands, Bible Baptist, Johnson, Windsor Forest and Jenkins.

THE SIZE OF IT- Sophomore offensive lineman Michael Johnson is the largest player on the squad at 330 pounds while wide receiver Monroe Thorton is the smallest at 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds. Johnson along with tight end Steve Hagan are both listed  at 6-foot-7.
 
MILITARY MAN
SSU defensive back Terrance McCray is a military veteran. The junior from Charlotte served in the Marines.
 
DID YOU KNOW
The last time a SSU football team had a winning season was in 1998. The defensive coordinator of that squad was Steve Wilks, who is in his first year as head coach of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.
 
ABOUT THE MEAC
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, a NCAA Division I Conference, is in its 45th year of operation heading into the 2015-16 academic school year. The MEAC is made up of 12 outstanding, historically black institutions across the Atlantic coastline: Bethune-Cookman University, Coppin State University, Delaware State University, Florida A&M University, Howard University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University, Savannah State University, and South Carolina State University.
 
HOME GROWN
Seven members of the team hail from Savannah and come from six different of the local high schools (New Hampstead, Islands, Bible Baptist, Johnson, Windsor Forest and Jenkins .
 
THE SIZE OF IT
Sophomore offensive lineman Michael Johnson is the largest player on the squad at 330 pounds while wide receiver Monroe Thorton is the smallest at 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds. Johnson along with tight end Steve Hagan are both listed  at 6-foot-7.
 
MOVE TO DIVISION II 
In April 2017, the Savannah State administration made the decision to move SSU athletics from Division I to Division II. SSU began the three-year transitional period in July of 2018. This is the final season the Tigers will play as members of the MEAC.