THE GAME
Coming off of their first loss of the young season, the Savannah State University Tigers (1-1, 0-0 SIAC) host the Clark Atlanta University Panthers (0-2, 0-1 SIAC) at Theodore A. Wright Stadium.
 
SSU and CAU are no strangers and their games on the gridiron date back to 1956. Today's clash will be the 48th meeting. Since 1998, Savannah State has a 5-1 record against the Panthers and lead the overall series 27-19-1.
 
LAST YEAR
Clark Atlanta tripped up Savannah State last season as the Panthers won their Homecoming game with a 21-12 victory over the Tigers on October 15, 2022.
The Panthers led 14-0 at the half but Savannah State pulled within 14-6 midway in the third quarter when JT Hartage threw a 34 yard touchdown pass to DaMarion Colbert. CAU went ahead 21-6 midway in the fourth quarter but the Tigers answered with 3:18 remaining in the game when Hartage threw a 15 yard touchdown pass to Brent Carr.
 
COACHES QUOTE
SSU head coach Aaron Kelton says "We are disappointed with last weeks out come. We feel like we left a lot of football plays on the field.  We are better than we showed last week. We had too many mistakes and penalties. We need to play a cleaner football game this week. Clark Atlanta is a good team even though they haven't won yet. They play hard and are fast. We have to play mistake free this week. We are excited to be home this week after being away for two weeks. We hope the stadium will be full of excitement and support. Our Tigers a re looking forward to getting back on track after a disappointing  game last week against Bethune Cookman."
 
LAST WEEK
Savannah State traveled to Daytona Beach, Florida last week to face FCS foe Bethune-Cookman University. The Tigers trailed 7-6 early in the third quarter before B-CU scored the final 24 points of the game and defeated SSU 31-6.
 
TOP OFFENSIVE PLAYERS
Quarterback Jadon Adams engineers the Tigers offense. So far, the junior signal caller has completed 46 percent (29 of 63) of his passes for 308 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. He has also ran for a touchdown.
Sophomore tailback Joseph Hampton has 56 yards this season and is averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
Senior wide receiver Brent Carr is the top pass catcher with six receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown.
 
TOP DEFENSIVE PLAYERS
Savannah State's defense is led by linebackers Tavare Brewton who has 18 tackles and Deon Bell who has contributed 12 tackles. 
Defensive lineman Ameer Phillips leads the unit with five tackles for loss and two sacks.
Roaming the secondary is Dreshawn Dawkins, Kirk Smith and Deandre Creary who all have an interception. Smith and Dawkins also have a fumble recovery to their credit.
 
SPECIAL TEAMS
After missing the 2022 season while recovering from an injury. Kenneth Lockhart is back. In two games, he has punted 13 times and is averaging 36.6 yards per punt with a long of 50 yards. Five have landed inside the opponents 20. He has made three of four field goal attempts and has a long of 37 yards.
Randy Scott has four kick returns and is averaging 26 yards a return.
 
SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
CAU is coached by Willie Slater who is in his second year with the program. Prior to arriving at Clark Atlanta, Slater spent 16 years at Tuskegee where his teams had a record of 123-47 and won seven SIAC championships.
Clark Atlanta is still seeking their first win of the season. they lost their season opener at Kentucky State 34-20 and fell at home to Fort Valley State last week 40-17 in their conference opener.
The Panthers are averaging 18.5 points  and 235.5 yards a game while giving up 37 points and 380 yards a night.
Quarterback Heath Williams has completed 21 of 32 passes for 294 yards and a touchdown but has also been sacked four times.
Williams' top target is 6-foot-3 junior Devion Newson who has 12 receptions for 167 yards and a touchdown.
The Panthers have a running back by committee with juniors Jeremiah Gibbs (36 yards), Daquon Kincey (35 yards, 2 touchdowns) and Josef Douglas (33 yards) getting most of the carries.
Anchoring the defense is junior defensive backs Camron Ivey and Julian Little and freshman defensive lineman Kurtis Waye. Ivey has 17 tackles while Little has 11 and Waye has ten.
 
SAVANNAH STATE-CLARK ATLANTA CONNECTION
Major Richard R. Wright, Savannah State's first president is a graduate of Clark Atlanta.
 
NO FLY ZONE
The Savannah State defense has at least one interception in their last four games, dating back to last season
 
PROTECTING THE BALL
SSU quarterbacks have not thrown an interception so far. The last interception thrown by a Tiger quarterback was October 29, 2022 against Fort Valley State.
 
RECOVERY EFFORT
Dating back to last season, SSU has at least one fumble recovery in the past five games.
 
POLL WATCHERS
With their loss to Bethune-Cookman, SSU dropped from #6 to #10 in the latest HBCU Division II Football Poll. The Tigers received votes in the latest BOXTOROW Division II Coaches Poll.
 
FIRST QUARTER BLUES
The SSU defense has not given up a score in the first quarter this season.
 
NEW DIGITAL SIGNAGE
Fans will notice a new digital signage/scoreboard at T.A. Wright Stadium. The new board which is 32'x16', is apart of a overhaul of the university's technology enhancement campus-wide upgrades. The display board will also be incorporated into classroom usage as well as other departments on campus such as the NROTC program and Enrollment Management. The idea of the new signage board was the brainstorm of Dr. Dedra N. Andrews (SSU Director of Title III), Mr. Gary Miller (SSU Chief Information Officer) and  Opio Mashariki (SSU Director of Athletics).

 LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
The SSU roster is made up of players from eight states (Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Connecticut, New York, California, Tennessee and Alabama) as well as the District of Columbia
 
THE LEGACY CONTINUES
SSU defensive back Dwayne Ruff is the son of Savannah State alum Dwayne Ruff. The younger Ruff played three seasons at East Tennessee State. He earned his degree at ETSU and decided to play his final season of eligibility at SSU as a grad transfer. The elder Ruff was a two-sport student-athlete at SSU, playing football and basketball from 1986-89. He was a member of the 1989 team that included NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe that posted a 8-1 record.
 
WELCOME TO THE MARSH
SSU head football coach Aaron Kelton welcomes two new coaches to his staff. Marking their first season at Savannah State are A.J. Walsh (offensive line) and Keon Cezar (defensive line).
 
IN MEMORY
SSU mourns  the loss of former Tigers head football coach Dr. Leo Richardson. He led the Tigers to a 6-2-1 record in 1967 which was good enough to win the Southeastern Athletic conference championship. That same year Richardson was named the SEAC Coach of the Year. In addition to coaching football at SSU, Richardson also served as the head men's basketball coach and a biology professor. He was inducted into the SSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010. Richardson died on July 23, 2023.
 
TRANSFER U
SSU has 15 players on the roster that have transferred from other schools. The programs, which range from FBS to junior college, include East Tennessee State, Bryant University, Pittsburgh, North Carolina Central, Glennville State, Point University, Georgia Southern, Lane College, Grambling State, Albany State, Louisburg College, Hobart College, American River College, Los Angeles Valley Community College and Hutchinson Community College.
 
SURVIVOR
SSU signee Kyle Frazier is a cancer survivor. Frazier was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in April 2019 but after chemotherapy treatments, he was declared cancer free in August 2019. The Augusta, Georgia native enrolled at SSU in January 2020 and joined the football team in 2021.He has made the all conference team his freshman and sophomore years.

FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE
Savannah State will appear on ESPN+ twice during the season.The Tigers will play Clark Atlanta on September 16 at Theodore A. Wright Stadium at 6 p.m. The 2023 SSU Homecoming match-up with Tuskegee University on October 21 will also appear on ESPN+ with a 3 p.m. kickoff.

HOME GROWN
SU has 14 players in its roster from ten different of the local high schools (Islands, Savannah High, Johnson, Windsor Forest, Memorial, Beach, Bethesda, New Hampstead, Calvary and Jenkins.
 
THE SIZE OF IT
Freshmen linemen Kamrem Bing and Derrick Clark are the biggest players on the team. Bing, a offensive lineman weighs 340-pounds while Clark, a defensive lineman stands 6-foot-5. Freshman wide receiver Jason Cobb is the smallest player on the roster at 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds.
 
GETTING THE MILES IN
SSU has six road games on the schedule with an average of 355 miles for each game. Tiger fans will travel to Lakeland, Florida (335 miles), Daytona Beach, Fla. (234 miles), Brunswick, Georgia (79 miles), Fort Valley, Ga. (175 miles), Wilberforce, Ohio (689 miles) and Jackson, Tennessee (620 miles).
 
PRESEASON HONORS
During the SIAC Football Media Day in July, four SSU football players were named to the preseason all conference team. Offensive linemen Kyle Frazier and Riyon Adams and running back Shamarcus Poole were named to the First Team while punter/kicker Kenneth Lockhart was picked for the Second Team.
 
WHAT'S IN A NAME
There are ten sets of players on the SSU roster that share the same last name. The team has three players with the last name of Williams, Brown and Johnson and seven sets with the last name of Roberts, Leonard, Adams, Bell, Davis, Hampton and Jones. Additionally there are players with the last name that is pronounced the same but spelled differently as in Brown/Browne and Clark/Clarke.