For 105 years, Morehouse and Tuskegee have battled, making it the oldest HBCU football series.
But lately it hasn't been very competitive.
When the two teams hookup today in the 80th Annual Tuskegee-Morehouse Classic at 2 pm in Columbus, Ga., Tuskegee (4-1, 1-0 SIAC) will look to improve on their 54-20-5 overall record with Morehouse {3-2, 1-1 SIAC).
In fact, Morehouse last beat Tuskegee in 2011, a 17-14 victory during the Maroon Tigers 8-2 season that year. Since 2011, Tuskegee has racked up easy wins over their Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival, including a 49-0 win last season and a 54-10 blowout the year before.
Add to that, Tuskegee, the top-ranked Division II team in ADD'S HBCU SPORTS REPORT's latest Top Ten poll, is in a surly mood after losing their first game of the season last week, 29-17 to UNC Pembroke.
"We are coming off of a loss, so we are not happy," said Tuskegee head coach Willie Slater. "Now we have to focus our attention on Morehouse, which says enough itself. We had good days at practice this week and I think we will be ready.
"I expect the guys to be ready to go," he said. "We are young, so our guys may not really understand what the rivalry is all about. It is not in them yet, but we have some that have been here and those are the guys that are running around getting ready."
They will be facing a Morehouse team that is much more talented than they have in recent years. The Maroon Tigers are only five points from being a 5-0 football team with a two point overtime loss to Arkansas-Pine Buff and a three point loss to Miles.
They are led on offense by quarterback Monquavious Johnson, one of the SIAC's leaders in total offense who can lead the Maroon Tigers with his arm (he's the SIAC's top ranked passer) and his legs. They lead the conference in scoring with nearly 30 points a game. On defense, they are the conference's second-best in total defense and tops in pass defense. Christopher Ham and James Woods, last week's SIAC Defensive Player of the Week, rank fourth and fifth in tackles in the SIAC.
But this is the Morehouse-Tuskegee series and lately it hasn't been very even, Morehouse head coach Rich Freeman said.
"Those kids just don’t feel like they should lose to us," he said. "And if you look at the last two years, they beat us 52-10 in 2013, and they beat us 49-0 last year. So that’s 101 to 10 in the last two years. So their mindset coming into this game is they can just blow us out. Hopefully we're going to do something about that. There is going to be some guys on our team who are going to remember those two lopsided losses."
The game will be televised live on ASPIRE Network.
Here is the complete HBCU football schedule for today:
MEAC
North Carolina A&T at Norfolk State
Delaware State at Hampton
Savannah State at Morgan State
North Carolina Central at Florida A&M
Bethune-Cookman 17, South Carolina State 14 (Thursday)
CIAA
Virginia Union at Lincoln (Pa)
Virginia State at Elizabeth City State
Livingstone at St. Augustine's
Shaw at Fayetteville State
Johnson C. Smith at Winston-Salem State
Chowan at Bowie State
SWAC
Mississippi Valley State at Prairie View
Alabama A&M at Grambling
Southern at Alabama State
SIAC
Miles at Central State
Fort Valley State at Central State
Morehouse vs. Tuskegee
Stillman at Clark Atlanta
Lane at Benedict
OTHERS
Tennessee State at UT-Martin
East Stroudsburg at Cheyney
Notre Dame College at West Virginia State
Lincoln (Mo) at St Joseph's
Arizona Christian at Langston
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