Four Houston area teams affected by Hurricane Harvey - Prairie View A&M, Sam Houston State, Texas Southern and Houston Baptist - will all be in action tonight.
Prairie View A&M had their season-opener against Texas Southern postponed until Thanksgiving because of the storm. They will finally be on the field against Sam Houston State, who also had their season-opener postponed.
But the Bearcats, ranked third in country among FCS teams, did play last Friday when they defeated 7th ranked Richmond 48-34. They were led by quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe, last season's Walter Payton Award winner as the best player in FCS football, who threw for 411 yards and four TDs last week. Briscoe led an offense that averaged 46 points a game, best in the nation, last season.
"They're a unit that executes," said PVAM head coach Willie Simmons. "They are efficient in what they do. They have really good skill position guys, from the wide outs to the tight ends to the running backs. The quarterback was the Walter Payton Award winner, so they are a very potent offense when they got into a rhythm and get going. They have speed out wide. The running backs run hard, and they are going to spread you out and make you cover the entire field. For us, the challenge is to be good fundamentally and don't give up the big plays they are accustomed to getting."
But in 2015, Prairie View was led the nation in averaging 45 points a game. They dipped a bit last season, but return experience all over the field. Wide receivers Darius Floyd and Khadarel Hodge, along with Joshua Simmons, form one of the nation's best receiving corps. Sta'fon McCray, Dawonya Tucker and Caleb Broach combined for more than 1,200 yards rushing. Quarterback Jalen Morton, who threw for 945 yards and eight touchdowns and ran for six touchdowns, returns and will battle two others to replace full time starter in 2016, Trey Green.
Prairie View returns eight starters on defense including one of the SWAC's top defenders in defensive lineman DeVohn Reed and defensive back Raleigh Johnson.
Texas Southern vs. Houston Baptist
Texas Southern is anxious to get back on the field after a poor showing against Florida A&M in their opener two weeks ago.
The Tigers fell behind 29-0 as their offense only accounted for 62 yards rushing and 130 yards passing, while the defense gave up 415 yards of offense to FAMU, including nearly 200 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
They face a good running team in Houston Baptist, which fell to Texas State 20-11 in a close game last weekend. They are led by senior running backs B.J. Kelly and Terrance Peters, a duo that combined for 2,682 yards and 16 touchdowns last season.
The Huskies also have a strong defense, led by Cody Moncure who had 11 tackles last weekend.
Houston Baptist won last year's match-up of crosstown rivals, 24-20.
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