Prairie View A&M Football To End Regular Season Against Rival Texas Southern in Labor Day Classic on Saturday

HOUSTON, Texas -- Prairie View A&M football ends the 2017 season in a Saturday night showdown against Texas Southern in the 33rd Labor Day Classic at 6 p.m. at BBVA Compass Stadium.

The PVAMU Sports Network radio broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m. online at pvpanthers.com/sportsnetwork with interviews with PVAMU QB Neiko Hollins and HC Willie Simmons ahead of kickoff. The game will also be televised on ATT SportsNet.

A win by the Panthers (5-5 overall, 3-3 in SWAC) would give the football program its third straight winning season, a feat only accomplished once since 1968 (four straight winning seasons from 2007-10). It would also give PVAMU a winning record in SWAC play, which would be the ninth non-losing season in conference play in the last 11 seasons.



"You seem a team that's playing its best football at this time of year," said Simmons of Texas Southern, which has won two of its last three games following an 0-7 start. "They are playing with confidence. They went on the road and won a tough road game at UAPB (24-10 last week). I expect a hard fought football game. A Mike Haywood coached football team is one that is going to be well coached, is going to be disciplined and going to play hard. They are going to make us execute."

Prairie View A&M has won two straight and three of its last four contests. Since the October 21 bye week, the Panthers have posted home wins over Bacone (34-17) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (35-12), with the victories sandwiched around the lone loss in that stretch at Southern (37-31). PVAMU is coming off a 42-28 road win last Thursday night at Incarnate Word.

In five starts under Hollins, the offense has averaged 32.6 points and 461 yards per game, with four 400+ yard games, which includes 515 total yards at Incarnate Word and 610 yards against UAPB in the last two weeks. Hollins earned SWAC Player and Newcomer of the Week honors after passing for 348 yards and a career-high tying four touchdowns. WRs Khadarel Hodge, who leads the SWAC with 12 touchdowns, and Darius Floyd, who is second in the nation in kickoff returns, each caught a pair of touchdown passes last week. Floyd had career-best 268 all-purpose yards to earn his second SWAC Specialist of the Week honor.



In those last four games, the defense has forced seven turnovers, five of them interceptions. DB Ju'Anthony Parker, who is tied for the SWAC lead in both interceptions (four) and interception returns for touchdowns (two), has two of the five picks for the defense. LB Jalyn Williams continues to rank second in the nation in tackles for loss with 19.5 and has at least one TFL in nine straight games.

The Tigers have posted road wins at Miss. Valley St. (38-21) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (24-10), sandwiched around a home loss to Southern (33-7). TSU has turned a heavy focus on running the football, rushing the football on more than 87 percent of its plays (152 of 173) in the last three weeks.



"You can throw records, you can throw everything else out the window when it comes to rival games," Simmons said. "We saw that last week with Alcorn and Jackson State (A 7-3 JSU win over SWAC East Champion Alcorn)…Whenever there's a rivalry, given our proximity being 45 minutes from each other and being the two premier HBCUs in the state of Texas, we understand how huge this game is. There's a lot riding on it for both teams, for both coaching staffs, for both administrations, the student body, the alumni bases. For 365 days, there are bragging rights."

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