SETTING THE SCENE
The Valdosta State Blazers return to the road Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET at Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss.  The Blazers enter with a 5-1 record overall and 2-1 in Gulf South Conference play as they currently are No. 26 in the latest AFCA Top 25, while Mississippi College is 2-3 and 1-2 in league play.
 
CALLING THE GAME
TALK 92.1 FM will broadcast the Blazer games all season long with Mike McDowd and Herb Reinhard having the call.  The game also will be streamed live on FloSports.  Fans can access links to the radio broadcast and video broadcast at vstateblazers.com on the football schedule page.
 
WATCH ON FLOSPORTS
The Gulf South Conference enters its second year of a four-year agreement with FloSports to broadcast all GSC football games this fall.  ALL VSU football home regular season and road conference livestream broadcasts will be available exclusively through FloSports.  Check back with vstateblazers.com on how to sign up and watch on FloSports.
 
INSIDE THE SERIES WITH MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE
Valdosta State is 12-9-1 all-time against Mississippi College, but the Choctaws snapped an 11-game winning streak by the Blazers with a 49-40 victory in Valdosta last season.  VSU has gone 5-0-1 in the last six meetings in Clinton, Miss., as the last loss there was on Oct. 28, 1989, in a 32-3 setback.  In last season's game, the Blazers held a 10-7 lead through the first quarter, but was outscored 35-14 over the next two frames, before a furious rally in the fourth quarter pulled VSU within nine.  The game saw a combined 1,261 yards of offense as VSU amassed 622 yards and MC had 639, including three rushers over 100 yards on the ground for the Choctaws.  VSU has outscored MC 618 to 443 all-time for a 28.1 to 20.1 average per game.
 
ABOUT THE CHOCTAWS
The Choctaws enter following a bye week and won at Shorter, 30-14, back on Sept. 30.  In that game, head coach John Bland recorded his 100th victory as a head coach in his career.  MC quarterback Cameron Davis threw for 204 yards and two touchdowns on 19 of 26 passing, while running back Marcus Williams rushed for 141 yards.  For the season, MC is second in the GSC and 17th nationally in rushing offense at 221.6 yards per game, while the Choctaws are 11th nationally and tops in the league in fewest penalties with 27 for 264 yards (18th nationally in penalty yards).  MC is fourth nationally in sacks allowed at a 0.60 clip to lead the league as the opposition has just three sacks allowed for 12 yards this season.  MC leads the GSC in first down defense allowing just 85 for 20th nationally.  Individually, Michael Shine s second nationally in punting at a 45.6 clip to lead the GSC, while Ron Craten leads the GSC in rushing yards per game at a 72.4 clip and he is fourth in the league in rushing yards with 362.  Williams has 278 yards on the ground this season, while Craten leads the team with four total touchdowns. Williams is fifth in the GSC in kick returns at 19.9 per contest as he is fifth in the GSC in all-purpose yards at 88.60 per contest. Choctaw kicker Ben Pledger was named Special Teams Player of the Week for the GSC for the second time this year following the game against Shorter as he accounted for 12 points on 3 of 3 in field goals and 3 of 3 in PATs, while recording seven kickoffs for 440 yards and a 62.9 average with two touchbacks.  Pledger currently is second in the GSC in field goals per game (1.00) and third in field goal percentage at a .625 clip on 5 of 8.  He has 23 kickoffs for 1403 yards and a 61.0 average per game.  Head coach John Bland is in his 19th season of coaching as he is 100-88 overall, while he is 25-62 at MC in his tenth season.  Bland is 1-7 against VSU at the helm of the Choctaws.
 
NATIONAL COMPARISON SNAPSHOT
 

 
RECAPPING THE DELTA STATE GAME
The Blazers started out fast and matched score-for-score with the Statesmen in the first quarter and then took a 17-14 lead with 4:07 left in the first half in a matchup of ranked teams.  DSU would then respond with two touchdowns in the final 2:28 of the half for a 28-17 lead at the break.  The Statesmen would then score another touchdown to open the second half for a 35-17 lead en route to the 49-25 victory.  VSU turned the Statesmen over three times in the game, but had just three points to show for it, getting outscored 14-3 in points off turnovers.  The Statesmen ran wild in the game to the tune of 54 rushing attempts for 417 yards, while VSU had 38 rushes for 174 yards and the Blazers went 25 of 37 passing for 285 yards, but threw three interceptions.  Blazer quarterback Sammy Edwards had a team-high 53 rushing yards and a touchdown.  Graduate student B.K. Smith had six receptions for 82 yards.  Defensively, the Blazers were led by junior Tyler Morehead with 12 total tackles and 0.5 TFL, while graduate student Nick Jackson had ten tackles and a forced fumble.  DSU had two running backs rush over 100 yards with a game-high 181 yards from Kelvin Smith on 23 carries.  He scored three of DSU's five rushing touchdowns.  VSU now has lost its last five games against ranked opponents.
 
EDWARDS LEADS THE NATION
Junior quarterback Sammy Edwards leads the nation in yards per pass attempt at 10.60 this season.  He is sixth nationally in passing efficiency (178.0) for second in the GSC, while he is third in the league in passing touchdowns (15) for 13th nationally.  Edwards leads the GSC in passing yards (1,876 / 5th nat.), while he is tops in the league in passing yards per game (312.7 / 5th nat.) and is 11th nationally for tops in the GSC in passing yards per completion at 15.38. Edwards is fourth nationally and tops in the league in total offense at 342.0 yards per game.  Edwards is fourth nationally and tops in the league in completion percentage at a .689 clip, while he is 14th nationally and tops in the league in completions per game (20.33).
 
WILLIAMS WITH THE RETURN
Junior Xavier Williams is second in the GSC in kick returns at a 27.2 clip for 27th nationally, while Williams leads the GSC in yards per reception at 22.79 for 12th nationally.  
 
GETTING THE PICK 
MC has only thrown one interception this season for fifth nationally and tops in the league.  Last week, Delta State came in only having thrown one interception through five games and the Blazers tallied to picks from junior Kyle Cass.  It marked the first time this season a Blazer recorded two or more interceptions in a game. 
 
GOING FOR WINNING SEASON 33
The Blazers enter this game with a 5-1 record and have a chance to earn the 33rd winning season in the 41-year playing history of the program.  VSU has won 14 games in a season twice (2002, 2018) and has won double-digit games 16 times.   
 
PARKER EARNS STEEL'S JEWELRY PLAYER OF THE WEEK
VSU junior linebacker Kennedy Parker earned Steel's Jewelry Blazer Athlete of the Week honors after he had nine tackles, six solo stops and one tackle for loss Sept. 30 at Chowan.  He is the fifth different Blazer to earn the honor this season, joining graduate student Nick Jackson, graduate student B.K. Smith, junior Eric Watts and junior Sammy Edwards.
 
THIELE MOVES UP TO SEVENTH IN SCORING
VSU junior kicker Estin Thiele moved into seventh all-time in career scoring with nine points in the 51-36 victory at Chowan on Sept. 30.  Thiele made his first field goal of the season (1-2) from 44 yards and went 6 of 7 in extra-points to surpass former Blazer Jamar Thompkins (2018-22) with 241 career points.  Thiele then scored five points on Saturday against Delta State.  Thiele is 30 points from sixth all-time (Seth McGill, 2018-22) with 276 points.  Thiele has 246 points for his VSU career.
 
IN DAY GAMES
The Blazers began a stretch of six-straight games last weekend at Chowan (9/30) of games beginning before 6 p.m. local time.  VSU is 2-1 this season in day games (63-10 vs. Point, 51-36 win at Chowan) and lost 49-25 at home to Delta State on Saturday.  VSU will not have another night game until Nov. 11 versus West Georgia at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.  Since 2018, VSU is 19-5 in day games.  VSU last played Mississippi College in a day game last season for Homecoming at VSU.
 
SPREADING THE WEALTH
Junior quarterback Sammy Edwards has been great this season at distributing the ball to different receivers.  Against Chowan last week, he connected with nine different receivers, while he found seven versus North Greenville (9/23), nine versus Keiser (9/16), seven at Albany State (9/9) and a season-high 11 in the season-opener versus Point (9/2). Edwards is 122 of 177 passing (.689) with seven interceptions and 15 touchdowns this season as he has completed at least one pass with 14 different receivers.
 
THIS WEEK IN THE GSC 
Conference play is in full swing and Delta State is the lone unbeaten team overall (6-0), while DSU and West Florida are the only unblemished teams in league play.  This week, Clark Atlanta travels to Shorter for a non-conference game on Saturday at 12 p.m., while VSU visits Mississippi College at 3 p.m.  West Florida travels to West Alabama at 5 p.m., while West Georgia entertains Chowan at 6 p.m. and North Greenville travels to Delta State for a 7 p.m. kick. 
 
WITH THE BLOCK
The Blazers have blocked two kicks this season for 39th nationally and tied for first in the GSC.  Redshirt freshman defensive back Theron Stroops had a blocked kick against Keiser, while junior defensive lineman J'Quan Hicks had a blocked kick against Chowan on Sept. 30.
 
SCORING FAST
This season, the Blazers have scored on their opening drive of the game five times, this season in six games.  VSU could've started with touchdowns on each opening drive of the season, but were picked off at the goal line in the opener versus Point (9/2).  VSU has outscored the opposition 35-21 on opening drives this season.
 
ON THIS DATE
The Blazers are 5-0 all-time on Oct. 14 and are 1-0 against Mississippi College on this date as they last played on this date in 2017, with a 55-3 home victory by the Blazers.  VSU i 2-0 on the road on this date and has not been on the road on this date since a 5-0 victory at North Alabama in 2010.     
 
NO SHUTOUTS
The Blazers lead the nation in the longest streak of not being shutout with 369 games without a shutout dating back to a 12-0 loss at Central Florida to open the 1991 season on Sept. 14.  VSU's last shutout of the opposition came on Oct. 9, 2021, in Valdosta with a 55-0 victory over Delta State for the 26th shutout in program history.
 
A VICTORY OVER MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE UNIVERSITY WOULD . . .