EMCC Homecoming to feature top-15 MACCC North showdown with Northeast

SCOOBA – In a matchup of NJCAA Division I top-15 teams battling for the upper hand within the MACCC's North Division, the 11^th-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College are set to play host to the No. 15 Northeast Mississippi Tigers as part of Saturday's EMCC Homecoming festivities on the Scooba campus. Kickoff for the key clash of divisional unbeatens with major conference playoff implications is set for 2 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field.

Along with the presentation of EMCC's 2023 Homecoming Court, Saturday's EMCC-NEMCC halftime activities will also feature the recognition of Tommy Tomlinson as EMCC's 2023 Alumnus of the Year and Pat Granger as EMCC's 2023 Distinguished Service Award winner.

Having dropped one spot to No. 11 in this week's NJCAA Division I Football Rankings despite blanking Coahoma, 56-0, on the road a week ago, East Mississippi enters the final third of the regular season with a 4-2 overall record and 3-0 division mark. Both of the Lions' setbacks this season have been followed by a pair of victories. After falling to now-No. 10 Copiah-Lincoln, 23-20, to open the season, EMCC rebounded with back-to-back home victories over then-No. 4 Jones (47-23) and Holmes (65-17). The Lions then claimed consecutive road division wins over then-No. 10 Northwest Mississippi (35-17) and Coahoma (56-0) after dropping a 42-17 home decision to then-No. 4 Mississippi Gulf Coast on Sept. 28.

On the heels of posting their 25^th career shutout victory of the Buddy Stephens coaching era at Coahoma a week ago, as well as claiming the program's biggest shutout win since EMCC's 2017 national championship season, the Lions currently rank second among NJCAA Division I teams in passing offense (321.0 yds/gm), tied for fourth in scoring average (40.0 pts/gm), and sixth in total offense (442.2 yds/gm).

Individually for the reigning MACCC football champions, two-time MACCC Offensive Player of the Week recipient Ty Keyes continues to sit atop the NJCAA Division I statistical leaders with an average of 297.8 passing yards per game along with an NJCAA-high 20 passing touchdowns on the year. For the season, the Southern Miss bounce-back signal-caller and former two-time Mississippi Gatorade Football Player of the Year at Taylorsville High School has also completed 61.6 percent (133-of-216) of his passes for 1,787 yards through the air, including last week's 207-yard, three-touchdown effort on 12-of-16 (75%) passing in only one half of action.

EMCC head football coach Buddy Stephens, now in his 16^th year as head coach of the Lions, owns a career overall record of 137-23 (85.6%), including a 79-8 (90.8%) career mark in MACCC North Division contests. He owns a 12-2 career record against Northeast Mississippi (6-1 in both Scooba & Booneville), which includes a 3-0 mark versus the Tigers during EMCC Homecoming contests. Following 10 straight series wins over Northeast, last year's EMCC squad was slowed by seven turnovers (4 lost fumbles & 3 INTs) and without the services of four defensive starters due to injury on the way to dropping a 31-21 decision to the Tigers in Booneville. The Lions' lone home loss to Northeast during the Stephens era came in 2010 (49-42) during their final season at the previous site of Sullivan-Windham Field in Scooba. 

The Lions are unbeaten (14-0) in EMCC Homecoming contests during the Stephens era, including last year's 38-10 Homecoming victory over Itawamba. With Saturday's upcoming meeting, Northeast will solely become EMCC's most common Homecoming opponent dating back to 2008. Along with current 3-0 Homecoming marks versus NEMCC (2009, '19 & '21) and Coahoma (2008, '13 & '17), Stephens' Lions have beaten both Holmes (2012 & '18) and Itawamba (2015 & '22) twice during Scooba Homecomings. In addition, Mississippi Delta (2011), Northwest Mississippi (2016), Jones (2014), and Pearl River (2010) have all been one-time EMCC Homecoming foes since the 2008 season.   

Guided by head football coach Greg Davis, who is in his 12^th year overall on Northeast Mississippi's football staff, the 2023 NEMCC Tigers are currently ranked 15^th nationally with an overall record of 5-1 that includes a 3-0 division mark. Northeast has been ranked as high as ninth nationally this year after opening the season with consecutive wins over Hinds (20-7), Pearl River (19-3), Itawamba (20-14), Mississippi Delta (40-0), and Holmes (37-20). Last week in Decatur, the Tigers dropped from the unbeaten ranks by falling in overtime, 28-21, to East Central.

Saturday's EMCC-Northeast showdown between current co-MACCC North front-runners will be broadcast live by WFCA-FM (107.9), out of French Camp, with Jason Crowder and Glen Beard slated to provide the play-by-play and color commentary, respectively. Anthony Craven is set to handle the sideline reporting duties. The game's live-streamed audio will also be carried by EMCC's campus radio station, WGTC-FM (92.7), originating from the Golden Triangle campus in Mayhew. In addition, EMCC's weekly live video-streamed football broadcasts will be available in HD at emcclive.com. Alternate audio streams of the radio broadcasts are also available at wfca.fm.