10th-ranked EMCC Lions back on the road and set to face Coahoma Tigers in Clarksdale

SCOOBA – Back in the NJCAA Division I Top 10, the East Mississippi Community College Lions are on the road again this week with a Thursday trip to Clarksdale to face the Coahoma Tigers in MACCC North Division football action. Kickoff at James E. Miller Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m.

Having improved to 14-4 in bounce-back games during the Buddy Stephens coaching era (since 2008), the EMCC Lions also bettered their road mark against Northwest Mississippi to 9-1 under Stephens' guidance with last Thursday's key 35-17 victory over the then-No. 10 Rangers in Senatobia.

In addition, the 18-point road win over Northwest raised the Lions' 2023 overall record to 3-2 and kept them unbeaten (2-0) in MACCC North Division action. During the opening month of play, EMCC rebounded from a season-opening 23-20 setback at Copiah-Lincoln with consecutive home triumphs over then-No. 4 Jones College (47-23) and Holmes (65-17) before dropping a 42-17 home decision to fourth-ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast two weeks ago.

As a team, East Mississippi entered the current week ranked second statistically among NJCAA Division I member schools in passing offense (337.2 yds/gm), fifth in total offense (449.6 yds/gm), and sixth in scoring average (36.8 pts/gm).

Individually for the 10^th-ranked EMCC Lions, two-time MACCC Offensive Player of the Week recipient Ty Keyes currently sits atop the NJCAA Division I statistical leaders with an average of 316.0 passing yards per game as well as with 17 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 121-of-200 (60.5%) passes for 1,580 yards through the air, including a trio of 300-yard passing efforts.  

EMCC head football coach Buddy Stephens, now in his 16^th year as head coach of the Lions, owns a career overall record of 136-23 (85.5%), including a 78-8 (90.7%) career mark in MACCC North Division contests. Coahoma currently stands as one of four MACCC schools that Stephens remains undefeated against. Along with owning 14-0 career records versus Coahoma and Mississippi Delta, he is also 5-0 against MACCC South Division foes East Central and Southwest Mississippi.

With this week's visit to Coahoma, Thursday marks EMCC's first road football contest against the Tigers since claiming a 55-20 victory in Clarksdale during the 2019 season. Last year's meeting in Scooba (Oct. 6) by far marked the EMCC-CCC series' most closely contested matchup of Stephens' head coaching career, as the Lions used a late-game defensive stand to help claim a hard-fought 24-16 home victory over Coahoma despite being outgained in total offense yardage, 436-407, by the visiting Tigers.

Guided by first-year head football coach and former Ole Miss All-America offensive lineman Terrence Metcalf, the 2023 Coahoma Tigers are 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the MACCC North Division. This year's CCC squad bounced back from a season-opening 62-7 road loss to East Central with a 37-32 home victory over Southwest Mississippi. The Tigers have since dropped decisions at home to Mississippi Delta (21-19), at Holmes (58-14), and last week at home to Copiah-Lincoln (20-6). A native of Clarksdale, Metcalf played with the NFL's Chicago Bears for seven seasons (2002-08). A member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and the Ole Miss Athletic Hall of Fame, Metcalf served as an assistant coach on Coahoma's football coaching staff a year ago. His son, DK Metcalf, is currently a wide receiver for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

Thursday's EMCC-Coahoma gridiron battle 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. Brad Logan is set to handle the sideline reporting duties. The game's live-streamed audio will also be carried by SuperTalk Mississippi (WZKR-FM 103.3), out of Meridian, as well as through 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.