Five-time NJCAA champion EMCC to take on reigning national champ Iowa Western in 2023 title tilt

SCOOBA – Bidding for record-tying football history, five-time NJCAA champion East Mississippi Community College (10-2) will take on reigning national champion Iowa Western Community College (11-1) in Wednesday's (Dec. 13) NJCAA Division I Football Championship, presented by Zurich Insurance, to be played in Little Rock, Arkansas. Kickoff between the fourth-ranked EMCC Lions and the second-ranked IWCC Reivers is set for 7 p.m. CT at War Memorial Stadium, and the championship matchup will be televised nationally by ESPNU.

Tickets for Wednesday's championship contest can be purchased by visiting njcaa.org/tickets and are available through HomeTown Ticketing, the NJCAA's Exclusive Online Ticketing Provider.

In addition to being televised nationally by ESPNU, the EMCC-IWCC title clash 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. Billy Begley is set to handle the sideline reporting duties. Along with the audio feed of Wednesday's EMCC football broadcast being available online at emcclive.com and wfca.fm, the game's live-streamed audio will also be carried through EMCC's campus radio station, WGTC-FM (92.7), originating from the Golden Triangle campus in Mayhew.

This year's title game between East Mississippi and Iowa Western marks a rematch of the 2014 NJCAA Football Championship Game (Mississippi Bowl VII) won by the Lions, 34-17, at Biloxi High School's Indian Stadium. The victory claimed over IWCC nine years ago (Dec. 7, 2014) marked EMCC's third of five national championships earned during an eight-year stretch between 2011 and 2018. With other NJCAA football crowns previously collected in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2018, the EMCC Lions are bidding to match six-time NJCAA champions Butler [KS] and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M for the most all-time football team championships in NJCAA history. EMCC's Buddy Stephens is also looking to add to his all-time NJCAA record of five national championships as a head football coach.

In the previous EMCC-IWCC gridiron meeting, the top-ranked Lions outgained No. 2 Iowa Western, 515-191, in total offense and forced five turnovers to claim their second straight national championship. The primary offensive standout for East Mississippi during the 2014 championship game was quarterback Chad Kelly, who completed 40-of-53 passes for 434 yards and five touchdowns against the Reivers. The Buffalo, New York native, who was a bounceback from Clemson, was most recently named the Canadian Football League's 2023 Most Outstanding Player as a member of the Toronto Argonauts. Kelly finished his collegiate career at Ole Miss (2015-16) and was later affectionately tabbed as the 2017 NFL Draft's "Mr. Irrelevant" as the league's final draft selection of the year by the Denver Broncos.

Along with their 5-0 mark in previous NJCAA Championship Game appearances, the EMCC Lions are also unbeaten in nine conference (MACCC/MACJC) football title games to give them an unblemished 14-0 composite record in championship contests during the Stephens coaching era.    

This week marks just the fourth time that EMCC will be venturing outside the state of Mississippi to play football during the Stephens coaching era (since 2008). Including their 27-23 road win over top-ranked and previously unbeaten Hutchinson [KS] Community College during this year's playoff semifinal in Kansas, the 2023 Lions are also making their initial NJCAA Division I Football Playoff appearance since the NJCAA went to the four-team playoff system in 2021.

Previously when the NJCAA paired the top two ranked teams in the final regular-season poll to play in the national championship game, EMCC claimed its first of five NJCAA football championships during an eight-year span with a 55-47 win over Arizona Western at the 2011 El Toro Bowl played in Yuma, Arizona. The Lions' impressive run of previous national titles was capped by a gritty 10-9 victory over Garden City [KS] at the 2018 NJCAA eTeamSponsor Football National Championship Game played at Pittsburg State's Carnie Smith Stadium in Pittsburg, Kansas. EMCC's middle three national championships were all earned within the Magnolia State in 2013 (52-32 over Georgia Military), 2014 (34-17 over Iowa Western), and 2017 (31-28 over Arizona Western) during Mississippi Bowl contests played in Biloxi (2013 & 2014) and Perkinston (2017).

East Mississippi's storied football program and Little Rock's historic War Memorial Stadium share a little history. During the 75-year-old stadium's third year of existence, first-year head coach Bob "Bull" Sullivan's EMJC squad kicked off the 1950 season by upsetting the reigning national junior college champion Little Rock Junior College Trojans, 34-14, in Little Rock. Sullivan went on to coach the Lions for 16 total seasons during two different stints (1950-52 & 1956-68) and is immortalized with a statue located within EMCC's current home football facility, Sullivan-Windham Field, in Scooba. The Hall of Famer's successful coaching career and life lesson contributions are further memorialized within an 18-page Sports Illustrated article (1984) entitled "The Toughest Coach There Ever Was" and the 2010 book, Bull Cyclone Sullivan and the Lions of Scooba, Mississippi.

Having captured their ninth conference championship in the past 15 years under Stephens with MACCC playoff wins last month at home over top-10 conference foes Mississippi Gulf Coast (33-21 in Nov. 11 semifinals) and Copiah-Lincoln (27-20 in Nov. 18 championship), the 10-2 EMCC Lions enter Wednesday's NJCAA championship contest on an eight-game winning streak. They sat at the .500 mark (2-2) at the end of September with losses to eventual MACCC runner-up Copiah-Lincoln (23-20 on Sept. 7) and eventual MACCC semifinalist Mississippi Gulf Coast (42-17 on Sept. 28).    

Overall dating back to the 2008 season, East Mississippi owns a composite record of 50-15 against nationally ranked opponents for a .769 winning percentage. With this year's playoff semifinal win over top-ranked Hutchinson, EMCC improved its collective record to 4-1 against nationally No. 1-ranked teams during the Stephens coaching era. Additionally under his direction, the Lions are 32-5 (.865) through the years while competing as the NJCAA's top-ranked team (3-0 in 2012; 10-0 in 2014; 1-1 in 2015; 0-1 in 2016; 5-1 in 2017; 12-0 in 2018; 0-1 in 2019; and 1-1 in 2021). 

Wednesday's championship contest in Little Rock will also feature a head-to-head rematch meeting between two of the most successful NJCAA football coaches in the current junior college ranks, who previously met during East Mississippi's 34-17 national championship victory over Iowa Western in 2014. IWCC's Scott Strohmeier (159-44 [.783]) and EMCC's Stephens (143-23 [.861]) presently rank second and fourth, respectively, on the NJCAA's active winningest football coaches list.

Among the NJCAA Division I offensive team statistical leaders, East Mississippi enters the national championship game ranked fourth in scoring offense (37.3 ppg), seventh in total offense (417.1 ypg), fourth in passing offense (271.9 ypg), and 14^th in rushing offense (145.2 ypg). Comparatively, Iowa Western presently stands 13^th nationally in scoring offense (30.4 ppg), 18^th in total offense (337.7 ypg), 28^th in passing offense (142.1 ypg), and sixth in rushing offense (195.6 ypg).

Defensively among the NJCAA's team statistical leaders, the Lions enter Wednesday's national title tilt ranked 11^th in scoring defense (20.0 ppg), 23^rd in total defense (318.5 ypg), 23^rd in passing defense (186.8 ypg), and 21^st in rushing defense (131.8 ypg). In comparison, the Reivers currently rank among the nation's top-10 defensive teams in scoring defense (5^th - 17.3 ppg), total defense (4^th - 233.0 ypg), passing defense (7^th - 160.5 ypg) and rushing defense (3^rd - 72.5 ypg). 

Individually for the EMCC Lions, NJCAA Region 23 Most Valuable Player Ty Keyes has thrown for NJCAA-high totals of 3,089 passing yards and 32 touchdowns through the air. The Southern Miss bounceback quarterback and former two-time Mississippi Gatorade Football Player of the Year at Taylorsville High School has also completed 58.7 percent (239-of-407) of his passes this season for East Mississippi. Keyes is bidding to become EMCC's ninth NJCAA All-America quarterback during the Stephens coaching era, joining previous honorees Messiah deWeaver (2018), De'Andre Johnson (2016), Chad Kelly (2014), Dontreal Pruitt (2013), Quez Johnson (2012), Bo Wallace (2011 NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year), Brad Henderson (2010), and Randall Mackey (2008 & 2009).