PC Headed To Ole Miss

CLINTON, S.C. (PC SID) — The Presbyterian College football team (5-4, 2-2 Big South) will play its third and final game against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent on Saturday with a noon Eastern matchup against Ole Miss (7-2, 2-2 SEC) on the SEC Network. The Blue Hose saw their two game-win streak snapped on Saturday with a home 28-7 Senior Day loss to Liberty to end the home slate with a 4-2 record at Bailey Memorial Stadium. They will face a determined Ole Miss Rebels squad who rose to the upper echelon of the college football world before heartbreaking close losses to LSU and Auburn. Ole Miss stands at No. 12 in the AP Top 25 and No. 13 in the Coaches Poll. The Blue Hose have yet to win a game against an FBS opponent, going 0-8 since 2008 following losses to Northern Illinois and NC State this season. The two sides have never played each other and the Blue Hose will make their first-ever appearance on the new SEC Network in the matchup. Presbyterian football dropped its Senior Day home finale to Liberty on Saturday, falling 28-7. The Flames did most of their damage in the first half, leading 21-0 at halftime before both teams traded touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Liberty quarterback Josh Woodrum threw for 214 yards and two touchdowns while picking up another score on the ground and Jacob Hagen posted two interceptions. Ole Miss lost a heartbreaker to No. 3 Auburn on Saturday, scoring the apparent go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes only to see a review overturn the play that also resulted in a season-ending injury to star receiver Laquon Treadwell. The Rebels won seven straight games to start the season and boast the nation‘s top defense, fifth-ranked punting unit and fifth-best turnover margin. The Blue Hose are on pace for the best rushing season in its Division I era, posting an average of 182.8 yards per game. PC posted 175.6 rushing yards per game in 11 games in 2011, the current record. PC outgained Liberty on the ground, 168 to 161, led in part by Blake Robert‘s 70 yards on nine carries. Saturday marked the six time PC has out-rushed an opponent this season but only the second loss when doing so, the other coming against Coastal Carolina. PC enters the week with the nation‘s fifth-ranked red zone defense in the FCS after limiting Liberty to two scores in four red zone trips. Liberty missed a 27-yard field goal and turned the ball over on downs in its other two times inside the 20. The Blue Hose rose to fifth in the nation in red zone defense, holding opponents to a 63.3 percent conversion rate inside the 20-yard line (19/30) this season. Senior wide receiver Tobi Antigha caught seven passes on Saturday to extend his hold on the team lead with 45, nearly doubling Jeremiah McKie‘s second-place marker of 25. He also paces the team with 458 yards but has yet to score a touchdown on the year, despite finding the end zone on a two-point conversion against Monmouth. Antigha‘s Saturday moved him past teammate Jeremiah McKie with 109 career receptions into second place on PC‘s Division I list. He needs only five more to catch Terrance Butler‘s first-place mark of 114. He also needs 335 receiving yards over the next three games to catch Butler‘s first-place mark of 1,679 career receiving yards. PC finished its home schedule with a 4-2 record at Bailey Memorial Stadium, matching 2011 for the most home wins in a Division I season. Any more wins this season would add on to what is already the most for the Blue Hose in a Division I season as PC won last won five games with a 6-5 campaign in 2007. PC needs one more Big South win to catch the 2011 season high-water mark when the Blue Hose went 3-3 in the League. PC ranks in the top 30 among FCS schools in red zone defense (5), time of possession (22) and passing yards allowed (30). In 2012, PC allowed 37.9 points per game and 501.1 yards of total offense. Tommy Spangler then returned to PC as defensive coordinator in 2013 and improved the team‘s defense to 32.5 points allowed and 425.6 yards per game in his first season. This year, PC has averaged 23.9 points allowed and 368.6 yards per game. Against FCS teams, PC is allowing 17.3 points per game and 327.3 yards of offense. Sophomore defensive lineman Khari Rosier leads the Big South Conference-leading with 9.5 tackles for loss against Charleston Southern on the year. Rosier got behind the line once Liberty, Monmouth and Charleston Southern, once against Western Carolina, three times against Bluefield on September 6 and recovered a fumble against Furman. The Blue Hose were held without a sack for only the second time this season, the other coming in a 40-28 loss to League-leading Coastal Carolina. PC did post three tackles for a loss as Khari Rosier added to his team and Big South lead with 9.5 for the season. Redshirt sophomore defensive end Ugonna Akoh picked up a career-high two sacks against Charleston Southern and he leads the team with four sacks for 26 yards –fifth in the Big South–and checks in with 6.5 tackles for a loss, second to Khari Rosier‘s 9.5. Junior linebacker DaRon Dickey was named the College Sports Madness Big South Conference Defensive Player of the Week on October 27 for his performance against Monmouth last week. Dickey made four tackles and grabbed a fourth-quarter interception for the second straight week. Presbyterian football–wearing new gray jerseys for the first time in Division I–rallied for an 18-12 win over New Jersey‘s Monmouth on October 25 in the first-ever meeting between the two sides. Quarterback Heys McMath engineered a game-winning drive that started with 4:19 left in the game and ended with McMath taking a draw up the middle for a 15-yard touchdown with 53 seconds to go. McMath then found Antigha for a successful two-point conversion and DaRon Dickey intercepted a late pass to help PC to the win. After an 81-yard Monmouth touchdown on the first play from scrimmage, PC‘s defense locked down the Hawks and helped the Blue Hose grab the win. PC held Monmouth to 51 rushing yards, a new Division I-era record for the program, and 155 passing yards after the initial score. PC held the ball for 37:56 and limited the nation‘s 12th-ranked scoring offense to 27 points below its scoring average and did not turn the ball over. Sophomore quarterback Heys McMath went 24-for-35 through the air for 233 yards against Monmouth. The 24 completions set a new career high for McMath, as did his 50 rushing yards on 12 carries. McMath‘s 15-yard rushing touchdown with 53 seconds left gave PC the win, capping a series where McMath threw three times and rushed three times to move PC 68 yards. The sophomore also did not commit a turnover on the day, his fourth game of the year without a giveaway. Saturday marked the ninth time in school history the Blue Hose scored exactly 18 points to win. PC now boasts a 6-3 record when scoring exactly 18 points, last hitting the number in a 29-18 loss at Charleston Southern in 2008 after falling 57-18 against Appalachian State in 1967. Never before since starting football in 1913 had PC won with an 18-12 final score. PC also scored exactly 19 points in its win over Western Carolina with three touchdowns and one extra point, the 23rd occasion and the 16th win. Linebacker Donelle Williams picked up three tackles against Liberty, snapping a two-game streak of leading the team in that category. Williams, the 2011 Big South Conference Freshman of the Year, paces PC with 62 tackles on the year and now stands eight tackles shy of the PC Division I career record, held by Justin Bethel‘s (2008-11) 279. Following this week’s game, PC heads to Gardner-Webb for the regular season finale at noon in Boiling Springs, N.C. -GoBlueHose.com-