The No. 6 Tiger Football Opens up their Southern Athletic Association (SAA) Championship defense this week when they travel to Birmingham, Alabama to take on the Birmingham-Southern Panthers on Saturday, September 16th at 11:00 AM (CT). This will be the thirteenth meeting between these two big cats.
The Tigers gained their first win of the 2023 season when they defeated the Crusaders of Mary Hardin-Baylor by a score of 35-16. The Tigers defeated the Crusaders for the first time since 2004, giving them an overall record of 5-7. The Tiger defense bounced back, collecting two interceptions and five sacks. The Tigers had an excellent ground game behind the legs of Legend Grigsby (Houston, Texas / Cypress Creek), who gained 73 yards on the ground, notching a new career high for him. Fifth-year linebacker Caleb Harmel (Burton, Texas / Burton) was named SAA Defensive Player of the Week and named to the D3football.com team of the week.
D3football.com Rankings
The Tigers take the number 6 spot on the D3football.com rankings after defeating the then number 12 ranked Crusaders. North Central (Ill.) and Mount Union still occupy the top two spots, with Wartburg and UW-Whitewater occupying the 3 and 4 spots, respectively. Just above the Tigers is Hardin-Simmons who jumped to the number 5 spot after being ranked 6 in the previous week.
SAA Player of the Week & D3football.com Team of the Week - Caleb Harmel
After a stellar performance against UMHB, Harmel was named SAA Defensive Player of the Week and was named to the D3football.com team of the week.
Harmel helped lead the Tiger defense to hold the Crusaders to just 279 yards of offense. He also grabbed two interceptions and one pass breakup. Harmel also collected six total tackles. Both of Harmel's interceptions came at pivotal moments, his first stopped a Crusader drive in its tracks when Caleb channeled in inner wide receiver and snagged a pass over the middle on his own five-yard line. His second came early in the second half to help set up the Tiger offense to score.
Preview: #6 Trinity vs Birmingham-Southern
The Tigers and Panthers clashed for the first time in 2007. Since then, the Tigers have been perfect against the Panthers, holding a 12-0 record and outscoring the Panthers 384-222. During their 2022 matchup, it was a close game. The Tigers pulled out the 23-20 win in the final seconds of the game. The Panthers bring in a 1-1 record in 2023 so far, after defeating McMurry in week one and dropping their week two matchup against Huntingdon College.
Offense: The Tigers put up another 30-point performance for the second week in a row. Although the Tigers have a prolific passing attack, it was the Tiger ground game that led the way. Along with Grigsby's 73 yards, Winston Hutchison (Round Rock, Texas / McNeil) added 69 more. putting him at over 1,000 yards for his career. Both also added touchdowns to their season totals. In the air, it was fifth-year quarterback Tucker Horn (Graham, Texas / Graham) who collected 182 yards passing and 3 touchdowns, all to different receivers. He also surpassed 500 completions in his career. Cole Monago (Houston, Texas / Klein Cain), Caleb Crawford (Houston, Texas / Strake Jesuit), and Ethan Boyer (Greenville, North Carolina / J.H. Rose) all added a receiving touchdown to their totals. The Panther offense has struggled thus far, only scoring 19 points all season. The Panthers are averaging 194 passing yards and 60 rushing yards per game this year. They will look to running back Kendall Johnson and quarterback Matt Mclary to lead the offense.
Defense: The Tiger defense got back to form after allowing 34 points in week one. The Tigers held the Crusaders to just 279 yards of total offense. The Tiger defense collected 2 interceptions in the game, both picked off by Harmel. The quarterback was pressured all night, and the Tigers amassed 5 sacks on the game, with the biggest coming from sophomore John Kohl McAdams (New Berlin, Texas / McCallie School (TN)) when he had a strip sack that set up the Tigers in good field position that would lead to an eventual touchdown. Sophomore TJ Scannell (San Antonio, Texas / Reagan/Cheshire Academy) had a breakout game, collecting 8 total tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks. The Tigers will look to keep the defensive momentum going into week three. The Panther defense has allowed 36 points in the young season. They will look to team tackle leader and defensive back Ladner Thomas to try to stop the Tiger offense.
Special Teams: The return of BJ Stewart (Shreveport, Louisiana / Woodlawn) would smell success for the Tiger return teams, as he returned two kicks for 46 yards. Kicker Tyler Huettel (McKinney, Texas / McKinney) went a perfect 5-5 on PATs. Punter Eli Gehman (Cedar Park, Texas / Leander) was excellent in the execution of his punts, averaging 41.8 yards per punt and landing two of his four punts inside the 20-yard line. The Tigers will look to capitalize on the big legs of Huettel and Gehman in this week's matchup. The Panthers have had limited opportunity to return the ball in the young season, only having 3 returns for a total of 57 yards. On the kicking side, the Panthers are 0-2 on field goal attempts this year. The Tigers may get more opportunities to get Stewart involved this week as Panthers kicker Cole Porch has only gathered one touchback in his five kickoff attempts.
Looking Ahead: All Rhodes Lead Home
The Tigers will continue in SAA play as they take on Rhodes College Lynx on Saturday, September 23rd at 6 PM at Trinity Multi-Purpose Stadium. The Tigers took last year's matchup against the Lynx 45-0 and hold a 23-12 record since their first matchup in 1983.
