Football Prepares For Road Finale At Alabama A&M Saturday Afternoon

• Texas Southern returns to action Saturday afternoon as they'll travel to Alabama A&M at 2 p.m. inside Lewis Crews Stadium.

• Saturday's contest will feature live audio on KTSU 90.9 FM and will be shown live on SWAC TV.

• Alabama A&M is tied for the SWAC East lead with Jackson State but does not own the tiebreaker due to head-to-head. AAMU will need to win out along with a JSU loss to clinch the East. AAMU boasts the No. 3 scoring offense in the SWAC and ranks top three in defense. They rank second in total offense (453.3), defense (301.7), passing (266.3) and first in sacks against (7). Quarterback Cornelious Brown is the second-leading passer in the SWAC (2,498) while Jarel Williams and Jaylan Bean rank 2-4 in receiving. DJ Barber and Jeremiah Hudson-Davis ranks 1-3 in tackles.

• Texas Southern and Alabama A&M will meet for the second time since 2022. TSU ended AAMU's five-game winning streak last year.  The last three-of-four meetings have been decided by 14 points. 

• Texas Southern receiver Davion Walker spent the 2025 season at Alabama A&M.

• TSU's Athean Renfro ranks second in the SWAC with 112 yards per game and needs 24 yards to surpass 1,000 yards for the first rime in his career.

• After a month away on the road, TSU is in the midst of a stretch where five of its final six games are in Houston. This marks the first road game since Oct. 3.

• TSU's chance at a second straight winning season are over unfortunately after last week's loss to Alabama State.

• Both Cris Dishman and AAMU's Sam Shade are former NFL defensive backs. Both played for the Washington Redskins at one time in their careers.

• A trio of TSU offensive starters earned 2026 Preseason All-SWAC Second Team honors in junior tight end Kordell Rodgers, sophomore offensive lineman Jayden Daniels and redshirt junior wideout Roriyon Richardson.

• Despite coming off a winning season for the first time since 2000, TSU was picked to finish fourth in the SWAC West by head coaches and sports information directors in the annual preseason poll. TSU returns six offensive starters and three on defense.
 
• The Tigers open the season with a new defensive coordinator in Scott Vestal but head coach Cris Dishman stated Monday he'll call the defense starting Saturday.

• This marks the second consecutive year TSU will have six home contests as they played on Week 0 for the first time since 2017. Unlike last year, the caveat to this year's schedule is that TSU will play in multiple locations in the Houston area due to scheduling conflicts with its primary stadium in Shell Energy. TSU will play five games inside Aldine ISD's Thorne Stadium (19 miles from campus) and one at Reliant Stadium (7 miles).

• Cris Dishman is the 19th head coach in the history
of Texas Southern Football. Faced with a tough task due to the program's historical nature (29 winning seasons in 79 years of existence), Dishman has set out to reverse the trend after posting a winning record following his second season.