After a strong defensive effort at Tuskegee last week, the Clark Atlanta University football team will host one of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's top offensive teams in Allen University at 2 p.m. today at CAU Panther Stadium.
The game can be seen live at
www.mybcsn.net/cau.
The Panthers (1-4, 0-2 SIAC) lost 21-0 at Tuskegee last week, but the defense forced three turnovers and blocked a field goal, giving the Tuskegee offense fits all day.
This week, Clark Atlanta faces Allen (3-2), a squad that boasts the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's second-ranked team in total offense and passing offense behind Lane and is third in points per game with 26.4.
The Allen offense does much of its damage through the air. Quarterback David Wright has thrown for 1,362 yards and 12 touchdowns in five games and leads the conference is passing yards per game and total offense. He has thrown at least one touchdown pass in every game, threw for 455 yards and four TDs last week in their win at Central State, and threw three touchdown passes against Livingstone three weeks ago. Wright has also rushed for 167 yards and a touchdown.
His top target has been Jamal Jones, the SIAC's leading receiver who has caught 30 passes for 419 yards and four touchdowns this season. Jayden Horace has caught 24 passes for 384 yards and two scores, while Beau Harrington – the team's leading rusher with 255 yards and two touchdowns - has hauled in 21 passes for 228 yards and two TDs.
Defensively, Allen hasn't been as strong as the offense, giving up an SIAC worst 37 points per game, is ranked last in pass defense and next to last in total defense. Diquan Brown leads the Yellow Jackets in tackles with 33 this season, while Kerry Thompson has three sacks.
The CAU offense will be led by
Elijah Odom at quarterback this week, a week after Odom completed 18 passes for 128 yards at Tuskegee. His top target was
Drakar Jerry who caught seven passes for 51 yards at Tuskegee. Freshman
Jeremiah Gibbs will continue to lead the Panther ground game.
Five CAU defenders have at least 20 tackles this season –
Rodney Lewis leads the team with 25 stops, 16 of them solo;
Charles Crawford has 23 tackles (19 solo);
Timothy Jones has 23 tackles;
Aderrius Barron has 22 stops; and
Jordan Johnson, who led CAU with nine tackles at Tuskegee, has 20.
PANTHER NOTES:
- These two teams last played in Sept. 2019 on a high school field just outside of Columbia, S.C. Allen, then still an NAIA team, defeated CAU 16-10 in their season opener. The last time they played here in Atlanta was 2018 when CAU defeated Allen 33-6
- Allen is in their final year of transitioning to NCAA Division II athletics and is not eligible for conference championship consideration this season.
- Shariif Brown is the SIAC's eighth-best in total offense (125 yards per game) and passing (107.5 yards per game)
- Having been successful on three of his five attempts this year, Carlos Saldana is fourth in the SIAC in field goals this week.
- Punter Fernando Lobo – who has successfully kicked two field goals himself – is ranked sixth in the SIAC in punting with 21 punts with an average of 37.4 yards per kick.
