Alcorn State football had a bit of a resting advantage by playing every other week in the month of October. The Braves (4-2, 3-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference) took full advantage of their second off week to prepare for a battle against Southern University Saturday in Lorman at 4 p.m.

“You got two teams that will go out there an battle on Saturday, it should be a good crowd and that makes playing and coaching fun,” said Alcorn coach Jay Hopson.

Hopson is familiar with how tough the Jaguars (4-2, 4-1 SWAC) will be and used last week to get the players minds right after suffering a heart-breaking 35-34 loss to Grambling for homecoming.

“We probably prepared a little bit more last week,” Hopson said. “We treated it as a game week instead of an off-week. We pretty much practiced four days and did a lot of preparation for the upcoming game.

The momentum carried over and Hopson said this week the team practiced well and now they have to get ready to go out and play.

Hopson, in his SWAC coach’s teleconference said he talked with his team about securing the ball after turning it over four times against Grambling. The four turnovers were the Braves Achilles’ heel in their homecoming matchup.

Southern is a pretty well balanced team and the Braves will use the first quarter to get a feel for the tempo of the game and adjust accordingly.

The Jaguars have an efficient aerial attack with a dual-threat quarterback Austin Howard who’s completed 109 of 170 passes with only three interceptions. Howard can also punch it in from short distances and has scored five touchdowns with his legs.

Howard has bonded with receiver Willie Quinn 28 times for 350 yards. Quinn is also a threat on special teams and so far returned 22 kickoffs for 686 yards and four touchdowns.

On the ground, Southern has three players with triple digit rushing yards for the season in Lenard Tillery, Malcolm Crocket and John West, as Tillery leads the team with 718 and nine scores.

Alcorn’s defense has proven it can hold the goal line and have allowed only four rushing touchdowns to other SWAC opponents.

But, in order to take down the Jaguars, Hopson said his team has to be able to contain them on all sides of the ball.

“They’re a talented team on all phases of the game,” Hopson said. “They have tall fast receivers and tight ends. Every year you play southern you’re playing a good football team.”