NORTHEASTERN STATE (0-0)
vs EMPORIA STATE (0-0)
Saturday, September 4 -- 6 p.m.
Gable Field at Doc Wadley Stadium (Tahlequah, Okla.)
All-Time Series: Emporia State leads 9-7-1

TAHLEQUAH -- Northeastern State has not played an official game in 658 days by the time they hit the field Saturday for their home opener on the grounds of Gable Field at Doc Wadley Stadium. The same can be said for the RiverHawks' foe on Saturday, Emporia State, who carry 32 student-athletes from Oklahoma on their roster. 

TOP STORYLINES

1 | Game on folks!  Northeastern State has not played a countable college football game since Nov. 16, 2019 (Home vs. Fort Hays State).  The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) did not develop a formal football schedule for the 2020-21 athletics season. MIAA football programs were permitted to set up no more than four joint practices, scrimmages, or games with outside competition.

2 | The RiverHawks will open their season with one of the largest rosters in recent memory carrying over 120 student-athletes out of fall camp.  Despite that number, the team is projected to have 76 assigned uniforms for week one against Emporia State.  

3 | Saturday's game is the lone contest in the MIAA with the rest of the association playing on Thursday evening.  Of the in-state Oklahoma schools, NSU and East Central are the only two NCAA Division II teams playing.   A former OIC and Lone Star foe, the Tigers, are away in Arkansas facing Harding.  Oklahoma schools hosting games this Saturday are Panhandle State, Oklahoma State, and the Sooners. 

4 | The fall of 2020 is the first time since 1945 that Northeastern State did not play a football game in a calendar year.  Starting in 1942, due to World War II, four seasons of football were not played.  The following predates Northeastern State as an institution, and Oklahoma Statehood, 1906 (as Cherokee Male Seminary) is the last time a team was not fielded.   During the 1918 Spanish Flu, Northeastern played one game against Southwestern Oklahoma and won 101-0.

5 | Opening week one under the lights has not been an uncommon occurrence for the RiverHawks, with a kick-off time at 6 p.m. or later happening each season since at least 1995.  In 2019, NSU opened the year with three straight night games, and in 2018 six were played under stadium lights. 

NSU QUICK HITS
>> Northeastern State did not play any countable games during the 2020-21 season.  They did face four teams in the spring of 2021 traveling to Southeastern Oklahoma and Ouachita Baptist in joint practice/scrimmages.  The RiverHawks hosted Arkansas Tech in a joint practice/scrimmage and traveled to Tarleton State for what will serve as NSU's only exhibition game in its history. The game did count in Tarleton State's record book and the season's win-loss record.

>> The offensive line will have a different look Saturday, with Madison Wrather as the lone starter to return.  Matthew Harker is a returner but did not play the 2019 season.

>> Similarly, the defensive line will have a different makeup, a mix of new, old, and returning from injury. Damani Carter, who transferred to NSU from Arkansas in 2019, started the first four games of the season before being lost to injury.

>> Mark Wheeland is the RiverHawks' leading receiver from the 2019 season and caught 34 passes for 520 yards and found the end-zone four times.

>> Local Tahlequah High School star Blake Corn will get his long-awaited debut Saturday.  All-State selection in 2020, Corn is a projected starter for the RiverHawks at defensive end.   In their contest at Tarleton State, corn did start for NSU in the spring recorded a sack, interception, and ten tackles against the Division I squad. 

>> Jacob Medrano has started the last seven games as NSU's quarterback and is the projected starter Saturday against Emporia State.  The sophomore was the starting quarterback in the RiverHawks' exhibition game at Tarleton State. 

>> Being a freshman for some on the NSU roster will seem like the movie Groundhog Day with a handful of student-athletes who used the 2019 season as a redshirt year, then progressed to redshirt-freshman in the non-season last fall.  Now they will move to being 'COVID'-freshman with student-athletes in football, not losing a year of eligibility because of the loss of the NCAA Fall Championships.  

>> Newcomer Tyler Crawford is NSU's starting kicker for week one and was a late addition to the team after transferring from Nebraska at the start of camp.  A Broken Arrow native, Crawford played three games for the Cornhuskers in 2020 and was their starting punter to finish the season. 

>> After being limited to 50 plays in 2019, Isaiah Davis is the projected starter as the featured back for NSU.  Davis was a redshirt-freshman at Texas A&M-Commerce in 2018 during the National Championship season, ran for 214 yards, and averaged 19.5 yards per game.  

>> Two Northeastern State coaches have won a national championship as a player or as a staff member. Michael Conrad (Texas A&M-Commerce) won an NCAA Division II National Title, and Head Coach J.J. Eckert was a member of the 1994 NAIA Championship at NSU. 

THE SERIES WITH THE HORNETS
>> First meeting resulted in a 0-0 tie at Emporia State on Sept. 30, 1938.
>> The last time these two programs met in Tahlequah, the contest was delayed for over an hour due to a strong thunderstorm.  
>> Emporia State has won the last eight meetings.

ABOUT THE HORNETS
>> Dalton Cowan began his career with the Hornets as a quarterback, he now plays stingerback for the hornets as he heads into his redshirt junior season.  Dalton also has a younger brother that is committed to the ESU Football team

>> Tulsa Native Juwan Johnson Broke ESU's all time 20 yard dash running 2.22 while running a 4.40 forty yard dash.

>> Jace McDown earned Academic All-American honors for the second year in a row, presented by CoSIDA.  Jace was also a semifinalist for the 2020 William V. Campbell Trophy  and was also named the MIAA Fall Male Student-Athlete of the Year for 2019-20. 

>> DB Kyle Rink returns to the hornets after having 28 tackles in 2019 and leading the MIAA high of 14 pass break ups. 

>> Dex Swineheart recorded the longest reception in 2019 for the hornets with a 74 yard score against the RiverHawks.

>> Center Hayden Reed was the first freshman to start at center for the Hornets under Coach Higgins since Lance Uhles in 2008.

>> Emporia State head coach Garin Higgins played for the Hornets and his first post-playing job was a graduate assistant at Northeastern State for the 1992 and 1993 seasons. Higgins
returned to NSU for the 2006 season as offensive coordinator before taking over at ESU the following season

>> Zac Cahill, NSU's Strategic Communications Assistant, played for the Hornets from 2016-19 and was a member of a squad that won the 2018 Corsicana Bowl.