MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The 2021 Mulerider Football season comes to an end on Saturday afternoon inside Wilkins Stadium at Rip Powell Field in a bragging rights affair that is the 9^th Battle of the Timberlands that will see Southern Arkansas play host to longtime South Arkansas and bitter Great American Conference rival Arkansas-Monticello. Kickoff in the Week 11 tilt is set for 2 p.m. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.

>>> When the Muleriders and Weevils take to the turf playing surface on Saturday, it will be the 96^th time the two programs have convened on the gridiron with the first meeting taking place in 1913. Overall, Southern Arkansas holds a 58-36-1 lead in the series and since the 1970 season SAU leads 34-16.

>>> Since 2011, when the two programs became charter members of the GAC, the Muleriders own an 8-1 record against the Weevils and have housed the Timberlands Trophy inside the Auburn Smith Fieldhouse in seven of the eight years that the programs have battled for it. The lone SAU loss came in 2018; a 20-17 defeat on a field goal as time expired that kept SAU from reaching the NCAA postseason.

>>> Southern Arkansas enters the final week of the regular season with an offense averaging over 377 yards per game and scoring at a per game clip of 28.2 ppg. Defensively, the Muleriders are coming off a win at Southern Nazarene in which the unit allowed only three points, while forcing four turnovers. Opponents are scoring just over 32 ppg and averaging over 420 ypg. The unit has forced 16 turnovers, scored three touchdowns, ranks second in the league interceptions with 11 and second in the GAC in sacks per game at 2.60.

>>> Arkansas Monticello comes to Magnolia looking for its fifth win of the season. The Weevils started 1-2, won its next three, but enters the final Saturday of action on a four-game losing skid. An Arkansas Tech loss to Harding would ensure the Battle of the Timberlands victor a seventh-place finish in the GAC standings.

>>> UAM is averaging 331.7 yards per game offensively and scoring just over 18 points per game. Demilon Brown ranks in the top ten individually in rushing yards per game (57.8) and passing yards per game (131.6) in the GAC. He ranks sixth in total offense per game at 251.6. Defensively, the unit allows 384.6 yards per game and a scoring average north of 35 points per game. Greg Hooks has totaled seven break ups, including two interceptions, to lead the team and fellow secondary member Kaytron Allen paces the squad with three picks.

>>> Senior quarterback Hayden Mallory ranks sixth in the GAC in passing efficiency (133.8), fourth in passing touchdowns (19) and fifth in passing yards (2,244). With 4,847 career passing yards, the third-most in program history, Mallory is closing in on becoming just the third quarterback in program history to reach the 5,000-yard passing mark needing just 153 yards in his final collegiate game.

>>> Redshirt freshman running back Jariq Scales, who became the 11^th player in program history to eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark in a single season with a 52-yard run in the first quarter of SAU's Week 9 tilt at home against Oklahoma Baptist, nearly toppled the single season rushing record last week at Southern Nazarene. He totaled 195 yards on 29 carries and a touchdown to close the gap between his current season rushing total of 1,306 yards, the sixth-most in Division II, and Julian Frazier's 1993 record to just 22 yards. His 130.6 yards per game also ranks second and is the 6th-highest average in the country. Scales also owns a top-15 mark nationally in yards per carry at 6.56. This season he has topped the century mark six times, including two games with rushing totals north of 200 and a career-high 245 yards, the second-most ever in a single game in program history, coming against Arkansas Tech.

>>> Redshirt junior Micah Small has hauled in 50 passes for 850 yards and ten touchdowns, only the third player in program history with 10+ scoring catches in a single season, and is averaging 83.9 receiving yards per game. He ranks in the top 35 in DII in receiving touchdowns, receiving yards, and receiving yards per game. Small is 150 yards back of the 1,000-yard receiving mark which would make him just the third Mulerider wideout to accomplish the feat. If Small can eclipse the century mark, he and Scales will become the first 1,000-yard rushing-1,000-yard receiving duo in program history. He is currently 169 receiving yards from moving into the top 10 on the career list.

>>> Junior placekicker Austin Wilkerson has connected on 13 of his 15 field goal opportunities this season. He is a perfect 6-of-6 from 29 in, is 7-of-9 in attempts at 30+ and has made both attempts at 40+ with a season-long 47-yarder in the loss to Oklahoma Baptist. He is 27-for-30 on extra-point attempts and leads the team in scoring with 66 points. He leads the GAC in made field goals with 13 and in percentage at 86.7%. He ranks ninth overall in scoring in the GAC at 7.3 ppg which lands as the third-best league average among kickers.

>>> Junior safety Brock Floyd is the lone Muleriders with 70+ tackles so far this season. His 75 stops are highlighted by a team-best 46 solo tackles and his total stops are the best among defensive backs in the GAC. Redshirt freshman Gavin Roe and freshman Rayvon Ingram have notched 65+ tackles this season. Roe follows Floyd with 68 and Ingram trails at 66. Floyd and Ingram each have two interceptions, while the unit has 11 total.

>>> As a team, SAU has recorded 54 tackles for loss totaling 249 yards. Sixteen different players have gotten in on the action with freshman David Walker leading the way with 12.5 and senior Demoni Boyd following with 8.5.
 
SAU BY THE NUMBERS
91 – The most points scored in a single game against an NCAA opponent in program history which came in a 91-0 beat down of Arkansas-Monticello on Thanksgiving Eve 1925. Head Coach Sage McLean's Muleriders picked up their fifth win of the season that day and finished above .500 for only the fourth time since the program's inaugural season of 1911.
26 – The total number of team sacks recorded by the Muleriders this season. That total is currently tied for the third-most by a team in a single season in program history. The 175 yards loss on sacks is the fifth-most in a single season in program history. David Walker leads the team with six, Dawson Scott has recorded five and Demoni Boyd and Prince Udenze each follow with 4.5.
9 – The number of student-athletes playing their final game as a Mulerider on Saturday. Prior to kickoff, the nine seniors on this year's team will be honored: Demoni Boyd (DL), Brock Floyd (DB), Cameron Gonzaque (LB), Desmond Jones (WR), Hayden Mallory (QB), Brock Price (TE), Zack Rice (DB), Steven Taylor (OL), and Austin Wilkerson (K).
2 - Since 1995 (SAU's first year as an NCAA member), the Muleriders are 18-7 against the Weevils. Of the seven losses, only two have been by more than one possession: a 50-14 loss in '95 and a 17-6 defeat in El Dorado in 2009. Only three times have the Weevils beaten SAU at home in that span and have not done so since a 33-31 decision in 2004.  

MEMORABLE MATCHUPS
>>> The 2014 matchup, the season finale in Monticello, featured the most combined points of the 95 meetings. SAU and UAM together scored 108 points that November Saturday with the Muleriders winning 66-42. The contest saw SAU quarterback Si Blackshire toss four touchdown passes and rush for two more as the Muleriders scored 21+ in both the second and fourth quarters.
>>> The 2018 matchup saw Arkansas-Monticello claim the Battle of the Timberlands Trophy for the first time since the two teams began playing for the hardware in 2012. The Weevils ended SAU's NCAA postseason chances as UAM upset the Muleriders 20-17 on a 34-yard field goal from the leg of Josh Marini at the horn.
>>> On Thanksgiving Day in 1950, over 5,000 spectators gathered in Drew County in an affair that resulted in SAU reclaiming their "stolen" mascot mule Optimaggie, taking home the Weevils' goat M-Aggie and notching a mark in the win column with a 24-17 victory. Noted by Dr. Kathryn Brown, that Turkey Day contest was "the hardest hitting game I've ever seen." Writing in the faculty bulletin, Dean Graham exulted, "Sweet Vengeance—Our Cup Runneth Over."
>>> In the 1951 and 1952 seasons, SAU topped UAM in the season finale each year to claim the AIC title.