Football Heads to Minnesota to Close Out 2021 Season

CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College football team closes out the 2021 regular season on Saturday with a trip in Minnesota to face St. Thomas from O'Shaughnessy Stadium. Kick from St. Paul is slated for 2 p.m. and will be available on Tommie All-Access.

GAMEDAY CENTRAL
WHAT: Presbyterian (2-8, 0-7 PFL) at St. Thomas (6-3, 5-2 PFL)
WHERE: O'Shaughnessy Stadium (St. Paul, Minn.)
WHEN: Saturday, November 20, 2021 (2 p.m.)

FOLLOW THE ACTION
WATCH: Tommie All-Access
LIVE STATS: Sidearm Stats
RADIO: WSPG (Ryan Clary)
TWITTER: @BlueHoseFtball
GAME NOTES: Presbyterian Notes | St. Thomas Notes | PFL Notes

Last Time Out
• Delvecchio Powell II had 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns while Jalyn Witcher totaled his sixth 100+ yard performance receiving but the Presbyterian College football team came out on the wrong end for senior day on Saturday by the score of 57-32 at Bailey Memorial Stadium.
• In the loss, Witcher surpassed Terrance Butler for single-season receiving yards with 1,073.

Hefley Walter Payton Watch List
• Presbyterian College football redshirt sophomore quarterback Ren Hefley has been named to the 2021 Stats Perform Walter Payton Award Watch List on Wednesday afternoon. The award is presented to the national offensive player of the year in college football's Division I subdivision.
• The Payton Award is in its 35th season in 2021 and is named for the Chicago Bears legendary running back. Past recipients of the include Steve McNair, Tony Romo, Brian Westbrook, Jimmy Garoppolo, Cooper Kupp and Trey Lance.
• Hefley is the second PC player to be named to a watch list via Stats Perform as freshman wide receiver Jalyn Witcher was named to the Jerry Rice Award watch list for top freshman a few weeks ago.

Witcher Watch List
• Presbyterian College football freshman wide receiver Jalyn Witcher has been named to the 2021 Stats Perform Jerry Rice Award Watch List on Wednesday afternoon. The award is presented to the national freshman of the year in college football's Division I subdivision.
• The Rice Award is in its 11th season in 2021 and is named for the 3x Super Bowl and legendary Hall of Fame wideout. Past recipients of the award include Los Angeles Rams wideout Cooper Kupp (Eastern Washington), Arizona Cardinals running back Chase Edmonds (Fordham), and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance (North Dakota State).
• To be eligible for the Rice Award, a freshman can't have surpassed four games played in one previous academic year – similar to the NCAA's regular redshirt rule. More players can join the watch list before a 50-member, national media panel selects the winner following the regular season.

Nagy & Smith Earn CoSIDA All-District Honors
• Senior linebacker Jarrett Nagy and sophomore defensive back Colby Smith have both been named to the CoSida All-District team as announced by CoSida on Thursday afternoon.It marks the first time since 2015 that PC has had an All-District honoree and the first time in DI history that the Blue Hose have had two receive the honor in the same season.Smith has a 4.0 GPA in English and Nagy has a 3.9 GPA in physics and medical physics.

Opponent Profile
• St Thomas comes into play on Saturday with a 6-3 mark following a 21-14 victory last time out against Drake.
• The Tommies are 5-2 in league play with setbacks to the top two in the preseason of San Diego and Davidson.
• St. Thomas is paced on the ground by Hope Adebayo who's totaled 690 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing thru the Tommies 10 games.
• Defensively, the Tommies lead the league in total defense (286.8 yards/game) and tops in scoring defense with 18.1 ppg allowed.
• St. Thomas is allowing just 157.9 yards per game thru the air and is only allowing 128.9 rushing yards per game.
• The Tommies are riding a 30-game regular season home winning streak in St. Paul.

Blue Hose in the Ranks
• Jalyn Witcher currently sits second in the PFL among wideouts with 107.4 yards per game, 11 touchdowns and 7.4 catches per contest.
• Delvecchio Powell II is tops in the league with 6.72 yards per attempt and eighth in the league with six rushing scores.
• Powell sits fourth in all-purpose yards per game as Witcher ranks fifth.

Witcher Record Watch
• Freshman Jalyn Witcher currently is rewritting the history book in the DI era at Presbyterian.
• Witcher currently leads all single-season receivers in touchdowns with 11 scores. He is also the single-season record holder with 1,073 yards as he broke that DI record for PC last weekend.
• Witcher has had six games with 100+ yards including a career-high 192 vs San Diego on Oct. 23

Receivers Racking Up the Yards
• The Blue Hose have had 25 different players record at least one catch which included 21 players in the season opener against St. Andrews.
• Freshman Jalyn Witcher has a team-high 65 catches to go along with 938 yards and a team-high 11 touchdowns. Witcher has five 100 yard games on the year.
• Matthew Rivera has totaled 57 catches for 662 yards and four scores this season. He has also added three 100+ yard performances this season.
• Kiaran Turner has 510 yards receiving and four scores as Turner had 100+ yards against Fort Lauderdale week two.
• PC has had 13 different players score at least one touchdown led by Witcher with his 11 scores.
• Ren Hefley's 10 touchdowns in the opener against St. Andrews were spread around to eight different pass catchers on Saturday.

Record Breaking Debut
• In Kevin Kelley's debut the Presbyterian College offense lit up the scoreboard in record breaking fashion. Ren Hefley totaled a DI School record 39 pass completions for 576 yards which ranks second in the same record book.
• Hefley also totaled a DI school record 10 passing scores with three of those going to freshman Jalyn Witcher who tied a single-game DI record.
• Witcher's 156 yards receiving ranked fourth in the DI single-game record book.
• As a team, Presbyterian totaled a DI record 51 completions, 669 passing yards, 10 passing scores, 94 total offensive plays and 814 total offensive yards.

Kelley Set to Lead the Blue Hose
• After coaching Pulaski Academy to nine state titles and totaling 200 wins in 18 seasons, Kevin Kelley is set to lead the Blue Hose beginning in the fall of 2021.
• Kelley was the offensive coordinator for six years at Pulaski before being named head coach of the Bruins.
• Under his tutelage, Kelley's players and teams have broken 15 national high school football records while compiling a 216-29-1 mark.
• Kelley approaches the game of football differently, as documented by media outlets such as ESPN, HBO Real Sports and Fox Business News. His philosophy and tactics have been featured in articles in several publications such as the New York Times and Sports Illustrated, as well as in the book "Sportscasting."

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Players Mentioned

#32 Jarrett Nagy: LB; 5' 10"; Senior

#5 Delvecchio Powell II: RB; 5' 9"; Redshirt Sophomore

#9 Matthew Rivera: WR; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#7 Colby Smith: DB; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#3 Kiaran Turner: WR; 5' 9"; Senior

#19 Jalyn Witcher: WR; 5' 10"; Freshman

#12 Ren Hefley: QB; 6' 0"; Redshirt Sophomore

Players Mentioned

#32 Jarrett Nagy
: 5' 10"; Senior
: LB

#5 Delvecchio Powell II
: 5' 9"; Redshirt Sophomore
: RB

#9 Matthew Rivera
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: WR

#7 Colby Smith
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: DB

#3 Kiaran Turner
: 5' 9"; Senior
: WR

#19 Jalyn Witcher
: 5' 10"; Freshman
: WR

#12 Ren Hefley
: 6' 0"; Redshirt Sophomore
: QB