CLINTON, S.C. – The stakes couldn't get much higher for the Presbyterian College football team in what will be the final game at Bailey Memorial Stadium for 34 seniors, hosting the Marist Red Foxes on Saturday for a 1:00 kickoff and a possible share of the PFL regular season title.
PC needs a Senior Day victory and some assistance from two others around the division to claim a piece of the Pioneer League championship. They'll receive the PFL's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs in the event of a win and slip-ups from Drake and San Diego.
Fresh off his 90
th career win over St. Thomas last weekend, head coach
Steve Englehart leads his troops as they pursue a double-digit win count for only the third time in school history.
The 1979 and 2005 teams at Presbyterian both managed to reach the 10-win summit, now aiming to hit that mark again for the first time in exactly two decades.
GAMEDAY CENTRAL
WHO: (RV) Presbyterian (9-2, 5-2) vs. Marist (5-6, 3-4)
WHERE: Bailey Memorial Stadium (Clinton, S.C.)
WHEN: Saturday, November 22 | 1:00 PM
ADMISSION: BlueHoseTix.com
GAMEDAY PROTOCOL: Stadium Policies & Map
FLIP CARDS: Sponsored by Founders Federal Credit Union
CLEAR BAG POLICY: Handbag Code
FOLLOW THE ACTION
WATCH: ESPN+ (Gabriel Schray & Tim Webb)
LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast
X (FORMERLY TWITTER): @BlueHoseFB
GAME NOTES: Presbyterian Notes |
Marist Notes |
PFL Weekly Report
SENIOR DAY 2025
• Presbyterian will recognize a special batch of 34 seniors who helped transform Blue Hose football from a woeful 1-10 season as freshmen into a potential double-digit win ending for just the third time in school history.
• A significant portion of the 34 began their college careers in the same year that head coach
Steve Englehart assumed the reigns, giving PC its best season of the Division I era over the past three months.
• Thanks in large part to the contributions of their seniors, Presby soared as high as #16 in the AFCA Coaches Poll, witnessed a program-record 11-game winning streak, and captivated football fans across the state of South Carolina with one of the best stories in FCS.
• The following individuals will each be honored in numerical order during a pre-game ceremony:
(Assistant Coach) George Schodowski
LB Malik Lewis
WR Cincere Gill
DB Caleb Francis
WR Dominic Kibby
QB Ty Englehart
RB Antonio Wright
DB Dillon Towles-Kendle
DE Malek Horlback
DB Zeb Stroup
DL Carter Szydlowski
DB Keith Elmore
WR Jaden Scott
TE Garrison Curry
QB Warner Bush
LB Panos Burlos
LB Boyce Bankhead
LB Cade Lewis
DB Alex Ward
LB Lawton Cox
K Peter Lipscombe
LB Drew Monin
LB Jason Briones
DL Alejandro Tovar
OL Caleb Rentz
OL Anthony Marin
OL Noah Peterson
OL Collin Dudley
OL JT Hill
TE Nathan Levicki
DL Carson Freese
DE Dalton Epps
DL Christian Ohagwu
DL Robert Porter
RACE FOR THE PFL TITLE
• So much is at stake for the Blue Hose in the last game of the regular season, biggest of all is the opportunity to close their fifth year in the Pioneer Football League as co-conference champs.
• In a truly wacky situation with multiple different resolutions, there are two outcomes where Presbyterian can tie for the PFL regular season title.
• However, only one of those two scenarios would see PC awarded with the conference's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs.
• If the Blue Hose knock off Marist (and thus complete an undefeated home record), they would also need the following to clinch the AQ:
- A loss by Drake at Morehead State
- A loss by San Diego at Stetson
• In the event that the PFL championship is shared between Presbyterian and Drake (PC wins, Drake & San Diego both lose), then the Blue Hose are guaranteed their first-ever postseason appearance since turning D-I 18 years ago.
• On the flip side, a Drake victory or a win by San Diego would thwart those plans
regardless of PC's result versus Marist and the automatic bid would instead be awarded to the Bulldogs.
• The Pioneer Football League has declared a regular-season champion every year since 1993. There have been co-champs on 10 occasions, most recently in 2021 between Davidson and San Diego.
NO BLEMISHES AT BAILEY
• A win over Marist on Saturday would give the Blue Hose a statistic that they have not acquired since 1998: go undefeated at home over an entire season with six opportunities.
• PC's first season as a Division I college (2007) also ended with a perfect record at home, but only three home games were played.
• Since Bailey Memorial Stadium was created 23 years ago, Presbyterian has not previously had a season with six home wins and zero losses.
• Coach Englehart's crew has made it over 13 months since they last lost at home, riding a seven-game Bailey winning streak:
- Def. Valparaiso, 43-14 (November 1)
- Def. Stetson, 42-7 (October 18)
- Def. Morehead State, 41-0 (Sept. 27)
- Def. Bluefield, 76-3 (September 20)
- Def. Erskine, 42-14 (September 13)
- Def. #23 Butler, 30-27 (Nov. 23, 2024)
- Def. Dayton, 28-7 (November 2, 2024)
TOMMIES = TERMINATED
• Ranking near the top of several categories nationwide on the defensive side of the ball, Presbyterian swarmed St. Thomas on a cold afternoon in Minnesota and carried that gnarly D to a 23-9 win.
• PC and St. Thomas were seemingly headed in different directions going into that game, with the Tommies riding a five-game winning streak and the Blue Hose just seven days removed from a gut-wrenching one-point loss to arch-rival Davidson that put a sizable dent in their conference-title aspirations.
• The Scotsmen faced an opposing offense that was averaging 46 points per game over their previous five efforts, and held that same offense to a season-low 35 rushing yards and 179 total yards.
• St. Thomas never crossed the end zone all afternoon against PC's defense, their only touchdown of the game being a 3rd-quarter pick six.
• It took the Tommies seven rushing attempts before they gained any positive yardage, falling victim to nine tackles-for-a-loss and four sacks over the course of the game.
• Presbyterian picked off St. Thomas quarterback Andy Peters twice last weekend after he'd thrown only three INT's the entire season. As a unit, their 13 interceptions is the sixth-most in all of FCS.
• Against defensive coordinator
Dan Owen's blockade, opponents have only managed to successfully convert 30 percent of third-down snaps (48-for-158). That also ranks sixth in America.
SWITZER SIZES UP THE RECORD
• Another individual who will be suiting up at Bailey Stadium for the final time, do-everything weapon
Zach Switzer figures to set a new PC record in the first quarter of Saturday's affair.
• Switzer has amassed 1,278 all-purpose yards this year (career-high 751 rushing, 301 receiving, and 226 in kick-return duties). He needs just 12 more yards to break the team's single-season all-purpose record in the Division I era.
• The PC single-season all-purpose record has stood since 2007 (Terrance Butler), as Switzer fell just 39 yards shy of surpassing that mark last year.
• He is currently fifth in Presby's record book for career all-purpose yards (2,882), scoring 13 total touchdowns in 2025 alone.
OPPONENT PROFILE
• A sixteen-year veteran of the Pioneer Football League after converting from the MAAC, Marist has taken a positive step in year two under head coach Mike Willis.
• The Red Foxes saw just a single win last year – a season that concluded with a 42-23 loss against the Blue Hose in New York – but they've rebounded quite well and have the opportunity to post an even .500 record in Willis' sophomore effort.
• Marist's 5-6 ledger could look even nicer if they'd been able to pull out a three-point decision at Butler or a two-point result at Morehead State, although they offered a glimpse of their capabilities back on October 4 when knocking off San Diego 19-14.
• A late-season four-game losing streak threatened to derail the Red Foxes entirely, although they've reached back-to-back W's over Stetson (41-13) and, more recently, Davidson (37-10).
• Marist's last visit to Clinton was a very peculiar game back in 2023, as the Red Foxes did not produce an offensive touchdown at any point but were able to take a 19-10 win thanks to a 43-yard scoop-and-score as well as a 48-yard pick six.
