NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State returns to action after its bye week to celebrate Homecoming presented by The Virginia Lottery this week against the Bears of Morgan State. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. Saturday at Dick Price Stadium.

The Spartans lost a late fumble and suffered a turnover on downs in dropping their last contest, 35-22, at Bethune-Cookman on Oct. 19 to fall to 2-6 overall, 1-3 in the MEAC. Morgan State enters this week's game with a 1-7 overall record, 1-4 in the MEAC, following a 24-12 setback against Florida A&M last Saturday in Baltimore. 

SERIES HISTORY
• NSU has 18 wins all-time against Morgan State, the most for the Spartans against any other MEAC opponent. Overall, NSU leads the series, 18-12.
• On the field, NSU is 17-4 against Morgan State since the Spartans moved to Division I In 1997 (three of the wins were later vacated).
• Morgan State's win last season was the Bears' first over NSU since 2006.

LAST MEETING
• Visiting Morgan State used a relentless ground attack to jump out to a 31-6 lead in the Bears' 44-27 win over the Spartans on Nov. 17, 2018 at Dick Price Stadium in the teams' last meeting.
• MSU withstood a career-high 467 passing yards by Norfolk State quarterback Juwan Carter.
• The Bears rushed 47 times for 333 yards, most by a Spartan opponent in 2018. 
• MSU quarterback Dion Golatt Jr. ran for 156 of those yards and one touchdown, while also passing for 168 yards and three more scores in the Bears' first win over NSU since 2006.
• Carter's 467 passing yards were third-most by a player in school history and most in the Spartans' Division I era.

NSU BY THE NUMBERS
9 - Number of sacks for NSU in the last two games. The Spartans had only three sacks in the first six games, but had five at Howard and four at B-CU.
178 - Career-high all-purpose yards for NSU freshman Kevin Johnson, who scored two touchdowns in the loss at Bethune-Cookman.
6.7 - Combined yards per carry this year for Johnson (6.9) and fellow freshman back  Rayquan Smith (6.3).
12 - Number of passing yards needed by quarterback Juwan Carter to reach 6,000 for his career. He would be just the second Spartan ever to reach that mark.
24 - Tackles in the last two games for linebacker Cephas Harden (13 vs. B-CU, 11 at Howard).

A WIN OVER MSU WOULD...
A win this week over the Bears would...
• Be NSU's second win in the last three games.
• Be the Spartans' 12th in their last 13 games (on the field) vs. the Bears.
• Break NSU's two game Homecoming losing streak.

SCOUTING THE BEARS
Morgan State enters this week's game with a 1-7 overall record, 1-4 in the MEAC, following a 24-12 setback against Florida A&M last Saturday in Baltimore. The Bears were held to just 280 yards of total offense and committed two turnovers in losing their second game in a row. The Bears' lone win this season came on Oct. 12, a 34-3 home victory over Delaware State. MSU averages just 16.1 points per game. Josh Chase leads the Bears' ground attack with 368 yards and two touchdowns. 

MSU has played two quarterbacks this season, D.J. Golatt and DeAndre Harris, who have combined for 1,433 yards passing, with eight touchdowns and 12 interceptions between them. Their favorite target is Manasseh Bailey, who is second in the MEAC with 624 receiving yards and has caught five touchdown passes. 

Defensively, MSU is led by linebacker Rico Kennedy, who has a MEAC-leading 76 total tackles.