It’s been 715 days since Murray State visited APSU’s brand new football stadium for the first time and left as the losing team. It’s been 715 days since APSU has seen their last win. This season, Murray State visits APSU with an 0-4 record and seeks to extend APSU’s losing streak to at least another week.
APSU is coming off a 35-point scoring game against a No. 19 Eastern Illinois, while Murray lost by one point to Southeast Missouri last week after a SEMO touchdown with one minute left in the fourth quarter.
Currently, Murray state and APSU are tied for last place in the Ohio Valley Conference standings, both with zero wins. But, with the way sports works, one of these losing teams will leave Fortera Stadium with their first win of the season on Saturday, Oct. 1.
With the Murray-APSU rivalry going back for years, the Ohio Valley Conference started a “Battle of the Border” to capitalize on the biggest conference rivalry.
In 2012, an ESPN writer said, “Forget Duke-UNC, the real rivalry is APSU-Murray State.”
Murray State quarterback KD Humphries is in his final season as a redshirt senior. This season, Humphries has 862 passing yards with three touchdowns, 76 completions out of 117 attempts and five interceptions.
For APSU, Tommy Hays and Timarious Mitchell have been sharing play time. Mitchell has three touchdowns this season with 25 completions on 45 attempts, two interceptions and 376 passing yards.
Hays has 13 completed passes out of 25 attempts, two interceptions and three touchdowns.
The last home game at APSU, Govs fans crowded into a record 7,507 attendance. With this being the biggest game of the year, the crowd could possibly even squeeze in 2,500 more fans and top out at the 10,000 capacity.
The “Battle of the Border” is on Saturday, Oct. 1, at 4 p.m.
