ABOUT THE GAME

• Starting seasons under Thursday night lights have become an annual tradition for Millersville football. It is the eighth time in the last nine seasons that Millersville has kicked off its campaign on a Thursday night, and the Marauders have enjoyed success in those mid-week games. Millersville has gone 5-3 overall and 3-1 at home in Thursday night games over the last seven seasons and is 41-33 all-time in night games. Millersville is 53-64-9 all-time in season openers including 2-2 in the last four seasons.
• Clarion is making its first trip to Biemesderfer Stadium in a decade, and Thursday marks just the seventh time since 1977 that Clarion has played a game at Millersville. The PSAC foes were not originally scheduled to play in 2024, but both lost a game from the schedule with Mercyhurst's departure from the PSAC. Millersville has not opened a season against a PSAC opponent since a memorable upset of nationally ranked IUP in 2005. It is only the eighth time since 1958 that Millersville has started the season against a PSAC team. Interestingly, Clarion has been the four times previously (1998, 1997, 1967, 1966). Clarion gave the Marauders one of their two losses in the 1998 season opener (38-31) and also won the 1967 and 1966 meetings. Millersville scored a 31-25 win in the 1997 opener.
• Millersville is coming off a 3-8 season in 2023 while Clarion went 2-9 under second-year head coach Raymond Monica. Clarion was voted seventh out of seven teams in the PSAC West preseason poll. Millersville was ranked sixth out of eight teams in the East.

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• After a promising 3-1 start that included the program’s first win over West Chester in 21 years, Millersville closed the 2023 season on a seven-game skid that included four one-score losses. In 2023, Millersville was tied with nationally ranked Shepherd at the half, lost by five against eventual PSAC champion Kutztown and started the fourth quarter with a lead in a three-point loss to Bloomsburg. Millersville enters 2024 having lost four of its five All-PSAC East performers from the 2023 team and returns just six offensive and four defensive starters. The lone All-PSAC East returnee is running back Jaheim Morris, who was a first-team selection despite missing three full games. 
• Jaheim Morris is the engine to Millersville’s offense. In 2022, he was named All-PSAC East Second Team with 822 yards and seven rushing touchdowns for the most yards by a Marauder since 2013 and the most touchdowns since 2010. Last season, Morris became the first Marauder running back since 2000 to be named named All-PSAC East in back-to-back seasons. He tied a school record with a 93-yard run and totaled 229 yards against Shepherd in addition to 177 against West Chester. Over the last three seasons, Millersville is 3-1 when Morris rushes for 100 yards and 7-4 when he scores a touchdown. Morris enters the season 11 carries shy of becoming the 11th back in school history with 400 carries. He needs 269 yards to become the second Marauder with 2,000 rushing yards, and he is five rushing touchdowns outside of the all-time top 10. 
• Quarterback Robert Footman has won six of his 11 games as Millersville’s primary quarterback, throwing nine touchdown passes to three picks in those wins. 
• Millersville’s defense lost seven of its eight leading tacklers, but Hez Faison ranked second on the team with 10 TFL in 2023. Millersville has produced nine All-PSAC East linebackers since 2016, including four in the last two seasons. 
• In the secondary, Millersville lost three starting safeties but returns its top two defensive backs in Gus Ross and Imir Lilliston. Ross was limited to five games in 2023, but Millersville is 8-4 in games that he has played the last two seasons. Lilliston also missed five weeks in 2023 after starting 20 games in 2021-22. He’s broken up 11 passes in his last 17 games. 
• Despite losing All-PSAC East punter Zach Banta, Millersville special teams are in solid shape with the return of kicker Trent McDowell and kick returner Hakim Melvin. McDowell went 8 for 11 on field goals, hitting the longest in school history with a 52-yarder vs. Seton Hill. Melvin was the only player in the PSAC with two kickoff returns for touchdown. He was the first player in school history to score a receiving, rushing and kick return TD in the same season. He did that damage while returning kicks in just five of the 11 games. He averaged 27.3 yards per return.
• While Millersville has to replace three starters on the offensive line, it's two returners have combined for 44 consecutive starts. Lex Rivera is moving to left tackle after starting 22 consecutive games at right tackle. Zac Shelley has held down the right guard position for the last 22 games as well. 
• Millersville elected five team captains in the preseason: Imir Lilliston, Jaheim Morris, Lex Rivera, Conner Snyder and Kam Taylor. All five are first-time captains. Taylor is the lone junior to earn a captaincy. 
• Under J.C. Morgan, the 0 and 1 jersey numbers hold significance. The coaches award the recipient of the 0 jersey while the No. 1 is selected by the players. The defensive line swept the honors in 2024 with Snyder earning the No. 0 and sophomore Jabriel Rhodes-Nelson getting the No. 1 jersey. 
   

SCOUTING CLARION

• Raymond Monica is in his third season at Clarion. He took over a team that went winless in 2021 and has won five games in the last two seasons. Monica was the head coach at Arkansas Tech after building up Kutztown into a regional power from 2006-12. He took Kutztown to the NCAA playoffs in 2010 and 2011. 
• Clarion returns 16 starters from last season's team, including eight on offense. Two of the returning defensive starters--Jake Tarburton and Griffin Buzzell--were named All-PSAC West Second Team in 2023. 
• Anthony Guercio returns as the Golden Eagles' quarterback. He's a dangerous runner, totaling 416 yards (4.8 per carry) and rushing for four touchdowns. He completed 63% of his passes for 661 yards, throwing only four picks in 89 attempts. 

SERIES HISTORY

• While Millersville and Clarion have played just 16 times, there have been some historically significant match-ups, most notably the PSAC “State Game” in 1977, which Clarion won 25-24 on a field goal in the final seconds. That Millersville team won Coach Gene Carpenter's first PSAC East title. The programs did not play again until 1994 and have since played 11 times with Clarion holding a slight 6-5 edge. Clarion won four in a row from 2010-2015, but Millersville won the most recent match-up in 2021 (21-17). Clarion has won three in a row at Biemesderfer Stadium, with Millersville's last home win over Clarion coming in 1997. Millersville is just 2-4 at home against Clarion. 
• THE LAST MEETING (Millersville 21, Clarion 17 (Sept. 11, 2021): Clarion pushed the Millersville defense into the red zone twice in the final three minutes, but both times, the Marauders dug in and made fourth down stops to preserve a 21-17 road victory. Millersville linebacker Isaiah Onuschak made 16 tackles, and none was more important than the blow he landed on Michael Proios as the Clarion quarterback scrambled on a fourth-and-10 from the Millersville 17 with 51 seconds to play. Rafael Lozada and Tyler Tate, rallying to the ball, cleaned up the play, enabling Millersville to take two knees in the victory formation and seal its first road win over a PSAC West team since 2017.