Fort Hays State Football heads on the road to face long-time rival Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday (Oct. 20). Kickoff is set for 11 am at Cope Stadium in Kearney. The Tigers are looking to stay within striking distance for the MIAA Championship, currently at 5-2, while the Lopers enter at 4-3.
 
Fort Hays State is just 1-2 in road games so far this year, while posting a 4-0 mark at home so far. All four of the wins at home were against teams that played in bowl games last year. So far, the road has been a bit unkind to the Tigers with road losses at Missouri Western and Emporia State, but a dominating win at Missouri Southern. Turnovers have been a huge factor in the road struggles, the Tigers at -6 overall in turnover margin in the two losses. FHSU is +11 overall in turnover margin its five wins combined.
 
The Tigers will have to hone their focus this week against a Loper team that has shown much improvement in Josh Lynn's second year as head coach. UNK has scored at least 30 points in all four of its wins this season, but less than 20 in all three of its losses. The Lopers are most recently coming off a 27-13 loss to Northwest Missouri State last week in Maryville. The running game has been the key for the Lopers this year, putting up at least 250 rushing yards in all four wins, but Emporia State, Pittsburg State, and Northwest Missouri State all held them to less than 200 in the three losses. UNK has six players with 100 or more rushing yards this season, led by Darrius Webb's 593.
 
Fort Hays State held its last five opponents to less than 200 rushing yards. The high end of that spectrum was 170 allowed to Pittsburg State last week in a 50-21 win, while the low end was 59 allowed to Central Oklahoma in a 15-0 win. UNK averages an MIAA-best 279.4 rushing yards per game, but FHSU limited a Pittsburg State team last week to 50 yards less than its average entering the game (220.7).
 
Jacob Mezera became the career leader in passing yards and passing touchdowns at Fort Hays State last week in the win over Pittsburg State. He now has 7,083 yards and 56 touchdowns in his career. This week, he has a chance to become the first Tiger to complete 600 passes in a career. He already owns the pass completions record at FHSU with 592, just eight shy of the potential milestone. Matt Wendelberger (478), Layne Bieberle (466), and Harley Hazlett (401) all have more than 400 receiving yards on the season.
 
Jose Delgado leads the Tiger defense in tackles with 69 for the season, averaging 9.9 per game. Connor Shedeed has a team-best three interceptions and Sterling Swopes owns a team-high 4.5 sacks. The Tigers lead the MIAA in interceptions with 11 as a team.