The Southern Arkansas Muleriders got their second consecutive National Player of the Week honor from D2Football.com.
On Wednesday, redshirt senior wide receiver Karonce Higgins earned the outlet’s National Offensive Player of the Week accolade after a highly-impactful day receiving in SAU’s 36-12 road win over Southwestern Oklahoma State last Saturday.
Higgins hauled in 13 passes and tallied the second-most receiving yards in a game in program history with 237 and also found the end zone twice in the victory.
His 13 receptions are the second-most in a single-game for a Mulerider wide out and his receiving yards total was just 10 yards shying of matching the single-game program best.
Additionally, Higgins, who is an All-GAC standout for the Mulerider men’s track & field program, became the just the fourth Mulerider wide receiver to log a 200 plus yard receiving performance.
Through three games, Higgins has tallied 420 yards receiving which stands as the top mark in Division II football.
He also ranks second nationally in receiving yards per game (140.0), seventh in receptions per game (8.0) and eighth in receiving touchdowns (4).
The Muleriders (3-0) will host the Northwestern Oklahoma State Rangers (1-2) in GAC action Saturday night at Wilkins Stadium.
It will be Family Day on the campus and kickoff at Wilkins Stadium is set for 6 p.m.
Northwestern is fresh off a dramatic home victory in week three against Henderson State, 30-24. The loss the Rangers handed to HSU was the first loss on the road to an Oklahoma team since the inception of the Great American Conference.
In that game, Jacob Peyton continued to slice the opposing defenses as he rushed for a career high 172 yards against the Reddies, the most by a Ranger since joining the NCAA. The redshirt junior has rushed for 333 yards in the past two weeks of action as he moved his rushing average to 136 yards per game, the ninth best average in the nation.
While the Northwestern offense has been playing well this season, they will be up against the top defense in the GAC and the tenth best scoring defense in the nation. Southern Arkansas has allowed just 11.7 points per game, oppose to Northwestern’s 29 points a ball game.
In terms of yards, Northwestern currently boasts the No. 2 GAC offense with over 444 yards per contest, while the Muleriders are holding opponents to 298 yards a game, the second fewest in the league.
Southern Arkansas is sitting in an early tie atop the conference standings with Ouachita Baptist at 3-0. The Muleriders are ranked No. 21 this week in the D2Football.com poll and No. 19 in the American Football Coaches Association poll.