By Austin Bruce

VALDOSTA — Since Tremaine Jackson arrived to Titletown in 2022, there has been one Gulf South Conference opponent that he has failed to beat in the regular season: Delta State.

On Saturday, the top-ranked Valdosta State Blazers (8-0, 4-0 GSC) will pay the Statesmen (5-3, 2-2 GSC) a visit in a pivotal meeting between the two GSC powers.

The game will kick off at 3 p.m. EST.

Jackson, for one, hasn’t forgotten about the Blazers’ last regular season trip to Cleveland, Mississippi, a 70-31 beatdown that went down as one of the worst losses in school history.

Though the Blazers have since beaten the Statesmen—the Blazers beat Delta State in a 38-31 thriller in Cleveland in the second round of the playoffs last fall—that still hasn’t removed the sting that 2022 loss had.

“Two years ago, we went there and got 70 put on us. We haven’t forgot that, or at least I haven’t,” Jackson said. “There’s six guys left from the 2022 team on this roster; they haven’t forgot. … Those guys remember what it felt like that night, and the reason why I know that is because they’d come to my office and tell me in the offseason and go, ‘We never want to get back to that.’”

Saturday’s matchup will have huge postseason implications on the line for both teams.

While the Blazers are ranked No. 1 in the country, they sit at No. 3 in the second NCAA Division II Football Super Region Two rankings behind Wingate (7-1) and fellow GSC member West Alabama (7-1). Despite being the only unbeaten team in the region, there’s still work to be done for VSU to be the top seed in the region, earn a first-round bye, and have home field advantage for the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Statesmen entered the season ranked in the top 20. However, a Week 3 loss to Wingate and a pair of October losses to West Florida and North Greenville have put Delta State in must-win mode just to have a chance to return to the postseason. The Statesmen were not included in Tuesday’s Super Region Two rankings.

Still, Jackson knows none of that will matter once the game kicks off.

“This is one of those games where records go out the window,” Jackson said. “We know it’s going to be a physical matchup. Coach [Todd Cooley] is going to have his guys ready to play, and we’ll have ours ready to play. We’ll kind of see where the chips fall where they may.”