What Lies Ahead:  The 11th-ranked Mavericks return to venerable Blakeslee Stadium Saturday evening for a 6 p.m., contest against the Golden Bears of Concordia University.

Gimme Five:  Saturday's tilt marks the fifth meeting between the two schools.  Minnesota State leads the all-time series, 3-1 and have outscored CU, 134-45 in its three victories.  The lone loss in the series for the Mavericks came on Sept. 17, 2005, when the Golden Bears downed MSU, 35-21, in St. Paul.

What's in a Win:  A win would give MSU its 371st win in school history...A victory would be the 23rd victory for head coach Todd Hoffner at MSU and the 69th victory of his career...A win would mark the second consecutive home win for Minnesota State...A victory would move Minnesota State to 4-0, a feat that has happened just five times in school history...Finally, a win would mark the 21st win for the Mavericks in the NSIC.

A Little History Lesson: The 2010 season marks the school's 84th season playing football.  The Mavericks are 370-367-28 (.502) in 765 games since their inception as a varsity sport in 1922.  Minnesota State is in its third season in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and owns a 19-2 record in league action.  Over the course of its history, MSU has claimed 17 conference championships including 15 NIC titles.

Scouting Concordia: Concordia enters this weekend's match-up with a 2-1 record, including a 1-1 mark in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.   Last week, the Golden Bears travelled to Aberdeen, S.D., and earned a 27-17 victory over the Wolves.  In the victory, junior quarterback Spencer Ohm completed 15-of-26passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns in the win.  Ohm's favorite receiver in the win was junior Charles Gilbert who caught eight passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns while junior running back Sam Cambell rushed 17 times for 68 yards.  Defensively, senior linebacker Trevor Glomski had a team-high nine stops.
   
For the season, CU is averaging 25 points per game, while allowing 23.  The Golden Bears are averaging 119 yards per game on the ground and 223.3 yards through the air, for an average of 342.3 yards of total offense per game.  Campbell leads the squad on the ground with 38 carries for 196 yards (5.2 ypc) and averages 65.3 yards per game.  Ohm has completed 52-of-89 passes (58.4 percent) of his passes for 670 yards and six touchdowns and averaged 223.3 yards per game, while Gilbert has hauled in a team-high 15 catches for 258 yards and four touchdowns.  Gilbert is averaging 86 yards per game and 17.2 yards per catch.  Senior Travis Meyer leads the squad on defense with 22 tackles, 15 of which are solo.

The Golden Bears are coached by Mark Mauer who is in his seventh season with the program and recently became CU's all-time wins leader for football.  He owns a 34-36 mark at Concordia.

Weather Report:  According to www.weather.com, Saturday's forecast in Mankato calls for a high of 60 degrees with a few showers and a 30 percent chance of rain.

Follow at Home: To watch the game live and for free on New Media TV, click HERE (click on the MSU Logo).  To follow the live stats, click HERE and you can listen to the live audio HERE

Buy Tickets in Advance:  Fans can purchase tickets online HERE

To view a .pdf of this release, click HERE