Staff report

SALISBURY —Livingstone’s football team is a 31-point underdog for Saturday’s home game with Bowie State.

Kickoff is at 4 p.m. on the blue turf at Alumni Memorial Stadium.

Livingstone (0-4, 0-2) has faced Virginia Union and Virginia State the past two weeks. Virginia State is ranked second in the BOXTOROW poll for HBCU Division II schools, while Virginia Union is ranked fourth. Bowie State (3-1, 2-0) is fifth in that poll. That’s a tough schedule.

Despite its lofty ranking and a strong winning tradition, Bowie State hasn’t scared anyone, at least on offense, the last two weeks with a 21-7 win against Shaw and a 10-7 win agains St. Augustine’s.  QB Amir Jackson and running back Carleton Stewart are normally the Bulldogs to watch, but Jackson was quiet last week in the defensive struggle with St. Augustine’s.

Bowie State hangs its hat on a defensive unit that is on national leaderboards in several categories and might be the CIAA’s best unit. The Bulldogs will count on that physical defense to bottle up the Blue Bears.

Livingstone couldn’t get much going on offense last week in a shutout loss at Virginia State. Freshman running back JyMikaah Wells (Salisbury) did provide some positive yards.

Bowie State celebrated homecoming in 2022 by battering LC 53-7 and won 49-0 in 2021, the last time the Bulldogs visited Salisbury.

Livingstone’s most recent win in the series was a 36-33 stunner in 2014 when Drew Powell threw four TD passes for the Blue Bears.