COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Benedict College Tigers will take part in their third straight classic football game on Saturday, and are still searching for their first win of the season when they take on the Fort Valley State Wildcats in the Upstate HBCU Classic in Greenville.

Kickoff from Sirrine Stadium is 4 p.m. The game will be streamed by FloSports here (monthly subscription required).

Benedict, 0-3, has been its own worst enemy this season. Through the first three games, the Tigers have eight turnovers, including five interceptions. One interception was returned for a touchdown last week against Savannah State. Benedict gave up two kickoff returns for touchdowns against Johnson C. Smith, while giving up a touchdown and two safeties against Fayetteville State on bad punt snaps. Despite the collection of mistakes, the Tigers have had opportunities to win the last two weeks.

Benedict head football coach Mike White said the coaching staff has been working hard to eliminate the costly mistakes as they prepare to take on a high-octane Fort Valley State offense.

"We as a staff have gone back and tried to address a lot of things so we don't make those mistakes," White said.

The Wildcats, 1-2, are coming off a 30-23 victory over Shorter last week. Senior quarterback Slade Jarman is averaging nearly 200 yards per game and completing more than 60 percent of his passes. Fort Valley State is averaging just 12 yards rushing per game, a stark contrast from Benedict's first three opponents. Benedict's first three opponents rarely threw the ball, so Benedict currently ranks second in the nation in passing yards allowed, giving up just 87 yards per game through the air.

"It's another high-powered offense. They're probably going to throw the ball about 80 percent of the time," White said. "Their quarterback is playing well; the kid we played against a couple of years ago who was a good decision maker. We're just going to have to play sound ball. That means we can not allow them to have any big plays. If they move it down the field, they're going to have to earn every yard they get. For us, that's going to be the biggest key."

Two years ago in Fort Valley, Jarman threw for a career-high 358 yards as the Wildcats defeated the Tigers 31-28 in overtime.

Despite uncharacteristically giving up so many big plays so far this season, overall Benedict continues to have one of the nation's top defenses. The Tigers lead the SIAC and rank 12^th nationally in total defense, holding opponents to 238.7 yards of total offense.

White said the Tigers need to be more aggressive on offense and aim for a few big plays of their own.

"Offensively, I think we do need to have some big plays in the game," White said. "After we made mistakes early in the last couple of games, I think we went into a shell in terms of what we wanted to do, and went away from the plan and not tried to stretch the ball down the field as much as what we probably thought we could going into the game. I still think we're going to have issues with the young line, but they are working hard and trying to take care of the little mental breakdowns they have."

After a tough game against Savannah State last week in their conference opener, White expects another hard-fought game against another SIAC opponent.

"It's going to be another game where we're going to have to make those plays in the fourth quarter to be victorious," White said.