{"id":99218,"date":"2026-09-19T09:02:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=99218"},"modified":"2026-09-19T09:02:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:02:32","slug":"tiger-football-ready-for-date-with-cross-state-rival-pittsburg-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=99218","title":{"rendered":"Tiger Football ready for date with cross-state rival Pittsburg State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ELI BLANKINSHIP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a disappointing result in its home opener against CSU Pueblo, Fort Hays State Football is well rested and ready to go for Week 3 after an early bye week in Week 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it helped us,\u201d FHSU Head Coach Chris Brown said. \u201cIt gives us an extra practice\u2026so hopefully, it’s beneficial to us, and you can see the improvement that we make this week during the game on Saturday. We did a lot of individual technique work to make sure our guys were ready for this upcoming game.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visiting Gorillas have had the Tigers\u2019 number in recent history, winning the last five meetings in dominant fashion dating back to 2021. Historically, Pittsburg State leads the all-time series 51-22-9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re all hungry, and with new faces, we’re all learning every single day what [everyone] can bring to the table,\u201d said fifth-year right guard David Sjoberg. \u201cFive offensive linemen have to work on one cylinder together to see a good outcome come to the table, and that’s what’s tough about the position. Everybody’s got to be on the same page to be able to find success, and I think that this bye week was great for us because then we could get closer together on the field as well [and] dial in on some things that we didn’t really touch on heavily in the first two weeks\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite their recent success against the Tigers, Pittsburg State is off to a rough start to their season at 0-3, the program\u2019s worst start since 1977. Losing their star quarterback Jackson Berry in the offseason, the Gorillas have struggled to find his successor, with three different quarterbacks taking snaps in their first three games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m trying to prepare for all three quarterbacks and what they might do,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThat does give you a little bit of trouble of what you’re actually truly going to get, and do we get three different offenses with three different quarterbacks, right? So that’s going to be something that our defense has to prepare for as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Fort Hays State, they look to kick off their conference schedule with a win. As for the Gorillas, it\u2019s now or never to turn their season around and pick up their first MIAA win of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast year playing them out at Pitt, that was an atmosphere. I mean, it’s an atmosphere here. I think everybody’s going to come to this game,\u201d Sjoberg said. \u201cYou want to go win conferences. You want to go win national championships, and it\u2019s another game for us, but it’s Pitt State, and I want this one big time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers are scheduled to kick off against the Gorillas at 7 p.m. today under the lights at Lewis Field Stadium. Tiger Media Network will provide coverage of the game beginning at 6:50 pm on the MIAA Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ELI BLANKINSHIP Tiger Media Network After a disappointing result in its home opener against CSU Pueblo, Fort Hays State Football is well rested and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":98955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3387,7349],"tags":[15753,16615,1694,99],"class_list":["post-99218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-sports","category-sports","tag-eli-blankinship","tag-eli-blankinshi","tag-fhsu-football","tag-football"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/FHSUFBVCSUPUEBLO9.3-06-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99219,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99218\/revisions\/99219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}