• A month-long hiatus finally comes to an end on Saturday as the Chapman University football team returns home to Chapman Stadium to take on Whittier College. The Panthers host the Poets during the annual Chapman Homecoming & Family Weekend.

 

• Chapman returns home after a pair of nailbiting finishes on the road. Both of the Panthers last two games have been decided on the final play. Chapman fell at Trinity when the Tigers returned a fumble for a touchdown in overtime. Last week, Joe Mudie scored from a yard out on the final play of the game to lift Chapman to a 42-40 win.

 

• Junior Marek Spooner-LeDuff picked off his second interception of the season last week and returned it 65 yards for a touchdown. It was just the 16th interception return for a touchdown in Chapman history and went down as the fourth-longest.

 

• Chapman is hosting Whittier in its annual Homecoming game for the third time since 2011. Chapman won the 2011 meeting 45-22 and the 2013 Homecoming matchup 72-40. The Panthers are looking for their first Homecoming win since 2014.

 

• The Chapman-Whittier matchup is the second-most played game in Chapman's 24-year history since reviving the program. The Panthers and Poets have met 21 times since 1994, playing every year since the revival except for 1996 and 1997. The Panthers have beaten the Poets 18 times – the most wins against a single opponent in Chapman's history.

 

• Senior Joe Mudie was named the SCIAC Athlete of the Week after his game-winning TD. He carried the ball 21 times last week for 104 yards – the fourth 100-yard game of his career. He has over 100 total yards in each of the Panthers' three games this season. He leads the SCIAC with 96.7 yards per game and 6.6 yards per carry as well as having the longest run in the conference this year with a 60-yarder against Linfield.