Nashville was a very busy football city beginning Thursday night and going all the way through Sunday's game.  The NFL's Tennessee Titans hosted Minnesota and area colleges Vanderbilt and Western Kentucky played Thursday evening and the University of Tennessee hosted Bowling Green Saturday at Nissan Stadium.
 
With all of that football, Nashville was not done as the Hornets and Tigers will play in the John Merritt Classic becoming the fourth football game in four days and third in four days between the lines on the Nissan Stadium playing surface.
 
Offensively, the Hornets will have Khalid Thomas to move into a starting role in the Hornets backfield.  The last two running backs, Isaiah Crowell and Malcolm Cyrus, were 1,000 yard rushers and All-SWAC performers.
 
Thomas has rushed for over 600 yards during his first two seasons, including 545 last season along with five scores as Cyrus' understudy.  He finished the season with over 1,100 total yards as he also had over 30 yards in pass receiving and 600 yards returning kicks.
 
On defense ASU will look to the continued leadership of junior linebacker Kourtney Berry.  The two-time First-Team All-SWAC choice has collected over 100 total tackles during his first two years, including a SWAC-leading 128 in 2014.  The Hornets only have four returning starters on that side of the ball, so Berry's leadership will be needed even more.
 
The Tigers will be looking for a bit of revenge as ASU won last year's meeting 27-21 in Montgomery.  TSU only has five starters back on offense and three on defense, but that does not mean the Tigers are going into the game empty handed.  They have 15 transfers on their 2015 roster with all but one of those coming from FBS institutions.
 
The Hornets Football game will once again be carried over the ASU Hornets Sports Network and several of the games will be carried on Sirius/XM Satellite radio via HSRN.  ASU also have three games scheduled to be broadcast over the family of stations of the ESPN Network.
 
All of the information can be found at bamastatesports.com and on Game Day Central which will be available Sunday morning.