Howard University can only hope its upcoming football game at the University of Richmond goes better than the previous meeting.

Coach Larry Scott’s Bison will play at Robins Stadium Saturday, Sept. 4. Kickoff is 2 p.m.

The Bison have disappointing memories of the first game between the two teams. On Sept. 16, 2017, Howard fell to the host Spiders 68-21.

Both schools are members of the NCAA Football Championships Division. Howard plays in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, or MEAC, while UR competes in football in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Howard has two local athletes on its team—both from Highland Springs High School. They are senor lineman Aaron Motley and sophomore linebacker Christian White.

UR opted out of fall football a year ago because of the pandemic but posted a 3-1 mark in the spring.

Howard also opted out of fall football in 2020 and went 0-2 in the spring under Coach Scott, with both losses to Delaware State University. Coach Scott, 44, was named HU’s coach in February.

The Bison play a challenging early schedule. Following the UR game, the Washington HBCU heads to College Park, Md., for a Sept. 11 date with the University of Maryland.

Coach Scott, a native of Florida, is no stranger to big-time football. He is a former assistant coach at the University of Florida, the University of Tennessee, the University of Miami and the University of South Florida. In 2015, he went 4-2 as interim head coach at Miami.

His teams competed in 10 different bowls in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

In 2019, Howard went 1-8 under Coach Ron Prince. Prior to that, former Richmonder Coach Michael London posted an 11-10 mark in 2017 and 2018 at Howard.