After two long, heart-breaking weeks on the road, the Bears return home to John I. Hurst Stadium Thursday night to host another MACCC South Division opponent in the Mississippi Gulf Coast Bulldogs.

Southwest head coach Cliff Collins said that he and his team are really anticipating the challenge.

"We have a Top-5 team in the country coming in and this is what we want," he said. "We want to play this team. I love playing Gulf Coast. We are competitive and our guys are ready to go. We are going to be ready and we are fired up being back at home.This is a must-win game for us. I think that this is a big game for this program."

Despite the great challenge that the Bulldogs present, Collins believes his guys will be ready.

"This team, they have played a good Jones team, they played a good East Mississippi team, they have played Delta," he said. "Our guys have to be ready to roll. If we execute the game plan, we will be successful. We have the game plan, we have the blueprint to beat them. We have to come out fired up. That is the biggest thing, being fired up, ready to go. Believing that we can win, knowing that we can win and we will be fine."

Southwest (0-3, 0-1 MACCC South) enters the game after dropping close contests to Holmes, Northeast Mississippi and Pearl River in Weeks 1, 2 and 3, respectively. On the other side of the field, the Bulldogs enter with a 3-0 mark after picking up wins at East Mississippi, at Mississippi Delta and vs. Jones.

When it comes to game planning, Collins is very familiar with the particular scheme that head coach Jack Wright runs and he believes his team will be ready to face it.

Gulf Coast is led by freshman quarterback Landon Varnes who has completed 55-of-87 passes for 702 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions. His top targets thus far has been sophomore JP Coulter who caught 18 balls for 278 yards and two scores. On the ground, the Bulldogs are led by Trey Hall who averages 6.3 yards per carry on 56 attempts for 353 yards and two touchdowns.

To help slow down the Gulf Coast offense, Collins is calling on the Bear fans to show up and be heard.

"Firing up the guys, we need to be self-motivated but we need everyone else to be fired up too," he said. "Come in here and be loud. Come in here and give a defensive chant. That is what we are missing."

The Bears and the Bulldogs kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday at John I. Hurst Stadium.