Shavarez Smith Selected As SBC Offensive Player Of The Week
Shavarez Smith was honored as the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. He caught 10 passes for 194 yards and a touchdown against Georgia State. | Photo usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s Shavarez Smith was named the Sun Belt Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week by the league office on Monday.
Smith, a 6’1″ 200-pound junior receiver from McDonough, Georiga, caught 10 passes for 194 yards and a touchdown. He is the second Jaguar to earn the honor this season as Ross Metheny earned the award after the Jaguars win over Tulane on September 7.
Smith’s performance not only set a school record, but was the most receiving yards by any Sun Belt player this season.
As he enters the final game of the regular season, Smith has set school records for a single season with 47 receptions for 900 yards. But he not only stands third in the conference in yards per game, but he is also 12th in the nation with an average of 19.1 yards per reception.
South Alabama will host conference leader Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. It will also be Senior Day with the ceremony starting at 6:30pm prior to the 7pm kickoff. The Jaguars need to win this final game of the season to get to an even record for the season and get bowl eligible for the first time in program history.
USA Bowl Hopes Hinge On Final Game Of Season
Prior to the beginning of the season head coach Joey Jones, his staff and the players set two goals for the season. First is to get bowl eligible and the other was to win the Sun Belt conference title. Though they have been been eliminated from the second, they are still in the running for the first. Though, in order to do so they will have to defeat the team in the drivers seat for the conference title.
Louisana-Lafayette ranks at or near the top of many Sun Belt Conference statistical categories. But South Alabama also ranks near the top in some categories themselves. But sometimes statistics can be thrown out the door when emotion and Will overpower the opposition and tendencies.
These Jaguars have shown that they can play above their expectations. Just look at what they did a few years ago when they faced their first FBS team and held strong through the first three quarters in Raleigh. Though they only won one game against FBS school last season, they were not expected to win any of them and yet were still in the game all the way to the end on several occasions.
This season the Jags began as underdogs against FBS opponents but they made a statement when they defeated Tulane in the Superdome. Their statement went to a broader audience when they held strong against Tennessee in Knoxville and lost by a mere seven points but had a chance to tie or attempt to take the lead with under two minutes left in the game.
Now the Jags stand on the cusp of .500 season overall, a winning record in thier conference schedule and bowl eligibility. The only thing in their way is the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns.
This team has been built on the support of students and alumni and arguably this is one of the most important moments where all of the fans can make a huge difference. What is needed on Saturday is a large, loud crowd to let the Jaguar student-athletes and staff know just how much support they have. But equally important, to let ULL know how much we love our Jaguars. But if we are loud enough to disrupt their communication, well that’s an added bonus too.
While a win does not guarantee USA a bowl invitation, it will make history for the school and possibly in college football as the program to go from nothing to bowl eligibility in the shortest time span in modern college football history.
Tell your friends, your family and anyone willing to listen that they should go to Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday night and cheer on the Jaguars.
If you’re a student or know a student, then they definitely do not have an excuse as their tickets are free. So challenge them to come out to Stadium and pack the student section for the game.
Go Jags! #BeatULL
USA Men’s Basketball Faulter In Second Half Against MTSU
The Jaguar men’s basketball team lost to former Sun Belt Conference rival Middle Tennessee State 65-55 on Saturday. The Blue Raiders held the Jags without a field goal over the final 9:08 and finished on a 16-2 run to down the Jags.
The Jags squandered a first-half lead again this season as they held an eight point advantage at halftime but only shot 12.5% in the second half, one field goal in the final 14:20 and none in the final 9:08 of the game.
This puts the Jags at 4-3 on the season while the Blue Raiders improve to 6-1 on the season.
Middle Tennessee started a 13-0 run at the 5:32 mark with the final 10 points coming from the free throw line. The Jags went 0-for-13 from outside the arc in the second half after shooting 6-of-8 from there in the first half.
Augustine Rubit led all scorers with 15 points but fell short of a double-double with nine rebounds. Freshman Aakim Saintil added 14 points off the bench with a career high five steals. Junior Mychal Ammons added a game-high 10 rebounds.
South Alabama took control of the game in the first half when they had a 14-3 run over a six minute stretch to break a tie and give themselves an 11 points lead.
“I thought we came out and played really hard and focused early on,” said head coach Matthew Graves after the game. “Anytime you play on the road you want to get off to a good start and I thought we did that. We controlled the tempo, we were attacking and making plays that you need in order to get that lead.”
“In the second half we got lackluster and got on our heels,” Graves continued. “Like I told the guys in the locker room, I think it’s a three-part problem: one, I have to do a better job of putting the players in a place to be successful. Two, I think our guards need to be more in attack mode, not to score the ball but to get others involved, and three, our bigs were stagnant. We stood around and they weren’t as active in the second half as they were in the first half, so we have a lot of things we need to work on.”
“To a certain extent I think they turned the pressure up a little bit but I think it’s really more our fault,” Graves said. “We didn’t attack like we did in the first half and we didn’t continue to go at the rim. We settled for too many contested 3-point shots, which is what we want to give up on our end, but they made the adjustments and did what they needed to do. It’s really disappointing for us.”
“What they did was make a conscious effort to drive the basketball.” Graves said. “They have a veteran team over there and they took advantage of their opportunities. The bottom line is, we need to be tougher. We have to go after every loose ball. I thought we had a couple of guys do some good things and compete but we’ve got to have the whole team do that for an extended period of time.”
The Jags will return to action on Monday night when they host Spring Hill at the Mitchell Center. Tip off is set for 7:05pm.
South Alabama Defeats Georgia State 38-17 To Keep Bowl Hopes Alive
South Alabama lines up inside the one yard line. Ross Metheny would dive over the top to score the Jaguars third touchdown of the game on this play.
The South Alabama football team defeated Georgia State 38-17 in the Georgia Dome behind a record-setting performance by wide receiver Shavarez Smith.
After adjusting to the Panthers gameplan, the Jaguars took over the game and never looked back as Smith caught 10 passes, tying a school record, and gaining 194 yards receiving including a touchdown. Jay Jones scored twice as they led the Jaguar offensive attack behind Ross Metheny’s direction.
Jay Jones rushed for his first career 100-yard game of his career by gaining 102 yards on 17 attempts as he scored the first two touchdowns of the game.
The Jaguar defense continued their performance from last week as they limited the Panthers to only 24 yards on 25 rushing attempts while recording four sacks for a loss of 18 yards.
Romelle Jones continues to shine in his senior season as he recorded 2.5 tackles for loss as part of his four tackles while forcing a fumble late in the first quarter. Jerome McClain equalled his career high of five tackles with a sack. Pat Moore recordd a sack while Clifton Crews and Montavious williams combined for the other Jaguar sack.
Qudarius FOrd led the defense with eight tackles with Terrell Brigham adding six tackles himself.
After figuring out the Panthers scheme from their first drive, the Jags took their second possession 62 yards in seven plays to put the first points on the board. The drive opened with a 17 yard completion from Metheny to Lavender. A few plays later as the Jags were facing a 3rd and 1, Jay Jones would gain 22 yards up the middle. He would then carry the ball on the next three plays with the final one spanning five yards for the touchdown. Jones accounted for 37 of the 62 yards of the drive.
On the next possession, Shavarez Smith caught Metheny’s pass on a slant pattern but the GSU defense would force a fumble as he was fighting for extra yards. The Jags would get the ball back when Enrique Williams forced a fumble that was recovered by Maleki Harris at the Panther 42 yard line.
The Jags would double their advantage when Jones punched it in from 17 yards out with about 2:30 left in the opening quarter.
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