South Alabama Falls 23-6 At Coastal Carolina
South Alabama (3-4, 2-2 Sun Belt Conference) put up a valiant fight against Sun Belt Conference leader Coastal Carolina (7-0, 4-0 SBC) but fell 23-6.
The Jags never led in the game and failed to convert in key situations, particularly in the second half.
USA opened with a three-and-out on their first possession and the Chanticleers seized the opportunity with a 7 play, 72 yard touchdown drive spanning 2:48 to strike first.
The Jags answered with a field goal on an 11 play, 62 yard driving consuming 5:18 off the clock.
Coastal Carolina responded back with another long touchdown drive. Covering 75 yards in 6 plays in just 2:50 was good for the second and final touchdown of the game, going up 14-3 on the Jags.
South Alabama would get on the scoreboard once more with 5:01 left in the first half on a 43-yard Diego Guajardo field goal.
Coach Campbell saw his team trading field goals for touchdowns and decided to roll the dice. Instead of opting for another field goal, they attempted to convert a 4th & 3 at the Chanticleer 32. Desmond Trotter would throw to Trent Tyre on the sideline, but he could not turn and stretch for to move the chains.
That turnover on downs would lead to the Chanticleers adding a field goal with 2:11 left in the opening half.
The Jags would get shut out in the second half but not without one prime scoring opportunity.
Facing 4th and goal at the 1, Kawaan Baker lined up in the wildcat, pretty much telegraphing that he was going to run it, the Chanticleer defense would stop him about a half yard short of paydirt. The drive spanned 17 plays, 68 yards and drained 7:23 off the clock.
Desmond Trotter played the entire game for the second-consecutive game. He went 23-of-31 for 243 yards, but was sacked five times by the Chanticleer defense.
Jalen Tolbert led all receivers with seven catches with 78 yards. Jalen Wayne led the Jags with 91 receiving yards on five catches.
Carlos Davis carried the ball 17 times for 73 yards. Terrion Avery carried four times for 27 yards. Trotter had a net -27 yards with sack yardage figured in.
The offense was a paltry 2-of-14 on 3rd down attempts, but managed to eek out a slight time of possession advantage (30:15 to 29:45).
Grayson McCall was 17 of 24 for 209 yards passing and added 72 yards rushing on eight carries.
Reese White led CCU with 81 yards on nine carries. Shermari Jones added 60 yards on 10 carries with at touchdown.
Jaivon Heiligh caught five passes for 95 yards. CJ Marable caught three passes for 21 yards and the only other touchdown.
Defensively, Riley Cole led the South Alabama defense with 15 total tackles, nine of the were solo and had a fumble recovery.
The defense held the Chanticleers to a mere 3-of-11 on 3rd down. While the Chanticleers were held below their average of 40 points per game coming into this game, they were table to exceed their total yardage average with 445 total yards of offense.
“I thought the defense played extremely hard,” said head coach Steve Campbell after the game. “Offensively I thought we played hard. We just didn’t execute once we got down in the red zone. We have opportunities to score points.”
“You’re not going to beat a good teams kicking field goals and not scoring touchdowns, especially a team that’s averaging 40 points per game.
“After the first two [touchdown] drives, I think we settles down and were able to keep them out of the end zone,” Campbell said. “They’re a very explosive offense. Our defense was able to create some turnovers for us, but offensively we had too many turnovers of our own. We’ve got to do a better job of giving ourselves a chance to win.”
With this game behind them, the Jags can now look ahead to next week’s showdown in Lafayette, LA.
“I told the guys in the locker room that, of the five teams in our division, only one has one conference loss and we play them next week,” Campbell stated. “This next game is for the sole lead of our division. If we can go on the road and beat Louisiana, we’ll own the tiebreaker over them.”
“If we want to see Coastal or App State later in the season in the championship game, we need to take care of business,” he continued. “We still control our own destiny. We need to go on the road and pick up a big win against a very good Louisiana football team.”
The Jags and the Ragin’ Cajuns are set for a 1pm kickoff on Saturday, November 14 in Louisiana.