South Alabama’s Season Ends With 27-21 Overtime Loss To Coastal Carolina
Despite big plays by Jalen Tolbert, Jalen Wayne and a gutsy return by Jake Bentley, the final story of the 2021 South Alabama Jaguar football team will be nineteen yards.
Nineteen yards.
Starting overtime tied at 21 points each, Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall kept the ball and ran 25 yards for a touchdown in the first possession of the period. However Massimo Biscardi extra point attempt hit off the left upright leaving the door open for the Jags.
On first down quarterback Jake Bentley found Wayne open for a six yard gain to the 19 yard line. Both the 2nd and 3rd down passes were tipped leaving the Jags a 4th and 4 to go.
Bentley was hurried and ran to his left trying to buy some time but the Chanticleer defense caught up to him and as he was going down he tried to fling the ball to someone, anyone. But there weren’t any Jaguars in the vicinity.
As the ball came to rest the Chanticleer sideline rushed on the field as Bentley and other Jaguars hung their head as the final score stood 27-21.
“We had our opportunities, ton of opportunities,” head coach Kane Wommack said. “We had opportunities in the red zone to score touchdowns instead of field goals, and our defense had opportunities to get off the field, get stops in the red zone.”
“We’ve got to develop some of these guys on our roster and we’ve got to bring more guys into our program that expect to be the guy to make a play to win the game at the end.
“But we’ll get there,” Wommack concluded.
Coastal Carolina got the ball to start the game and the Jags defense allowed one first down before forcing a punt.
The Jaguar offense, led by Bentley for the first time since the Troy game, immediately went to work. He connected with Tolbert for 16 yards and Wayne for 19 yards on his first two attempts. He capped off the 12 play, 88 yard drive with an 8 yard touchdown pass to Lincoln Sefcik on 4th and 5. That was the second 4th down attempt the Jags converted on the drive.
Coastal Carolina attempted to convert a 4th and 1 at the Jags 29 yard line howver Gi’Narous Johnson and Jamal Brooks were having none of it.
On the ensuing possession, the Jags drove down to the Chanticleer 11 yard line but settled for a 30 yard field goal by Diego Guajardo to go up 10-0 early in the second quarter.
Most of the third quarter was the two teams trading punts. Jack Brooks boomed two for 60 and 66 yards respectively. But both went into the end zone for touchbacks.
South Alabama opened the second half with the ball and quickly moved from the 25 to the 42. However a deep pass intended for Tolbert was intercepted by the Chanticleers at the Coastal Carolina 5 yard line.
The Chanticleers proceeded to march down the field on a 19 play, 95 yard touchdown drive burning 9:27 off the clock to cut the Jaguar lead to 10-7.
Bentley opened the next possession at the 35 after, Biscardi’s kickoff went out of bounds, with a 17 yard completion to Tolbert. But on the next play Bentley was picked off for the second time in the game at the Chanticleer 17 yard line.
The Jags managed to get the ball right back when the handoff from McCall to Braydon Bennett was fumbled and recovered by Wy’Kevious “Bubba” Thomas at the Coastal Carolina 19 yard line.
Bentley completed passes of 2 yards and 7 yards to start the possession. Kareem Walker was dropped for no gain then the 4th down pass was intercepted at the 3 yard line. A personal foul on the Jags aided the Chanticleers field position by moving the ball from the 3 to the 18.
The first play of the fourth quarter, and the second play of the drive, went 75 yards for a touchdown when Shermari Jones found running room at the Jaguar secondary couldn’t run him down, giving Coastal Carolina a 14-10 lead with 14:49 left in the game.
A 31 yard pass from Bentley to Tolbert moved the Jags into the red zone on the ensuing possession, but again the Jags offense sputtered. On 3rd and 5 Coastal Carolina blitzed and sacked Bentley for a nine yard loss. Guajardo banged through a 33 yard attempt to get the Jags within one point, 14-13 with 11:14 left.
Isaiah Likely fumlbed on the first play of the Coastal Carolina drive but the Jags were unable to recover it. However a few plays later Devyn Flenord would pick off McCall’s pass at the Jaguar 23.
Facing 3rd and 1 Kareem Walker was dropped for a two yard loss then Bentley was sacked for a 7 yard loss back to the Jaguar 39 on 4th and 3 with 6:20 left in the game.
On the third offensive play for the Chanticleers, “super” senior Chris Henderson forced a fumble which Yam Banks covered to give the Jags another chance. Bentley opened the possession with an 18 yard pass to Wayne. Then he connected with Tolbert streaking behind the defense for a 57 yard touchdown to retake the lead.
Head coach Kane Wommack went for the two-point conversion to go up by seven points. Bentley was hurried and his pass was slightly tipped but Caullin Lacy kept his concentration and came down with the catch to put the Jags up 21-14 with 4:24 left in the game.
The Chanticleer’s, aided by some penalties on the drive, were able to tie the game to send it to overtime on a 10 play, 82 yard drive.
They gloved us up pretty good,” Bentley said. “We had a little choice route working and they kind of had the perfect call on defense for it. But we had first, second, and third down to execute it better. And the whol game for that matter. There were plays we could have executed better and wouldn’t have been in that position. That’s just the way the chips fell. We’ve got to be better in that position.”
“Definitely not the best feeling in the world right now,” Chris Henderson said. But one thing I am proud of is our guys fought to the end. We didn’t gvie up, we didn’t blink.”
They did what 9-2 teams do, they adjusted at the half,” linebacker Jamal Brooks said. “They made one more play than we did. We knocked the run game out in the second half, but they made adjustments in the second half… They just made one more play than us tonight.”
Stats
The Jags put up 349 yards of total offense, 354 yards passing and -5 yards rushing for the game.
USA converted 3-of-12 (25%) on 3rd down and 2-of-5 (40%) on 4th down. They scored on 4 of their 5 red zone trips with two of them being touchdowns.
Bentley finished his career by going 28-of-41 for 354 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Jalen Tolbert, as was customary in season finale games, led the way with 10 catches for 191 yards and a touchdown. Jalen Wayne finished with 9 catches for 111 yards.
Terrion Avery finished the game with 11 yards on 11 carries. Walker finished with 9 yards on 16 carries. Bryan Hill carried the ball three times for -3 yards. Bentley was credited with 5 carries for -22 yards.
The Chanticleers finished with 491 yards of total offense, 315 rushing yards and 176 passing. They were 2-of-9 (22%) on 3rd down conversions and converted 2-of-3 (67%) on 4th down. They were a perfect 2-of-2 in red zone scoring with both being touchdowns.
Keith Gallmon and Jamal Brooks led the defense with eight stops each. Gallmon had four solo whiel Brooks had two solo with 1/2 tackle for loss.
Charles Coleman finished with seven total stops, three solo, with 1.5 sacks. Henderson finsihed with 5 stops, three solo, a sack and a forced fumble.
Yam Banks, AJ DeShazor, Jamall Hickbottom, Christian Bell, and CJ Rias all finished with 1/2 sack each. Banks and Bell both had fumble recoveries.
Reflection
That was the final game for this list of seniors: Tre Young, Devin Rockette, “Super” senior Chris Henderson, Jake Bentley, Kareem Walker, Shawn Jennings, Jamal Brooks, Kwameh Lewis, Christian Bell, and Ja’Chai Baker.
South Alabama finishes the season with a record of 5-7, 2-6 in conference play. They’ll miss out on a potential bowl berth by 19 yards unfortunately.
The season may have ended on a bad note with four consecutive losses, there’s a lot of positives to take away from the season.
The 5 wins was the most since the 2016 season, when the Jags finished 6-7 after a loss in the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl to Air Force.
Those 5 wins were well above the average of 3.25 wins per season that the program averaged from 2017-2020.
Tolbert finished the season with 82 receptions for 1,474 yards and eight touchdowns. His yardage total is second in Sun Belt history for a single season. Trailing only Omar Beyless who posted 1,653 yards in 2019 for Arkansas State.
His career total of 178 catches, 3,140 yards and 22 touchdowns are all career records for South Alabama. His career yardage record ranks 3rd in Sun Belt history behind FIU’s T.Y. Hilton who had 3,531 yards from 2008-2011 and Georgia State’s Robert Davis who had 3,391 yards from 2013-2016.
Bentley concluded his one and only season as a Jaguar wtih 2,476 yards and 17 touchdowns in only nine games and one drive. His touchdown total is a school record and he was on pace to also break the record for passing yards in a season before his injury sidelined him.
Bentley went down with a partial MCL tear and damage to his ACL when he was hit low on the Jags first drive against Troy.
“I’ve got pretty substantial damange up in the knee,” he said. “But I just knew, with this team and the frieds that I’ve made this year, I wanted to go out with them one more time. They’ve made this year so incredible for me, and I won’t ever forget it.”
South Alabama fans were hoping for an opportunity for Jalen Tolbert to get to a bowl game for the Jags. But the only bowl game he will get will be on the same field but in the Reese’s Senior Bowl.
“There were losses we took that could have come out with a different ending,” Tolbert stated. “I’m excited fro the program’s future. Like coach Wommack always says ‘our best days are ahead.’ I’m excited to see how things go next year.”
Looking back the Jags had great opportunities against Louisiana-Lafayette, Texas State and even Louisiana-Monroe where with a few different bounces of the ball, a few different plays, or a few different adjustment and the Jags could have won.
A missed field goal against the Ragin’ Cajuns.
A late rally by the Bobcats leads to an overtime loss.
17 unanswered points by the Warhawks to rally past the Jags.
A rally by the Jags falls short against Troy.
The staff now turns their full attention to recruiting. They have some big shoes to fill with players like Tolbert and Jamal Brooks. They also have some positions to shore up. The offensive line suffered a number of injuries this season and it really showed at times coming down the stretch.
The linebackers and secondary had their share of injuries too. Despite those injuries, the defense played quite well during a very difficult four game stretch that closed out the season.
All in all as coach Wommack has said numerous times ‘our best days are ahead of us’ and I couldn’t think of a better coach to be leading us there that Coach Wommack.
Offensive coordinator Major Applewhite talks with Jake Bentley in pregame warmups. 
Jalen Tolbert pregame warmup. 
Devin Rockette 
Kwameh Lewis 
Cade Sutherland 
Tre Young 
Shawn Jennings 
Chris Henderson 
Destin Myers 
Jamal Brooks 
Kareem Walker 
Frankie Onate 
Christian Bell 
Ja’Chai Baker 
Jake Bentley 
Jalen Tolbert 
Aleem Sunanon 
