South Alabama Hosts Ragin’ Cajuns In SBC West Showdown
Kickoff: Saturday, October 28, 4pm
Venue: Hancock Whitney Stadium, Mobile, AL
TV/Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: 96.1 fm The Rocket, Sports Talk 99.5 fm, iHeartRadio App
Thunderjags on X (formerly known as Twitter): @USAThunderjags
#5 Jersey: Reggie Smith (he will be wearing #50 due to jersey numbering restrictions for offensive linemen)
South Alabama returns to the field after having 11 days off and only it’s second game in 21 days in a pivotal Sun Belt Conference Western Division showdown against Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.
Over the last two games the Jags have been on a tear. They have won them by a combined scored of 110-10. They won their first game in Monroe, LA 55-7 and then continued their unbeaten streak against Southern Miss 55-3 on a nationally televised Tuesday night game.
The Ragin’ Cajuns start a two-game stretch for the Jags in determining if they have what it takes to contend for the SBC West title.
Currently the Jags are tied with Texas State and Troy on top of the Western division standings at 2-1 in conference play with the Cajuns and Arkansas State right behind them at 1-2. The Jags have games remaining against all the teams mentioned down the stretch. But the immediate two are the Cajuns then a short turnaround to play Troy on Thursday night on the road in the Battle for the Belt.
But they can’t look ahead, the Jags are 0-0 this week and need a win.
Hall of Fame
But before the game, as part of the Hall of Fame weekend, South Alabama’s first head coach Joey Jones will be inducted into the University of South Alabama Hall of Fame. Jones along with Charde Hannah (women’s soccer), Kevin Hill (baseball) and Daniel Leitner (men’s tennis) will all be inducted at 10am at the Moulton Bell Tower and Alumni Plaza then they will also be honored at halftime of the game.
Jones was the architect of the football program starting in 2008 and fielded the first team in 2009. They began the program with 19-consecutive wins, joined the Sun Belt conference in 2012 and reached their first bowl game in 2014. Jones was selected as the SBC Coach of the Year in 2013. His career record at USA was 52-50 with two bowl berths. He is currently the director of player personnel at Mississippi State University.
Hannah was a two-time All-SBC and was named MVP of the 2014 and 2015 SBC tournament championships. The Jags won the championship all four seasons she was with USA.
Hill was a first-team All-American in 2016 and was named SBC Pitcher of the Years twice. He won the SBC pitching Triple Crown as a junior with a 10-0 record, 1.73 ERA, and 107 strikeouts. Only playing for USA for three seasons after transferring from junior college, Hill’s 326 strikeouts and 298.2 innings pitched are 6th in program history. His 22 wins are 9th in program history.
Leitner was SBC Player of the Year in 2014 and 2015. He was named to the All-Conference team three consecutive years and was Sun Belt Player of the Week eight times, five of them in his senior season.
South Alabama (4-3, 2-1 SBC)
The Jags have a turnover margin of +3 so far this season. They have given the ball away nine times on the season so far, six by interception and three by fumble. So far, the Jags have only fumbled the ball five times on the season in total, only losing three of them to their opponent. The defense has taken the ball away 12 times through seven games. They’ve forced nine fumbles, recovering six of them and also intercepting six passes.
The Jags have also played fairly clean football over the last two weeks. On the season they have been flagged 49 times for 430 yards, which is an average of 61.43 penalty yards per game.
Offense
After outscoring the opponents the last two weeks by a combined score of 110-10, the Jags have really bolstered their point differential on the season. On average the Jags are racking up 35.4 points, 448 total offensive yards, 271.86 passing yards, 176.1 rushing yards per game with an average time of possession of 30:42.
They are converting 46-of-94 (48.9%) on 3rd down and 7-of-12 (58.3%) on 4th down situations. They continue to be perfect in the red zone for the season by scoring on all 27 trips, with only five of them being field goals.
Carter Bradley is 138-of-205 passing for 1,775 yards, 11 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Gio Lopez got in some extra work against Southern Miss and is 10-of-15 for 128 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown with only one interception.
Caullin Lacy continues to distance himself from the field with 48 catches for 826 yards and six touchdowns on the season. Lacy now ranks 3rd in the nation in receiving yards and tied for 17th in receiving touchdowns. His average of 118 yards receiving per game ranks him 2nd behind Malik Nabers of LSU (122.6).
Jamaal Pritchett, who had a standout performance against Southern Miss, now has 24 catches for 373 yards and a touchdown. Lincoln Sefcik has 16 catches for 152 yards and a touchdown. DJ Thomas-Jones has 11 catches for 136 yards.
La’Damian Webb seems to be back in full form after a 20-carry performance against the Golden Eagles. He now has 578 yards on 103 carries with 12 touchdowns on the season. Webb ranks 2nd in the nation in rushing touchdowns only trailing Blake Corum of Michigan by one touchdown. His rushing yards places him in the top 50 in the nation.
Kentrel Bullock has 343 yards on 68 carries with three touchdowns. Marco Lee Jr adds 186 yards on 39 carries and two touchdowns.
Defense
After the dominant performances the last two weeks the defensive stats are really looking impressive.
On average the defense is allowing 19.4 points, 312.4 total yards, 198.14 passing yards, and 114.3 rushing yards per game. Opposing teams have an average time of possession of 29:17 per game.
Opponents are converting 32-of-92 (34.78%) of their 3rd down attempts and 3-of-8 (37.5%) of their 4th down attempts on the season.
Trey Kiser leads the defense with 44 total stops, 19 solo, with two pass breakups and a quarterback hurry. James Miller is right behind him with 43 total stops, 14 solo, with a quarterback hurry and a forced fumble.
Kiser also leads the team with 6 tackles for loss. Khalil Jacobs has 5 TFLs. Quentin Wilfawn has 4.5 TFLs.
Brock Higdon leads the team with 3 sacks. Jamie Sheriff and Maurice Strong Jr both have two sacks each.
Jaden Voisin leads the team with two interceptions. Strong Jr, Yam Banks, Wesley Miller and Marquise Robinson each have an interception. Sheriff leads the team with 5 quarterback hurries and Higdon is behind him with three.
Special Teams
Diego Guajardo is now 9-of-12 on the season on field goal attempts. He missed a 52 yard attempt to start the season and his other two misses have been from 40+ yards. He has a long of 46-yards this season.
Jack Martin’s best friend has been the kicking net on the sidelines over the last two games. He has not seen the field for a punt since the September 30th game against James Madison. He is still averaging 40.68 yards per kick on 19 attempts with 10 fair catches, 7 downed inside the 20 and two kicks of 50+ yards.
ULL (4-3, 1-2 SBC)
The Cajuns are a -5 turnover margin on the season. they have turned the ball over 15 times, seven by interception and eight by fumble. They’ve actually fumbled 17 times on the season and lost 8 of them. Their defense has taken the ball away 10 times, recovering four of their opponents 7 fumbles and six interceptions.
The Cajuns have been flagged 41 times for 345 yards on the season. They are averaging 49.3 penalty yards per game.
Offense
The Cajun offense is averaging 32.9 points, 425 total yards, 209.4 passing yards, and 215.6 rushing yards per game with an average time of possession of 29:04.
They are converting 39-of-90 (43%) of their 3rd down attempts and 7-of-12 (58%) of their 4th down attempts on the season.
They have been in their opponents red zone 31 times on the season and have scored on 23 (74%) of those trips with 17 of them (55%) being touchdowns.
Zeon Chriss is 77-of-119 (64.7%) passing for 906 yards, eight touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. Ben Wooldridge, who’s only appeared in three games, is 39-of-69 (56.5%) for 508 yards, five touchdowns and only one interception.
Robert Williams leads the Cajuns receiving corps with 289 yards on 22 catches with three touchdowns. Jacob Bernard has 241 yards on 19 catches. Neal Johnson has 163 yards on 15 catches. Peter LeBlanc also has 15 catches for 209 yards with three touchdowns.
Jacob Kibodi leads the Cajun rushing attack with 466 yards on 64 attempts with five touchdowns. Zeon Chriss is right with him with 446 yards on 57 carries with 5 touchdowns as well. Dre’lyn Washington has 272 yards on 41 carries with a touchdown. Zylan Perry has 113 yards on 34 carries and a touchdown.
Their rushing attack ranks eighth in the nation with Zeon Chriss as their #2 rusher on the team.
Defense
K.C. Ossai leads the Cajun defense with 49 total stops, 25 solo, with two tackles for loss, a sack, two quarterback hurries, two forced fumbles and a blocked kick. Jasper Williams is next in line with 44 total stops, 23 solo, with two sacks, and 3.5 TFLs. Tyrone Lewish has 41 total stops, 17 solo, with ½ sack, an interception and two pass breakups.
Kendre’ Grant leads the defense with five sacks, a pass breakup, a quarterback hurry, two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles. Jordan Lawson has 4 sacks, 4.5 TFL’s, and three quarterback hurries. Tyler Guidry has 3 sacks, 5.5 TFLs, an interception, a pass breakup and a forced fumble.
Tyree Skipper leads the Cajuns with two interceptions with four other players tied for 2nd with one interception each.
Special Teams
Kenneth Almendares is 7-of-8 of his field goal attempts this season, his long is from 46-yards. His only miss is from 40+ yards.
Leo Thomas is averaging 42.4 yards per punt across his 25 attempts. He long for the season is 52 yards with 12 fair catches, 8 downed inside the 20, 3 kicks of 50+ yards and two touchbacks.
Injuries
No key injuries to note. Josh McCulloch is currently listed as the starter on the two-deep roster for the game. Maybe this is the week he finally returns from the knee injury that’s been hampering him since mid-September leading up to the Oklahoma State game. However, we won’t know for sure if McCulloch is a go until game time.
Keys to the Game
Quarterback Containment
Zeon Chriss rushed for a game high 119 yards in the Cajuns homecoming loss last week to Georgia State. Including a 34 yard run on 3rd and 6 on their final drive in their attempt to win the game.
The Jags defense has struggled defending against a dual-threat quarterback. The losses to Central Michigan and James Madison were both to teams with quarterback with dual-threat capabilities.
Against Central Michigan, the Jags were up 14-0 before Jase Bauer came in and led the Chippewas come-from-behind win.
If South Alabama wants to continue to their winning streak and remain at bunched at the top of the Sun Belt Conference Western Division, they will have to keep Chriss in check.
Continued Consistency
The Jags have been executing at a very high level over the last two games. The only thing you can knock on their play over the last two games were late in the first half against Southern Miss. The Jags had a couple of opportunities for touchdowns that were squandered. They had a few attempts to punch the ball into the end zone from at or inside the one-yard line and couldn’t convert. Then a costly false start when they were lining with the offense on fourth down, led them to a field goal.
They had another drive stall the field goal attempt by the usually reliable Diego Guajardo missed wide right leaving points on the field.
But outside of those and a couple other instances in the last two games, the Jags have almost been the embodiment of consistency over the last two games.
They need to keep striving to hit that mark this week (and the rest of the season).
Continue To Involve Other Receivers
Caullin Lacy was slotted in at the clear #2 receiver with Devin Voisin expected to be the #1. But when Devin went down with a season-ending injury, Lacy has stepped into the #1 position and has excelled.
Lacy has gone over 100-yards receiving in all but one game this season. He only managed 60 yards in the season opener at Tulane.
Jamaal Pritchett broke out in the Jags game vs Southern Miss last time out. He showed his speed and ability to avoid defenders.
Pritchett and other pass catchers will need to play big roles down the stretch this season with the meat of the SBC West coming up over the last few games.
Prediction
South Alabama is a 10.5-point favorite against the Cajuns. After the last two weeks, it’s hard for Jag fans to not nod their head in agreement with that.
Last time I was nervous about the Southern Miss game and that was a big whiff.
Call me what you want, but I’m nervous about this game too. Dual-threat quarterbacks have been kryptonite against the Jags defense historically (and this season). Head coach Kane Wommack, defensive coordinator Corey Batoon, and secondaries coach Jay Hopson have all done a great job correcting issues in the back side of the defense. Ricky Fletcher has stepped up his game noticeably. Jaden Voisin continues to play like the leader of the unit he is.
Lafayette seems to have improved in the second season under head coach Michael Desormeaux. Though they currently sit at 4-3 overall, they played Minnesota close and were one play away from potentially upsetting Georgia State, however an interception in the end zone with 30 seconds left derailed that comeback.
I feel that the Jags win I don’t think they cover the spread.
Go Jags!