South Alabama Clinched Bowl Eligibility With 28-0 Shutout Of Marshall
The South Alabama Jaguar football earns bowl-eligibility behind a shutout defensive effort against the Marshall Thundering Herd 28-0 on Senior Day at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
The Jags (6-5, 4-3 Sun Belt) forced turnover on both of Marshall’s (5-6, 2-5 SBC) first two possession and turned them into a pair of Diego Guajardo field goals. The Jaguar defense held the Thundering Herd to only 80 yards of total offense in the first half and 201 total yards for the entire game.
Senior La’Damian Webb powered his way to 117 yards with a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown and a two-point conversion. Caullin Lacy also powered his way 126 yards receiving.
Jalen Jordan picked off Cole Pennington on the third play of the game to set up Diego Guajardo for a season-long 43 yard field goal. On the next possession Jaden Voisin got his team-leading fourth interception of the season on the third play of the second possession. Again the Jaguar offense couldn’t sustain the drive and settled for a 37 yard field goal by Guajardo at the 8:38 mark of the first quarter.
After a three-and-out, Lacy gave the offense the ball with great field position after good punt return out to the Jaguar 49. It only took the Jaguars four plays to capitalize. Senior Carter Bradley connected with Jamaal Pritchett for a 25 yard touchdown. After a pass interference penalty on the first two-point try, Webb took a shovel pass from Bradley into the end zone for two-points to put the Jags up 14-0.
Lacy set up the offense at midfield after another good punt return. Braylon McReynolds ran for 35 yards to move the ball into the red zone, then a couple of plays later Bradley connected with Webb for an 8-yard touchdown for a 21-0 lead. Marquise Robinson got the third Jaguar interception of Pennington as time expired in the first half.
The Jags looked they were going to take the opening possession of the second half the length of the field to score. The 13 play drive featured 11 carries by Webb and ended when his dive from inside the 1 yard line was marked inches short of the end zone on 4th down.
The only second-half score came in the fourth quarter after Jamie Sheriff and Quentin Wilfawn forced Pennington into an incomplete pass on 4th & 7 at the Jaguar 46 yard line. Bradley connected with Lacy for 38 yards to the 6 yard line to set up Webb for a 6-yard touchdown run untouched for the final score of the game.
Team Stats
| Category | South Alabama | Marshall |
| Total Yards: | 393 | 201 |
| Passing Yards: | 196 | 159 |
| Rushing Yards: | 197 | 42 |
| 3rd Downs: | 7-of-17 | 3-of-14 |
| 4th Downs: | 0-for-2 | 3-for-4 |
| Turnovers (Defensive pts off) | 3 (6) | 1 (0) |
| Time of Possession | 36:27 | 23:33 |
Individual Stats
Carter Bradley finished the game 17-of-23 for 176 yards and two touchdowns. Desmond Trotter went 2-of-3 for 20 yards in mop-up duty.
Caullin Lacy had nine catches for 126 yards. Braylon McReynolds had five catches for 21 yards. Webb had two catches for 4 yards and a touchdown. Pritchett only had one catch for 25 yards for his touchdown.
La’Damian Webb had 117 yards on 24 carries with a touchdown. McReynolds had 53 yards on eight carries. Marco Lee Jr also had eight carries for 30 yards. Trotter gained 13 yards on two carries.
Khalil Jacobs led the team with five total stops, one solo, with a tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry. Jalen Jordan finished with four stops, two solo, with an interception. Jaden Voisin also had four total stops, three solo, with an interception and a pass breakup. Marquise Robinson also had an interception.
The Jaguar defense held Cole Pennington to 22-of-36 for 159 yards and three interceptions while Rasheen Ali only managed 55 yards rushing on 16 carries.
Caleb Coombs had 6 catches for 23 yards and Ali had four catches for 41 yards.
“Proud of the fight of our football team,” said head coach Kane Wommack after the game. “We talk about adversity and working through adversity. Certainly, we’ve created adversity for ourselves this season and we’ve had to work through those things. I’m very proud of the last two weeks of our team doing hard things in hard times.”
“I’m very proud of our defense,” Wommack continued. “They’re playing at a really high level right now. They’re playing fast, playing aggressive, we’re attacking the ball, we’re attacking the quarterback, and we were situationally dominant tonight on third and fourth down. They never got into the red zone.”
The shutout was the first for South Alabama since 2017 versus Alabama A&M and the first shutout against an FBS opponent in program history. Also the Jags will go to a bowl game in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.
“Shutouts are really, really hard,” Wommack said. “They’re really, really hard especially when you start to have a big lead. Because typically you’re going to take out a few [starters] in that situation and [the opponent] is going to be more aggressive. They’re going to go for it on fourth down; they’re going to throw the ball down the field. And really, the whole fourth quarter, [Marshall] was doing those things. I’ve seen a lot of 7-point finishes, because you end up giving up something in the end… So it’s really, really hard to do that, and it was pretty impressive to be able to do that tonight. As a defensive guy, shutouts are just fun.”
In addition to the seniors that were honored before the game, Yam Banks was a surprise addition to the list. Banks, a redshirt junior, indicated that he is undecided as to whether or not he will return for a fifth season or if he may turn pro.
“I’m thinking about declaring [for the NFL draft], leaning towards it,” Banks said. “But it could be a possibility that I play a fifth year and stay.”
Next
South Alabama will travel to San Marcos, Texas to take on Texas State. The game was picked up by the NFL Network so the kickoff time has shifted to 6pm on Saturday at Bobcat Stadium.
