Paul Finebaum And Bleacher Report Both Pick South Alabama To Upset Mississippi State
Both Bleacher Report and Paul Finebaum think the Jaguars can upset the Bulldogs at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. What a time to be a Jaguar?!?
Wow. @finebaum just predicted a South Alabama Jaguar upset over Mississippi State! #jagnation #soldout pic.twitter.com/iSMj5AvNfz
— Joe Jones (@Whojoejones) September 10, 2014
No Deviations In Preparation For Mississippi State
How do you prepare for one of the most anticipated games of the season, if not for the history of the program up to this point? Keep doing what you normally do and keep treat it just like every other game.
That is exactly what head coach Joey Jones and his staff are doing. It can’t be easy with a fan base that is literally chomping at the bit for the Jaguars to take a bite out of Mississippi State. But according to Jones there hasn’t been a different atmosphere among the players this week.
Mississippi State has put up some big numbers this season. They average 48 points and 533 yards of total offense per game. But their defense is giving up big numbers too. At least through the air. The defense has only been allowing 92 yards per game rushing, the secondary gave up three touchdowns of over 75 yards against UAB last Saturday.
Meanwhile the Jaguars have only played one game this season and it wasn’t an impressive outing, but it was only their first outing of the season. Typically a team makes its largest improvement between their first and second games of the season, which sets up South Alabama well if the trend holds true. In the 23-13 win over Kent State, the Jags had trouble late in the first half until near the end of the game when a touchdown with a little over a minute to go sealed the win.
Coach Jones has the same goal as what he had last year when the Jags played Tennessee. They will keep fighting through the game into the fourth quarter and try to win the football game. If they can stay in the game late, they feel they have a chance to win, just like any other football game. Mississippi State has some big players so the worry is that the Jaguars could wear down by the third or fourth quarter against their SEC-sixed players.
UAB has several coaches that formerly coached at South Alabama who are now at UAB. Bill Clark was defensive coordinator at USA is head coach, Duwan Walker was secondary coach is now defensive coordinator, Bryant Vincent was quarterbacks coach is now offensive coordinator and Chuck Dunn continues coaching linebackers as he did at USA. But Jones said that what you see on video is the big thing. They have talked to different people with some ideas, but Jones said that they are good at what they do and they will just have to go out and execute.
With only one practice left on Thursday morning for the Jaguars, the gameplan is set and the rest is up to them to execute on gameday and for the fans to be the 12th man for the team.
Jaguar Soccer Sweep Weekly Conference Awards
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- Haywood earner her first SBC weekly honor as she was named the Offensive Player of the Week on September 9, 2014. She posted her first career hat-trick as the Jaguars won back-to-back shutouts over Southern Miss 6-0 and Southern University 7-0. Photo: usajaguars.com
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- Rabsatt-Smith, a junior, earner her first SBC weekly honor as she was named the Defensive Player of the Week on September 9, 2014. She helped the Jaguars to back-to-back shutouts over the previous weekend to defeat Southern Miss 6-0 and Southern University 7-0. Photo: usajaguars.com
After sweeping the weekend with a pair of shutouts, the South Alabama Jaguar soccer team also swept the weekly Sun Belt Conference awards as junior Nini Rabsatt-Smith and freshman Sophie Haywood were named SBC Players of the Week on Tuesday.
Rabsatt-Smith, originally from Montgomery, Alabama, earned the conference’s weekly defensive award. She scored her first goal of the season and added two assists in a four-point week. But she also played a key role in the two shutouts and the team’s fourth overall. She started the scoring against Southern Miss after intercepting a pass at midfield. She assisted on back-to-back goals against Southern as well.
Haywood, a native of Hull, England, earned the offensive award as she helped lead the Jags to back-to-back shutouts over the weekend. She posted her first career hat-trick and an assist against Southern Miss. Then, against Southern, she got the assist on the second goal of the match to tie her for second on the team with three assists this season.
In the two matches South Alabama only allowed seven shots total and have won four of their last five matches with all four wins coming via shutout.
This is the first time that Rabsatt-Smith or Haywood have earned Sun Belt honors. The last time the school swept the conference player of the week awards was on August 27, 2013.
The Jags travel to Mississippi State to face the Bulldogs on Friday, September 12 with the match getting underway at 7pm.
South Alabama To Host First-Ever Sell-Out Crowd
C.J. Bennett reads the defense while head coach Joey Jones looks on from the sidelines in Starkville Mississippi on September 22, 2012. The Bulldogs would win the game 30-10.
South Alabama has officially sold out their game against Mississippi State on Saturday. Let me repeat that once more for you.
South Alabama vs Mississippi State is SOLD OUT.
The South Alabama Athletic Ticket Office sold out the final 300 general admission tickets before lunch on Tuesday. This marks the first sell-out in the Jaguars five-plus seasons of football. The largest crowd the Jaguars had previously was their debut against Hargrave Military Academy on September 5, 2009 which was recorded as 26,783. With over 38,000 tickets sold, this is surely to eclipse that total.
This will also mark the first time a Southeaster Conference school has played at Ladd-Peebles Stadium since the fall of 1968.
South Alabama and Mississippi State will kick off at 3pm on Saturday. The game will be telecast on ESPNews and radio coverage will be on Lite Mix 99.9FM beginning at 2PM.
Fuel to the Mississippi State fire?
South Alabama hosts Mississippi State on Saturday and there has never been as much buzz about a home game since the very first game back in 2009.
But it’s different now, the Jags are not taking the field for the first time. Untested and facing unknown. This time the Jaguars are hosting a team from the Southeastern Conference for the first time, but the team is familiar to them. They played during the 2012 season, which seems like so long ago.
Jaguar fans, players and coaches would love for nothing more than to shock the nation with an upset win over the Bulldogs. They almost earned that signature win over Tennessee last season but it slipped away in the waning moments. And what better setup than to lure the Bulldogs away from the friendly confines of Davis Wade Stadium and the clattering of cowbells that ring sweet in their ears but is the bane of any visiting team.
Throw on top of that that Bleacher Report tried to guess where ESPN College Gameday was going on September 13th and picked Mobile. It charged the Jaguar faithful again only to be disappointed but further intent on showing the nation that South Alabama > North Dakota State, where they chose for their location this week.
But then ESPN goes and throws yet more fuel to the fire with a post on the ESPN’s SEC blog titled “What we learned in the SEC: Week 2”.
If there ever was a stage set for the perfect, monumental upset this would be it for the Jaguars. Let’s show them what Jaguar football is all about. Let’s be loud without having to use a cowbell. Let’s show them how nice we can be outside the stadium but once we step foot inside, it’s all business…. and business is GOOD!
Go Jags!
South Alabama vs Georgia Southern Kickoff Time Announced
The Sun Belt Conference office announced on Monday that South Alabama’s football game against Georgia Southern on Saturday, September 20 will kick off at 6:30pm.
The Jaguars will host the Eagles in the second game of a two game home stand. It will be the first Conference game for Georgia Southern who joined the Sun Belt over the summer. Additionally, it will be the first of eight consecutive conference games for the Jaguars this season.
The game between the Eagles and Jaguars broadcast can be seen on ESPN3 or Lite Mix 99.9FM and iHeartRadio.
Jaguar Soccer Win Both Weekend Matches By Shutout
Sophie Haywood, Freshman from Hull, England, earned her first hat-trick against Southern Miss on Friday night as the Jags defeated the Golden Eagles 6-0. Photo: usajaguars.com
The Jaguar soccer team won both of their matches over the weekend, both by shutout and by a combined score of 13-0.
They started off the weekend when they defeated Southern Miss 6-0 after the Golden Eagles picked up an early red card. Freshman Sophie Haywood earned a hat-trick in the match.
The Jaguars outshot USM 31-3 to get their second largest margin of victory against the Golden Eagles in the history of the series between the two schools.
Junior Nini Rabsatt-Smith and freshmen Tiina Trutsi and Rio Hardy all found the back of the net for the Jaguars.
Haywood got the scoring started at the 33:12 mark from the left byline after a corner kick. She then added her second seven minutes later with a stop from the top of the box. Her third and final goal would come in the waning minutes of the match on a low shot past the goalkeeper.
On Sunday the Jaguars traveled to Southern University and blanked them with a 7-0 win.
All of the goals were scored by Freshmen with the exception of one. Beginning with Charde Hannah in the 13th minute, followed by Danielle Henley in the 14th minute to give South Alabama an early 2-0 lead. Then Rio Hardy netted a goal, her first of two for the day, in the 23rd minute followed shortly by Chelsea Followwell, the first of her career, in the 26th minute for a 4-0 advantage.
Jordan Duncan, a junior, made it 5-0 in the 37th minute which would also be the score at halftime.
Then the freshmen were at it again with Rio Hardy netting her second goal of the day in the 56th minute and Meagan O’Loughlin closing out the scoring in the 89th minute.
Rio Hardy added a pair of assists for her first six-point performance of her short career as a Jaguar. Hannah and Followwell both had an assist to go along with their goals. Nini Rabsatt-Smith had two assists.
“It was a very team-oriented, professional performance,” USA head coach Graham Winkworth said after the match against Southern. “The first half, we started slowly; Southern sat back and we didn’t move the ball quickly enough. But once we started to move the ball around a little bit quicker, we started creating more chances.”
“That shows how good we are from a depth standpoint,” Winkworth explained. “We have a lot of quality; we’re not a one-player team. When an opposing side is trying to scout us, who do they want to mark? You’re going to have to mark everybody because we’ve got a pretty solid group, and that’s not necessarily the players starting either; we have some quality coming off the bench. We emphasized that again today with scoring two more goals off the bench.”
The Jaguars will travel to Mississippi State for a match on Friday against the Bulldogs starting at 7pm.
Jaguar Volleyball Take Two of Three At Cowgirl Classic
The South Alabama volleyball team took two out of three in the Cowgirl Classic over the weekend.
Friday the Jaguars split a pair of matches with the first a straight set loss to Wyoming where the Jags struggled on offense by hitting only .050 and committing 24 attack errors while the Cowgirls hit .320 in the match. Wyoming improved to 5-0 on the season.
Jessica Lewis led the match with 16 kills which tied a season high for the sophomore.
In the second of two matches on Friday, The Jags picked up its first win of the season by defeating Montana 3-2 (25-22, 24-26, 27-25, 25-22, 15-8).
The All-Conference duo of Mechell Daniel and Lewis led the way for USA. Daniel led all players with a match-best 24 kills and 11 digs for her second double-double of the season. He had a .352 hitting percentage. Lewis added 20 kills.
On Saturday, the trio of Daniel, Lewis and Mallory Moore helped lead the Jaguars past Ball State in a straight set victory (25-15, 25-18, 25-20). Lewis and Daniel led the Jags with 10 kills each with Moore adding nine and a .519 hitting percentage. Emily Hundt posted 32 assists against the Cardinals after a career-high 65 assists on Friday night.
Lewis and Daniel were selected to the All-Tournament team. The Jags (2-4) will travel to Starkville, MS for the Maroon Classic on September 11-13. The Jags will open against the Bulldogs on Thursday at 7pm.
South Alabama opens 2014 with 23-13 win over Kent State
South Alabama used an early lead and a late touchdown to hold off Kent State for a 23-13 win on Saturday.
After building a 16-0 advantage midway through the second quarter, the Jags offense went cold while the Kent State offense found a way to move the ball and put points on the board. But most of all, the Jags found a way to finish the game.
The scoring began when Kent State quarterback Colin Reardon was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone resulting in a safety. Then after a good return of the free kick, the Jaguar offense, aided with good field position on their own 46 yard line, got into gear and drove down to the KSU 4 yard line but would back up to the 9 on a penalty. Then Brandon Bridge’s pass would be deflected and seemingly intercepted by Nate Holley in the end zone, but pass interference would be called placing the ball at the 2 yard line with a fresh set of downs. Two plays later Bridge would connect with Shavarez Smith for a one-yard touchdown to take a 9-0 advantage.
Approaching midway through the second quarter, Bridge would hook up with Marvin Shinn for a 58-yard pass down the left sideline and called down at the 1 yard line. Jay Jones would punch it in on the next play to give the Jags a 16-0 lead.
Kent State would get on the board a minute-and-a-half before halftime on a 13 play, 69 yard drive capped off by an eight yard touchdown pass from Reardon to Nick Holley in the left flat. The two-point conversion would fail leaving the Golden Flashes trailing 16-6 at halftime.
The third quarter would be scoreless, but towards the end Kent State was starting to move the ball. Then on the first play of the fourth quarter, Reardon connects with Casey Pierce for a 44-yard catch and run for a touchdown to draw within three points, 16-13.
Midway through the final quarter, Kent State’s drive stalls at the Jaguar 15 so they set up for a game-tying field goal attempt from 32 yards out. Lining up on the left hash, Anthony Melchiori’s attempt would stay left giving the Jaguars defense a big sigh of relief and a resurgence of energy which helped them to stop the final two Kent State drives of the game.
After taking over from the missed field goal and aided by an unsportsmanlike conduct call after the try, the Jags started at their own 35 yard line with just over four minutes left in the game.
A steady dose of Jay Jones would help to bleed the clock with a pair of first downs. Then, facing third-and-six on the KSU 23 yard line, the senior would break a 23 yard touchdown run all but sealing the game.
On the ensuing possession, to take any chance of a comeback away, Montell Garner would pick off Reardon’s pass and allowing Bridge to simply kneel on the ball to run out the clock.
The Jaguar defense held Kent State to 277 yards on 68 plays. In the last four games dating back to the end of the 2013 season the Jaguar defense has not allowed an opponent to gain over 300 yards during that stretch.
Davin Hawkins, in his first start, led the defense with nine stops and two passes broken up. Roman Buchanan, Maleki Harris, Akeem Lewis and Theo Rich all had four stops each. Terrell Brigham had three passes broken up and a forced fumble. Jimmie Gipson III had two tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries.
Jay Jones rushed for over 100-yards for the third consecutive time dating back to the 2013 season. He led all rushers with 102 yards on 21 carries. Kendall Houston added 46 yards on 13 carries and Bridge added 41 as the Jags finished with 186 yards on the ground.
Bridge went 15-of-25 for 161 yards and a touchdown in his first start behind center. Jereme Jones, Shavarez Smith and Danny Woodson all caught three passes each to lead the receivers. Shinn led with the most yards with 58 on his one reception.
Brandon McKee got the start at punter with a school-record 10 punts in the game and a 42.9 yard average. He also had two kicks downed inside the 20-yard line.
“This is a big win for us on the road,” head coach Joey Jones stated. “We came up here last time and didn’t play well, but we came out and really played well early in the game. The thing I am most proud of is we finished the game. In our first game last year we let someone drive and score, and now look at the difference, just that mentality of we’re not going to get beat late in the game. I’m so proud of the defense for stopping them, and proud of the offense for driving down and scoring late in the game.”
“My hat’s off to our players who have really bought in to what we’re doing,” Jones continued. “We have some things we can work on, and that’s the thing about football, you always have things you can work on.”
The Jaguars will return to practice on Sunday as they prepare to host Mississippi State on Saturday for their home opener at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 3pm and will be televised on ESPNews nationally.
Know Your Stadiums: Dix Stadium – Kent, Ohio
Kent State’s Dix Stadium exterior with the Golden Flash logo on the sign. | Photo: tailgatershandbook.com
Dix Stadium is a 25,319 seat stadium primarily used for football on the campus of Kent State University. It is named in honor of Robert C. Dix, former publisher of the Record-Courier and member of Kent State’s Board of Trustees for more than three decades in 1973.
The Stadium is the centerpiece of what has become an athletic complex on the eastern end of the campus. It opened on September 13, 1969 with an initial capacity of 30,520. Dix Stadium was regarded as an “Expansion and relocation” of the old Memorial Stadium rather than a new stadium.
A new grandstand on the west side of the stadium, which had seating for over 12,000 people with locker room and press facilities, were constructed on the new (current) site just over a mile east of campus. Approximately 17,000 seats from the original Memorial Stadium were dismantled and moved to the new site and became the end zone seats in the new stadium while the auxiliary bleacher sections were used for the east stands.
The first game in Dix Stadium was on September 13, 1969 with a win over the Dayton Flyers in front of 8,172 spectators. Due to delays, the new west stands including the home and visitor locker rooms, press box, and most of the seating were not completed until after the 1969 football season which limited the capacity to 18.200. During that first season the teams dressed in locker rooms at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center and were then bused to the stadium. For halftime, the teams met in separate public restroom facilities.
In 1973 the stadium was renamed in honor of Robert C. Dix, its initial capacity was listed at 28,748 before later being revised to 30,520 which stood through the 2001 season.
In the early 1990s the first major changed to Dix Stadium were undertaken with the addition of an elevator to reach the press box and suites. In 1996 permanent lighting was installed after night games had been played since 1990 but with temporary lighting. In 1997 a new scoreboard and artificial turf were installed, which allowed the field hockey team to begin play at the stadium, which they also occupied through the 2004 season.
The east side bleachers were condemned and demolished in 2001 and the area remained open for the entire 2002 season. Prior to the 2003 season, a new section of bleacher seating was built as the student section which brought the seating capacity to 29,287.
Starting in 2007 a two-phase renovation of the stadium began. Phase one included the contruction of a large canopy over the press box, new entrance gates and a ticket office which were completed prior to the 2007 season opener. Phase two had the demolition of the south end zone seats and the former press box above the north end zone. It also included a new high definition scoreboard, concession area and a plaza in the south end zone area. The removal of about 5,000 seats in the south end zone reduced the stadium’s seating to 25,319.
The west side stands, referred to as the home stands, seat over 12,000 with both bleacher and chair back seating. The east stands, built to replace the original wooden bleachers, are the smallest section with bleacher seating for about 4.000 and are primarily the student section. The north end zone, which is the original grandstand of the old Memorial Stadium, is entirely bleacher seating. In the south end zone is a large plaza, concession area and the scoreboard.
Original plans were to have the old wooden stands removed by 1973 and replaced with permanent seating. It was to have 18 rows and eventually be expanded to duplicate the west stands, increasing capacity to 35,000. The final phase of the original plan was to add a second deck on both sides but none of this came to fruition for 31 years when the east side bleachers were condemned and demolished.
The first official game listed as a sell-out occurred on October 9, 2010 when 24,221 fans watched Kent State defeat arch-rival Akron 28-17 in the Battle for the Wagon Wheel. It ranks as the third largest crowd at Dix Stadium with the largest being their November 10, 1973 game against Miami with 27,363.
In 2013, the university began a $60 million “Building Champions” campaign to upgrade the facilities for all of Kent State’s athletic teams and also raise additional scholarship money.
The first project was an expansion of the Field House with new locker rooms for indoor track and field, women’s soccer, field hockey, and softball. The plans also include Dix Stadium with will expand the chair back seating in the west stands, upgrade suites, new building for coaches’ offices on the north side of the stadium, and improvements to the locker room and other player facilities including a new lounge. On the east side, two new covered seating areas for students will be built adjacent to the existing student seating.
South Alabama and Kent State will finish their 2-for-1 series on Saturday in Kent, Ohio as the series is tied 1-1. Kickoff scheduled for 1pm and the game can be seen on ESPN3.
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- Photo: csnbbs.com
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- Aerial view of Dix Stadium. | Photo: kent.sidearmsports.com