South Alabama Falters In Second Half, Falls 27-24 To Tulane In Hancock Whitney Stadium Opener
South Alabama came out strong, but faltered down the stretch for a 27-24 loss to Tulane in their first-even game at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
The Jags didn’t get the start that they wanted. Desmond Trotter fumbled at the one yard line on their second play from scrimmage after recovering a fumble from the Green Wave. Then followed that by turning the ball over on downs on their second possession before their first punt of the season on the third possession.
But on the fourth possession, and their first of the second quarter, they struck paydirt for the first-ever score in Hancock Whitney Stadium history. Chance Lovertich connected with Kawaan Baker for a 34 yard touchdown to put the Jags in the lead.
Tulane quickly answered four plays later when Cameron Carroll took it in from six yard out. However a missed PAT left the Jags with a 7-6 advantage.
Lovertich would throw the Jags down the field with a pair of completions to Jalen Tolbert for 15 and 41 yards then a 13 yard touchdown toss to Jalen Wayne capped it off for a 14-6 advantage.
South Alabama took the opening kickoff of the second half and scored on a 2-yard run by Carlos Davis to go up 21-6 with 12:15 left in the quarter.
Trotter made an appearance in the third quarter, but after a hard hit he took himself out while holding his right shoulder. This was the same shoulder injured in the Jags win over Southern Miss.
Tulane turned the ball over on downs when Tyjae Spears was stopped on 4th and 1. The Jags got down to the Green Wave 22 before going backwards. Lovertich ran for a loss of 3, had a pass dropped, then was sacked for a loss of 6 more yards. Diego Guajardo added a 49-yard field goal to stretch the lead out to 24-6.
Tulane answered back with a 6 play, 60 yard drive taking 2:31 off the clock. Pass completions of 21 and 16 yards started the drive, then Carroll ended it with a 12 yard touchdown run with 5:07 left in the 3rd quarter.
Tulane opened the 4th quarter with a touchdown to cut the Jaguar advantage to 24-19.
After that, the Jaguar just couldn’t do anything.
Tulane’s offensive line manhandled the Jaguar defensive front and the Tulane defensive front did the same with offensive line and put pressure on Lovertich the rest of the game.
Tulane took the lead with 3:18 left in the game on Amare Jones’ 16 yard touchdown run. On the first 2-point attempt, Keon Howard’s pass would go incomplete but AJ DeShazor would be flagged for roughing the passer. On the second attempt, Howard would connect with an wide open Tyrick James to take a 27-24 lead.
The Green Wave dialed up the pressure and Lovertich threw two incomplete passes sandwiching an 11 yard sack.
The Jags forced a punt with 1:38 left, but the Jags were flagged for a personal foul when a defender illegally “leaped” over the offensive line. With no time outs left, the Green Wave kneeled three times and secured the win.
The Jags just couldn’t get their running game going consistently. USA gained a total of 419 yards of total offense to Tulane’s 394. But the Jags could only rush for 83 yards to the Green Wave’s 203 yards on the ground. But the Jags threw for 336 yards to Tulane’s 227.
Carlos Davis led the Jags rushing attack wtih 82 yards on 16 attempts with a touchdown. Caullin Lacy added 36 on four carries and AJ Phillips ran once for 11 yards. However Lovertich lost 43 yards to hurt rushing numbers.
South Alabama’s third down efficiency was a flashback to the 2019 season They only converted 4 of 14 attempts. Tulane only converted 1 of 11 attempts though.
Lovertich was 18-of-27 for 262 yards and two touchdowns in relief of Trotter, who went 4-of-8 for 74 yards.
Baker led the receiving corps with 129 yards on seven receptions with a touchdown. Tolbert caught six passes for 114 yards, his third consecutive 100+ yard game dating back to 2019. Carlos Davis caught four for 46 yards and Jalen Wayne caught three for 33 and a touchdown.
Keon Howard was 14-of-30 for 191 yards in his debut for the Green Wave.
Jha’Quan Jackson was his leading receiver with three catches for 44 yards. Three other players caught two passes each and five others caught one pass each.
Spears led the way rushing with 105 yards on 11 carries. Howard added 31 yards on 8 carries with a touchdown. Jones had 29 yards on four carries and a touchdown. Carroll had two scored on 10 carries with 26 yards.
“It’s a very disappointing loss,” head coach Steve Campbell said. “I thought the guys played extremely hard, but disappointed that we weren’t able to come away with the win. We came out ready to play, but there were some things we didn’t handle well, and that’s coaching. We’ve got to do a better job of putting our guys in position to win a close game.”
“I didn’t see it [personal foul for jumping]…” Campbell said. “You can’t jump the shield. We’ve gone over that… We don’t need to do that. Again, that’s coaching.”
“They started doing a couple of stunts. They changed their defense a little bit,” Lovertich said. “They started playing us soft, so we couldn’t beat them deep.”
“We didn’t finish when we needed to,” Lovertich said.
“It’s a bad loss,” Kawaan Baker said. “We came in thinking we were going to win, but we didn’t finish like we were supposed to. We’ve got to learn from it and move on.”
Baker added, “We were hurting ourselves with the penalties and mistakes. That’s what we’ve got to correct.”
South Alabama has a bye weekend coming up before a Thursday night rematch against UAB on September 24th. ESPN will be airing the game that is set to kickoff at 6:30pm.
Andrew Zink and his now famous beard. 
The Jags waiting to take the field for the first time at Hancock Whitney Stadium. 
Desmond Trotter fumble on the first possession. 
Trotter waiting for the snap. 
Caullin Lacy 
Kawaan Baker waiting for a kickoff. 
Chance Lovertich leading the Jaguar offense deep in their own territory 
Riley Cole looking to the sideline. 
Jalen Tolbert with a catch. 
Maurice Strong walking to the locker room after the game. 
Final Score