South Alabama Falls To Texas State 45-38 In Regular Season Finale
South Alabama couldn’t overcome their three turnovers and eight penalties as they fall at home to Texas State 45-38 at Hancock Whitney Stadium in front of a sparse crowd. The loss ended the Jags hopes at a Sun Belt Conference West Division title and clinched it for Louisiana-Lafayette.
The Bobcats (7-5, 5-3 Sun Belt Conference) outscored the Jags (6-6, 5-3 SBC) 14-3 in the fourth quarter. Gio Lopez threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, the last turnover was a pick-six that sealed the game for the Bobcats. It also knocked Lopez out of the rest of the game with an apparent injury.
After Gio got up holding his throwing arm and limping, the training staff quickly attended to him on the sideline as head coach Major Applewhite and offensive coordinator Rob Ezell had to decide if he was able to continue. The decision didn’t take long and Bishop Davenport came in from the bench.
Davenport drove the Jags down for a field goal on some key runs and sharp passes. He converted a 4th and 9 with a pass that Jamaal Pritchett was able to catch with fully extended arms. However, the offense wouldn’t be able to punch it in the endzone and coach Applewhite opted to take the field goal and try for an onside kick. The onside kick failed and allowed the Bobcats to run out the clock.
The Jags took a 28-21 lead into halftime after an opening half with several big plays.
Texas State won the coin toss and opted to receive the ball. They drove down the field and scored on an 9-yard touchdown run by Jordan McCloud. It only took South Alabama five plays to answer and it was Fluff Bothwell who did when he broke a 51-yard touchdown where he broke several tackles en route.
South Alabama would take the lead when Jordan McCloud’s pass was intercepted by Blayne Myrick and returned 33 yards for a touchdown.
The Bobcats tied it up on an 8-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 9-yard touchdown run by Brad Jackson. Then they took the lead in the second quarter on another 8-play, 60-yard drive with the final 33-yards covered by Ismail Mahdi for the touchdown.
The Jags tied it up again on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Lopez to Jamaal Pritchett with just under four minutes left in the half. After forcing a three-and-out and a very short punt, the Jags were set up for a go-head score at the Texas State 25. It only took two plays and Gio ran to the left corner to take a 28-21 lead.
After a stop by both teams, Texas State had the ball with 45-seconds left in the half. They got to the Jags 14 with 12-seconds left when McCloud completed a pass over the middle for 4-yards, but the play took too long and they couldn’t line up quickly enough to even try to run another play since he couldn’t spike the ball.
After forcing a three-and-out on the Bobcats first possession of the second half and a shanked punt, the Jags took over at the 50-yard line looking to pad their lead with another score. However, Lopez was rolling out to his left and tried to force a ball downfield and overthrew his receiver and was intercepted. That led to a 65-yard drive by the Bobcats to tie up the game at 28-all.
The next Jaguar possession ended with a fumble when Lopez was spun around while being sacked and he tried to get the ball out but lost control of it instead.
Texas State capitalized on the turnover with a 32-yard field goal. The Jags defense was able to keep them out of the endzone with the help of a personal foul when Jaden Williams threw a punch at Lardarius Webb (but wasn’t ejected from the game).
South Alabama only needed three plays to answer. Two pass completions set up Fluff Bothwell to take it the final 29-yards for a 35-31 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Bobcats responded with a 12-play, 90-yard drive capped off by an 18-yard touchdown pass to Joey Hobert to go up 38-35 with 11:39 left in the game.
On the ensuing possession the Jags were driving when Lopez was hit while he was throwing the ball, the ball was tipped up, intercepted, and ran back 60-yards for their final touchdown.
“It’s just disappointing,” South Alabama coach Major Applewhite said. “There were some spots in the game where I thought we played really well situationally on defense, some third downs, some red-area opportunities. But by and large, just too many explosive plays, too much time of possession.”
“Offensively, same thing.” Applewhite said. “I thought we played well at times, but you can’t win many games with (three) turnovers. I mean, those are obvious statements, obvious reasons for the loss. But proud of the way our guys continued to play.”
Stats
Gio Lopez finished 16-of-23 for 190 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He also ran for 29-yards on 7 attempts. Bishop Davenport went 5-of-7 for 40 yards off the bench while running for 19 yards on four carries.
Jamaal Pritchett had 10 catches for 85 yards and a touchdown. DJ Thomas-Jones had 5 catches for 59 yards. Jeremiah Webb had 3 catches for 53 yards.
Fluff Bothwell finished with 81 yards on just 6 carries with two touchdowns. Bullock added 18 yards on 10 carries.
Jaden Voisin paced the team with 14 total stops, 2 solo with an interception. Courtney McBride Jr was the only Jag to record a sack.
| South Alabama | Texas State | |
| Total Yards | 377 | 530 |
| Passing Yards | 230 | 248 |
| Rushing Yards | 147 | 282 |
| 3rd Downs | 3 of 11 | 10 of 17 |
| 4th Downs | 3 of 3 | 1 of 1 |
| Turnovers | 3 | 2 |
| Penalties | 8 – 59 | 8 – 85 |
| Time of Possession | 24:35 | 35:25 |
Next
The Jags will know on December 8th, if not a little sooner, which bowl game will select them and who they will be facing.
“I’m proud of our team, proud of the way we’re fighting,” Applewhite said. “But there’s obviously plenty of stuff for us to go back and focus on through bowl practice to get prepared.”
Until we know when and where we’re playing, Go Jags!
Preview: South Alabama vs Georgia Southern
Kickoff: Saturday, November 2, 6:30pm
Venue: Hancock Whitney Stadium, Mobile, AL
TV/Streaming: ESPNU
Radio: 96.1 fm The Rocket, Sports Talk 99.5 fm, iHeartRadio App
Thunderjags on X (formerly known as Twitter): @USAThunderjags
#5 Jersey: TBA
South Alabama enters this week’s game with an even record overall and looks to both break some bad patterns and continue some good patterns when they host Georgia Southern on Saturday night at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
The Jags (4-4, 3-1 Sun Belt) comes in after winning their last two match-ups on the season, both at home. This will be the third and final game of a three-game home stand by the Jags. They also have a two-game streak going against Georgia Southern (5-3, 3-1 SBC).
They are also the only two wins the Jags have had in nine meetings between the two programs.
We also alluded to breaking a streak. Dating back to the 2023 season the Jags have had a curious pattern going. They tend to win and lose in pairs. It’s not a perfect pattern, it was technically broken by the win in the 68 Ventures Bowl.
Or was it just interrupted?
Head Coach Major Applewhite can have a testy side to him. Last week when a reporter brought up that his team was 3-0 in weeknight games but 0-4 in Saturday games, he didn’t seem very…entertaining of that question. This week the same reporter asked about “the pattern” as I have referred to it.
“This is about as much prosperity as we can handle,” Applewhite joked. “So, everybody brace themselves it’s time to go win three in a row.”
It’s good to see both sides of coach Applewhite, throwing some shade and also tossing out a laugh.
The Eagles come to Mobile tied for first place in the Sun Belt East Division and looking to keep it that way. But they are tied with Old Dominion who holds the tiebreaker based on their 47-19 head-to-head loss on Thursday, October 17. They will have a slight advantage over the Jags since they will be coming in with a couple extra days to prepare.
But enough of that, let’s take a look at some of the team stats.
Georgia Southern
Clay Helton is in his third season at the helm in Statesboro. He’s led the Eagles to back-to-back 6-7 seasons with losses in the Camellia Bowl (2022) and the Myrtle Beach Bowl (2023). He came to Georgia Southern after spending 11 years at USC in all. He started as the quarterbacks coach under Lane Kiffin then was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2013. He served at interim head coach when the previous interim head coach, Ed Orgeron, resigned following the hiring of Steve Sarkisian. In the 2015 season he served as the interim head coach again when Sarkisian took a leave of absence. USC then they promoted him to the head coach.
Helton went 46-24 over his time as head coach at USC and notably with a win in the 2017 Rose Bowl over Penn State.
Fans in Statesboro are getting a little itchy to get back to their winning way more like they had previously. Everything was looking up and up until their upset loss to Old Dominion.
Offense
Ryan Aplin has helped Helton transform Georgia State into a passing team. After setting just about every passing record for the Eagles in 2022, the 2023 season saw the Eagles finish in the top 20 nationally in passing yards per game with many of the records previously set falling again.
| Stat | Average per game |
| Points | 28.6 |
| Total Offense | 379.1 |
| Passing Offense | 252.1 |
| Rushing Offense | 127 |
| Time of Possession | 30:24 |
| Penalty Yards | 47.5 |
| Stat | Cumulative for Season |
| 3rd Downs | 50 of 112 (44.6%) |
| 4th Downs | 6 of 9 (66.7%) |
| Red Zone Scoring Attempts | 25 of 27 (92.6%) |
| Red Zone Touchdowns | 22 of 27 (81.5%) |
| Penalties – Yards | 45 – 380 |
| Fumbles – Lost | 16 – 7 |
JC French is 169 of 265 (63.8%) for 1,790 yards with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. He is also the fourth leading rusher on the team with 138 yards on 68 attempts with one touchdown.
Dalen Cobb leads the team in catches with 37 for 434 yards and three touchdowns. Derwin Burgess Jr leads the team in receiving yards with 440 on 35 catches with three touchdowns as well.
Josh Dallas has 25 catches for 325 yards and a pair of touchdowns. LV Bunkley-Shelton has 20 catches for 216 yards. Tyler Fromm has 18 catches for 211 yards and two touchdowns as the final pass catcher with over 100 yards receiving for the season.
Jalen White leads the ground game with 393 yards on 92 carries with seven touchdowns. OJ Arnold has 253 yards on 43 carries with three touchdowns. David Mbadinga adds 145 yards on 35 carries with a pair of touchdowns.
Defense
Brandon Bailey is in his second season as defensive coordinator for Georgia Southern. In 2023 the Eagles finished top 30 nationally in passes intercepted, defensive touchdowns and tackles for loss.
In 2022 he was the youngest defensive coordinator in FBS while at the University of Buffalo. His defense finished 7th nationally with 28 turnovers, 7th nationally in interceptions with 13, and 2nd nationally with 15 forced fumbles. They were 4th in the MAC in scoring.
| Stat | Average per game |
| Points | 30.5 |
| Total Offense | 457.6 |
| Passing Offense | 272.5 |
| Rushing Offense | 185.1 |
| Time of Possession | 29:36 |
| Penalty Yards | 83.9 |
| Stat | Cumulative for Season |
| 3rd Downs | 51 of 110 (46.4%) |
| 4th Downs | 5 of 13 (38.5%) |
| Red Zone Scoring Attempts | 24 of 26 (92.3%) |
| Red Zone Touchdowns | 19 of 26 (73.1%) |
| Penalties – Yards | 69 – 671 |
| Fumbles – Lost | 8 – 3 |
Marques Watson-Trent (r-Sr LB) far and away leads the team with 77 stops, 34 solo. He also leads the team with 6.5 tackles for loss and is in a three-way tie for second on the team with 1.5 sacks. He is a big disrupter too with four forced fumbles, two quarterback hurries and a pass breakup.
Marc Stampley II (Jr DB) leads the team in sacks (2) and pass breakups (7), and is tied for the team lead in interceptions (2).
Special Teams
Alex Smith is averaging 43 yards per punt attempt with 20 fair catches, 15 downed inside the 20, 5 punts of over 50 yards, and a long of 63 yards.
Gavin Stewart is 7 of 9 placekicking for the Eagles with a long of 53 yards. He is 24 of 26 on extra point attempts.
South Alabama
Offense
The Jags currently sit 1st in the Sun Belt Conference in rushing offense and scoring offense while 2nd in the conference in total offense and time of possession. Nationally the Jags are 14th in rushing offense, 22nd in scoring offense, 19th in total offense, 29th in time of possession. But they are also 2nd nationally in Passes Had Intercepted (1), Turnovers Lost (4), and 3rd in Punt Returns (21.5).
| Stat | Average per game |
| Points | 36.3 |
| Total Offense | 454.8 |
| Passing Offense | 238.5 |
| Rushing Offense | 216.3 |
| Time of Possession | 31:41 |
| Penalty Yards | 70.5 |
| Stat | Cumulative for Season |
| 3rd Downs | 43 of 102 (42.2%) |
| 4th Downs | 6 of 10 (60%) |
| Red Zone Scoring Attempts | 32 of 38 (84.2%) |
| Red Zone Touchdowns | 24 of 38 (63.2%) |
| Penalties – Yards | 63 – 564 |
| Fumbles – Lost | 7 – 3 |
After a predominantly ground game last week Gio Lopez is 128 of 200 (64%) for 1,632 yards, 13 touchdowns and 1 interception.
Behind his career-high 11 catches last week, Jamaal Pritchett has 50 receptions for 662 yards and 6 touchdowns for the season. Second place on the team in receptions is Devin Voisin with 22 for 260 yards. Jeremiah Webb is third on the team in receptions with 17 but second on the team in reception yardage with 276 and a pair of touchdowns. DJ Thomas-Jones is second on the team in touchdown receptions with 3.
Fluff Bothwell continues to lead the Jags rushing attack with 580 yards on 85 carries with 8 touchdowns as a true freshman. His average of 6.88 yards per carry is 9th in the nation while his rushing touchdowns is 28th, but 1st among true freshmen.
Kentrel Bullock is not too far behind him with 505 yards on 85 carries with 5 touchdowns. Lopez is third on the team with 350 yards on 55 carries with 4 touchdowns. His 5.93 yards per carry ranks 38th nationally.
Defense
The Jags defense stacks up pretty good in the several categories in the conference. They are 2nd in Rush Defense, 3rd in 3rd down defense and red zone defense, 4th in scoring defense and 1st down defense, 6th in 4th down defense, and 7th in total defense.
| Stat | Average per game |
| Points | 23.6 |
| Total Offense | 401.7 |
| Passing Offense | 268.4 |
| Rushing Offense | 133.3 |
| Time of Possession | 28:19 |
| Penalty Yards | 47.3 |
| Stat | Cumulative for Season |
| 3rd Downs | 39 of 107 (36.5%) |
| 4th Downs | 4 of 11 (36.4%) |
| Red Zone Scoring Attempts | 22 of 28 |
| Red Zone Touchdowns | 13 of 28 |
| Penalties – Yards | 42 – 378 |
| Fumbles – Lost | 8 – 3 |
Blayne Myrick continues to pace the team with 58 total stops, 23 solo. He also has a sack, 5 tackles for loss, two pass breakups and a forced fumble to his resume. Jordan Scruggs is second on the team with 41 total stops, 19 solo, with an interception and a pass breakup.
Courtney McBride leads the team with 3 sacks. Tyler Thomas is next with 2 sacks.
Jaden Voisin’s three interceptions leads the team and is 14th nationally.
Wesley Miller’s interception against ULM ties him with Lardarius Webb for second on the team with two each.
Special Teams
Aleksi Pulkkinen averages 41.9 yards per punt with 13 downed inside the 20, 12 fair catches, 2 touchbacks, two kicks of 50+ yards and a season long of 67 yards.
Laith Marjan is 11 of 12 (91.7%) in field goals for the season, his only miss was from 52 yards. His season long is 49 yards. He is now officially 26 of 28 on extra points, but that counts as a miss against ULM was due to a poor snap and hold.
Jamaal Pritchett is still averaging 21.9 yards per punt return with the 1 touchdown on the season.
Keys to the Game
Turnovers
Georgia Southern’s defensive coordinator Brandon Bailey prioritizes defensive turnovers. They’ve forced seven interceptions but have only recovered three fumbles of the eight fumbles by opponents. On the other hand, the Eagles offense has turned the ball over 13 times (6 INT, 7 fumbles). Astonishingly, the Eagles have put the ball on the ground 16 times. So overall the Eagles are -3 in turnover margin.
South Alabama is very protective of the ball with only 4 offensive turnovers (3 fumbles, 1 INT). Defensively the Jags are pretty good at generating takeaways with 14 overall (11 INT, 3 fumbles) for a turnover margin of +11.
If past patterns continue, the Jags may have some opportunities to force some turnovers.
RTDB
The Jags found their offensive identity again last week: Run the damn ball.
In three of their four wins this season, the Jags have rushed for 300+ yards. The second half against ULM the Jags fully committed to the run and they ran all over the Warhawks.
The running back trio of Bothwell, Bullock and McReynolds were able to shoulder the run load and Gio only had to give the ball off. On passes, he stayed in the pocket more and didn’t move out immediately when he felt some pressure. Hopefully that was planned and not a change due to his lingering turf toe injury from week 1.
Getting the running backs rolling is a huge advantage for the Jags.
Pass Rush
Georgia Southern is predominantly a passing offense. Historically this has given the Jags problems. Generating a pass rush has been problematic in those instances. If they can get to the quarterback and make him uncomfortable, they can disrupt what they do and maybe force some more interceptions out of their quarterback.
Prediction
South Alabama is in the thick of the Sun Belt Conference West race. They have a chance to make another statement with a win. ULM entered with a darling storyline and the Jags were able to make a statement last week. Now they have a chance to knock off one of the eastern division leaders.
But it would also be nice to break “the pattern” and continue the current streak against the Eagles.
The Jags enter the match-up as a 6.5-point favorite. Once again, I have a feeling that the line is too high for whatever reason. I think the Jags win, but I don’t think they’ll cover. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here, I’m completely open to them proving me wrong.
Go Jags!