South Alabama Falls 23-6 At Coastal Carolina
South Alabama (3-4, 2-2 Sun Belt Conference) put up a valiant fight against Sun Belt Conference leader Coastal Carolina (7-0, 4-0 SBC) but fell 23-6.
The Jags never led in the game and failed to convert in key situations, particularly in the second half.
USA opened with a three-and-out on their first possession and the Chanticleers seized the opportunity with a 7 play, 72 yard touchdown drive spanning 2:48 to strike first.
The Jags answered with a field goal on an 11 play, 62 yard driving consuming 5:18 off the clock.
Coastal Carolina responded back with another long touchdown drive. Covering 75 yards in 6 plays in just 2:50 was good for the second and final touchdown of the game, going up 14-3 on the Jags.
South Alabama would get on the scoreboard once more with 5:01 left in the first half on a 43-yard Diego Guajardo field goal.
Coach Campbell saw his team trading field goals for touchdowns and decided to roll the dice. Instead of opting for another field goal, they attempted to convert a 4th & 3 at the Chanticleer 32. Desmond Trotter would throw to Trent Tyre on the sideline, but he could not turn and stretch for to move the chains.
That turnover on downs would lead to the Chanticleers adding a field goal with 2:11 left in the opening half.
The Jags would get shut out in the second half but not without one prime scoring opportunity.
Facing 4th and goal at the 1, Kawaan Baker lined up in the wildcat, pretty much telegraphing that he was going to run it, the Chanticleer defense would stop him about a half yard short of paydirt. The drive spanned 17 plays, 68 yards and drained 7:23 off the clock.
Desmond Trotter played the entire game for the second-consecutive game. He went 23-of-31 for 243 yards, but was sacked five times by the Chanticleer defense.
Jalen Tolbert led all receivers with seven catches with 78 yards. Jalen Wayne led the Jags with 91 receiving yards on five catches.
Carlos Davis carried the ball 17 times for 73 yards. Terrion Avery carried four times for 27 yards. Trotter had a net -27 yards with sack yardage figured in.
The offense was a paltry 2-of-14 on 3rd down attempts, but managed to eek out a slight time of possession advantage (30:15 to 29:45).
Grayson McCall was 17 of 24 for 209 yards passing and added 72 yards rushing on eight carries.
Reese White led CCU with 81 yards on nine carries. Shermari Jones added 60 yards on 10 carries with at touchdown.
Jaivon Heiligh caught five passes for 95 yards. CJ Marable caught three passes for 21 yards and the only other touchdown.
Defensively, Riley Cole led the South Alabama defense with 15 total tackles, nine of the were solo and had a fumble recovery.
The defense held the Chanticleers to a mere 3-of-11 on 3rd down. While the Chanticleers were held below their average of 40 points per game coming into this game, they were table to exceed their total yardage average with 445 total yards of offense.
“I thought the defense played extremely hard,” said head coach Steve Campbell after the game. “Offensively I thought we played hard. We just didn’t execute once we got down in the red zone. We have opportunities to score points.”
“You’re not going to beat a good teams kicking field goals and not scoring touchdowns, especially a team that’s averaging 40 points per game.
“After the first two [touchdown] drives, I think we settles down and were able to keep them out of the end zone,” Campbell said. “They’re a very explosive offense. Our defense was able to create some turnovers for us, but offensively we had too many turnovers of our own. We’ve got to do a better job of giving ourselves a chance to win.”
With this game behind them, the Jags can now look ahead to next week’s showdown in Lafayette, LA.
“I told the guys in the locker room that, of the five teams in our division, only one has one conference loss and we play them next week,” Campbell stated. “This next game is for the sole lead of our division. If we can go on the road and beat Louisiana, we’ll own the tiebreaker over them.”
“If we want to see Coastal or App State later in the season in the championship game, we need to take care of business,” he continued. “We still control our own destiny. We need to go on the road and pick up a big win against a very good Louisiana football team.”
The Jags and the Ragin’ Cajuns are set for a 1pm kickoff on Saturday, November 14 in Louisiana.
Preview: UAB At South Alabama
Kickoff: 6:30 pm CDT Thursday, September 24th
Venue: Hancock Whitney Stadium
Television: ESPN2
Radio: 99.5 FM The Jag, 96.1 FM The Rocket, iHeartRadio App
The South Alabama Jaguars now have two games under their belt for the 2020 season. They upset Southern Miss to open the season in Hattisburg as a double-digit underdog. Then gave up 21 unanswered points in the final quarter and a half of play against Tulane to open Hancock Whitney Stadium with a loss.
Desmond Trotter injured his shoulder against Southern Miss, which gave Chance Lovertich an opportunity to show what he can do. Lovertich got another chance against Tulane when the offense needed a spark and helped lead the Jags to a 24-6 advantage before the offense ground to a halt in the second half.
Trotter returned early in the fourth quarter, but left the game after re-injuring his shoulder. Subsequently head coach Steve Campbell announced on Monday that Lovertich will start on against UAB.
During the open date last week, Campbell also indicated that both quarterbacks will continue to get playing time, “I thought both of them did some good things. Desmond did some good things early and Chance came in and gave us a lift. … We’ve got two good quarterbacks and I think it’s going to take both of them playing well and staying healthy.”
Trotter has started the first two games of the season going 20-of-35 for 373 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions (both against Southern Miss). Lovertich has gone 20-for-32 for 311 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions, but he was sacked five times and pressured numerous other times by Tulane.
With the announcement of Thursday’s starter, we’ll get to see what the offense looks like with Chance as the starter. It’s unknown if Trotter will be available if needed or if Tanner McGee would be the next man up should anything happen.
Speaking of quarterbacks, last week UAB head coach, and former South Alabama defensive coordinator, Bill Clark announced that Tyler Johnston III will be out indefinitely with a injury to his non-throwing shoulder. Johnston, a redshirt junior from Spanish Fort, was set to play basically in his back yard against the Jaguars.
The only other Blazer quarterback to have seen playing time other than Johnston this season has been Bryson Lucero who has gone 11-of-21 for 138 yards and a touchdown in two games played this season.
Probably one of the biggest concerns for South Alabama coming into the 2020 season, only slightly ahead of the quarterback position (which is always the most talked about position leading up to the season), was the offensive line.
Campbell, an offensive line guru, has struggled to get the Jaguar offensive line to play up to what is necessary to win week-in and week-out.
The offensive line played great against Southern Miss, though the Golden Eagle defensive front looked undersized compared to the Jags. But that was flipped when they took on Tulane. The Jag line looked good in the first half before the Tulane talent and size took over in the second half allowing five sacks and numerous pressures.
The Green Wave shut down the Jaguar rushing game to a tune of just 13 yards which allowed them to tee off on the 5’10” Lovertich. Potential returns of Hadon Merchant and Josh McCulloch may help the line against UAB.
One of my keys to the game against Tulane was turnovers. Last season the Green Wave forced lots of turnovers. The Jags only committed only one turnover in the game, but it was costly. Trotter fumbled on a QB keeper at the 2 yard line early in the game. Nether team would score any points in the first quarter. The Jags defense forced three fumbles, but only recovered one of them.
Meanwhile penalties became a problem again for the Jaguars. Tulane defensive end Cameron Sample drew a pair of holding penalties from veteran center Brian Ankerson, which hamstrung a potential scoring drive before halftime. A pass interference call aided the Green Wave to a touchdown in the third quarter. Roughing the quarterback in the fourth quarter allowed Tulane a second-chance at their two-point conversion attempt that put them up by three points.
However the penalty that hurt the most came with just over 1:30 left in the game. The Jags defense forced the Green Wave to punt. D.J. Exilhomme was flagged for leaping, which on the field at game speed it probably looked like that and may have met the letter of the rules, but in review it looked accidental. Either way the only penalty that is reviewable is targeting.
Another one of the keys to the game from last week was special teams. The place kicking improved with no issues on snaps or holds for extra-point or field goal attempts. Diego Guajardo even made a career-best 49-yard field goal in the third quarter.
While the return game was non-existent, there were some better decisions made on kickoff returns that did not pin the Jaguars inside their own 15 yard line.
The punting game was hit or miss. Jack Brooks had a 57 yard punt that rolled to the 1 yard line and another one that went inside the 15 yard line. But punts of 22 and 33 yards were the flip side of the coin. The punt coverage allowed a 19-yard return as well.
Despite the reduction in attendance, the fans were loud and a full Hancock Whitney Stadium will definitely be impressive in the future. Easy to navigate concourses, hand rails on the stairways, and much improved concessions made quite the impressions on fans. And that video board is the envy of the conference.
I could only find two things to “gripe” about with the new stadium. The first was a lack of airflow that made it feel much warmer than it was. But the enclosed endzones kept the sound in, which made 25% attendance sound louder than expected. You can’t really have it both ways unfortunately.
The other gripe was with the only speakers for the sound system seeming to be in the video board structure. The fans in the North end zone are BLASTED with sound. My advice is to bring some ear plugs if that is where your seats are located.
But if those are your only two complaints, I think you’ve done a pretty good job.
But seriously, those speakers can be REALLY loud in the end zone and as a proponent of proper hearing health, I cannot stress enough that a good pair of ear plugs is an invaluable investment.
Previewing UAB
So far this UAB Blazer team does not look like the same Blazer team you’ve seen over the last couple of years on the surface. Or is it?
Allowing 35 points to an FCS team is not the start to the season you really want. However not all FCS teams are alike.
Central Arkansas has one of the best offenses in the nation on their level. While they did load up on the points, the Blazers only allowed 293 offensive yards while forcing three turnovers and recording two sacks and five tackles for loss.
On the other hand, the Bears took advantage of three Blazer turnovers in the first half and, with the short fields, they cashed them in for points. Two of those turnovers were an interception that was returned to the 4 yard line and a mishandled fair catch that was recovered at the 15 yard line.
Against Miami, the Blazer defense was gashed by Miami’s run game. After taking a 7-0 lead, the Blazer defense forced a 4th & 1 at the Miami 34 yard line, then gave up a 66 yard touchdown run. Then an ineffectual offense led to a gassed defense that gave up 337 rushing yards in all.
Blazer running back Spenser Brown looks like he is already in mid-season form. Against Central Arkansas, he carried the ball 24 times for 127 and a touchdown.
He looked like he was going to have another good game against Miami before the yellow flags started flying. A 20-yard gain on the second play of the second drive was negated by an illegal motion penalty. He finished the game with 74 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown.
Behind Brown the Blazers have two more backs that look capable of getting playing time without too much of a production dropoff. Though they did not put up good numbers against the hurricanes.
With the announcement of Johnston’s injury, Bryson Lucero looks to be the starter for the Blazers. However, Dylan Hopkins started five games in 2018 for the Blazers and led them to a 3-2 record and a west-conference division title. But Hopkins is listed as 3rd on the depth chart. Is this some gamesmanship in game preparation?
Both teams are coming into the game after an off week. Though UAB has had a couple extra days since they played on a Thursday.
The Jags have what is considered one of the best group of wide receivers in the nation. Both Jalen Tolbert and Kawaan Baker are in the top five in the nation currently. However their rushing game just has not solidified yet.
The Jags defense has allowed 150.5 yards per game rushing with an average of 4.1 yards per carry. With wet and rainy conditions and UAB’s stable of running backs, the ground game may be the one of the deciding factors in the game.
Keys to the Game
Rushing defense
As mentioned previously, with wet and rainy conditions predicted up until kickoff and thunderstorms possible during the game while missing Tyler Johnston III at quarterback, look for UAB to lean heavily on Spencer Brown and the running back corps to grind it out on the ground.
That will put a lot of pressure on the Jaguar defense to stop the run. Brown may be one of the best running backs the team faces all season.
Turnovers
In wet conditions turnovers are always a huge concern. Hopefully the Jags have done their share of wet ball drills and then some.
Special teams
Against Southern Miss the Jags had issues in place kicking and some in kickoff returns. Against Tulane the Jags had issues punting.
What will the third game bring?
I keep going back to the weather conditions because it could play a huge role in the game. A kicker could slip, a punter shank one, a returner could fumble a return or muff a catch. Any one of those could make or break the game. The Jags need to be solid in all aspects of special teams.
Spread and Prediction
UAB is a 7 point favorite in Mobile. The Jags have been underdogs in 12 consecutive football games and are 8-2 against the spread in the last 10 overall. This includes the two games this season that the Jags have covered in both, winning outright against Southern Miss.
I think the trend continues with the Jags covering the spread but, again, I don’t think they win outright.
Go Jags!