South Alabama Dominates First Half, Cruises To 38-24 Win Over Central Michigan
What a difference having a running game can make.
La’Damian Webb carried the ball 20 times for 91 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Jags rushing attack. The Jags put rushed for 148 yards in their 38-24 win over Central Michigan in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
South Alabama struck paydirt first in the matchup when Carter Bradley connected with DJ Thomas-Jones for a 16 yard touchdown, his first as a Jaguar. However Diego Guajardo’s extra point kick hit off the top of the right upright, bounces over and off of the left upright and careened back into play. But it was Bradley finding Caullin Lacy for a 40 yard pass that really got the Jags going. USA led 6-0 at the 8:51 mark.
Central Michigan would take their only lead of the game when Lew Nichols ran the ball in for a 5 yard touchdown at the 5:08 mark of the first quarter.
The Jags regained the lead when La’Damian Webb punched the ball in from 3 yards out. Guajardo converted to make it 13-7 with 1:29 left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff, Irone Jackson brought the ball out of the end zone and Ke’Shun Brown knocked the ball loose and Trey Kiser recovered it at the Chippewas 22 yard line. On 3rd & 10 Bradley hooked up with Devin Voisin for a 22 yard touchdown, the first of his career. That put the Jags up 20-7 at the 1:05 mark of the first quarter.
The first quarter ended with a failed 4th down conversion by Central Michigan giving South Alabama the ball at the 50. Webb took a touch pass 26 yards to get the offense in gear. Bradley hooked up with Jalen Wayne for a 10 yard touchdown. Head coach Kane Wommack opted to go for the two-point conversion. Bradley found Voisin open for the conversion to go up 28-7 at the 12:14 mark of the 2nd quarter.
Both teams would add field goals before halftime. South Alabama’s Guajardo connected on a 38 yard kick with 5:47 left. Central Michigan added a 48 yard kick with 1:21 left to snap the Jags 25 point unanswered run.
No one scored in the third quarter. It felt like Central Michigan played better but it was because the Jags had handled them so thoroughly in the first half. The stats were almost dead even in the quarter, but Bradley under-threw a pass for his first interception of the season.
The Jags added to their lead with their first possession of the fourth quarter when La’Damian Webb broke free for a 30 yard touchdown off right tackle. Only one Chippewa even laid a hand on him. That put the Jags up 38-10 with 10:53 left in the game.
Some thought the game was over at that point, but you cannot sleep on Central Michigan.
The Chippewas answered back with a touchdown drive capped off by a 12 yard touchdown run by Marion Lukes. The Chippewas lined up for a 2-point conversion and was flagged for delay of game. They kept the offense on the field from the 8 yard line but failed to convert leaving the score 38-16 with 8:43 left in the game. The Jags successfully recovered the onside kick.
The Jags went three-and-out to give the ball back to Central Michigan with 6:39 left. The Jags had them 4th & 1 at the Jaguar 47 but Myles Bailey found a hole on the left side of the defense for 10 yards to keep the drive alive. A couple of plays later Daniel Richardson connected with Joel Wilson for a 21 yard touchdown. The Chippewas converted the 2-point attempt to cut the Jags lead to 38-24 with 4:30 left in the game.
CMU attempted another onside kick but this time the ball went out of bounds at the Jags 49 yard line.
Caullin Lacy took a pair of touch passes for 18 and 19 yards respectively to convert first downs and allow the Jags to simply run out the clock.
Team Stats
In addition to winning on the scoreboard, the Jags had a good win on the stat sheet too.
They out-gained the Chippewas 502 to 338 in total yardage, through the air 354 to 257, and on the ground 148 to 81. Both teams had a turnover in the game, CMU fumbled on a kickoff return and Bradley threw an interception.
South Alabama dominated the time of possession 38:00 to 22:00.
USA’s 3rd down efficiency improved with an 8-for-17 outing for a 47% conversion rate. CMU only converted 5-of-15 against the Jaguar defense.
The Jags were plagued with penalties again. They were flagged nine times for 100 yards. Central Michigan had eight for 85 yards themselves.
Individual Stats
Carter Bradley finished 26-of-42 for 354 yards, 3 touchdowns and an interception. He also gained 35 yards running the ball but after subtracting sack yardage he finished with only 8 net yards.
Jalen Wayne caught 10 passes for 98 yards and a touchdown. Lacy added 5 catches for 97 yards. Devin Voisin caught 4 for 56 yards and a touchdown. DJ Thomas-Jones added three for 38 yards and a touchdown. In all seven Jaguars caught passes in the game.
Webb led the running back contingent with 91 yards on 20 carries with two touchdowns. Avery added 30 yards on 11 carries. Marcos Lee had 16 yards on five carries.
Daniel Richardson finished 23-of-47 for 257 yards and a touchdown.
Joel Wilson led the Chippewas receiving with seven catches for 73 yards and a touchdown. Seven players in total caught at least one pass.
Marion Lukes led the Chippewa backfield with 36 yards on three carries with a touchdown. Bailey added 24 yards on four carries. Lew Nichols, the 2021 rushing leader, carried the ball 15 times for 20 yards and a touchdown.
Jalen Wayne passed Shavarez Smith for 6th on the all-time receptions list with 107 for his career. Also his 97 receiving yards moves him into 6th place in the career receiving yards list as well, which moves his past Gerald Everett, Bryant Lavender, and Josh Magee.
Next
The Jags will travel to the west coast to play UCLA in the historic Rose Bowl Stadium on Saturday, September 17. Kickoff is scheduled for 1pm Central time. The game can be seen on the PAC12 Network.
South Alabama Dominates Nicholls State 48-7 In Season Opener
The South Alabama Jaguars put in a dominant effort in their season opener against the Nicholls State Colonels to start their 2022 campaign with a 48-7 win.
Carter Bradley threw three touchdown passes and ran for another in his debut as the Jaguars signal caller. Jalen Wayne caught two of them for touchdowns. La’Damian Webb, also making his debut with the Jaguars, ran for two scores while finishing just shy of 100 yards. Mobile native and true freshman Braylon McReynolds added a receiving touchdown in his collegiate debut.
The Jaguar defense did not allow the Colonels to score until the fourth quarter when they had started letting reserves sub in for game experience.
South Alabama opened the scoring on their second possession of the game. On 2nd and 1 Bradley connected with Caullin Lacy for 35 yards to the Nicholls 36 to get the Jags offense in gear. Webb capped it off when he rushed off right tackle, barely untouched, for a 15 yard touchdown.
On the second snap of the Colonels ensuing possession, Brock Higdon recovered a fumbled snap to put the Jaguars back in business at the Nicholls State 24. The offense couldn’t get anything going and settled for a 39 yard field goal from Diego Guajardo for a 10-0 lead with 1:54 left in the opening quarter.
Defensive coordinator Corey Batoon’s squad forced a three-and-out. Starting at their own 17 yard line, it would only take Bradley and the offense three plays to put more points on the board. A pass to Terrion Avery on the left side for 14 yards, followed by a pass to DJ Thomas-Jones for 15 yards on the right side. Brandley would cap off the drive with a beautiful touchdown pass to Jalen Wayne just inside the left hash on a go route to put the Jags up 17-0 early in the second quarter.
The Jags defense forced a pair of three-and-outs but on the second punt from deep in their own territory, a poorly handled snap led to a 13 yard loss by the punter setting up the Jags offense at the 4 yard line. Bradley rolled right, tucked the ball and scampered in for the touchdown to put the Jags up 24-0 about midway through the second quarter.
Guajardo would add a 48 yard field goal with 1:30 left in the half for the halftime score of 27-0.
Both teams started out slow in the second half before a failed 4th down conversion by the Colonels gave the Jags the ball at their own 34 yard line. Three plays later Bradley connected with Wayne for this second touchdown of the game, this time from 37 yards out to put the Jags ahead 34-0 at the 6:58 mark in the 3rd quarter.
Another three-and-out by the Jags defense and a poor punt put the Jags in great field position at their 40 yard line. McReynolds converted back-to-back first downs on runs of 9 and 15 yards before Bradley connected with him on a pass out of the backfield, McReynolds cut back inside and took the ball in for an 18 yard touchdown to put the Jags ahead 41-0 at the 3:52 mark in the 3rd quarter.
Nicholls would break the shutout on their ensuing possession, a 9 play 75 yard drive consuming 4:28 off the clock. The drive was capped off by Gums’ 10 yard touchdown run up the middle.
South Alabama would answer right back though.
Desmond Trotter led the drive in relief of Bradley and on the second snap he connected with Lincoln Sefcik for a 24 yard gain on the right side. Webb capped off the drive with back-to-back carries for 7 and 2 yards to put the final score on the board.
The defense wasn’t quite done yet though. AJ DeShazor picked off a pass at the Colonels 29 yard line with 6:24 left in the game.
Stats
The Jags offense rolled up 508 total yards of offense, 332 came through the air and 176 came on the ground. The Jags rushing yardage was more than the Colonels total offensive yardage (165). USA had 24 first downs and averaged 6.9 yards per play on offense.
The Jaguar defense only allowed 165 total yards, 106 came through the air and only 59 rushing yards to the Colonels. They had 10 first downs and averaged only 3 yards per offensive play.
South Alabama played a pretty clean first half, but the second half saw the Jags commit a number of penalties. They were flagged 10 times for 80 yards. Nicholls State was only flagged twice for 9 yards in the game.
Bradley finished the game 17-of25 for 260 yards, three touchdowns and only suffered one sack. Trotter was 9-of-10 for 72 yards and also took one sack.
Webb led the Jaguar backfield with 98 yards on 18 carries with the two touchdowns. McReynolds added 25 yards rushing on three carries. Avery and Omni Wells both had 23 yards on five carries.
Caullin Lacy led the Jags receivers with 6 catches for 72 yards. Wayne had 3 receptions for a game high 98 yards with two touchdowns. McReynolds caught all four of his targets for 39 yards and a touchdown.
Jack Brooks punted six times with four of them downed inside the opponents’ 20 yard line with a long of 58 yards.
The Colonels duo of Julien Gums and Collin Guggenheim combined for a total of 45 yards, Gums earned the only score of the game for Nicholls.
Kohen Granier finished the game 15-of-27 for 106 yards with an interception. KJ Franklin was also kept in check with only three catches for 14 yards. Neno Lemay led the Colonels with 40 receiving yards on three catches.
This breakout win was the most points scored by the Jags since posting 52 against Idaho in 2015. The margin of victory was the largest since the 45-0 win over Alabama A&M in 2017, and the most points scored in a season opener since the Jags put up 56 points against Pikeville in 2010.
“It was the momentum you want to build the first game of the season with,” said Jaguar head coach Kane Wommack. “We saw some of the things that we had talked about all offseason long: physicality, being able to establish things in the running game.”
“You saw some of the dynamic talent we have in your backfield,” coach Wommack continued.
“La’Damian did a tremendous job of getting his body back and getting ready to go,” Wommack said of the former Mr. Football who suffered a broken foot in spring practice and a broken hand over the offseason. “We had a short time frame to get him to the point where he could be rolling. I’ve said this before, but a tremendous job by our training staff and our strength staff. There was talk at one point about him being limited all the way up until the fifth or sixth game of the season, and he was full-go going into our first game.”
“He’s a back, that as he gets going and starts feeling it, and as our offensive line improves, I think his best football is ahead of him.”
“I thought Carter did a pretty good job of taking care of the football,” Wommack said. “He made some pretty good choices with the ball. He did a good job seeing what the defense was giving us and taking advantage of that. Obviously, you can see his arm talent, some of the things he was able to do down the field.”
“It took me and Carter a minute to jell and get our chemistry right, but we’ve been working as hard as we could this past summer to make sure we could come out clicking,” Jalen Wayne said. “Nowadays, it’s almost like catching a handoff from him. He puts it right in my stomach. It’s easy. He can throw it, though.”
“Defensively, I thought we did a tremendous job of keeping the main thing the main thing: stopping the run. We established the line of scrimmage,” Wommack observed of the defense.
“We talk about playing the ‘Swarm D’ mentality,” Wommack observed. “Our linebackers did a great job of being physical and tracking the ball all night. And when the ball was in the air, there was never a time we didn’t have somebody right there after them.”
Next Game
South Alabama travels to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to take on Central Michigan. Kickoff is set for 12pm central with TV coverage on ESPN+ and radio coverage on the Jaguar Radio Network.
