Preview: South Alabama Opens Home Slate Against Southeastern Louisiana
Kickoff: Saturday, September 9, 4pm
Venue: Hancock Whitney Stadium, Mobile, Alabama
TV/Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: 96.1 fm The Rocket, Sports Talk 99.5 fm, iHeartRadio App
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South Alabama (0-1) opens their home schedule against Southeastern Louisiana (0-1) at Hancock Whitney Stadium Saturday afternoon.
The last two games by the Jags, the “reverse bookends” if you will, were both played in New Orleans. That would be the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl to end the 2022 season and the 2023 season opener versus Tulane last week. They have both been humbling and glaring blemishes on what head coach Kane Wommack’s short resume as a head coach.
In his sophomore coaching season, he led the Jags to a 10-2 regular season and a bowl game. Western Kentucky found the most glaring weaknesses in the Jaguar defense and took full advantage of it to the tune of a 44-23 win over the Jags.
The similar issues plagued the team on Saturday: Secondary issues and doing your job. Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt had two touchdowns of 47 yards and a third that went for 48 yards. He was 14-of-15 passing for 294 yards against a defense that returned most of its starters from last season.
But it’s not time to pull the fire alarm on the season just yet. Not one game into the 2023 season.
You have to take the game and the match-up into full consideration as well. It was a top 25 game on the road. Tulane returned some very good players on both lines, and it showed. The Jaguar offensive line, despite its experience, couldn’t maintain their blocks to protect quarterback Carter Bradley from the big Green Wave defensive front.
Meanwhile the Jags defensive front had problems getting pressure on Pratt as the picked apart the secondary like a surgeon.
Coach Wommack has talked about facing adversity during the game and responding to that adversity many times. That’s exactly what happened on Saturday. On the second play from scrimmage, the normally sure-handed La’Damian Webb fumbled the ball away to Tulane, which put the Jags behind early.
But the team responded.
Down 10-0, the Jags cut the lead to a field goal early in the second quarter. Then after back-to-back scoring drives that ended with 47-yard touchdown passes, the Jags responded again. A field goal late in the first half and a touchdown about midway through the second quarter had the Jags within seven points.
Coach Wommack said during his weekly radio show that you don’t get chances like [facing a top 25 team] back, now they have to live with the consequences.
He identified problems in the secondary and offensive line that need to be correctly quickly.
The offensive line played fundamentally inconsistent in the game. However, coach Wommack said that they did well identifying defensive schemes, but they just didn’t execute with consistency.
He also said the secondary got caught looking into the backfield to make a big play and the opposite happened.
But the bottom line is that the coaches and players both believe it can and will be corrected.
Southeastern Louisiana
Next up are the Lions. SLU is coached by Frank Scelfo and he’s been named the Southland Coach of the Year twice since being named head coach in January 2018. He is 34-24 (25-13 in conference play). He led the Lions to the Southland Conference championship last year, their first since 2014, and to their third trip to the second round of the NCAA FCS playoffs during his tenure.
If the Scelfo name seems familiar, you’re right. His nephew, Joseph Scelfo, was a starting center for the Jags before transferring to NC State as a Grad Transfer in 2016.
The Lions know how to win, they finished 9-4 in 2022 and reached the second round of the FCS playoffs.
They have a whopping 17 players named to the preseason All-Conference team entering the 2023 season.
Offense
In 2022, under offensive coordinator Greg Stevens, the Lions averaged 35.3 points and 439.8 yards per game.
Helping the Lions out last season was former South Alabama quarterback Cephus Johnson. He finished his collegiate career with the Lions last season and was signed to the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad.
Stevens is known for coaching quarterbacks. In 2021 he helped Cole Kelley to Southland Conference Player of the Year, Louisiana Offensive Player of the Year, Walter Payton Award runner up and consensus All-American honors as the threw for 5,124 yards and 44 touchdowns with a completion percentage of 73.6%. But he also ran for 491 yards and 16 touchdowns as well.
SLU only managed 208 yards of total offense (125 passing, 83 rushing) against Mississippi State in their season opening 48-7 loss last weekend.
Starting quarterback Eli Sawyer was 11-of-19 for 85 yards in the first half before giving way to Zachary Clement. Clement went 5-of-9 for 40 yards with a touchdown in relief. Sawyer and Clement were named to the first- and second-team all-conference preseason teams respectively.
Harlan Dixon led the Lions with 51 yards rushing on eight carries. Rodeo Graham Jr ran for 23 yards on five carries. In all, eight players are credited with carries for the Lions, those that were not quarterbacks did not have any negative yardage against the Bulldogs.
Dixon also topped the stat sheet for the Lions with a team-high four catches for 42 yards. Darius Lewis added three catches for 25 yards.
Defense
Defensive Coordinator Bill D’Ottavio is in his third season with the Lions and his second season calling plays. In 2021 he coached safeties. Then in 2022, his first as the Lions DC, this squad finished 10th in FCS in turnovers forced (24), 5th in interceptions (16), and 11th in defensive touchdowns (3).
Previous to joining SLU, he was the defensive coordinator at Samford for 13 seasons, where he coached four NFL draft picks.
Defensive back Ian Goodly led the Lions with 15 total stops, eight solo, against the Bulldogs. Linebacker Herman Christophe collected 10 stops, 1 solo. Anthony Britton Jr., also a linebacker, finished with nine total stops, two solo, with a forced fumble.
The only player to record a sack was defensive back Khamron Ford, which was one of his two stops for the game.
Special Teams
Austin Dunlap had seven punts for an average of 46.3 yards per kick. His long was 56 yards, four of his kicks were 50+ yards and four were downed inside the opponents 20. He is in his senior year and has played in all five seasons as a Lion with a career average of 42.5 yards per punt with only two blocked, both in his freshman season in 2019.
Riley Callaghan (So) earned Stats Perform Freshman All-America and All-Southland Conference honors as a freshman is the teams placekicker. He went 15-of-18 (with a long of 47 yards) and was 42-of-44 on PATs. He did not attempt any field goals last week.
South Alabama
The Jaguar offense may not have played up to their potential in the first game, but they did show some of what they did well last season. La’Damian Webb wasn’t given much room to run, and was also kept out of the game for a while, but he found creases and eeked out positive yardage. He finished with 40 yards on nine carries.
Kentrel Bullock had 12 carries for 37 yards in his Jaguar debut. Braylon McReynolds only had two carries for nine yards before he left the game with an injury.
Carter Bradley was 23-of-30 for 190 yards, with a touchdown but he was also sacked five times and had two interceptions when he tried to force the ball out.
Jamaal Pritchett led the Jags with 63 yards receiving on five catches. Caullin Lacy led the team with seven receptions for 60 yards. Bullock added 19 yards on three catches out of the backfield. Devin Voisin was held to only one catch for a 7-yard touchdown.
As we mentioned above, we the offensive line struggle to protect Bradley, especially on obvious passing downs. Bradley trying to force the ball out, this led to a pair of interceptions.
There were a few key opportunities where the Jags faced 3rd and short and procedural penalties killed their opportunities. What would have likely been easy first downs by running the ball. Instead, two of them turned into quarterback sacks instead.
Defense
The Jaguar defense held strong against the run for most of the game. Quarterback Michael Pratt was just edged out by Makhi Hughes as the team’s leading rusher (41 to 39), and that was due to the Green Wave’s late success running the ball.
As mentioned earlier, the Jags secondary gave up two touchdown passes of 47 yards and one other for 48 yards.
The defensive front held the Green Wave to a mere 36 yards rushing in the first half. It wasn’t until later in the third quarter that Tulane started finding more success running the ball.
Special Teams
Diego Guajardo went 1-of-2 in field goal attempts. His attempt from 53 yards out in the first quarter came up short. But he nailed a 36-yarder in the second quarter. In doing so, he broke the tie he had with former Jaguar placekicker Aleem Sunanon for the all-time scoring record. Guajardo now tops that list with 244 career points.
Jack Martin only saw the field once for a 45-yard punt.
Keys to the Game
Establish the Run
The Jags need to establish the run early against the Lions. They have a defense that loves to cause havoc and force turnovers. Last season the Lion defense forced 16 interceptions alone.
An old adage in football says, and I paraphrase “when you throw the ball, there are three outcomes and two of them are bad.” While that statement may still be true, it hasn’t stopped offenses from throwing the ball at a high frequency. But when your opponent has forced 16 interceptions the previous season, you may look to keep the ball on the ground a bit more if you can find success.
Webb has shown he can get it done. Bullock has shown, in one game so far, that he will be a good addition to the backfield.
However, it looks like the Jags will be without Braylon McReynolds for SLU so everyone moves up a spot on the depth chart. But with Marco Lee, Jonathon Carter (R-Fr), and a trio of true freshmen, the Jags look okay depth and talent wise at the position.
Tighten up the Secondary
Getting torched by three explosive touchdown passes in one game will definitely light a fire under you. But then if you go back and see how inconsistent they have played over the last two games (spanning the bowl game last season) and you know these guys are going to put in the work to get better.
You are only guaranteed a limited number of games in a season. You have to make your opportunities count. One has already passed. Now they have 11 more chances during this regular season to show what they can do.
This group needs to go out and show they can get it done on Saturday during game situations.
They need to get their eye discipline back and to simply do their job and trust their teammates to do their job as well.
Pass Protection
The offensive line had a tough assignment against Tulane. But they have to shake that off and get back to executing the fundamentals at a high level. The quarterback needs time to go through his progression and the receivers need to have time to run their routes.
Giving Bradley a little more time in the pocket will allow him to stretch the field vertically, making the defense have to cover and respect more of the field. Last Saturday against Tulane, the defense had effectively shorted the field that they needed to defend and the Jag offense struggled because of it.
Injuries
Jalen Jordan went out early in the game with a foot injury. Coaches think he could be ready to play against SLU, however they will know more later in the week. At this time, they are projecting him as Questionable.
Braylon McReynolds left the game with a shoulder injury after a kickoff return. Coach Wommack said he was “very questionable” for Saturday. They will also know more about the extent of his injury later in the week but we likely will not see him against the Lions at a minimum.
Yam Banks was forced out of the game in the second half after forcing a fumble. They put him in the concussion protocol. While they believe he will be cleared to play by Saturday, if he did suffer a concussion, it’s not a guarantee he will be able to suit up on Saturday.
Prediction
South Alabama opened as a 10-point favorite and the consensus is that the Jags are a 9.5-point favorite if you can find a line anywhere. Looking up and down their roster, their size and skillset are on par with what you see across the Sun Belt.
Southeastern Louisiana is no pushover.
The Jags have won eight consecutive games against FCS teams, but not without some close calls. In 2021, the Jags defeated Alcorn State 28-21. In 2016 the Jags needed two stops in overtime to earn a 41-40 win over Nicholls. The Jags lost to Southern Utah 22-21 to start the 2013 season.
I think they keep the win streak alive. But I think some of the fans who don’t read this site (or any site for that matter) will not be satisfied with the win because SLU is an FCS school.
I think the Jags cover the spread in the friendly confines of the ‘cock, but don’t look for it to be a blow out as the uninformed will expect. I think it’ll be something more modest like 30-13. Even if they are able to have their way with the Lions, I don’t think they will put too much on display for Oklahoma State to watch and prepare for when the Jags go to Stillwater in week 3.
Go Jags!