Mississippi State Planning White Out Against Jags
Away Game tickets to Mississippi State and North Carolina State Universities for 2012. Notice how much nicer the MSU tickets are than NCSU tickets. I guess things are bigger and better in the SEC.
I picked up my away game tickets ahead of trips to North Carolina State and Mississippi State and noticed something on the MSU tickets immediately. Well, not immediately, because comparing the NC State tickets to MSU tickets I was awed by how much nicer they are than the Wolfpack’s tickets. But once I got over that, I noticed that printed on the ticket was “White Out” as you can see in the photo.
Previous attempts at “Black out’s” and “White Out’s” have not gone well for teams. Look back at the famous “Black Out” by Georgia versus Alabama a few years ago. Hopefully the Jags can come into Davis Wade Stadium and add another nightmare to that “color Out” trend.
But the next question will be, do the Jags wear their Red uniforms, their Blue Uniforms or a mix and match? We’ll find out and let you know.
USA’s New Offense Produces Big Play Potential
The Jaguar offense looks to the sideline for play adjustments against UTSA.
South Alabama’s new spread offense, mistakes aside, produced 31 points and some explosive plays. The Jags had eight plays of 20 or more yards against UTSA with half of those from the offense. Most of them came in the first quarter.
A 3rd-and-5 pass from C.J. Bennett to Corey Besteda sent for 25 yards, a 3rd-and-10 pass from Bennett to Greg Hollinger went for 23 yards and a 28 yard rush by Demetre Baker went for 28 yards, all in the first quarter alone.
In the fourth quarter, Tyrell Pearson picked off a UTSA pass and returned it 28 yards to the UTSA 7 yard line on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The special teams got into the action as well. T.J. Glover had a kickoff return of 48 yards before fumbling the ball away in UTSA territory. Glover also added a 34 yard punt return later in the fourth quarter to set up a 34 yard touchdown pass from Bennett to Jereme Jones with less than three minutes left in the game.
The Colonels was the Jaguars first Division I win as they are an FCS school. They were also the first team to ever take the lead on the Jaguars during a game.
Charlie Stubbs, the Colonels head football coach, has over 32 years of coaching experience. He came to Nicholls from Central Missouri where he was the offensive coordinator. Previous to Central Missouri, he was offensive coordinator at Louisville as they were #4 nationally in passing offense and featured two future NFL players.
Prior to Louisville, he spent four seasons at Tulsa where they were ranked among the top 25 each season. From 1998-2000 Stubbs was the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator at the University of Alabama where they went to the Music City Bowl in 1998 then won the SEC title and the 2000 Orange Bowl. He also won the SEC Offensive coordinator of the year award in 2000. He also spent time at Nevada-Las Vegas, Tennesee-Martin and Memphis. His first full-time position was at Oregon State.
In 1984 he was a graduate assistant for BYU under coach LaVell Edwards. They went 13-0 to win the national championship. They were the last non-BCS school to earn the title.
Look for the Jags to be focused on correcting the turnovers that plagued them last week. Also look for the defense to be prepared and ready to show last week was also atypical for them.
Jags To Wear Blue On Saturday
Receiver Jereme Jones looks in the pass from CJ Bennett in the first half of the 33-31 loss to Texas-San Antonio.
South Alabama will host Nicholls State on Saturday, September 8 at 4pm at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The parking lot will open at 8am for tailgating. Stadium gates will open at 2pm.
It was announced that they are encouraging fans to wear Blue as the team will be wearing their all blue uniforms for the Colonels.
Tickets are as low as $10 for general admission end zone tickets or $15 for reserved sideline seating.
Parking is limited at Ladd-Peebles stadium. If you do not have a parking pass there are private parking options in the vicinity of Ladd-Peebles Stadium, but it is not controlled or managed by USA or the stadium. The Wave will be running from Bell Air Mall and will shuttle you from the parking area to the stadium for $2.50 (round trip). They will begin at noon and will run continuously until 90 minutes after the conclusion of the game.
Jaguar Prowl is the tradition of cheering on the players and coaches as they arrive at the stadium. This begins 2 hours and 20 minutes before kickoff on gameday. They walk across the south side of the stadium.
Local forecasts give a chance of rain after kickoff, you may want to bring a poncho.
Go Jags!
Two Unknowns In One Week For The Jags
As the Jags prepare for a bit of an unknown opponent, they are venturing into another unknown as well. This is the first time in their short four year existence that the Jags have to find a way to rebound from a season opening loss. But they will have an opportunity to do so when they host the Nicholls State Colonels on Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The loss came in heartbreaking fashion as the Jags had retak a 31-30 lead with a 34 yard touchdown pass from C.J. Bennett to Jereme Jones with less than three minutes left in the game. After a 15 yard penalty on the kickoff gave UTSA great field position, they drove into field goal range where Sean Ianno kicked the 51 yard game-winning score with 16 seconds left in the game to avenge last season’s loss in San Antonio.
“If their kicker doesn’t make the last field goal then everybody is happy, but we’re still dealing with the same issues,” head coach Joey Jones observed. “My challenge to the team is three, four or five games from now, let’s look back and see how we improved. Let’s see if we’ve stopped turning the ball over and if we’ve stopped committing dumb penalties. If we can do that we will have a shot. We need to be a team that can get better as the season goes along.”
South Alabama defeated the Colonels in 2010 39-21 on Kendall Houston’s first career 100-yard game with two touchdowns on 12 rushes.
Also in that game two years ago, the Jags found themselves trailing in a game for the first time ever when the Colonels took leads of 7-0 and 14-7 early in the game. Those scores were made by Jesse Turner, who is listed as second string running back for Nicholls State, on a 33-yard run and a 95 yard reception in the first quarter.
However in the second quarter, South Alabama responded with 20 unanswered points and didn’t look back. The Jags would rack up 490 yards of total offense with 288 of them on the ground. Brandon Ross joined Houston by also rushing for over 100 yards and a touchdown.
Nicholls State quarterback LaQuintin Caston led the team against the Jags by going 13-of-23 passing for 273 yards and two touchdowns. In 2011 Caston threw for 870 yards and rushed for another 707 yards. However in the offseason he has made the move from quarterback to wide receiver. In a radio interview this morning, Nicholls State head coach Charlie Stubbs said that he had problems in several games and they did not want to have one of their best players on the sidelines when they put another quarterback into the game.
Landry Klann is the projected starter at quarterback. He went 36-of-57 last season for 377 yards and two touchdowns.
The Colonel defense allowed less than 360 yards per game in 2011. They return seven starters from last season including their leading tackler Jordan Piper with 81 tackles and Siegan Vergenal who had 65 tackles.
However they will be without their top two returners from last season.
Coach Jones does not think reviewing the 2010 footage will be much of a benefit to the team. “This is a completely different ballgame,” he stated. “You can look at some things offensively because coach [Charlie] Stubbs has been calling the plays the whole time [he has been running the program], but they have changed on defense. We won’t really look back at that film.”
Stubbs is a well known offensive playcaller and should have plenty of new wrinkles for the Jags when they play on Saturday. They will definitely try to get the ball into Caston’s hands as well as their other playmakers.
Jags Next Opponent Is A Bit Unknown
South Alabama will go into it’s second game of the season with some mystery around their opponent. While the Jags opened the season against UTSA, Nicholls State game at Oregon State was postponed due to weather issues caused by Hurricane Isaac.
Thus, little is known about their opponent this weekend. “From their standpoint, I would think it would be somewhat of a disadvantage, but from our standpoint, I’d rather have some film on them and kind of see who they are because they could obviously surprise us with some things that they didn’t show last year,” Head coach Joey Jones said on the Sun Belt Conference teleconference Monday. “So that’s a concern for us. I know from their side they would rather have played a game.”
Typically, the biggest improvement a team will see during the season is between the first and second game. The Jags hope this holds true for them considering the four turnovers the Jaguars committed in their season opening 33-31 loss to UTSA.
Coach Jones, when asked about his own team, said that with the changes on offense and defense that there were some highlights in the game, but they were overshadowed by the mistakes in the loss. “First of all as to the offense, we scored 31 points and could have easily scored 45,” he said. “We threw an interception at the goal line going in and had two long passes that were wide open that we didn’t hit, so we could have hit on all cylinders and scored in the mid-40s, but we didn’t. But I was real pleased overall offensively. I think we did some good things and I think we’ll get better this week.”
“Defensively, I thought we started a little slow. I think the speed of the game got us a little bit early. Sometimes in the first game that happens. We didn’t play as fast as they were playing probably. Maybe we were thinking a little too much. We made some adjustments on the sideline and once we did I thought we played much better in the second half.”
Michel Chapuseaux, who is taking over the day-to-day placekicking from Jordan Means and continued his kickoff duties. Chapuseaux went 1-for-1 against UTSA as he hit a career best 43 yard field goal in the third quarter. He averaged 60.8 yards per kickoff with three touchbacks.
Jags Return To Practice Field After Off Day On Monday
Head Coach Joey Jones talking with wide receiver Carr Tigner during preseason practice.
South Alabama had an off day on Monday for the Labor Day holiday and returned to the practice field on Tuesday morning to continue preparation for Nicholls State on Saturday. They continued to work on correcting mistakes that the team made in the 33-31 loss to UTSA.
The first thing the Jaguars have to do is to put the game behind them and move onto the next opponent. Head coach Joey Jones believes that they have done that and are focused on Nicholls State. South Alabama met the Colonels in 2010 but did not face them last season.
“I think we came out and practiced pretty well,” he said about Tuesday’s practice. “I think the approach we have to take is we’ve got to have a great week of practice. Nicholls State, in my opinion, is a much better team than they were two years ago. They’ve improved a lot in watching last year’s film. We’ve got to be locked in this week and I think the kids understand that, but we’ve got to prove it on the field. We challenged them to get ready this week.”
Coach Jones also mentioned that he believes that the lingering feelings from the loss are gone. “I think it’s gone. Sunday they came in a little down, obviously. Any time you lose you’re going to have some of that. But they came out in better spirits (Tuesday).”
Since the Jaguars do not have any game film of the Colonels from this season, the coaching staff has devised a game plan based on what they did last season. Nicholls State went 2-10 last season.
“All we can do is watch last year’s film and the guys they’ve got coming back,” Jones said. “That’s all we can do. They are going to have the advantage of watching our game (against UTSA) and we have the advantage of having already played a game. But you’d much rather have already studied your opponent and have a good gameplan. We have to base our gameplan off what we know from the past, so we’ll probably have to adjust some during the game.”
The Jags will host the Nicholls State Colonels on Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium with kickoff scheduled for 4pm. The game is scheduled to be shown on ESPN3 again.
ESPN 3 To Broadcast Jags Game At Louisiana-Lafayette
South Alabama’s game at Louisiana-Lafayette is scheduled to be aired on ESPN3. However there is no confirmation on the ESPN3 website nor is there a time scheduled yet.
Jaguars New Spread Offense Performed Well In First game
The Jaguar offense looks to the sideline for play adjustments against UTSA.
The debut of South Alabama’s new spread offense played well enough to win, however turnovers negated that win. It produced 31 points and 308 yards.
The first drive went exactly as offensive coordinator Robert Matthews expected. The offense moved the ball quickly, CJ Bennett released the ball quickly, the plays were signaled in smoothly and the players made plays. The drive went 75 yards in eight plays. It was like clockwork.
Unfortunately on the Jaguars second drive, an interception in the end zone ended the drive. It was actually a 14 point swing as UTSA drove 80 yards for a touchdown.
In all, the offense committed three turnovers. The interception in the end zone, a fumble on a mishandled snamp under center and another fumble when Bennett and running back Demetre Baker collided.
“We had a lot of positives,” said Matthews. “Obviously, there were a couple of plays we wish we had back. It’s like we told the guys after the game on Saturday; it was all about us and our mishaps, and if we just fix a couple of things, there’s a totally different outcome. And we’ll just leave it at that. Our No. 1 goal is ball security. It’s something we talk about every day and something we practice every day, and we had a couple of things that you could watch a football game 100 times and never see. But you saw it twice on Saturday. It is what it is. We’re going to come back this week and keep improving.”
Coach Matthews was particularly critical of the Jaguars third down conversions. The Jags were 5-of-13 on third downs against the Roadrunners. That was something he pointed to as a definite area where improvement was needed. “The thing I was disappointed about is we were 38 percent on third downs,” he said. “One third down was a bad quarterback-center exchange for a half-yard quarterback sneak. And then the other we converted, but we got called for a holding penalty. You change those, now you’re 7-of-13, you’re around 55 percent, and you feel good about your third-down conversions. But the fact is we didn’t and those things did happen, so we’ve got to work on our third-down conversion ratio and get it back up over 50 percent, which would make us one of the top teams in the country. That’s our goal, and we didn’t get that done on Saturday.”
Both Bennett and transfer Ross Metheny played in the game, however Metheny played sparingly. Coach Matthews indicated that we may continue to see both quarterbacks in the game. “I think you’ll see both of them continue to play,” he explained. “There was some good and some bad. The first game is always tough, and it’s probably toughest on the quarterback position because you’re seeing things in game speed again. You try to replicate it in practice and we did the best we could, but until you get those game reps under your belt it’s hard to be sharp. You wish you had four preseason games like the NFL does, but unfortunately we don’t. You’ve got an intrasquad scrimmage and then you’re in Game one. I think we’ll continue to improve at that position and we’ll press forward and you’ll see both guys out there.”
The offensive line, who had three new starters this season, played well after learning the new blocking scheme that Matthews installed over the offseason. In addition to offensive coordinator, Matthews is also coaching the offensive line. “Overall, I thought they were pretty solid,” he said. “We moved the ball pretty well and had good time to throw the ball. But that was just Game one. We’ve got to come back this week and prove ourselves again. We’re just a blue-collar group and that’s kind of what we talked about (Sunday). We’ve got to prove ourselves every week up front.”
Jereme Jones and Corey Besteda both had three receptions and combined for 91 yards. Six other players caught at least two passes. Demetre Baker ran 12 times for 63 yards and a touchdown while Kendall Houston rushed 11 times for 43 yards and a touchdown himself as the Jags rushed for 126 yards against UTSA.
The offense showed spurts of brilliance. It took several possessions for the Jags to get back in rhythm after the interception in the end zone. But when Bennett got a couple quick passes off for some positive yards on a drive, the offense would exude their confidence and ability to march down the field.
They will regroup and improve this week. The improvements between the first and second game of the season is probably the most dramatic improvement you will see during the season. And they will need it with the schedule coming after Nicholls State.
Jags Returned To Practice Field Sunday
The Jaguar offense looks to the sideline for play adjustments against UTSA.
The Jags returned to the practice field on Sunday afternoon following their 33-31 loss to Texas-San Antonio the day before.
They held a light practice in shells for a little over an hour as they worked to correct the mistakes that led to four turnovers.
South Alabama had a pass intercepted in the end zone in the first quarter as they tried to take a 14-0 lead early in the game. Later they would have three fumbles; T.J. Glover would fumble on a big kickoff return, C.J. Bennett would fumble the exchange from Center Trey Clark when they went under center for a third and one and another fumble by Bennett at the Jaguar 21 yard line when it appears that Demetre Baker slid beside Bennett and knocked the ball out of his hands.
“We did a lot of good things but had a few mistakes that we’ve got to fix,” coach Jones said. “The turnovers were obvious and we had a couple of mental busts. We didn’t have a ton of penalties, but we had a couple at the wrong time. So really a lot of things that we’ve got to work on is we’ve got to work on us. We’ve got to stop that to win.”
Coach Jones believes that the Jags will bounce back well from the loss and that they will put all of their focus on preparing for Nicholls State. “It’s tough when you lose. They aren’t going to come out here happy,” he said. “But they realize that you (have to look ahead). We always preach next play, the next game, the next day, so bottom line, that’s what we’ve got to focus on.”
One of the things the defense will have to work on is getting more pressure on the quarterback. The defense produced five tackles for loss and two quarterback hurries, but no sacks.
On a positive note, there were no injuries for South Alabama according to director of sports medicine Jinni Frisbey. Defensive back Gabe Loper was assisted off the field, but was suffering from leg cramps. Offensive lineman Melvin Meggs also suffered from cramps.
Ross’ Lingering Knee Injury Career Ending
Brandon Ross watching the Jaguars taking on UTSA on Saturday, September 1, 2012.
South Alabama running back Brandon Ross’ career appears to be over. Ross was working to return to the field after missing a year and a half following a knee injury and two surgeries.
Ross had looked good in preseason practices and scrimmages, even breaking a 55 yard touchdown in one of the scrimmages. He complained of occasional pain and soreness but he and doctors had said he would have to work through it and that it would get better.
Prior to the game on Saturday against UTSA, Ross had began experiencing more trouble with his knee. However, on Saturday he stood on the sideline only dressed out in his jersey and sweatpants.
“I think he’s done,” head coach Joey Jones said when asked about Ross’ status after the game on Saturday. “We had pretty much decided he would have to have a little more surgery again and I don’t think he wants to go through that again, so I think he’s going to hang it up. It was a little bit (of a surprise). He had performed well in the scrimmage but we knew he had been having some issues with the knee. I think it’s the best decision for him. I tell you, he’s a heck of a young man and I really respect his decision.”
Before his injury, Ross led the Jaguars in rushing in 2009 and up to the injury in 2010. Ross transferred to South Alabama after playing his freshman season at Memphis.