Jaguar’s Defense Improves In Second Game Of Season
Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach Bill Clark works with the linebacker corps during pregame warmups prior to the Jags 9-3 win over Nicholls State.
The Jaguar defense played a very stingy game against Nicholls State on Saturday. They produced six sacks and 14 tackles for loss against the Colonels for a total loss of 60 yards. That was more like what head coach Joey Jones and defensive coordinator Bill Clark wanted to see out of the Jaguar defense.
The Jags had problems getting pressure on the quarterback and catching ball carriers behind the line of scrimmage. They only had 15 sacks and 59 tackles for loss all last season. That is only an average of 1.5 sacks per game and 5.9 tackles for loss per game.
They got a slow start against UTSA when they failed to record a sack and only managed five tackles for loss.
While the Jags didn’t have any film to review for the Colonels, they did have a plan that consisted of getting in the backfield, causing problems and making plays. And that’s what they did.
In addition to the stats mentioned above, they forced two interceptions and a fumble recovery while only allowing 118 yards of total offense. Coach Clark summed it up well after the game. “We got after the quarterback. We said that was our goal coming in. We schemed the whole week trying to get four guys coming at all times and the d-line really gave us a great push. It starts with pressure. That sure helps you out a lot.”
“We got some turnovers today, some takeaways, and we had a lot of three-and-outs,” Clark continued. “We had a tough penalty near the end and we can’t have any penalties, especially gifts like that. But sometimes when you’re playing hard and you’re running your tail off, you get some of those. We’ve just got to be smart, and for the most part I think we have. But our emotion, our energy, the way we tackled, being physical, that’s everything we preached this week. It kind of got back to being who we are. Sometimes, you have to step up. The offense is going to step up one week and we’ll step up another, but this week it was our turn and that’s what a team game is all about. It was our turn to do it and it will make us better for it.”
Jake Johnson got started early by sacking the Colonel quarterback on their third play from scrimmage. He would end the game with eight tackles , 2.5 tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry. Also Pat Moore added five tackles, 2.5 sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss and a pass break-up in his first start for South Alabama. Two of his sacks came in the second half in the red zone. Anthony Taylor had two tackles for loss and a sack. Terrel Brigham and Bryson James came away with interceptions in the game.
Looking ahead to the next couple games which include away games to NC State and Mississippi State before returning to host their first-ever Sun Belt game against in-state foe Troy University then following a week off they travel to defending Sun Belt champs Arkansas State, Coach Clark had the following to say. “I think this stretch is huge. We’ve got to go in with some confidence. You’re playing people who have got some great skilled athletes and they’re well coached. That’s the elite of the elite, so we have to play. The one we’re going to this week, at the end of the year (last season) they were scoring 50 points a game. I don’t know what they’re doing right now, but we’ve got our work cut out for us. This week we’ll just focus on N.C. State and then we’ll go from there.”
Coach Jones Speaks At Over The Mountain Touchdown Club In Birmingham
On Sunday, Coach Joey Jones had a speaking event in Birmingham for the Over the Mountain Touchdown Club. When speaking about the Jags two game road trip to NC State and Mississippi State, the Jaguars will be collecting “blood money.”
Speaking about major Division I schools giving smaller teams large paychecks to play at their home stadium. “I read an article recently called ‘Blood Money,’ and that’s a good analogy,” Jones said to the Birmingham News. “You have to take a beating in those games.”
But coach Jones added that it’s the price a young program has to pay in order to build their programs. He told the attendees that the Jags will get $980,000 for their trip to Tennessee next season. He also mentioned that it helps when they are recruiting prospects when you tell them they will be traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina, Starkville Mississippi and Hawaii.
Coach Jones likes the progress the Jaguars have made. “For four years we’ve been building a program, but now we’ve got to start building a team,” Jones said. “The players we were getting at first weren’t Division I players … but now it’s completely different. The athletes we got this year and will get moving forward are D-I players. We’re a better team this year. We’re competitive and on track where we need to go.”
While the Jaguars are not eligible to win the conference championship, they will be playing a full eight game Sun Belt schedule. NC State begins a tough four game stretch over five weeks. The Jags travel to NC State then Mississippi State before returning home for their first-ever Sun Belt game when they host Troy in Mobile Alabama. Then, after an off-week, they will then travel to Arkansas State, the defending Sun Belt champions coached by former Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzhan.
The Jags will be underdogs in those game, but it’s all part of the programs progress.
Jags Look To Further Improve This Week Before Travelling To NC State
The Jaguar cheerleaders leading the team onto the field while Coach Jones greets his team on the sidelines prior to the Jags game against Nicholls State.
Coach Joey Jones and his staff reviewed the video from the Jaguars 9-3 win over Nicholls State on Sunday morning and took part in meetings throughout the day. But, because of a speaking event, Coach Jones was not able to attend the teams practice on Sunday night.
The goals for Saturday’s game was to improve with more consistency, less turnovers and a better punch in the red zone as they head into the tough two game road swing to NC State and Mississippi State.
“Bottom line was the defense played really well,” Coach Jones said to the Press-Register. “I think they came out and played as we thought they would. Offensively, we got in the red zone five times and didn’t turn it into any touchdowns and I think if we had scored a couple of touchdowns there we’re in the mid 20s and we have a good game. But we didn’t execute very well down there.”
“The defense bowed up when they had to and their backs were up against the wall a couple or three times and they really responded. Like I told them today, they made plays when they had to. Any of those passes in the end zone (in the waning moments), if we don’t knock them down they score and probably win the game on any one of those plays. They made plays when they had to. This team is doing that. I think we had a lot of that in the first game but mistakes (turnovers) in the first game hurt us.”
According to Jones, the offense experienced trouble against the Colonel defense due to the lack of video of them from this season prior to their game in Mobile. While coach Jones does not like making excuses, he did point to the postponedment of the Colonels opening game at Oregon State, while they had film of the Jags game against Texas-San Antonio to prepare. “Not having any film to watch on those games made it pretty difficult on us,” he said. “We were just having to kind of shoot in the dark with them. But the bottom line is, once we got the ball into the red zone, we just didn’t punch the ball into the end zone.”
This week the Jags will try to improve further as they face NC State for the second season in a row. If they play like they have the previous two games the Jags may find themselves in trouble against the Wolfpack, who defeated the Jags 35-13 in Raleigh last season in a game much closer than the score appears. It was also the Jags first game against an FBS opponent.
“One thing, you look at them on defense and they are much better up front,” Jones said. “They’ve got some good lineman on defense and they are very athletic. That’s the thing that jumps off the tape at you defensively. Offensively, their quarterback Glennon does a great job throwing the football. He’s 6-6 and has a great arm and will be playing in the NFL one day. He’s a very efficient passer.”
The Wolfpack also has a 1-1 record like the Jags as they lost their season opener in Atlanta to Tennessee 35-21 and won their second game at Connecticut 10-7.
Jags Defeat Nicholls State 9-3
Left guard Drew Dearman (72) looks to pick up the rusher getting by Ucambre Williams (76) as CJ Bennett (15) loads up to throw downfield.
South Alabama gets it’s first win of the season in a defensive struggle against Nicholls State. Three-and-outs and forced turnovers were the story of the game. The Jaguar defense held Nicholls State to a mere 118 yards while forcing three turnovers and only allowing three points to the Colonels.
“Putting pressure on the quarterback really helped us tonight,” head coach Joey Jones said. “I thought we played with a lot more energy on defense, it looked like the defense that I’m used to seeing.”
The first quarter saw several three-and-outs in the first quarter as Nicholls only managed 23 total yards and the Jags only 19 total yards. Each team faced four third downs and only the Jags converted one in the entire first quarter. On top of that, the first two Jaguar drives started at their 2- and 1-yard lines respectively.
Finally on Scott Garbers third punt, the Jags were able to flip field position. Facing 4th and 20 from their own 22 yard line Garber punted, with the aid of the wind, a 69 yard punt to the Colonel 9 yard line. The Jags forced them to punt and had great field position at the Colonel 46 yard line with 1:51 left in the quarter. The offense drives down to the 35 yard line, but on the final play of the quarter, Ross Metheny takes a three yard sack.
After switching sides of the field, the Jags faced a 3rd and 13 going into the wind. An incomplete pass forces the Jags to punt, but Garber cannot keep it out of the end zone.
The Colonels are able to drive, on the ensuing possession, to the Jaguar 20 yard line, but are backed up by a 10 yard loss on a fumbled snap by the quarterback on first down. After back to back incomplete passes, Nicholls State finally break 0-0 tie with a 48 yard field goal, aided by the wind, to take a 3-0 lead on the Jags.
But the Jags answer right back with a drive of their own. Starting at their own 25 yard line after a touchback on the kickoff. T.J. Glover rushes for no gain on first down, then Bennett completes back to back passes to Terrance Timmons and Glover for a first down. Then they rush the ball five consecutive times, three by Baker for 6, 15 and 8 yards respectively. Then Kendall Houston rushes for 6 then loses 3 back to the Nicholls State 30 yard line. Bennett then finds Wes Saxton for 11 yards to make it 3rd and 2 at the Colonels 19 yard line. Timmons rushes for no gain, but a personal foul gives the Jags half the distance to the goal and an automatic first down.
After a penalty and facing 3rd down, Bennett hits Jereme Jones at the goal line but is marked down at the one yard line. Facing third and goal, the hand-off to Kendall Houston loses a yard. After looking like the Jags were going to go for the touchdown, Coach Jones sends on the kicking team but calls a time out when the play clock starts to wind down. Michel Chapuseaux converts the 19 yard field goal to tie the game.
In the second quarter, the Jags defense held Nicholls to -13 yards rushing.
After punts by both teams to start the second half, the Jags put together another drive starting at their own 48 yard line until they reached the Colonel 17 yard line and stalled out. Chapuseaux’s kick into the wind misses wide left.
On the second play of the Colonel’s ensuing possession, Bryson James would pick off the Landry Klann pass at their 33 yard line. On first down, Bennett would find Houston open on the screen pass and with a big block by Drew Dearman, he would scamper for 14 yards to the Colonel 19. But a roughing the passer penalty would put them at the 9 yard line with 1st and goal. A four yard run by Houston would be followed up by two incomplete passes to Lavender and Besteda before settling for a 21 yard field goal with 5:17 left in the third quarter.
The Colonels would go three and out on their next possession and their punt would be fair caught at the Jaguar 22 yard line. Later on in the drive, on third and 6 at the Jaguar 38 Ross Metheny would be flushed out of the pocket and find daylight on the left side. As he was approaching the sideline, the Nicholls State defender was playing the angle to get him but would be completely leveled by T.J. Glover. The game would have to stop and trainers went to assist the injured player.
The player would eventually put on a backboard and have his neck immobilized before put on a stretcher and carted off the field. He was moving his arms and legs and even game the crowd a thumbs-up as he was loaded onto the cart. He was taken to a local hospital for observation as a precaution.
However, on the next play after the stoppage, Terrance Timmons would fumble the ball away to Nicholls State at the 50 yard line with three seconds left in the third quarter.
The Colonels would drive down to the Jaguar 17 yard line, but on 2nd down and 12 yards, Montavious Williams would recover a fumble at the Jaguar 19 yard line ending the scoring threat again.
The Jaguar offense, led by Ross Metheny again, would begin the drive with
three consecutive completions to Saxton for two yards, Hollinger for nine yards and T.J. Glover for 29 yards to put the Jags in Colonel territory at the 41 yard line. The Jags would eventually get down to the Colonel 17 yard line where they would have to settle for another field goal by Chapuseaux to put the Jags up 9-3 with 9:01 left in the game.
After a touchback on the kickoff, the first play by the Colonels would be intercepted by Terrel Brigham at the Colonel 38 yard line. After driving down to the Nicholls State 19 yard line, Baker and Bennett would fumble the handoff exchange and it would be recovered by the Colonels.
With a chance to run out the clock after a couple first downs, the Jags would go three and out starting at their own nine yard line. The Scott Garber punt from the Jaguar 16 would go 48 yards and only returned 6 to the Nicholls State 42 yard line with 2:38 left in the game.
Klann’s first down pass would fall incomplete, but the second would be caught for four yards before getting out of bounds. Then Klann would find tight end Nich Scelfo open for 9 yards and into Jaguar territory. Then a 16 yard pass completion and run down the right sideline would put them at the Jaguar 29 yard line. B.J. Scott would be flagged for pass interference on the subsequent play, putting the Colonels at the Jaguar 14 yard line needing a touchdown.
The first down play would go for a loss of one yard. Followed by an incompletion then a Pat Moore sack of Klann would back them up to the Jaguar 18 yard line facing 4th and 14. Nicholls would call a time out with 38 seconds remaining in the game to scheme a play. After allowing the defense to line up, they could call their final time out. Then the fourth down pass would be broken up by Darrius Morrow to save the game. After a knee, the Jags would watch the time run off the clock for the 9-3 win.
South Alabama led with 279 total yards, 169 passing and 110 rushing while Nicholls State ended the game with 118 total yards, 96 passing and a mere 22 rushing. The Jags held the time of possession lead with 34:52 to 25:08 while they also ran 75 plays to the Colonels 52 plays.
Demetre Baker lead all players with 75 yards rushing while Metheny had 14 , Bennett had 13 and Houston only 10.
T.J. Glover lead the receiver corps with 43 yards on three catches. Hollinger and Lavender both had three for 36 yards and 20 yards respectively. Jereme Jones caught two for 22 and Wes Saxton also caught two for 13. Also Corey Waldon returned from his knee surgery in preseason camp to catch his first pass of the season for seven yards.
Bennett would go 11-of-20 for 111 yards and no interceptions. Metheny would go 6-of-10 for 58 yards and would be sacked three times.
Chapuseaux would go 3-of-4, hitting field goals from 19, 21 and 34 yards but missing a 35 yarder.
“South Alabama is good up front, they rotated eight guys in there,” Nicholls Statate head coach Charlie Stubbs said. “We are kind of young up front in a couple of positions and we weren’t able to substitute as freely as they did. I feel like they kind of wore us down in that area. We weren’t able to really establish much of a running game, except what I could muster with LaQuinton Caston as a Wildcat quarterback, so that goes hand-in-hand. South Alabama made us one-dimensional, and we’re not good enough right now in the passing game to try and win just by dropping back and throwing the ball. Against a defense like that, we have to play really well, execute and stay out of long-yardage situations.”
“It was big for us to win this game. We lose that game and we’re reeling,” Coach Jones said. “I told the kids, ‘A win is a win.’ Ten years from now we’ll look back and remember we won the football game, but we also have to be honest with ourselves and what we have to work on. We were just a little out of sync on offense, and a lot of that had to do — and I’m not making excuses — with not having film on them. When you go into a game and you haven’t watched any film on them, you’re not able to watch their schemes. They changed some schemes up from two years ago. The first few times we had the ball, it was on the one or two- yard line, and we kind of got started on a bad note. I don’t think we adjusted very well, and that’s something we have to look at next week.”
The Jaguar defense played lights-out defense for the game. The Colonel defense schemed well to get enough pressure on the quarterback to cause problems and did well at times at containing the running game.
The Jaguar offense did well when they sped up the tempo can caught the defense in mismatches. But when they got something going, something would cause them to stall out. This will have to be worked on in the next week before the Jags travel to North Carolina State.
However, NC State lost to Tennessee to begin the season then squeaked out a win over FBS-transitional UConn on Saturday. We’ll have to wait and see what the Jags will do against the Wolfpack next saturday when they travel to Raleigh for their first road game of the season.
The Jags and Wolfpack will kickoff at 5pm CDT at Carter-Finley Stadium. The game will be streamed online by ESPN3.
EA Sports Is Making Good On Their Promise
Earlier this year, it came to fans attention that South Alabama was not “in the game” as EA Sports commercials suggest. When a preview was released, fans scoured through and could not find South Alabama. That’s when Jaguar Nation started making waves and their pleas did not fall on deaf ears.
At first EA ignored the fans and simply said that they didn’t know in time to include them in the game. An answer us fans refused to simply accept. Then EA announced that, due to the oversight, they were going to give the Jags the first class treatment usually reserved for the top tier teams.
Fast forward to this week. EA Sports has been in Mobile at Ladd-Peebles Stadium since Thursday collecting data, photographic and video scans and interviewing the coaching staff for inclusion in the 2014 edition of the game due out next summer.
According to Ben Haumiller, EA Sports site producer, South Alabama was not included in the 2013 game that came out earlier this year. They were the only team of the 124 FBS Schools that was not included. Last weeks opponent, Texas-San Antonio, is included even though they started football after South Alabama. So is Texas State. But EA Sports offered to make it up to the school and Jaguar Nation by providing extras for the Jags when they are included in the game next year.
EA Sports sent a four-person crew for a three day information gathering trip in preparation for their addition to the game. They have performed a stadium scan that will duplicate Ladd-Peebles Stadium exactly. Also crowd noise and fan chants during the game will be use “In the game”. Interviews with members of the coaching staff will help the developers make the play-calling and offensive and defensive formations as accurate as possible. South Paw was also filmed on Thursday for inclusion in the “Mascot Mash-Up” option in the game.
The crew will film the cheerleaders and the football team as they run-out of the entrance onto the field today. They will recreate that in game.
“It’s neat because a lot of the players are fans of the game and a lot of coaches may have played (similar) games when they were younger but have probably gotten away from it. But they understand the significance of it and for their team it can be a great team-building exercise,” said Haumiller of their reception in town this week. “The (players) will get together on a Friday night and play the game all night long. … Kids are learning about the sport. They’re learning what a cover 2 defense is at a younger age because they learn it playing the game. They love the fact that we are here to promote their school because it’s a big recruiting tool as well. To be able to say that EA was at South Alabama, hey we weren’t anywhere else this weekend.”
Haumiller said he was disheartened when they realized South Alabama had been omitted from the game. Their next step was to make sure South Alabama were “taken care of” for the next version of the game. “We could not have been any more embarrassed and saddened that it happen,” Haumiller said. “So that was one of the things where we wanted to make it right and how this trip became involved, getting everything we possibly can get to represent South Alabama so when they do make their debut it’s the right debut. It’s not just, yes, we added them, it’s yeah, here they are, and this is everything about them.”
Thursday, two EA Sports representatives met with coaches about their playbook, which the team is going to put together a DVD of some of its plays for them to use in the game. They also filmed South Paw and talked with other school officials as well.
Meanwhile, environmental artist Gregory Palinkas and Dan Goodman worked 12 hours at Ladd-Peebles Stadum to collect photographs, scan the stadium’s interior and exterior all to painstakingly recreate the look of South Alabama football in the game.
“We’re doing scans and photograph references, capturing material information, so we can get everything down to the gravel so that we can capture everything as true to life as we can,” Palinkas said.
The main work was doing the scans. “That scan is amazing,” Palinkas continued. “… We’re capturing 44 million points per scan. We’ll be able to pick up every nut and bolt that makes up this place. It’s insane. It’s fantastic. It not only will scan the points but it will take color photographs and when you put it into the software (in process of building the stadium for the game) you can overlay the color into those points and you get an accurate representation of the colorization of the lights during the day, what the different materials look like. It’s really outstanding.”
This is what Palinkas referred to as the “Big Tour” which is work normally reserved for the upper-tier teams. And now, South Alabama. All because we were omitted.
“We’ll be here Saturday for game day to capture what the crowd sounds like, get some crowd audio in, get more photograph references of the crowd itself. Because this is going to be South Alabama’s first time in the game we want to make sure that we absolutely nail it and get everything as close as we can to perfection so when you guys buy the game they’ll see the stadium just as it is,” Palinkas stated.
When they finish collecting data today, they will head back to their offices in Orlando, Florida and begin the process of putting all that information together for the Jags inclusion in the game. While this process will take about four to five weeks to complete, it will not stop there. After the stadium is recreated, the crowd noise is added and the plays and formations are added there will be continual updates and tweaks make until the last moment before the game is shipped off for disc pressing. Then the Jags will be included with all of the other 123 FBS schools “In the game”.
While the fans may be sad that they were left out from the beginning. In hindsight it was a blessing in disguise. Now South Alabama will be included the same way as Alabama, Michigan, USC and other “top-tier teams”.
May we suggest a limited edition cover while we are at it?
Mock-up of Kendall Houston on the cover of NCAA Football 13. But it would be just as good if it were NCAA Football 14.
C.J. Bennett as the alternate cover for NCAA Football 13.
Go Jags!
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.