Preview: A Season Finale Cat Fight Between Jaguars and Bobcats
Kickoff: Friday, November 29, 2:30pm
Venue: Hancock Whitney Stadium, Mobile, AL
TV/Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: 96.1 fm The Rocket, Sports Talk 99.5 fm, iHeartRadio App
Thunderjags on X (formerly known as Twitter): @USAThunderjags
South Alabama punched their bowl ticket with a win last Saturday at Southern Miss. But they also kept their chances alive to win the Sun Belt Western Division title. In order to realize that, they need some help this week from Louisiana-Lafayette’s cross-state rival Louisiana-Monroe.
But first, the Jags have to take care of their own business and get a win against Texas State in order to keep those dreams alive.
The Jags (6-5, 5-2 Sun Belt Conference) and Texas State (6-5, 4-3 SBC) will meet at Hancock Whitney Stadium on Senior Day for South Alabama. If they win, they can sit back on Saturday and watch how the Sun Belt Conference divisions play out. Both division crowns will be determined this weekend.
What is South Alabama facing when the Bobcats come to town for a good ole cat fight? Let’s get familiar with the Bobcats head coach and take a look through the season stats for both teams.
Texas State
GJ Kinne is completing his second season at the helm in San Marcos. He has already taken Texas State to new heights in his short time in charge. He led them to a FBS program record 8 wins in his first season and their first-ever appearance in a bowl game.
When he took over the program, they had not had a winning season in 9 years. In an age of NIL and the transfer portal, Kinne brought in 53 scholarship newcomers and 71 total new players over the spring and summer of 2023. They got the programs first-ever win over a Power-5 program when they defeated Baylor to start the 2023 season. They tied for 2nd place in the west division and earned a 45-21 win over Rice in the Servpro First Responders Bowl in Dallas, TX for their first bowl win.
Kinne and his staff have overhauled the Bobcat offense since arriving in San Marcos. They were the nations most improved offense in 2023 with a 15-point improvement in scoring offense and finished 14th in the nation in scoring and total offense.
Offense
The Bobcats ranks 1st in Scoring Offense and Total Offense, 2nd in Offensive Efficiency, 3rd in Passing Offense, and 4th in Rushing Offense in the conference.
| Stat | Average per game |
| Points | 36.4 |
| Total Offense | 469.3 |
| Passing Offense | 267.1 |
| Rushing Offense | 202.2 |
| Time of Possession | 30:13 |
| Penalty Yards | 59.6 |
| Stat | Cumulative for Season |
| 3rd Downs | 61 of 138 (44.2%) |
| 4th Downs | 12 of 20 (60%) |
| Red Zone Scoring Attempts | 35 of 42 (83.3%) |
| Red Zone Touchdowns | 29 of 42 (69%) |
| Penalties – Yards | 71 – 655 |
| Fumbles – Lost | 18 – 8 |
Jordan McCloud, the former JMU quarterback, now leads the offense in San Marcos. So far this season he is 226 of 327 (69.1%) for 2,672 yards with 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also adds 249 yards on 62 carries with 6 touchdowns.
McCloud spreads the ball around pretty well as you’ll see. Joey Hobert leads the team with 59 catches for 581 yards and 7 touchdowns. Jaden Williams leads the team with 644 receiving yards on 48 catches with 6 touchdowns. Kole Wilson has 40 catches for 567 yards and 4 touchdowns. Chris Dawn Jr has 30 catches for 370 yards and 6 touchdowns.
Ismail Mahdi leads the Bobcats rushing attack with 844 yards on 163 attempts with 3 touchdowns. Torrance Burgess Jr has 344 yards on 54 carries with 2 touchdowns. Lincoln Pare has 315 yards on 48 carries with 5 touchdowns.
Defense
The Bobcats ranks 1st Forced Fumbles, 2nd in Defensive Effenciency, 3rd in Total Defense, and 3rd in Scoring Defense, Rushing Defense and Passing Defense in the conference.
| Stat | Average per game |
| Points | 23 |
| Total Offense | 345.3 |
| Passing Offense | 197 |
| Rushing Offense | 148.3 |
| Time of Possession | 29:47 |
| Penalty Yards | 43.9 |
| Stat | Cumulative for Season |
| 3rd Downs | 58 of 162 (35.8%) |
| 4th Downs | 12 of 23 (52.2%) |
| Red Zone Scoring Attempts | 32 of 37 (86.5%) |
| Red Zone Touchdowns | 21 of 37 (56.8%) |
| Penalties – Yards | 65 – 483 |
| Fumbles – Lost | 18 – 7 |
Jordan Polk leads the team with 56 total stops, 28 solo, with 3.5 Tackles for Loss and a sack. James Neal is next on the team with 47 total stops, 23 solo, with 1.5 TFLs
Kalil Alexander leads the team with 5.5 sacks and also adds 7 TFLs. Steven Parker leads the defense with 9 TFLs with 5 sacks.
Trez Moore leads the Bobcats with 2 interceptions.
Special Teams
Lars Rau is averaging 38.1 yards per punt over his 20 attempts, with 16 fair catches, 4 downed inside the 20 and a 58-yarder as his long.
David Nunez is averaging 38.9 yards per punt over his 13 kicks with 7 fair catches, 9 downed inside the 20, and 3 touchbacks with a long of 52 yards.
Mason Shipley is 11-of-15 placekicking with a long on the season of 60 yards and is 44 of 46 on extra point attempts.
South Alabama
Offense
The Jags currently sit 3rd in the conference in scoring offense, 3rd in rushing offense, and total offense. Nationally the Jags are 25th in rushing offense and scoring offense, 23rd in total offense, 45th in time of possession. But they are also 3rd nationally in Passes Had Intercepted (3), 13th Turnovers Lost (8), and 6th in Punt Returns (17.5).
| Stat | Average per game |
| Points | 34.5 |
| Total Offense | 439 |
| Passing Offense | 241.8 |
| Rushing Offense | 197.2 |
| Time of Possession | 30:00 |
| Penalty Yards | 72.1 |
| Stat | Cumulative for Season |
| 3rd Downs | 55 of 135 (40.7%) |
| 4th Downs | 8 of 14 (57.1%) |
| Red Zone Scoring Attempts | 43 of 50 (86%) |
| Red Zone Touchdowns | 32 of 50 (64%) |
| Penalties – Yards | 91 – 739 |
| Fumbles – Lost | 10 – 5 |
After last weeks win Gio Lopez is now 189 of 288 (65.6%) for 2,367 yards, 17 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He also has 436 rushing yards on 75 carries with 6 touchdowns.
Jamaal Pritchett became the fourth Jaguar receiver in the past five seasons to surpass 1,000 receiving yard mark and only the 3rd player ever to do so (Caullin Lacy and Jalen Tolbert twice). He has 1,041 yards on 81 catches with 8 touchdowns on the season. Jeremiah Webb is second on the team with 414 yards on 27 catches with 3 touchdowns. Devin Voisin has 28 catches for 332 yards.
Fluff Bothwell leads the rushing attack with 753 yards on 106 carries with 11 touchdowns. Kentrel Bullock has 684 yards on 125 carries with 6 touchdowns.
Defense
The Jags defense stacks up pretty good in the several categories in the conference. They are 2nd in Rush Defense, 4th in 3rd down defense, 4th in red zone defense, 4th in scoring defense and 6th in 1st down defense and 5th down defense, and 6th in total defense.
Nationally the defense ranks 18th in passes intercepted (13), 40th in turnovers gained (17), and 44th in rushing defense (127.6).
| Stat | Average per game |
| Points | 23.6 |
| Total Offense | 385.8 |
| Passing Offense | 253.7 |
| Rushing Offense | 132.1 |
| Time of Possession | 30:00 |
| Penalty Yards | 45.8 |
| Stat | Cumulative for Season |
| 3rd Downs | 56 of 155 (36.1%) |
| 4th Downs | 11-23 (47.8%) |
| Red Zone Scoring Attempts | 30 of 37 (81%) |
| Red Zone Touchdowns | 17 of 37 (45.9%) |
| Penalties – Yards | 56 – 155 |
| Fumbles – Lost | 11 – 4 |
Blayne Myrick leads the team with 82 total stops, 38 solo, with 2 sacks and 7 Tackles for Loss. Jordan Scruggs and Jaden Voisin are next on the list with 60 total stops each.
Courtney McBride Jr leads the team with 4 sacks and also 8 TFLs.
Jaden Voisin leads the team with 4 interceptions but Wesley Miller has 3 after his pick-six last week. Lardarius Webb Jr has 2. Scruggs, Amarion Fortenberry, Ty Goodwill and Chrystylle Caldwell each have an interception.
Special Teams
Aleksi Pulkkinen is averaging 40.7 yards per punt with 19 fair catches, 16 downed inside the 20, and 2 touchbacks. His 67-yard boot continues to be the long.
Laith Marjan is 15-of-16 with his only miss coming from 50+ yards and a season long of 49 yards.
Keys to the Game
Don’t beat yourself
Just one more regular season game left with a lot left to play for in this game. They cannot afford to set themselves back with preventable penalties. When you watch the game with Red, White & Blue glasses its easy to feel that the Jags keep coming up on the short end of the penalty game. They just have to play as cleanly as possible, don’t let frustrations get to them if they do get penalized, and hope for the best. If they can avoid setting the offense back with holds and false starts this week, I think the offense will be able to put plenty of points on the board against the Bobcats.
Solid Special Teams
The Jags played a better on special teams last week, lets keep that momentum going this week. Don’t let the Bobcats gain any momentum from good return or a good play in special teams.
Turnovers
South Alabama has a turnover margin of +9, they have intercepted opponents 13 times and recovered 4 fumbles on the season. Texas State has a turnover margin of -5, they have forced 18 fumbles, recovering 7, and intercepted opponents 5 times. But offensively they have thrown 11 interceptions and lost 8 fumbles.
Watch for turnover opportunities in this game.
Prediction
South Alabama hosts their regular season finale after two weeks on the road. Both teams will have one less day to prepare for the game since it’ll kickoff at 2:30pm on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
The Jags are a 1.5-point underdog at home to the Bobcats, which is basically a toss-up.
South Alabama will be without probably their best offensive lineman, Reed Buys, who tore his ACL against Southern Miss. When he has been out of the lineup, the Jags have struggled somewhat because they prefer to shuffle the offensive line a bit and move a more experienced guy into the right guard position then fill in on the left side. Since Lopez is a left-handed quarterback, the right side of the line is protecting his back.
Hopefully they can get starting offensive line plenty of reps this week to be ready on Friday. Perhaps the home underdog status will motivate them to come out firing on all cylinders.
Texas State will have plenty of motivation on their own. They come in after a somewhat embarrassing loss to a 3-8 Georgia State team in a very high scoring affair.
No matter how you cut it, I think this is going to be a great one for a Friday afternoon when there’s not going to be many games on to watch.
I think the Jags win outright.
Go Jags!
Jags Dominate Second Half, Cruise To 46-17 Win Over ULM
South Alabama needed to find their offensive identity, it may have taken some time, but they found themselves in the second half as the Jags rolled to a 46-17 win.
The Jags (4-4, 3-1 Sun Belt Conference) shut out Louisiana-Monroe (5-2, 3-1 SBC) in the second half while putting up 34 points on the scoreboard. They went into the locker room after giving up a field goal as time expired with a 17-12 deficit. But the Jags that went into the locker room were not the same guys who came out in the second half.
South Alabama came out just dominated the second half from kickoff to final whistle. They outgained the Warhawks 316 to 108 after halftime, almost all of it on the ground. In all they put up 355 yards rushing in the game with four different players with rushing touchdowns.
When asked about what he said to the team at halftime, head coach Major Applewhite said he “didn’t say anything special. I told our guys if we play the hardest the longest, we will win the football game. It’s a possession game and everyone in the locker room knew that it was going to be like this. If we go down and score on offense to start the half we’ll take the lead, if we don’t go down and score it’ll be a two-possession game.”
They scored on all three of their 3rd quarter possessions then demoralized them with an 11-play, 93-yard drive in the fourth quarter.
“It was just our preparation,” running back Kentrel Bullock said. “That’s what we worked on the majority of the week. We prepared to run the ball and we executed pretty well.”
After taking the opening kickoff of the second half, the Jags marched right down the field. Fluff Bothwell carried the ball on the final four snaps and covered the final 39 yards for this first touchdown of the game. It gave the Jags the lead for good and the way the offense did it, they made a resounding statement.
On ULM’s first snap of the second half, Bubba Thomas tipped the pass near the line and Wesley Miller came away with the interception putting the offense back in business at the Warhawk 28.
After a pair of penalties for a false start and an ineligible player downfield, the Jags were facing 1st and goal at the 13. But that was no problem. Kentrel Bullock found a huge hole on the right side of the line and scored. A bad snap led to a failed extra point leaving the Jags up 25-17.
A three and out punt by the defense put the Jaguar offense in business at their own 40-yard line about midway through the third quarter. Eight of the nine snaps were all run plays starting with Braylon McReynolds, then a run by Bothwell, but Gio Lopez would finish out the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run for a 32-17 advantage.
South Alabama’s defense refused to let the Warhawks get into the end zone. On a 4th and goal at the 7, the Jags stayed tight in their coverage and forced the Warhawk quarterback to throw it through the back of the end zone.
Once again, the offense only threw one pass on the next drive. But they didn’t need to throw either. Kentrel Bullock started the drive but it was Full Bothwell who pounded the Warhawk defense into submission with six consecutive runs covering the final 55-yards for his second touchdown of the game and a 37-17 advantage.
The defense got the ball back after a failed 4th down attempt. It only took two plays by Braylon McReynolds to put the Jags on the scoreboard once more, capped off by a 24-yard run into the end zone.
The Warhawks threatened to end the second half shutout but true freshman Ty Goodwill came away with the interception in the end zone to let Lopez kneel it twice for the win.
“I thought he [offensive coordinator Rob Ezell] did a great job of using them [running backs] the right way,” head coach Major Applewhite explained. “Our tailbacks were doing a great job running the ball, along with the offensive line. The tempo was giving them [ULM] problems. They weren’t getting hands on the ground, they weren’t coming off the ball. So we were able to get a little bit more of a push than normal and our backs were finding creases and running hard.”
The first half was a different story.
On the first drive the Jags called a more balanced game with a mix of passes and runs, but it was the run game that found the most traction on the first drive. Kentrel Bullock had runs of 14 and 22 before punching it into the endzone on a hard 4 yard run for a 7-0 lead.
Outside of that, the Jags really didn’t put together another a good drive in the first quarter. They did manage a short drive for a 48-yard Laith Marjan field goal.
Stats
| South Alabama | Louisiana-Monroe | |
| Total Yards | 523 | 387 |
| Passing Yards | 168 | 149 |
| Rushing Yards | 355 | 238 |
| 3rd Downs | 7 of 13 | 3 of 15 |
| 4th Downs | 0 of 0 | 2 of 4 |
| Penalties – Yards | 6 – 70 | 2 – 20 |
| Turnovers (points) | 2 (6) | 1 (0) |
South Alabama
Gio Lopez was 18-of-30 (60%) for 168 yards passing and added 25 yards rushing on 3 carries with a touchdown.
Kentrel Bullock led all rushers with 141 yards on 18 carries with two touchdowns. Full Bothwell had 119 yards on 17 carries for two touchdowns as well. Braylon McReynolds, in his first action in several games, had 73 yards on eight carries and a touchdown.
Jamaal Pritchett set a new career mark with 11 catches in a game for 89 yards. Devin Voisin had 36 yards on three catches.
Dalton Hughes and Blayne Myrick both led the team with 7 total stops each, Hughes with two solo and Myrick with three solo. One of Myrick’s stops was a sack. Hughes and Carlos Johnson Jr combined for a sack too.
Louisiana-Monroe
Aidan Armenta went 11 of 23 (47.8%) for 149 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
Javon Campbell had 77 yards on two catches. Davon Wells had 60 yards on two catches with a touchdown.
Ahmad Hardy rushed for 104 yards on 20 carries. Hunter Herring, the other quarterback, had 72 yards on 4 carries with a touchdown.
Next
South Alabama will host Georgia Southern on Saturday, November 2nd for a 6:30pm kickoff for Military Appreciation Day and the final Saturday home game this season at Hancock Whitney Stadium. The game will air on ESPNU.
