Preview: South Alabama Heads To Louisiana-Monroe To Face Division Foe
Kickoff: Saturday, October 7, 6pm
Venue: Malone Stadium, Monroe, LA
TV/Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: 96.1 fm The Rocket, Sports Talk 99.5 fm, iHeartRadio App
Thunderjags on X (formerly known as Twitter): @USAThunderjags
#5 Jersey: Jaden Voisin
UPDATE:
Well, this was embarrassing. My day job had me sleep deprived and working long hours this week. South Alabama is a 10.5 point favorite over ULM. With this realization, I am concerned. As I wrote originally, it depends which South Alabama team gets off the bus. They could come out and play like they did at OSU and easily cover. But I could see a Jaguar team that gives up too many big plays, especially to Howell, and drop another game.
My heart tells me the Jags win, but don’t cover the spread.
South Alabama (2-3, 0-1 SBC) have dropped their last two games since their big 33-7 win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater. In those last two losses the Jags have allowed too many explosive plays on defense and the offense has struggled moving the ball consistently.
The Jaguar defense has already allowed more touchdown plays of over 40 through five games this season than they allowed all of last season. After allowing only six touchdowns of over 40 yards in 2022, they have given up seven already this season, with three of them coming last week at James Madison.
Last season the Jags held off Louisiana-Monroe 41-34 in Mobile. However the Warhawks scored on two explosive plays, a pair of touchdown passes that went for 75 and 83 yards. Those were the two longest plays that the Jags allowed in the 2022 season.
Tyrone Howell, the recipient of both of those touchdown passes, is coming off of a three-touchdown performance last week against Appalachian State. The Warhawks lost that game 41-40 on a walk-off field goal.
South Alabama is winless in their four trips to Malone Stadium. ULM tends to play good football at home, they generate their own energy on the sidelines and behind their fans.
Head coach Terry Bowden’s team looks to have improved from last season. Offensive Coordinator Matt Kubik returned to fill the position he left in 2019 after Rich Rodriguez left after just one season to assume the head coach position at Jacksonville State. Under Kubik’s direction the offense seems to have improved. They put up 471 yards of total offense against what is normally a strong defense in App State. They currently rank second in the conference with 205.5 yards rushing per game.
The Jags defensive woes have not come on the ground necessarily. That has been the strong point of the defense going back to last season even.
Tyrone Howell had 244 yards and three touchdowns last season against the Jags. So the Jags secondary know what they may be facing on Saturday in Monroe.
ULM (2-2, 0-1 SBC)
Offense
The Warhawks are averaging 21 points, 343.8 total yards, 138.3 passing yards, and 205.5 rushing yards per game.
They are converting 14-of-52 (26.9%) of their 3rd down attempts and 5-of-7 (71.4%) of their 4th down attempts.
Jiya Wright is 35-of-64 (54.7%) passing for 432 yards, 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on the season. Hunter Herring is 16-of-30 (53.3%) passing on the season with 121 yards and a touchdown in two games.
Howell leads the team with 23 receptions, the only receiver in double-digits receiving) for 234 yards and four touchdowns. Dariyan Wiley has nine catches for 136 yards and a touchdown.
“Tyrone Howell is probably the best receiver we faced a year ago and he had a career day against us,” defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said in the Jaguars Monday media day. “We understand how good he is, because we saw it live last year. So it will be a tremendous challenge for us.”
Hunter Smith leads the team with 258 yards rushing on 32 carries with two touchdowns. Isaiah Woullard has 247 yards on 39 carries with a touchdown. Jiya Wright has 143 yards on 33 carries and a touchdown. Hunter Herring has 68 yards on 13 carries in two games.
Defense
Michael Batton leads the team by a far margin with 35 total stops, 11 solo, with ½ sack and 1.5 tackles for loss. Simion Hines is second on the team with 23 total stops, 13 solo. Then four other Warhawks are bunched up with 22 stops each. James Smith leads the team with 2.5 sacks on the season, four TFLs, and three quarterback hurries.
AJ Watts and Ja’Terious Evans both lead the team with two interceptions each. Max Harris and Austin Goffney both have an interception as well.
Special Teams
Derek McCormick is 3-of-4 on the season placekicking. His only miss was a blocked kick.
Braxton Builbeau is averaging 38.96 yards per punt with a long of 59 yards, 7 fair catches, 6 downed inside the 20, two kicks of 50+ yards and one touchback.
South Alabama (2-3, 0-1 SBC)
Offense
The Jags are averaging 27.6 points, 380 total yards, 231.2 passing yards and 148.8 rushing yards per game.
They are converting 32-of-70 (45.7%) on 3rd down attempts and 4-of-9 (44.4%) on 4th down attempts on the season.
Carter Bradley is 97-of-149 (65.1%) passing with 1,153 yards, 8 touchdowns and 5 interceptions on the season.
Caullin Lacy leads the team with 32 catches for 567 yards and 5 touchdowns. Jamaal Pritchett has 17 catches for 226 yards and got his first career touchdown last week. Lincoln Sefcik has 9 catches for 65 yards and a touchdown.
La’Damian Webb leads the team with 376 yards on 64 carries with 7 touchdowns. Kentrel Bullock has 247 yards on 52 carries with a touchdown. Marco Lee Jr has 111 yards on 22 carries with a touchdown.
Defense
James Miller continues to pace the defense with 31 total stops, 12 solo, with 1.5 TFLs. Trey Kiser and Jaden Voisin are next with 30 stops each.
Jamie Sheriff and Brock Higdon are tied for the team lead with 2 sacks each. Trey Kiser leads the team with 5 TFLs.
Yam Banks, Marquise Robinson, and Jaden Voisin all lead the team with 1 interception each.
Special Teams
Diego Guajardo is 5-of-6 on the season with a 42 yarder as his longest of the year. His only miss came in the season opener against Tulane from 52 yards.
Jack Martin is averaging 40.68 yards per punt with 10 fair catches, 7 inside the 20, two kicks of 50+ yards with a long of 53.
Keys to the Game
Explosive Plays
In all three of the Jaguar losses the defense gave up big, chunk plays or explosive plays as they are also referred as. The first two scored by James Madison were touchdown passes of 48 and 44 yards. Then their last touchdown was a 66 yard pass.
“You can’t give up explosive plays for touchdowns,” head coach Kane Wommack said in his Monday press conference. “I think that put us in a really challenging situation… We dug ourselves in a pretty deep hole, really defensively (against JMU) with those three explosive plays.”
“We’re not going to reach our potential as a football team until we stop doing that” he continued.
Against Central Michigan They only game up one explosive play touchdown, but it was huge 3rd down pass that went for 70 yards to start the fourth quarter. In that game it was more complicated than just explosive plays. It was a combination of that with poorly timed penalties, the inability to stop Jase Bauer running the ball, and 3rd down conversions.
But back to start the season at Tulane they had three touchdown passes of 47, 47 and 48 yards.
If the Jags want to get back into the win column more consistently this season, the explosive plays in the secondary must be reduced or eliminated.
Offensive Line
James Madison and Tulane both exposed the Jaguar offensive line. The Jags struggled to establish the run and Carter Bradley was consistently under pressure. The offense starts up front with the line, and right now they are struggling.
James Madison’s front seven lived up to their billing too. They got into the backfield and caused havoc. They consistently moved the line of scrimmage into the Jags backfield, they got a number of sacks, and Bradley had a number of passes batted at the line. One of the batted passes was caught and returned for a touchdown.
Hopefully the offensive line that showed up to play at Oklahoma State reemerges and reestablishes themselves as the Jaguar Standard beginning this week.
Consistency
This goes from top to bottom on both sides of the ball. Consistency in executing the offense, in tackling, in coverage, just in everything.
Against Central Michigan the Jags went down the field on their first two possessions and held a 14-0 lead early only to go cold on both sides of the ball.
Against James Madison the Jags went down 14-0 in the first quarter and were down 17-0 before they put points on the board. Even against Tulane the Jags opened the game with a turnover and were down 10-0 in the first quarter.
It looked like that in the second half of the Southeastern Louisiana game the Jags found their way. It seemed to be confirmed in the 33-7 thrashing of Oklahoma State. However the play in the last two games have shown that the problems still persist.
But it’s not a case where they’re not fixable. If anything, SLU and OSU show what this team is capable of when they play up to their standard.
Injuries
No major injuries of note came out of the James Madison game. It’s still unknown if Josh McCulloch will return to play this week but it’s looking doubtful. Adrien Strickland, who appeared to get a poked in the eye against James Madison, came back to play later in the game and will be ready to suit up on Saturday as well.
Several players seem to be banged up, which is a kind of expected after five consecutive weeks of play. So next week quasi bye week can get here fast enough.
Prediction
The Jags defense has been plagued this season by dual threat quarterbacks. Jase Bauer, Jordan McCloud and now they will face another in Jiya Wright leading a resurgent ULM offense. Add to that Tyrone Howell’s playmaking ability and the Jags defense has a big test ahead of them.
Additionally they are facing down starting conference play 0-2.
So far this series has been all about the home team. While South Alabama holds the advantage overall at 5-4, all 5 wins have come in Mobile while every loss has been in Monroe.
The Jags hold their destiny in their own hands in conference play. This is their first divisional game, if they can run the table in the division; they will have a spot in the conference championship game in December.
But it has to start this Saturday.
South Alabama is a 10.5 point underdog against the Warhawks. I think the Jags cover the points with a chance to win. But it all depends on which team gets off that team bus in Monroe.
Go Jags!