Jags Sign Two Defensive Back Transfers In As Many Days
In two day the Jags have signed two Junior College transfers to help bolster their defensive secondary. On Wednesday they signed Safety Jonathan Cameron to a National Letter-of-Intent to join the Jaguars.
Cameron played the last two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and will have two season of eligibility left to play for the Jaguars. MGCCC finished in the top 10 in the final NJCAA rankings for 2009.
Cameron is listed at 6’1″ 190-lb and is a native of Puckett, Mississippi. His stats for last season included 39 tackles, two for a loss and one being a sack.
Before his stint with MGCCC he played in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic.
He chose South Alabama over an offer from East Carolina.
On Thursday, South Alabama announced the second JC transfer to sign with the Jaguars. Justin Sorrell signed a National Letter-of-Intent to join the Jags program with two years of eligibility to play.
Sorrell played the last two seasons with Blinn Junior College in Texas. They won the National Junior College Athletic Association National Championship this year.
Sorrell is listed as a 5’10” 190-lb defensive back who finished the 2009 season with 77 tackles (second most on the team) and two interceptions in helping the Buccaneers to their 11-1 record and the National Championship. A second experience defensive back in as many days to help the Jags secondary as they will be seeing a marked increase in strength of schedule.
Sorrell chose South Alabama over recruiting efforts by UTEP, McNeese State and Lamar. Lamar is on the Jags schedule for 2010.
The Jags played the 2009 season with some converted players in the secondary. Matt Saucier moved from Quarterback and Ken Barefield moved from receiver to help give more depth at the position after some injuries early thinned out the ranks.
Coach Joey Jones has this to say about Cameron. “We feel great about Jonathan, he’s tall, rangy and has great speed. He is a really good athlete who can play either cornerback or safety. On his visit, you could tell that Jonathan is an individual with great character. We knew that we wanted him here at USA.”
“Justin is a very athletic safety who is a great tackler. He also has the ability to play man coverage as well. Justin is a great combination player, he is exactly what we are looking for in a safety,” Coach Jones said about Sorrell.
Go Jags!
Jags Pick Up Verbal Commitment From Offensive Lineman
South Alabama picked up a verbal commitment from Vestavia Hills HS offensive lineman Drew Dearman. He is a 6’4″ 280-lb guard who played in the Alabama Mississippi All-Star Classic on Saturday. He had interest from Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State, Tennessee and UAB but he finally made a verbal commitment for the Jags after the game in Mobile.
In addition to being selected among the best Senior players in the state of Alabama, he is also doing well in class. Back in October he was named Scholar-Athlete of the week by the Birmingham News for his 3.86 GPA, being a member of National Honor Society as well as playing football and basketball.
South Alabama Releases 2010 Football Schedule
South Alabama released their 2010 football schedule on Monday and its a definite step up in competition. The Jags will play 10 games next season against four year institutions with four of them already at or transitioning to FCS or Division I-AA.
Seven of the ten games will be in Mobile with trips to Edward Waters, Lamar and University of California-Davis as their away games.
The Jaguars second season will kickoff on Saturday September 4 against Pikeville (Kentucky) who is an NAIA school that went 3-8 last year. The following an open week, the Jags will host Nocholls State on September 18. Nicholls State finished 3-8 (2-5 in the Southland Conference) last season.
Then the Jaguars first ever away game will have them Traveling to Jacksonville, Florida on September 25 to play Edward Waters, another NAIA school. Last year they returned to football in 2001 after a 34 year break. They went 1-10 although their head coach has been named conference coach of the year twice in the last three seasons.
October will begin by hosting Kentucky Wesleyan (October 2) followed by Missouri Tech (October 9), both from the Great Lakes Football Conference.
The schedule will toughen with back to back road games against formitable opponents. October 16 the Jags will travel to Lamar. This will be their first season back in football since 1989 as they will be transitioning to FCS. Then the Jags will travel all the way out to UC-Davis on October 23. Davis finished 6-5 last season and won the Great West Conference in 2009. Davis played Boise State close for most of the game which is not indicitive by the final score of 34-16.
October 30 the Jags will host upstart football program Georgia State who will begin the transition to FCS play. Head Coach Bill Curry should be familiar with many with his previous work at Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia Tech plus his stint with ESPN covering college football.
November will see two more games in Mobile. Henderson State (Arkansas) will be the Jags opponent on November 6 for homecoming. They lost 27-24 at Southland Conference co-champion McNeese State last season. Then the final game of the season will be against Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday, November 11. They finished 4-4 last season in the Gulf South Conference.
“Our coaches and players want to move up the ladder from a competitive standpoint,” Coach Joey Jones commented. “This schedule is a good one as we continue to transition to the NCAA Division I level. It will be a challenge for the kids, but it is one big step in that process.”
Coach Jones commented about the away games by saying, “We would’ve liked to have played a road game this year, so we’re excited about the opportunity to be able to do that next season. It’s exciting not just playing in someone else’s stadium, but in getting used to the travel process.”
“We believe the 2010 football schedule is one which is appropriate for the maturing process of the program and will provide tremendous college football contests, both home and away, for our Jaguar fans,” said Joel Erdmann, South Alabama Athletics Director.
Game times will be announced at a later date.
Season tickets are still on sale for the 2010 season through December 31 for $85. Also the 2010 season will be the second season and the last season for the Jags football team as an unclassified program. They will then being the two year transition process to FBS (Division I-A) football in 2011. In 2013 they will be full members of the Sun Belt Conference, competing for the conference championship and will be eligible for a bowl bid.
Here is a link to the PDF of the schedule from South Alabama Football website.
Go Jags!
Jags Four Game Winning Streak Snapped By Southern Miss
The Jags had their four game winning streak snapped by Southern Miss on Saturday, 66-54. The Jaguars record is now 7-3 on the season while Southern Miss rebounds from their first loss of the season to go to 6-1.
The Jags led 18-11 with 11:44 left in the first half before the Golden Eagles went on a 15-0 run. The Jags would answer with a 7-0 run themselves to cut the lead down to one. The Golden Eagles would take a two point lead into the locker room for halftime.
The first ten minutes of the second half saw Southern Miss hold the lead by as few as one and as many as seven. But an old fashioned three point play coupled with back-to-back layups would put them up by 11 with 6:41 to play in the game.
The Golden Eagles would push their lead out to 61-47 with under five minutes to play and the Jags could not get within 10 points of them the rest of the way.
The Jags shot a season low of 29.1% from the floor and a mere 24% in the second half.
Coach Arrow spoke after the game. “The bottom line is they did a really good job tonight,” he said. “We couldn’t stop Gary Flowers. He hurt us on the boards and shooting. He backed us down and he shot over us. We didn’t shoot the ball at all, but they had a lot to do with that. They took it right to us. We played immaturely tonight, and that’s just the way that it is. Hopefully, we’ll grow from it.”
“It seemed like we always had the wrong guy shooting the ball,” continued Coach Arrow. “We didn’t attack the zone very well, and that’s my fault. We just didn’t get our guys ready for a zone. We worked on it, but evidently I did a poor job of getting them to understand exactly what had to be done.”
Allyn Cooks lead the Jags with 13 points, followed by Bryan Sherrer with 11 and Tim Williams with 10 to round out the double digit scoring for the Jags.
The Jags will host UALR on Wednesday with an 8:05pm tipoff on ESPN2.
Jag Football, 8-0…Sort Of…
The Jags football team won their eighth competition of the year. But this time it wasn’t on the football field. No, this time it was on the asphalt.
Some of the Jags football team participated in the annual Ronald McDonald House Fire Truck Pull held in Pensacola, Florida. They were representing Mobile McDonald’s Owner Operators in the competition.
Thirty-five teams competed in seven divisions in the event. The Jags competed in the retail division which included five other teams. Each team included 20 individuals pulling a 61,000-pound fire truck a distance of 50 feet. The Jags completed it in a time of 10.302 seconds to narrowly edge out teams like the Escambia County Professional Firefighters and Fire & Emergency Services Gulf Coast. They posted times of 10.376 and 10.463 seconds each, respectively.
Jags that competed were Ken Barefield, Paul Bennett, Eddy Cabrera, Jamie Driskell, Justin Dunn, Lionel Fuentes, Scott Garber, Myles Gibbon, Gabe Graham, Dalvin harris, Danzel Harris, Brian Kauskopf, Andrew Martin, Lawson McGlon, Alex Phifer, Philip Press, Donte Rome, Donald Scott, Courtney Smith, Anthony Taylor Josh Terry, Michael Wilson, and Justin Walker.
Jags Win Fourth In A Row And Their First Against University of Mobile
The Jags won their first ever meeting against the University of Mobile Rams on Wednesday 70-51. The Jags secured the win with a 17-0 run in the first half to cruise to the victory.
This was the fourth consecutive win by the Jags to go to 7-2 on the season. The Jags never trailed in the game. After the Rams pulled within one point with 13:50 left in the first half at 14-13, the Jags ripped off 17 straight points over the next 9:29 before a three pointer by Mobile ended the run. At that time the Jags were up 31-16.
At halftime, the Jags were up 38-23 on 50% shooting from the floor. Early in the second half the Jags would stretch it out to 24 points and at one point they would lead by as much as 26. The Rams would put together a 12-0 run late in the second half to pull within 14 points of the Jags but they would score the final five points of the game.
Three Jags would share the honor of lead scorer for the team. Tim Williams, Bryan Sherrer and LaShun Watson would all score 13 points. The next highest scorer was Martino Brock with nine points.
The Jags next game will be on Saturday at the Mitchell Center when they host Southern Mississippi for a 7:05pm tipoff. Then they open play their first Sun Belt team, University of Arkansas-Little Rock at on Wednesday, December 16 which will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Go Jags!
Jags Get A Big Win Over Arkansas For Coach Arrow’s 300th Div-I Victory
Head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow won his 300th Division I game as the Jags defeated Arkansas 74-61 on Sunday in Fayetteville. This win was the Jags third straight win to improve to 6-2 on the season while the Razorbacks and John Pelphrey dropped their third straight to fall to 2-4 on the season.
The game was a series of runs with the Jags jumping out 15-2 to begin the game but then the Razorbacks had a run of their own going 17-1 to take the lead at halftime with the score of 34-30.
Trading scores early in the second half, the Hogs tied it up at 40 each with a three pointer. But it would be the last time Arkansas would tie the game because South Alabama would make a run of 17 points over a stretch of 5:17 to hold Arkansas without a score for six minutes and without a field goal for 8:42.
The Hogs would only get to within 11 points on twice but each time the Jags would put an end to their attempted rallies.
Arkansas only shot 30% (6-for-30) in the second half and had only three field goals through the 5:20 mark. While the SEC’s leading scorer with 28.2 points per game, Rotnei Clark, was held to 19 points with only six scored after halftime.
Martino Brock lead the Jags and all players with 21 points while Bryan Sherrer and Tim Williams were the only other Jags in double figures with 11 points each.
This marked the first win at an SEC school since December 1, 2000 at Auburn and makes their record against Arkansas 1-5 all time.
South Alabama will take some time off for final exams, they will return to the hardwood on December 9 when they host University of Mobile.
Jags Win The Second Annual Thanksgiving Tournament
The Jags won the second annual USA Thanksgiving Tournament held at the Mitchell Center on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Jags shot over 58% in the second half in order to overcome a slow start to win easily over Alcorn State in the first game, 83-67. This win was Ronnie Arrow’s 600th win as a head coach at both the Junior College and Division I levels. However, Coach Arrow was not at the game since he was ejected on Saturday at Tulsa, he had to sit out due to suspension.
Alcorn State controlled play in the first half and lead for most of the period and converted four of nine 3-pointers. The Braves had not lead in a game all season, took a 41-39 lead into halftime over the Jags.
However the second half was a different story. They scored the first seven points and did not allow a Braves bucket in the first 3:19 of the second half. South Alabama really pulled away with an 18-2 run midway through the second half and stretched a three point lead into a 74-55 advantage.
In the championship game of the USA Thanksgiving Tournament the Jags hosted Georgia State. Late in the game Gary Redus came through for the Jags when he nailed a 3-pointer with 1:03 left in the game to give the Jags the lead for the final time as they held on for a 70-66 win.
The Jags have been out rebounded in their last two games. The first of which was at Tulsa when the Jags had their season-worst showing on the boards when the Golden Hurricane out rebounded the Jags 53-29. But against Georgia State the Jags won the battle of the boards 37-26. Georgia State is the second best rebounding team in the Colonial Athletic Association.
With these two wins the Jags improve to 5-2 on the season.
The Jags will travel to Arkansas on Sunday to take on the Razorbacks and the Jags former coach John Pelphrey who are 4-3 on the season so far.
Jaguar Men Fall At Tulsa
On Saturday the Jags basketball team traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma to face the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa won 84-62 over the Jags to stay undefeated at 4-0 while the Jags fell to 3-2 for the season.
Tulsa put on a showcase of rebounding by pulling down 53 boards en route to their victory. The Jags kept it close in the first half until a late 12-0 run by Tulsa (10 of which came from the free throw line) put them ahead for good. The Jags could only get within 12 points twice in the second half.
The Jags did not match-up well against the Golden Hurricane. With a 7′ center and a pair of 6’10” forwards, the Jags were just outsized and out reached on the boards.
Tulsa made 38 of 50 free throw attempts which accounted for 45% of their scoring offense while the Jags defense held them to 38.9% shooting from the floor for the game. However the Jags were called for 29 fouls which lead to the 50 trips to the line.
Coach Arrow said after the game, “We held them to 38 percent shooting and did what we wanted to there and put 62 points up on the board,” said Arrow. “But when you shoot 50 free throws you’re going to score a lot of points.”
Tim Williams lead the Jags with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists. While Gary Redus II scored 11 off the bench.
Coach Arrow also commented about the Jags rebounding after the game. “We’re still not rebounding like we should,” said Arrow. “We have guys standing around. Our ‘3s’, ‘4s’ and ‘5s’ have got to rebound better than what we’re doing.”
The Jags will host the Second Annual USA Thanksgiving Classic on Wednesday and Thursday. The first game has Georgia State facing Utah Valley at 5pm then the Jags will face Alcorn State at 7:05pm.
Also announced on Friday, Coach Ronnie Arrow signed Labree Sledge of Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas to a National Letter of Intent to play for the Jags.
Tyler went 24-6 last season and tied for the North Zone championship with a 14-5 league record. Tyler lost in the semis to Paris JC who was led by current Jag Raymond Sims.
Sledge ranked fourth on his team in scoring with 9.8 average per game while hitting 63 3-pointers. He averages 42.9 percent from 3 point range and had 67 steals.
Coach Arrow had this to say about the signee. “Sledge is one of the best shooters in that conference,” said Coach Arrow. “You always have room for a shooter of his caliber. Not only that, but his high school coach said he was the best defender on the ball they had. So he brings shooting ability plus defensive ability, which is good.”
Go Jags!
Coach Jones Has Good News And Basketball Gets Ready To Tipoff At Home
The Jags have gone 3-1 so far in basketball with wins over West Florida 79-63, Houston Baptist 76-64 and Sacramento State 70-58. Their only loss was to Rice by two points, 71-69.
The Jags will open their home season on Thursday when they host Spring Hill college at 7:05pm at the Mitchell Center. USA will be honoring the football team for their accomplishments in their inaugural season at halftime of the men’s game.
Mentioned today on the Coach Joey Jones Radio Show, the NCAA has granted USA players who have not already used their redshirt year, the ability to count this year towards that. Since USA was not competing against “varsity” teams, the NCAA has allowed them to do this.
However this will apply differently from player to player. For instance, someone like Brandon Ross who has only used one year of eligibilty (at Memphis) will get to count this year as his redshirt year which means he has three more years to play at USA. But a player like Courtney Smith who has used his redshirt and played two years at UAB will only have one more year of eligibility left for next year. Charlie Higgenbotham and Justin Dunn both have the same eligibility status as Smith. All but one of the offensive linemen, who are JuCo transfers, have only used two years of eligibility and will have two more years to play for USA.
During Monday’s media day Coach Jones reflected on the Jags inaugural season. One of the first questions he was asked was about how he felt after realizing that the team had played its final game of the season. He answered by saying, “This weekend I was emotionally and physically drained from a year and a half of putting this thing together, but at the same time I’m just really excited for where our program is at this point. So much hard work has gone into putting this together, and I’m just really pleased with where we are in the process of moving into Division I.”
Another question was about where the team will go from here. “The biggest thing we’ve got to meet with the team about today is that we’ve got to continually raise the bar starting today and all the way through next season, and even beyond that,” Coach Jones answered. “We’ve got to realize where we want to be as a football program, and we’ve got to continually raise the bar every day, because we’re by no means a good Division I program right now. We’re going to be there, but we know that we’ve got a lot of work to do to get to that point.”
He was then asked about what areas the team needed to improve upon. “It’s obviously in the weight room and the strength and conditioning area,” he said. “We’ve got to become a bigger and faster team, and then the second thing is recruiting. We’re hitting the recruiting trail this week, and have been recruiting, but we can focus all of our energies toward recruiting and signing what we deem are Division I players. We’ve got to make decisions along the way that we’re going to sign better players than we’ve got, or we’re not going to sign them. We don’t need numbers anymore. We need higher quality players as we go, so we’ve got to focus on that and not get caught up in trying to sign numbers.”
Coach Jones was asked what he would remember from this first season. He answered, “The number one thing I’m most pleased about is how the team came together. I’m not just talking about our players and staff, I’m talking about our trainers, equipment people, graduate assistants, and strength and conditioning guys. Everybody that was involved with the program seemed like they were all on the same page, and that was the most pleasing thing – to bring that many people together and get them all going in the same direction. We really had a bunch of great people.”
One of the last questions asked was what it means to the program to win all seven games this season. “Number one it makes a statement that South Alabama is here to build a Division I football program,”he said. “The 7-0 thing is a confidence builder. Success breeds success and losing breeds losing, so I would much rather be 7-0, because I think that carries over. It’s not that if we had lost a bunch of games that we wouldn’t have had a chance to have a great program, but any time you win kids get used to it and it’s harder for them to lose down the road.”