Garvin Indefinitely Suspended From Team After Arrest
Well, the South Alabama quarterback competition got a bit simpler for the time being as senior quarterback Cole Garvin has been suspended from the team until further notice for a “violation of team rules” according to USA’s Director of Athletics Joel Erdmann.
Garvin was arrested for public intoxication in the early hours of Friday morning and was released on bond.
Garvin started a number of games for the Jags, he led the team to the programs first win over a ranked opponent to visit Ladd-Peebles Stadium in San Diego State. He also started the first game of the season against Louisiana Tech and got some playing time last weekend against Oklahoma State after fellow senior Evan Orth got his first career start.
Expect Orth to get the start again today against Texas State as Cephus Johnson has not seen that much game time and has gone 0-for-5 passing in his two game appearances.
Jags Host Bobcats To Open Sun Belt Conference Play
Saturday evening the Jaguars will open Sun Belt Conference play when they host Texas State at Ladd-Peebles Stadium starting at 6pm.
The Steve Campbell led Jaguars come in 0-2 with a four-point loss to a talented Louisiana Tech team and a blow-out loss to the high-flying Oklahoma State Cowboys on the road.
One reason Campbell was to improve the Jags standing in conference play. That starts this weekend.
All indications points to yet another week of quarterback rotation with seniors Evan Orth and Cole Garvin and redshirt freshman Cephus Johnson. So far Garvin (La. Tech) and Orth (OSU) have started a game, but I wouldn’t make it three-for-three with Johnson starting, at least not yet.
Campbell stated in his weekly radio show that he and offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield is looking for one of the three to step forward and separate themselves from the other two quarterbacks and becomes “the guy.” So far the USA offense is averaging 113.5 passing yards per game. But the Bobcats has a reputation of allowing big plays in the secondary.
The Jags defense has allowed over a thousand yards of offense in their first two games. Their opponents average almost 200 yards per game rushing and over 300 yards per game passing. They give up a healthy 4.3 yards per rush and 14.7 yards per completion. But the numbers are a little misleading with the huge numbers put up by the Cowboys last weekend.
Offensively the Jags are averaging a decent 3.7 yards per rush and 8.1 yards per pass completion.
One of the concerns the Jags will have on Saturday is sophomore quarterback Willie Jones III. While it was against an FCS opponent, he completed 62% of his passes and rushed for 107 yards for his first win as a starter. But the Bobcat offense is still searching for consistency.
These two teams have not met since 2015 when the Jags fell in San Marcos 36-18 in a soggy Texas night when TSU scored 19 unanswered points in the second quarter to take command and cruise to victory.
Two key injuries from last weekend, both are likely gone for the season. Long snapper Andrew Zink tore his ACL and linebacker Roy Yancey suffered a broken leg.
Both teams come in struggling and both teams want to start off their conference schedule with a win. The old adage of ‘whoever wants it more will win’ comes to mind. USA made the Louisiana Tech game quite interesting late and beat the spread. Now the Jags are a 10.5 point favorite at home. I’d love for the Jags to cover but you never know what you’re going to get in a cat fight. I think the Jags will win, but the Bobcats will keep it a little closer than the spread.
Go Jags!
Big Stats:
Jags Fall To Cowboys 55-13; Prepares To Open Conference Schedule Against Texas State
South Alabama’s defense focused on stopping the Oklahoma State running game, and held them to 164 yards, but Taylor Cornelius in only his second start threw for 428 yards and a touchdown as the Jags fell 55-13 in Stillwater.
In his first career start, Evan Orth went 14-of-25 for 119 yards and a touchdown.
Kawaan Baker led the Jags with 40 yards rushing and a touchdown while adding three catches for 29 yards and another touchdown.
USA scored both of their touchdowns in the first half, the last being with 2:57 left in the half to cut the Cowboy lead to 24-13. But the Cowboys answered to go into the locker room with a 31-13 lead.
With the Cowboys gaining 730 yards of offense the previous week, 430 of it on the ground, the Jags focused on one dimension and had some pretty good success in the first half by allowing only 38 yards.
The Jag defense did pick off two passes, one in the end zone by Bull Barge and another by Tobias Moss that needed video review in order to confirm it. But they allowed Tylan Wallace to catch 10 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown as well as allowing Tyron Johnson to catch 5 passes for 137 yards.
In the end, the Jags defense allowed the Cowboys to gain 617 yards of offense. Only two of their nine scoring drive took more than two-and-a-half minutes off the clock.
The Cowboys clamped down on defense in the second half allowing the Jags only 65 yards after halftime.
Again, the Jags heavily penalized with 12 flags on the night.
Head coach Steve Campbell pointed out again that all the mistakes on the field were correctable. “…that starts out on the practice field,” Campbell said. “It starts with having a great day on Sunday and then a great day on Tuesday. You’re not going to waste a day because if you do, you’re going to play someone who isn’t wasting that day. We cannot have a wasted day. We’re looking forward to getting into Sun Belt play against Texas State. We know that they are going to be a really good football team. For me, [the season] kind of starts over and we are 0-0, and a week from now we need to be 1-0. We need to get ready and go win a football game, and that’s where our focus will be.”
Texas State brings an athletic quarterback and the team rushed for over 300 yards against Texas Southern. Their receivers have good speed and they have a sizable running back that runs with power.
Offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield and coach Campbell both said it was too early to make a determination about the quarterback position, but they both mentioned they would like for one guy to step up to be “the guy.”
South Alabama returns home to host Texas State at Ladd-Peebles Stadium to open their Sun Belt Conference schedule with a 6pm kickoff on Saturday, September 15. The line opens with the Jags an 11-point favorite.
Jags Face Oklahoma State In Stillwater
South Alabama will travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma to face Oklahoma State for their second ever match-up on Saturday, September 8.
But he said that all the mistakes that they made are correctable. Some of the mistakes were communication related and some were technique oriented in his opinion.
Offensively the Jags rushed for over 200 yards in the game, but only manage to throw for 91 yards. All three quarterbacks played in the game, though Cephus Johnson only played three downs and threw the ball once.
Defensively the Jags had problems with the Louisiana tech offensive line and their running game also allowing over 200 yards rushing.
On the other hand, Oklahoma State had a blow out win over Missouri State where they rolled up the third-highest yardage total in school history with 732 yards of total offense. But OSU coach Mike Gundy called it “average at best.”
Gundy, speaking about USA, said that the Jags are an “athletic group…has skilled kids and some good wideouts…their linebackers are active.”
Coach Campbell and his team and staff have their job cut out for them. Travel to Stillwater, try not to get too beat up, and play to win the game.
Last year the Jags hosted the Cowboys at Ladd-Peebles Stadium and fell 44-7. The OSU up-tempo offense was impressive to see in person, they negated the Jags depth on the defensive line by running their offense at a break-neck pace. The Jags defensive line was just get their hands down on the turf when Mason Rudolph clapped his hands for the snap.
It was this game that Cole Garvin suffered his sprained ankle that sidelined him for a number of games and thrust Dallas Davis back into the starting lineup a little earlier than the coaches may have wanted as he was still recovering from his off-season shoulder surgery.
The spread set for the game is from 31.5 to 32.5 points depending on where you look. This game could easily turn out like last year and get out of hand early. Add in playing in front of a home crowd and they may not pump the brakes as much as they did in Mobile.
South Alabama and Oklahoma State are scheduled to kickoff at 7pm. The game will be televised on FSN.
Jags Open Season With 30-26 Loss To Louisiana Tech
First year South Alabama head football coach Steve Campbell works with the offensive line between series in the Jags 30-26 home loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday, September 1, 2018.
Tra Minter opened the game with a big 48 yard kickoff return to just inside Louisiana Tech territory, however the offense went three-and-out. four-and-out after going for it on 4th down giving the ball to Tech near midfield.
The Jags didn’t get on the board until 7:54 left in the second quarter after they were set up by a shanked punt by Louisiana Tech. On 3rd and 8, Garvin handed the ball to Kawaan Baker and he scampered in from 28 yards out to cut the Bulldog lead to 13-7.
USA came right back and recovered an onside kick at the Bulldog 46 and looked to have shifted the momentum to their side, but two plays later Sam Harris gained 29 yards on a speed sweep to the Bulldog 10 yard line, but was stripped of the ball which was recovered by Louisiana Tech. There was some confusion over the turnover, most thought Harris was down before the ball came out but despite every effort there was no review. At one point the Jaguar offense was lining up against the Bulldog offense before coach Campbell called a time out as the Jag defense tried to run on and get set.
Louisiana Tech extended their lead to 20-7 with :34 left in first half when J’Mar Smith found Bobby Holly out in the flat for a 1 yard touchdown pass.
The Bulldogs opened the second half with a field goal to extend their lead to 23-7.
The Jags answered with a 15 play, 67 yard drive with heavy doses of Baker and Minter on the ground and finishing off with a 3 yard slant pass to Baker for the Jags to cut the lead back to ten points 23-13 with 6:59 left in third quarter after a failed 2-point conversion.
Late in the third quarter and into the early part of the fourth quarter, neither team wanted to maintain possession as both teams traded turnovers. It started with Cole Garvin having the ball punched out, then a Jay Woods interception of J’Mar Smith, followed immediately by Garvin tossing an interception on a flea flicker play, and finally an interception by Jalen Thompson of another J’Mar’s pass at the Jag 34.
Evan Orth then saw some playing time late in the game and made the best of it by leading the Jags on a 66 yard, 10 play drive ending with a Maurice Mayo 5 yard touchdown run and pulling the Jags within three points of the Bulldogs with 8:18 left in the game.
Tech answered back with their own 12 play, 74 yard drive eating nearly six minutes off the clock to regain a ten point advantage.
But the Jags were not ready to roll over.
Behind Orth’s 59 yard run to the Bulldog 4 yard line, Baker added another touchdown. After a delay of game on the PAT, Gavin Patterson’s point-after attempt was blocked leaving the Jags trailing 30-26 with 1:11 left and only one time out after burning two time outs early in the third quarter.
The only hope for the Jags was to convert another onside kick. Jamarius Way got his hands on it but could not come down with it. After kneeling on the ball a couple times, the Bulldogs ran the remaining time off the clock.
Tech’s Jaqwis Dancy lead all with 144 yard rushing with two touchdowns. Israel Tucker added 82 yards for the Bulldogs. Evan Orth led the Jags with 74 yards rushing, Baker added 51, Harris had 40 and Minter had 23 yards on 16 carries.
J’Mar Smith was 19-of-29 for 209 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. The Jags three quarterbacks with the starter Cole Garvin going 7-of-16 for 47 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Orth went 4-of-6 for 44 yards. Cephus Johnson came in for only one series in the first half and his only passing attempt was incomplete.
Adrian Hardy caught three passes for 73 yards and a touchdown for the Bulldogs. Two other Bulldogs had 53 and 52 yards receiving.
Jamarius Way had 31 yards receiving on two catches, the most for a Jaguar receiver. Minter added 28 on three catches.
At halftime, the Jags offense had only 98 total yards and three first downs. But by the end of the game they had 308 total yards of offense but only 91 yards passing.
South Alabama will travel to Oklahoma State on Saturday with kickoff scheduled for 7pm on FSN.
Edit: Changed three-and-out to four-and-out because the Jags went for it on 4th down on the opening drive. Sorry, sometimes my hands go on auto-pilot typing and didn’t catch it.
South Alabama Announces Fundraiser Campaign “Get On Campus” To Build On-Campus Stadium
After failing to get the City of Mobile to agree to the Letter-Of-Intent last week at the City Council Meeting (which I wrote about but did not post), USA announced in conjunction with their Board of Trustees meeting the “Get On Campus” campaign.
This fundraiser is part of a comprehensive effort to build the new stadium on campus by the 2020 football season.
“Our students, fans, alumni and visiting fans deserve to be on our beautiful campus to enjoy a traditional college football game-day,” said South Alabama Athletics Director Joel Erdmann in the announcement. “Our team and those we host deserve to play in a modern stadium, which properly aligns us with those who compete at the elite level of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and the College Football Playoff.”
“We are committed to having an on-campus football stadium at South, and we are committed to doing everything within our power to have that stadium open for the 2020 football season,” said University President Tony Waldrop in the announcement. “We also are committed to not using our students’ tuition dollars to build a stadium.”
According to the statement, the campaign will be “evaluated continuously” and the progress will determine how quickly the next phases of construction will move ahead.
You can read the full article here.
Jags Open 2018 Season With Louisiana Tech At Ladd-Peebles Stadium
Here we are at the dawn of a new season for the Jaguars and there have been lots of changes since last season wrapped up.
Gone is the Jaguars first head football coach Joey Jones and his staff. In is new head coach Steve Campbell and his staff.
But when the Jags take the field on Saturday, there will be lots of familiar names taking the field. But who will be the starter under center has yet to be announced, and probably won’t until just before kickoff. Coach Campbell has even said that all three quarterback may play in the season opener.
I wouldn’t read too much into this really, no coach wants to show their hand too early and an early upset could start the Jaguars season off in the right direction. Each quarterback presents a very different challenge for defenses in preparation.
Louisiana Tech is a 10.5 point favorite in the game depending on where you look for your betting line. Last season the Jags went into the fourth quarter trailing by one point but the Bulldogs scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull away. The Jags trailed 17-7 in the first quarter but the defense tightened up and only allowed 78 total yards over the next two quarters before the fourth quarter scores.
If you watched rival Troy’s offense over the last two seasons, you should have some idea what the Jaguar offense will be like under offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield. It’s going to be fast paced, no huddle style offense with read-option. The defense returns lots of experienced players from last season, including Jalen Thompson, who had to sit out the season due to academics.
Career rushing record holder Xavier Johnson is gone, actually he had been dismissed prior to the end of the season due to rules violations then injuries further depleated the backfield. Tra Minter, listed as the player honored by wearing the #5 jersey, is the lead tailback according to the depth chart released earlier this week.
The receiver position has experience and height, with Jamarius Way (6’4″), Jordan McCray (6’5″) and Kawaan Baker (6’1″) are the starters at X, Z and H receiver. With Collier Smith (6’2″) at tight end.
Gavin Patterson returns at placekicker and Corliss Waitman returns as the punter.
The Bulldogs themselves return eight offensive starters and seven defensive. They have an experienced offensive line returning but no one knows what they have at running back yet. For the first time in several seasons they have a returning signal caller.
USA has a young offensive line to protect whomever lines up to take the snap against an experienced defensive line. But their short linebackers and the Jags height at receiver may lead to the USA offense to exploit that with some slants behind them especially if they can also get the running game going.
The Bulldogs have never lost to a Sun Belt opponent while the Jags looks to start the Campbell tenure with an upset win. The Jags may have some surprises up their sleeve.
I don’t think that Tech is 10.5 points better that USA, but the Jags have also not played their best at home but have thrived in hostile environments away from home. Plus with the city voting against helping to fund South Alabama’s stadium, will that affect the crowd along with the scheduling conflict with the University of Alabama kicking off against Louisville one hour into the Jags game. This, however, is a very winnable home game. Go Jags!
National Signing Day 2018
Most of Coach Steve Campbell’s staff have now officially been on the job for exactly two months and it all culminated with National Signing Day.
Back in December, the Jags signed 10 student-athletes during the first-ever early signing period for football. Those were signed a mere 12 days after Campbell took over as the Jaguars head football coach.
Since Campbell began, he has been evaluating where the needs were on the team and looking to shore up his squad for the 2018 season. Of the 10 early signees in December, eight of them were defensive players.
Whatever you want to now call this day: Spring signing day, late signing period, or the tradition ‘national signing day, the Jags were more offensive minded. Of the 13 that were signed, 11 of them were offensive student-athletes.
Out of the 13, two of them are considered blue shirts and three are preferred walk-ons.
Blue shirts are players that are not formally or officially recruited but are put on scholarship at start of freshman practice, which means they never had an official visit, however they could have payed their own way and visited campus as an “unofficial” visit. These players can be counted towards next years scholarship total.
What’s the difference between a walk-on and a preferred walk-on you ask? Well, when Football Scoop asked coaches what that term meant, nine out of 10 answered that a preferred walk-on (PWO) are guaranteed a spot on the 105 man roster on day one of camp. While traditional walk-ons will have to go through tryouts to see if they can earn a spot on the 105 man roster. PWO’s are also in a better place to earn a scholarship, but normally that will not happen until their junior year due to NCAA rules to limit “oversigning”.
Overall, Campbell and his staff put together a pretty good class in a short time. They addressed needs but they missed out on some of their big targets, primarily at running back, but ended up signing some quality athletes.
Twelve of the 23 signees came from the state of Alabama with the rest coming from five other states. Five of the recruits were rated as 3-star recruits by 247Sports, including quarterback Desmond Trotter who is the grandson of former Alabama star, College and NFL Hall of Famer, and Baltimore Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome. Two athletes were rated as two-star recruits.
While the recruiting sites primarily focus on the very top of the recruiting rankings, Rivals was at least the easiest to look at rankings for the Sun Belt. Based on their formula, Arkansas State lands the top spot with the Jags landing 9th out of 11 on the list.
Rivals full SBC Rankings:
1. Arkansas State (75th nationally)
2. Georgia State (86th nationally)
3. Troy (95th nationally)
4. Texas State (96th nationally)
5. Louisiana-Monroe (98th nationally)
6. Georgia Southern
7. Appalachian State
8. New Mexico State
9. South Alabama
10. Idaho
11. Louisiana-Lafayette (only signed 13 student-athletes)
South Alabama will begin their spring schedule in March culminating in the annual Red-Blue Spring Game on Saturday, April 14th at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Go Jags!
Happy New Year Jag Nation!
As the book closes on 2017 and we open the book on 2018, we at Thunderjags wish you a great New Year! Go Jags!
South Alabama Announces Steve Campbell As New Head Football Coach
Steve Campbell, 51 and native of Pensacola, FL., will be officially introduced as the new head football coach replacing Joey Jones who announced his resignation on November 20th. | Photo Credit: University of Central Arkansas
South Alabama has hired it’s second head coach in program history. Today the school announced that Steve Campbell, 51 and a Pensacola native, had been selected to head up the Jaguar football program.
Campbell’s coaching career began under legendary Auburn head coach Pat Dye where he helped the Tigers win back-to-back SEC titles as a graduate assistant. His first full-time position was in 1990 at Delta State University as offensive line coach. He worked his way up to offensive coordinator before departing for the same position at Nicholls State in 1993.
In 1997 Campbell took his first head coaching position with Southwest Mississippi Community College (JC), where he had spent the previous season coaching the running backs. In two seasons he went 12-8 and lead the school to it’s first winning season in 12 years.
Campbell then returned to Delta State as head coach in 1999 where he earned a 27-8 record over three seasons. His no-huddle offense broke 12 Gulf South Conference records and six Division II records. In 2000, he won the Division II National Championship and earned Nation Coach of the Year by three organizations.
In 2002, Campbell became offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Middle Tennessee State and scored a win over in-state rival Vanderbilt. In 2003 he served as offensive line coach under Jackie Sherrill in his last season at Mississippi State.
In 2004, Campbell returned to a head coaching position with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. We went 87-22 over 10 seasons after inheriting a team that went 6-12 in two seasons under his predecessor and had not made the state playoffs since 1986. Campbell led them to NJCAA Junior College Co-National Championship in 2007. A number of his players went on to play at SEC schools, most notably Terrence Cody at Alabama.
By 2008, Campbell started to get noticed for other positions. He was a finalist for the head coaching position at Northwestern State but was not selected.
In 2009 he had led the MGCCC Bulldogs to a 9-2 record after losing 75-71 in the MACJC State Championship game, ending their bid for three-straight MACJC titles. He was considered for an offensive line assistant position at Auburn that year under Gene Chizik but was not selected.
In 2010, Campbell led MGCCC to a 10-2 record, the two losses were by a combined six points. They won over Co-Lin in the MACJC Championship game and had a 62-53 win over #3 Grand Rapids in the Mississippi Bowl, which set a record for combined points in the game.
In 2014, Campbell took the head coaching position at Central Arkansas in the Southland Conference and went 6-6 in his first season. After a 7-4 record in his second season he then led the Bears to back-to-back 10 win seasons but each time lost in the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Campbell has a record of 27-8 at the Division II level and 33-15 at the FCS level.
As a player, he started at center in 43 consecutive games for Southeastern Louisiana and Troy State University. He was part of the 1987 Troy State team to win the Division II National Championship and was named to the All-Gulf South Conference first team. He was named an Academic All-Conference three times and graduated Cum Laude from Troy State with a bachelor’s in Economics. He earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Auburn as well.
In a press release from South Alabama, Director of Athletics Dr. Joel Erdmann had the following to say: “When the search began we identified the experience, qualities and characteristics we were looking for. We searched for a leader who has demonstrated success and possesses a vision for the program with the plan to communicate and achieve that vision. As the search progressed, it became clear that Coach Campbell had what we were looking for. He became the primary target and accepted the offer. He is a proven college head football coach who has achieved consistent success in various settings with different programs. Coach Campbell possesses coaching expertise, high school and junior college recruiting relationships, and a contagious passion for the game of football. He is well-respected by his peers and at the core of his identify is a man of character and deep values.
“I am proud and excited to have Steve as the leader of our program, and look forward to working together to achieve great things.”
Also in the press release, Campbell had the following to say: “I was born and raised in this area, just down the road outside of Pensacola, and have always felt that if South Alabama started football it would be a gold mine, a place where the sky is the limit and you can definitely compete for championships at the highest level. Coach Jones did a terrific job of getting the program started and laying a tremendous foundation. This is an opportunity to get back home and, more than that, to take what Joey has started and raise it to the next level and win some championships.”
South Alabama will hold a press conference on Friday at 1pm in the Football Fieldhouse to officially introduce Campbell as the Jaguars head football coach and it is open to the public. JagNationTv will have live video coverage and 99.5 FM The Jag will have radio coverage of the announcement as well.