Appalachian State And Georgia Southern To Join Sun Belt
Many media outlets are reporting that two of the top FCS schools will be joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2015.
Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, who have combined to win nine FCS championships in football, will leave the Southern Conference for the Sun Belt. Both schools will join the conference in every sport except football beginning in 2014. The football programs will join in 2015 as they make the transition from FCS to FBS.
An announcement is scheduled for later this week by the schools and league officials.
The addition of these two schools will return the conference to 10 football members in 2015 with Arkansas State, Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State, Troy and Western Kentucky. Arkansas-Little Rock and Texas-Arlington, who will join in 2013-2014, do not sponsor football but will join in all other sports.
Appalachian State joined the Southern Conference in 1972 and has won or shared the league title 12 times, including seven of the last eight, with 20 appearances in the FCS playoffs. They commissioned a feasibility study two years ago about a transition to FBS. The result was that the program should seek membership in FBS.
Appalachian State won three FCS titles in a row from 2005-2007 under former head coach Jerry Moore and stunning fifth-ranked Michigan in the 2007 season opener, the first win for an FCS school against an AP Top 25 team.
Georgia Southern has won a record six FCS titles in 1985, ’86, ’89, 90, ’99 and 2000 and nine Southern Conference titles.
The students at Georgia Southern approved a $75 student fee increase to help make the move from FCS to FBS after the school announced their intentions to move to the FBS level last April. The university also announced a plan to expand Paulson Stadium by 6,300 seats.
Appalachian State would enter the Sun Belt with one of the highest average attendance for football. In 2011 a release by the NCAA showed that they led the FCS attendance records for the third time in four years with an average of 25,715 per game.
But they may not be the only schools added to the conference. It is expected that New Mexico State and Idaho may be added as football-only members of the conference. These two schools do not have a home as the WAC is set to dissolve this summer. This would expand the Sun Belt to 12 football schools and would make them eligible for a conference championship game.
Two weeks ago at the Sun Belt basketball tournament, Conference commissioner Karl Benson said that the majority of schools the Sun Belt was considering for expansion were in the FCS level.
On March 9th, Benson said about NMSU and Idaho. “They are in need of a conference and are being assessed. We are looking specifically for schools that will add stability and value. We also are exploring the possibility of football-only members, and it’s not just limited to NMSU and Idaho. We have created a lot of maps with different possibilities that would fit many of our needs including geography.”
But as the wheel of conference realignment continuing to turn, there is speculation that Western Kentucky may be the next Sun Belt school to defect from the conference for seemingly greener pastures in Conference USA. Only time will tell how this will eventually shake out.
Julie Moss Named SBC Player Of The Week For Second Time This Season
Moss was named SBC Player of the Week after accounting for 14 of the Jags 29 runs in the weekend sweep of FIU in Miami. Photo from usajaguars.com.
South Alabama’s Julie Moss was named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week for her performance for the Jags against Florida International over the weekend. This is Moss’s second Player of the Week honor this season after earning it on February 18.
Moss helped lead the Jaguars to a sweep of FIU by driving in 11 runs in the three games with four hits and a career high five RBI’s in the second game of the weekend. Moss’s grand slam in game three propelled the Jags to an 8-5 win.
Moss posted a slugging percentage of 1.091 and scored three runs of her own. She accounted for 14 of the Jaguars 29 runs over the weekend.
Along with Moss, Brittany Fowler and Farish Beard have both been earned weekly honors this season giving the Jags four awards in seven weeks with back-to-back honors on two occasions this season.
The Jags will be back in action when they host LSU on Wednesday evening at Jaguar Field.
Jarron City Named SBC Pitcher Of The Week
Cito was named SBC Pitcher of the Week on March 25, 2013. Photo by Bobbie McDuffie | usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s Jarron Cito was named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week by conference officials on Monday.
City struck out a career high 11 batters while only allowing one unearned run on one hit in a seven inning complete game effort. He retired eight of the first nine batters he faced then retired the final 11 batters of the game. It was his second complete game of his career and the first by a Jaguar pitcher this season.
This is Cito’s second time to be named Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week. The first was on April 30 of last season. He is the second Jaguar pitcher to be named Pitcher of the Week this season after Jacob Noble earned the honor on March 4.
The Jags swept Conference foe Arkansas-Little Rock in a three game series at Eddie Stanky Field. The Jags return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Southern Miss for a midweek contest.
Jags Hire Butler Associate Head Coach Matthew Graves
USA announced the hiring of Matthew Graves as the programs 10th head basketball coach on Monday. Photo by butler.edu.
The University of South Alabama announced the hiring of a coach to take over the Men’s basketball program on Monday. Dr. Joel Erdmann, Athletics Director at South Alabama announced the hiring of Butler associate head coach Matthew Graves as the Jags 10th head basketball coach.
Graves hopes to duplicate some of the NCAA tournament success Butler has enjoyed over the recent years. And Graves does not think that winning will take long for the Jags in the Sun Belt conference. That was his message tot he team prior to Monday’s new conference as well.
“We’re here next year to compete for a championship,” Graves said. “This is not a rebuilding process. This is not a reloading process. This is a process that we’re going to have sustained success starting next year. That is the goal from Day one. We’re going to put a team out there that everyone’s going to be proud of on and off the court.”
He replaces Ronnie Arrow who retired 10 games into the season as the programs winningest coach and the winningest coach in the Sun Belt after surpassing Gene Bartow earlier in the season. Arrow has since been overtaken by Kermit Davis of Middle Tennessee for the conference’s winningest coach.
Associate head coach Jeff Price filled in as interim head coach the rest of the season and led the Jags to a 12-8 record during his tenure and a #3 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament but fell to eventual champion Western Kentucky in the quarterfinals. The Jags then fell to Tulane in the opening round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Graves has been an assistant coach at Butler for nine seasons and was promoted to associate head coach in 2010. During both the 2010 and 2011 seasons Butler made it to the NCAA championship game. However they lost to Marquette in the second round of the NCAA tournament this season.
Graves played for Butler from 1993-1998 and was a member of the program’s first NCAA tournament team in 35 years. He was voted the teams Most Valuable Player as a senior by leading the team to a second consecutive tournament appearance. He still ranks in the top 10 in career 3-pointers and three throw shooting.
Graves did not know much about South Alabama until he got the first email from Dr. Erdmann about the opening. But he came away impressed with the peoplee and the facilities. “I didn’t know a lot about South Alabama except for that moment before I looked into it,” Graves told ESPN.com. “People ask why South Alabama? Why would a Midwest guy want to go to South Alabama. When I came down to look at campus, I was sold right away. I understood there was some history here, good tradition. The Mitchell Center is a phenomenal facility to recruit to.”
Dr. Erdmann was sold on Graves after the interview. “If you look at coach Graves’ background and the world that he has lived in over the past decade-plus, what they have been able to accomplish at an institution that is not too dissimilar from one of ours is nothing short of spectacular,” Erdmann said to ESPN.com. “The resume got him an interview. The resume and the accomplishments got him involved in the search, but the interview landed the job.”
“He is a man that when you get to know him, you will understand and appreciate why this decision was made. He is a tremendous basketball person. He lives the game. He understands the game. He knows how to teach the game. He knows how to recruit and he knows how to create a program that will have a sustained level of success.”
Brad Stevens, Butler’s head coach and Graves’ former mentor, is happy for him. “I could not be more thrilled for both Matthew and South Alabama. He is a terrific person and coach, who will undoubtedly bring great credit to the university,” Stevens said. “He’s an excellent communicator who understands what it takes to win at the highest level. We thank him for the 17 total years he spent at Butler as a player and staff member. He had a tremendous impact on Butler basketball.”
The news also excited the Jaguars fan base. Many were thinking that Price might get the position after what he was able to do with the program after Arrow’s retirement. However they believe Erdmann hit it out of the park with the hiring of Graves. Price has already been mentioned for other positions.
Price stepped into a difficult situation and did a good job despite losing probably the programs best shooter in Xavier Roberson to off-the-court problems and Freddie Goldstein to a broken collarbone. But the Jags managed to grind out wins but with their thin ranks and opponent’s attention on Augustine Rubit, the Jags could not get wins the conference tournament nor could they get a win in the CollegeInsider.com tournament.
South Alabama Sports Weekend Update
Baseball
The #25 ranked South Alabama Jaguar baseball team completed a three game sweep of conference foe Arkansas-Little Rock over the weekend. Brandon Boyle pitched seven shutout innings in his first career win at Eddie Stanky Field.
Boyle struck out seven and allowed only three hits and one walk while retiring 10 of the final 11 batters he faced. Dylan Stamey struck out four and allowed one run on one hit in 1 1/3 innings for his first career save in the 4-3 victory Friday night.
On Saturday, the Jags had to rally for two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning in order to secure the 6-5 win over UALR.
The Jags Cole Billingsley got a one out single to push a run over the plate in the bottom of the ninth and send the game to extra innings. In the top of the 11th, a two out solo home run by UALR would put them in the lead 5-4 going into the bottom of the 11th.
USA’s Robby Campbell would get on base on a error at shortstop with one out. He would then steal second base. Brent Mitchell would draw a walk to put runners on first and second. Graham Odom would reach on an infield single to first base to load the bases for the Jags. Cole Billingsley would be hit by a pitch to even the score at 5-5. Then Bud Collura would single to shortstop, but UALR’s shortstop’s only play was to second base but his throw would sail wide of the bag allowing Mitchell to score the game winning run.
Jarron Cito would strike out a career high 11 batters in seven innings as the Jags won 11-1 on Sunday at Eddie Stanky Field. Cito allowed on unearned run on just one hit and one walk to post the Jags first complete game of the season and the second of his career. He retired the finall 11 batters he faced.
The Jags improved to 21-4 overall on the season and 5-1 in Sun Belt play with the series sweep. UALR fell to 10-14 overall and 0-6 in the Sun Belt.
The Jags are tied with Western Kentucky atop the Sun Belt standings with a 5-1 record.
The Jags will travel to Hattiesburg to face Southern Miss on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 6pm.
Softball
The #25 ranked Jaguar softball team swept Florida International over the weekend to improve their overall record _______.
The Jags opened the weekend with a doubleheader with wins of 11-5 and 10-0 to clinch the series on Saturday. The Jags outhit FIU 20-6 on Saturday alone and had four home runs.
Five Jaguars recorded multiple hits on Saturday. Brittany Fowler, Kaitlyn Griffith and Emily Messer led with four hits each. Julie Moss had three hits and Britany Campbell had two.
Moss had seven RBI’s on Saturday with Fowler knocking in six runs including three that came on a grand slam that was ruled a single as an appeal revealed that she failed to touch second base.
Farish Beard gave up five earned runs in the bottom of the sixth and now has an ERA of 1.79 after giving up the five runs in game one as she pitched a complete game victory.
Hannah Campbell’s league-leading ERA went down to 0.93 as the junior threw her 12th complete game of the season and her fifth shutout as she improved her record to 12-5.
The Jags then capped off the sweep with an 8-5 win on Sunday to earn their first sweep of the season. After two and a half innings, the Jags led 6-0 before adding two insurance runs in the top of the fifth. The Jags then weathered a late two run push to preserve the win.
Hannah Campbell tossed her 13th complete game of the season and lowered her ERA to 0.87 to continue to lead the league. She is 13-5 on the season.
The Lady Jags will host LSU on Wednesday at Jaguar Field. First pitch is set for 7pm.
Coach Jones Pleased With Thursday Practice Prior To Saturday Scrimmage
Head coach Joey Jones working with the field goal unit during South Alabama’s Scrimmage on Saturday, March 3, 2012.
The Jags hit the practice field Thursday morning for their seventh practice out of their 15 allowed practices during the spring. The workout lasted over two hours and coach Jones was very pleased with what he saw, more so than Tuesday’s practice.
“It was real good today, the effort was great,” Coach Jones explained. “The guys were lively this morning. I thought Tuesday was a good practice, but today’s was even better. There is no doubt we are putting more in and they are retaining it. These guys are coming to practice every day, that’s what I’m pleased with.”
South Alabama backs and receivers went through different formations and motions prior to coming together to run red zone 7-on-7 skeleton passing drills against the defense in a two-minute drill situation. They also went through some three-quarter speed rushing plays as they continued to focus on fundamentals and help the offense to run the ball better.
The special teams group worked on kickoff and kick returns. But Coach Jones has been stressing that, this spring, they had to slow down and work on fundamentals. However, on defense, he noticed that they worked at a faster pace after learning their new system and new terminology.
Not everything was good though. Jones expressed how many times the offense put the ball on the ground. Up until Thursday, this had not been a problem.
Spring practice is not only for fundamentals, it’s also a chance for players to seperate themselves and begin to make their case for positions on the depth chart. Maleki Harris and Jay Jones have both opened some eyes this spring. Additionally redshirt freshmen offensive linemen Daniel Aust, Steven Foster, Clay Machen and Joseph Scelfo are all working hard and pushing for playing time.
They closed out the practice session with nearly 35 minutes of team drills. One segment consisted of red-zone plays and a pair of two-minute drills to end the session.
Brandon Bridge had three long gains that eventually set up a six-yard touchdown to Jake Howton for the second team. In the latter portion of the practice, the first team defense did not allow any points.
“The two-minute drill was good,” Coach Jones explained. “The defense did a good job of stopping the offense our first time doing it. You have to familiarize yourself with situations, that’s what we’re trying to do this spring. If it’s third-and-eight and we have 20 seconds left on the plus-40 yard line and need three points, what are we going to do? We’re trying to teach them throughout these practices, it’s not as much about whether we are successful or not, so that they can learn from these situations on film.”
The Jags will return to the practice field on Saturday morning for their second scrimmage of the spring that is scheduled for 9:45am and will last about two hours.
“It will be a little different in that we will have a lot more special teams situations infused into the practice, but as far as the number of plays it will be very similar,” said Jones. “We’ll move the football around the field, we’ll be in the red zone and goal line more than we were the first time, which are the two changes we’ll make.”
USA Softball Shutout UAB 3-0 Wednesday Night At Jaguar Field
The South Alabama Jaguar softball team, ranked #25 in the nation for the first time in program history, shut out the UAB Blazers 3-0 at Jaguar Field on Wednesday night. The Jags improved their record to 24-5 while the Blazers fell to 15-7. The Jags hold a 7-2 overall record against UAB with the win and 9-1 at home on the season.
UAB started strong with three hits and drawing two walks in the first two innings but the Jaguar defense would not allow a run. Emily Messer would throw out a runner at the plate from the outfield in order to keep the Blazers off the board.
Hannah Campbell struck out seven and allowed five hits to earn her fourth shutout of the season and improve to 11-5 on the season.
Leigh Streetman’s record fell to 7-4 on the season for the Blazers as she allowed three hits and three earned runs. Hannah Campbell’s twin sister, Lannah, pitched three innings of relief for UAB and only allowed one hit.
Britany Campbell opened the scoring for the Jags with a solo home run to right center. Messer would get a double on a two strike pitch and advance to third base on a throw. But Blair Johnson would bring her home with a two-run homer, her third of the season, over the right field wall for the Jaguars final two runs of the game.
The Jags were outhit in the game 5-4, but half of the Jaguar hits landed over the outfield wall.
“Overall, aside from the first inning, I thought it was a well-played game for us,” USA head coach Becky Clark said after the game. “That was a big play by Messer in right field to keep them off the board. I though Hannah had a great day. She pitched out of a couple of jams with runners in scoring position. Our defense was solid, and then we got the timely hit.”
“Britany and Blair really squared those balls up to get them out,” Clark continued. “These kids work a tremendous amount in the (batting) cage. They are always staying in the mindset of saying ‘yes’ to the ball. The work they do in there pays off out here.”
The Jaguar softball team will travel to Miami for a three game Conference series against FIU. FIU sits ahead of the Jags in conference standings with four conference wins to the Jaguars two.
Jags Season Ends With 84-73 Loss To Tulane In CollegeInsider.com Tournament
The South Alabama Jaguars men’s basketball team had their season end Wednesday night as they fell 84-73 in New Orleans to the Tulane Green Wave.
Over the final five minutes of the game Tulane used a 9-0 run to clinch the win over the Jags in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The Jags end the season with a 17-13 overall record while the Green Wave improve to 20-14 and advance in the tournament.
The difference in the game was from the free throw line as Tulane went 27-of-37 from the charity stripe.
Junior Augustine Rubit was the games top scorer with 31 points with 25 of them coming after halftime including 15 consecutive late in the game. He was 12-of-18 shooting from the floor and 7-of-8 from the free throw line.
Sophomore Mychal Ammons scored 11 points while Javier Carter just missed a double-double with nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Freddie Goldstein would add four points in his final game of his career at USA and his first returning from a broken collarbone.
Josh Davis of Tulane earned his 19th double-double of the season with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Kendall Timmons and Ricky Tarrant both added 13 points each.
The Jags trailed all of the final 38:55 of the game but would not allow themselves to be put away. Barrington Stevens III would pull the Jags within two points with 12:37 left but that would be as close as they could get, the closest they would get the rest of the way out would be four points.
“I thought our guys fought extremely hard in some tough situations,” interim head coach Jeff Price said after the game. “It was hard to get a flow of the game. Because of the free throws, you couldn’t get a rhythm or a flow going. We got in to foul trouble, particularly with Aug in the first half. I thought our guys were resilient like they always have been, it just caught up with us in the end.”
“It was another unbelievable effort by him [Augustine Rubit],” Price said. “Again, those numbers came with him being double and triple teamed. He did a nice job kicking it out and just played extremely well.”
“I’m proud of our guys,” said Price. “They’ve been tremendous all year. They like each other, they play hard and they play together. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”
Now the focus will turn towards the coaching search, which Jeff Price is a candidate for, to see who will be the next men’s head basketball coach at South Alabama.
Players Had Week Off But Football Staff Were Hard At Work
Head Coach Joey Jones looking on as the Jaguars warm up for their game at North Carolina State.
While the Jaguar players enjoyed spring break, head coach Joey Jones and his staff poured over video of prospects for the 2014 recruiting class.
The Jags also made several scholarship offers. Making early scholarship offers gets the Jags on the recruits mind early and, now that the Jaguars are a full FBS team, it means more. As a full member of the Sun Belt Conference and FBS, they are eligible for the SBC Championship and a bowl invitation.
Jones is always looking for playmakers. But they are also looking for a couple offensive linemen for their 2014 class. Defensively they continue to looking for players in the secondary at safety, cornerback and nickel while also finding some good players to contribute in special teams.
But in addition to recruiting, coach Jones and his staff were reviewing video from the first five practices and evaluating players. But this process will continue throughout the Jags remaining practices prior to their annual Red-Blue Spring Game.
“We had a good week evaluating our players,” Jones commented to AL.com. “Again, the whole thing about spring is to go through the whole spring and then evaluate them at that point. But certainly there are some guys who have caught our eye and are doing really well and moving away toward more playing time. That’s happened in the first five days and it will continue to happen for the remainder of spring.”
The week off for spring break has allowed some Jaguars to heal and get cleared to return to the practice field. Linebacker Bryson James was able to recover from dehydration and a head laceration and get clearance from the medical staff for Tuesday’s practice. Ridge James, another linebacker, was cleared to return after passing tests for a concussion he sufferred in the Jags third practice. Defensive back Charles Harris, who also suffered a concussion, was cleared medically to return to the field.
Eddie Cabrera, who suffered a fractured fibia during spring practice, will miss the remainder of the spring practices but should be healed in time for fall camp. Anthony Harris, Ucambre Williams, Shaun Artz and Randon Carnathan have all missed each of the practices this spring and most of them will not participate during the remainder of spring practice as they continue to recover from their injuries.
Jags Baseball Defeat SLU 13-7 Behind 21 Hits
The South Alabama baseball team collected 21 hits in their 13-7 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday evening in Hammond, Louisiana.
Six different Jaguars recorded multiple hits in the game with Jordan Patterson leading the way by going 4-for-4 with a double, a home run, four RBI and three runs scored. Robby Campbell went 4-for-6 with a new career high three RBI. Nolan Earley went 3-for-6 with four RBI and a run scored.
Matt Bell improved to 4-0 on the season while scattering six hits with two strikeouts and three walks. He allowed four unearned runs.
“We didn’t play solid defense behind Matt (Bell) tonight, but he was solid for us,” head coach Mark Calvi said after the game. “The thing I was most impressed with was the way our guys on the mound handled adversity. They just kept going and didn’t shy away from it. Sometimes those things happen and it did tonight, and we were fortunate to get a win.”
“Who would ever think you could make five errors and win a ballgame,” Calvi continued. “But it did tonight and we’re extremely fortunate that we won. We swung the bats well. Southeastern Louisiana is a good club and was undefeated at home coming into this game. We feel fortunate to win, but we’ll take it and move on.”
The 18-4 Jaguars will return to the field this weekend when they host Arkansas-Little Rock for a three-game weekend Sun Belt Conference series at Eddie Stanky Field.