January 18th Vanguard Poll Question
[poll id=”4″]
Your vote can now be heard by by posting below with the best comment appearing in the January 25th issue of The Vanguard.
If you wish to be published in the paper, please leave your first name and which class year you represent.
Thanks for voting and please continue reading the Vanguard and Thunderjags.com.
Jags End Three Game Skid And Southpaw Wins A National Championship
Sorry I have been MIA until now but as you may have noticed, the Jags rebouding and inside game was also MIA for a while. The Jags lost three games in a row before coming up with a big win against Troy on Saturday night.
The Jags lost in overtime against Western Kentucky 67-64 before the BCS Championship game. Then they lost to Arkansas State two nights later 69-63 where ASU outplayed the Jags in the second half to battle back from a 9 point deficit. Both games were played at the Mitchell Center. These were two consecutive losses but three consecutive losses at home in the Mitchell Center.
Then on Thursday, January 14th the Jags traveled to Louisiana-Monroe and lost 61-58 in a close game despite commiting 23 turnovers. This was the Jags 3rd consecutive loss.
The Jags then returned home to the Mitchell Center to face the Troy Trojans. Troy connected on a game tying three pointer with 4.3 seconds left but Allyn Cooks would go the length of the floor to make a lay-up at the buzzer to win the game for the Jags 69-67.
After this span of four games, the Jags are now 12-7 overall and 4-3 in the Sun Belt. The current standings has Eastern Division as Western Kentucky 4-1, South Alabama 4-3, Troy 4-3, Florida Atlantic 4-3, Middle Tennessee 3-3, and Florida International 3-5. The Western Division standings are: Arkansas State 5-1, Denver 5-3, North Texas 4-4, Louisiana-Lafayette 3-3, New Orleans 2-5, Louisiana-Monroe 3-5, and Arkansas-Little Rock 1-6.
The Jags will play their next two games on the road. On Thursday, January 21 they play North Texas at 7pm then on Saturday January 23 they play Denver with a 5pm CST start.
Also South Paw, South Alabama’s mascot, won the National Championship in Orlando Florida. This was his first national championship. This was Southpaw’s first national championship competition and was able to defeat YouDee from Delaware for the title.
January 11 Vanguard Poll Question Post
[poll id=”3″]
Your vote can now be heard by by posting below with the best comment appearing in the January 18th issue of The Vanguard.
If you wish to be published in the paper, please leave your first name and which class year you represent.
Thanks for voting and please continue reading the Vanguard and Thunderjags.com.
~~~ Admin Edit:
We have had a few complaints that the poll above is, for reasons not yet known, not visible to some users. Because of this, we are posting the questions below, and you are welcome to leave your response in the comments section.
Poll Question: The January 11 Vanguard Sports Poll asked which scenario is best for South Alabama athletics:
- A move to conference USA
- Staying in the Sun Belt
Top 5 Stories Of 2009
[EDIT] I had left out my original #2 that I had planned back at the beginning of December when I was mentally planning this article.
Its time for a quick look back as we let go of 2009 and start 2010. Also, since the Mobile Press-Register did not see fit to include South Alabama in their Top 10 stories in the area, here are my top 5 stories from the past year.
Leave comments if you think another story should have been included. Or if it were a top 10 list, what other stories would you include.
Top 5 of 2009
1) Kickoff of Jaguars football
South Alabama completed its first season in college football with an undefeated inaugural season. With games in coming season against Kent State, NC State, Mississippi State, Navy and Tennessee, it shows that the school is committed to this program.
A four game home-and-home series with Navy. Two-for-One series with NC State, Kent and Mississippi State where the Jags will visit the teams twice in return for a home game against each. Which mean some big time home games against NC State and Mississippi State in Mobile.
The Staff that Coach Joey Jones assembled and the players they have recruiting has this team much farther ahead than coaches, players and observers thought. With that, they had to retool the schedule for 2010 to include more competition as they march their way to Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-A).
[EDIT] 2a) Announcement Of Joe Gottfried’s Retirement And Hiring Of Joel Erdmann As Athletic Director
On June 2, Joe Gottfried announced in the Mitchell Center that he was retiring effective August 1. Gottfried, who was the Athletic Director for South Alabama for 25 years said the time was right. He was instrumental in getting first class sports buildings on campus such as the $30 Million Mitchell Center, a $3.5 Million renovation to Stanky Field, a 4,000 clubhouse, intramural fields and the football field house among many others.
Then in July, South Alabama announced the hiring of Joel Erdmann as the new Athletic Director for the University of South Alabama. Erdmann held several positions at South Alabama previously and served as AD at the University of North Alabama and at his hiring he was AD at Southeastern Louisiana University.
2b) USA defeats two SEC Schools in basketball
Back in late November the Jags had two loses to good opponents in Rice and Tulsa and traveled to Fayetteville, Arkansas to take on the Jags former coach John Pelphrey and the SEC. Many people just wrote it off as a typical loss to a big program, but Coach Arrow and the Jags took a page from Lee Corso’s book and said “Not so fast!” They stunned the Razorbacks on their own court with an impressive victory by a large margin, 74-61.
Then after losses to Southern Miss and UAB, the Jags made a trip to yet another SEC school. But this time it was a Top 25 ranked team. The Jags were facing #18 Florida in Gainesville, Florida where the Gator had not lost a home game since December 2004.
Again the Jags were written off from the beginning but stunned the Gators and made a huge splash on ESPN, ESPN News and ESPN.com. Although it was won on a last second put back, it was a huge win. It is only the second time in school history USA has defeated two SEC teams in the same season and the first since 1983-84. Plus it was the first time to knock off a ranked opponent since 2005 when they defeated #25 Houston.
3) Loss of Dameyune Craig to FSU
Many people thought it was just a matter of time for this coach who has quite a rising status in college football. But nontheless, it was the second assistant in less than a year that was hired away from Coach Jones’ staff to a major Division-I program. This time it was Florida State.
Jimbo Fisher was beginning to prepare taking over the reigns to the Seminole program from Bobby Bowden and one of his first hires was Dameyune Craig. A very good recruiter in the Mobile area that the Jags will definitely be recruiting against to keep local talent.
4) All Jaguar Football Players Who Are Eligible Receive A Redshirt
Just before the final football game against Huntingdon College, Coach Jones announced that all of the eligible players on the team would get an extra year of eligibility.
Those players who had not already taken a redshirt year, will take the 2009 season as their redshirt year. Unfortunately some players had already used their redshirt year and will not be able to have an extra season with the Jaguars.
5) Hiring of Gregory (also leaving of Koenning)
In December 2008, before the Jags even took the field for their first game, Coach Joey Jones loss his first assistant to an SEC school. Dan Mullen, who was just hired to replace Sylvester Croom, tapped him to be his offensive coordinator for the Bulldogs program.
Coach Joey Jones then began a search for a replacement that fit Koennings’ profile and the players that they were recruiting. In came Greg Gregory from South Florida, another new program in recent years. South Florida rose through the ranks and has the NCAA record to achieve its first Top 25 ranking faster than other Division I-A school in the modern era and eventually rising to #2 in the polls in 2007.
Jags Dig Deep In Second Half To Beat FAU On The Road
The Jags came back from a 15 point deficit at one point in the second half to get a huge win over Florida Atlantic in overtime, 96-93. Three Jags scored at least 20 points in the game as well
Early in the second half the Owls took their largest lead of the game at 15. They had a double digit lead as late at the eight minute mark. But South Alabama would not give up. With about 50 seconds left, they were down by five 81-76. Bryan Sherrer would hit both of his free throw attempts with 43 seconds left to cut the lead to 81-78.
Redus would foul on the inbounds where the Owls would convert both of their attempts to extend their lead back to 5 points, 83-78, with 34 seconds left. Tim Williams would hit a layup to once again cut the lead to three with 32 seconds to go, 83-80. Lashun Watson would foul on the inbounds with 27 seconds remaining. Again the Owls would make both of their attempts, once again extending their lead to five, 85-80.
Then some Jaguar magic would happen. After an Owl timeout with 27 seconds remaining, Tim Williams would nail a three pointer with 24 seconds left to get within two points, 85-83. Gary Redus would foul to stop the clock with 19 seconds left. But Raymond Taylor would only make the first of his two shots to leave the Owls clinging to a three point lead, 86-83.
The missed free throw would be rebounded by LaShun Watson and on the other end Tim Williams would hit his second consecutive three to tie the game at 86 with 17 seconds remaining.
The Jags would force a turnover with 3 seconds remaining, but Allyn Cooks three point attempt missed and sent the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Jags would score first for their first lead of the entire game. Jags would go up by five with 27 seconds remaining but the Owls could only manage to score once more for the final score of 96-93.
This win marked Coach Ronnie Arrow’s 171st win at the helm at South Alabama in his 11 seasons. This ties Cliff Ellis for the most in school history. It also improves the Jags to 11-4 on the season and 3-0 in the Sun Belt. While FAU falls to 5-9 overall and 1-2 in the conference.
Tim Williams would lead all scorers with 23 points on 9 for 16 shooting and 2 for 4 from three point range, making the two when they counted the most. Bryan Sherrer added 21 while Allyn Cooks added 20. Gary Redus scored 11 and LaShun Watson scored 10 to round out the double digit scorers.
Coach Arrow spoke after the game on the Jags victory. “We didn’t show up ready to play, number one, for whatever reason,” he said. “Give FAU credit, they have a bunch of young guys that were hungry to play and came out and hit shots. I thought it showed a lot on our part to come back and win like that.”
Coach Arrow spoke to Lee Shirvanian about the play late to tie the game and send it into overtime. “Our guys executed and got him open and (Williams) hit the shots,” he said. “We called ‘knockoff throwback’ and he nailed the shot. It takes two to tango; Allyn did a great job of penetrating and pitching back to Tim. That’s what it’s all about – Allyn doing his job and Tim doing his job.”
The Jags will return to the Mitchell Center to host Western Kentucky on Thursday with a 5:05pm tip-off. The game will be aired on Fox College Sports.
Go Jags!
Jags Ring Out The New Year With Another Win
We hope everyone in Jaguar Nation had a fun and safe new years celebration. Ronnie Arrow and the Jaguars got to celebrate a little early on New Years Eve with a victory over Florida International to kick off their two game Sun Belt road swing through Florida, 71-59. This improves the Jags record to 10-4 overall and 2-0 in the Sun Belt. FIU under first year head coach Isiah Thomas drops to 4-12 overall and 1-2 in the Sun Belt.
Coming off the big win over 18th ranked Florida before Christmas, the Jags had some time to reflect and regain their emotions for the FIU game. And it showed. They held the Panthers to only 16 points in the first half on 25% shooting and only just over 35% for the game. The Jags also forced 19 turnovers in the game as well as a season high seven blocked shots.
Tim Williams led the trio of Jags in double figures with 18 points. Freshman Martino Brock added 15 points and a game high eight rebounds while Senior Bryan Sherrer scored 10 points.
After letting the Panthers get close, the Jags held held them without a score for the final 6:23 of the game to go on a 13-0 run into the locker room up 31-16.
The Jags would push their lead to 18 with just over 14:00 to go, but FIU would try to rally going on an 8-0 run all scored by Marvin Roberts. However, the Jags would not let them cut the lead into single digits. The Jags would go on a 6-1 run to put the game away in the end.
Coach Arrow was quite happy with the teams performance to end the new year. “It’s great to win the final game of the old year and go into the new year on a good note,” he said. “Our defense played well – we held them to 35 percent and they hit some big shots at the end or it would have been even lower. We got some key steals at the end of the first half that ignited our offense. I think our guys are finally understanding what it’s all about defensively.”
The Jags return to action Saturday night when the travel to Florida Atlantic for a 7pm tip-off.
Go Jags!
Jags Defeat #18 Florida in Gainesville
The Jags got what might be their biggest victory in a long time when they defeated the #18 ranked Florida Gators on Tuesday, 67-66. It’s probably the biggest win since defeating Alabama in the NCAA Tournament in 1989.
The Jags lead the game most of the first half but never pulled out to much of a lead. At halftime the score was tied at 43. Then early in the second half it looked like the Jags were going to be a one half team again but the Jags came back to life and fought their way back into the lead. They would even push that lead out to seven points at 61-54 with 7:42 left in the game. But Florida wasn’t about to give up just yet.
The Gators went on a 7-0 run, the final two to tie were free throws. Then two more free throws gave the Gators the lead with 2:04 left to play. They would hold the lead until the final shot by DeAndre Hersey with 1.8 seconds left.
The Jags got the ball back with with seconds left in the game. They in-bounded the ball and carried it down the court to around the time line when the Jags used their final timeout of the game with 12.7 seconds left. The play was drawn up for Tim Williams, the games leading scorer, to drive the lane. But when Williams’ missed, Hersey was there for the follow up tip-in.
A desperation three point attempt from beyond half court bounced off the rim and the Jags celebrated on the floor in front of stunned Florida fans.
Williams, as stated earlier, lead all players in scoring with 21 on 8 of 19 shooting, 3 of 4 from outside the arc. Martino Brock was next with nine points and Sherrer with eight. Five other Jags scored in the game as well.
The Jags won despite shooting a mere 28.1% in the second half. But Florida shot even worse only making 23.1% of their shots. Also the gators could only muster a 3 for 22 night from behind the arc. The Jags were unusually good from outside shooting 7 of 11 from 3 point range.
Coach Arrow was ecstatic after the game. “That was a great game,” he said. “The people here got to see two really good teams go at it. I told our guys to play for 40 minutes which would allow us to get a really nice Christmas present. I thought that both teams played hard. We had different people make big plays and that’s what a good team does.”
And what a Christmas present they gave to themselves and all of the Jaguar fans watching on television, listening to the radio, streaming on espn360 and watching the scoring updates from their phone. It was even featured as the lead in to ESPN SportsCenter and ESPN News.
Here is the video from ESPN:
Florida State Hires Dameyune Craig To Coach Quarterbacks
It was announced today by Pat Greenwood that Dameyune Craig had accepted an offer from Jimbo Fisher and Florida State to coach quarterbacks for the Seminoles.
Fisher recruited, signed and coached Craig at Auburn in the 90s. This is a tough loss by Coach Jones and the Jags because Craig was a very talented recruiter in the area. He will likely recruit here for the Seminoles because of his strong ties with the area.
Craig was on WNSP with Pat Greenwood and they spoke about his ties with Fisher and his time with the Jags. He spoke about meeting in the basement of the Mitchell Center early on in the program. How they had to sell the program to kids with only a wood covered hill to show and designs in their minds for the field house and practice fields.
He said that the Jags program was in very good hands with Coach Jones. He knew it from the beginning and he continues to the Jags improving as they march towards FBS play.
This is the second coach to be picked off from Coach Jones staff since he was hired to start the program. Les Koenning was hired by Dan Mullen and Mississippi State after Mullen was hired to take over the Bulldogs program last year. Hailed as one of the top young coaches in the country, Craig will be missed by the Jag Nation.
We at Thunderjags wish Dameyune the best at Florida State and hope he will help South Alabama land a couple good games against the Seminoles in the coming years.
Jags Hold On To Win Conference Opener Against UALR On ESPN2
Jags overcome a rough first half to hold of the Trojans of Arkansas-Little Rock to win their conference opener in front of a nationally televised audience.
Jags had a small lead early in the first half but a 12-0 run by the Trojans gave them the lead. The Trojans would stretch out their lead to as many as 10 in the first half before the Jags cut it to within six at halftime 34-28.
The Jags would come out a different team in the second half starting with an 11-3 run to regain the lead. After that, the Jags never gave up the lead but they did allow them within one point. But the Trojans chance to tie was squandered when their leading scorer of the game went to the line and missed the first of two free-throws with 13 seconds to go.
Redus would be fouled on the ensuing possession by the Jags. His two free-throws would fall giving the Jags a three point lead, 74-71 with seconds to play. The Trojans got a fairly decent look at the goal on a last ditch three-point attempt but was off the mark.
Bryan Sherrer would score a career high 21 points in the game to lead all scorers. Gary Redus would add 16 and Martino Brock would add 11 rounding out the double digit scorers for the Jags. As a team, the Jags out rebounded UALR 47-29 and held them to under 40% shooting.
The Jags will next play in the Coors Classic on Saturday at the Mitchell Center where they will host the UAB Blazers with the University of Alabama vs Kansas State following them. Tip-off of the Jags game will be 5:30pm and Alabama vs Kansas State 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Jags game.
Also on Thursday, the Jags announced the addition of two televised games to the schedule as well as a tiem change. The Jags game on December 22 against Florida in Gainsville will be televised by CSS and streamed online at espn360.com. The January 7 game against Western Kentucky in Mobile will be aired on Fox College Sports and well as the Hilltopper Satellite Sports Network. The tip-off of this game was moved up to 5:05pm.
Go Jags! Bleed it Red!!
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!