Monday Press Conference
Running back Jay Jones diving in for a Jaguar touchdown against Kent State.
The Jaguar football team is fresh off of their 38-21 win over Kent State where they put together a balanced, complete performance. The win snapped a two-game losing streak and evened their season record at 3-3 overall.
But they will have to turn around and learn how to defend an offense that is rarely seen in the college ranks these days, the option.
Below is highlights of the Monday press conference.
Head coach Joey Jones opened the press conference with his opening statement where he spoke about how pleased he was to see his team win a more comfortable game. “I thought we played a fairly complete game (last week), and played well in all three phases,” Jones said. “I liked our confidence and how we approached the game. We didn’t turn the ball over and didn’t have a ton of penalties, so it was just a game that you like as a coach. But you always see things you can fix and get better from when you watch the film. It was a good game overall, and I’m real pleased with the way our kids came out and played against Kent State.”
The focus then turned to Texas State. “Defensively, they are number one in the league in points allowed,” Jones explained. “That’s the only way you can rate a defense to me. They are keeping people out of the end zone, and that’s what matters. They’re doing a great job and have a great scheme. They have a lot of movement on their front, getting people where they want them to be. They are very well-coached on defense. Offensively, they run an option scheme which causes some issues so we have to be smart about how we play. And their special teams are really sound.”
Jones then spoke more about defending the option. “You don’t see it as much,” he explained. “Our players, as well as players on other teams, don’t see it much in this day and time even in high school. But years ago you would play against it in high school and you could just brush up on it. But right now it is a totally new thing for them, so we have to be smart about how we present it to them. We have to present it to them in a way they understand it.”
He also spoke about the team’s confidence after the win over Kent State. “I think it did a lot for our confidence,” Jones said. “Our kids came off the field and realized they beat a darn good team. I thought we controlled the game very well. What it taught our players more than just confidence is if we play every quarter and treat each quarter like it is the end of the game, then we have a shot. From that standpoint, I thought we grew up.”
Running back Jay Jones was the offensive representative for the press conference. He reflecting back on his performance against Kent State. “The Kent State game was just a game that was focused on me coming out and making plays,” he explained. “Our offense is full of playmakers and to this point, I’ve just been playing my role like everyone else. Coach Jones told me before Saturday’s game to come out ready to get the ball. They just put me in great positions to make plays in the game.”
Jay then spoke about what Saturday’s success does for his confidence. “It does a lot for our confidence, because we’ve lost some close games this season that we felt we shouldn’t have and where we felt we were the better team,” Jones Said. “This past week, we took the preparation seriously. We just wanted to win every quarter. Winning it easily did a lot for our confidence and its going to help us this week.”
He also addressed how the offense seems to have more of a comfort level now. “I think it’s just everyone understanding what their part (in the offense) is,” Jay explained. “The receivers know that when I’m running the ball, they know that their blocking is key, whereas on a pass play, my blocking is key. We now know how good this offense can be if everyone does their role.”
He talked about how the offensive line has developed as the season has progressed. “We do a lot of group schemes with our offensive line and blitz pickups in practice,” he said. “They take everything seriously. When we’ve had injuries, a lot of guys have stepped up and made a difference. Our offensive line goes hard every play. They give me gaps and creases that help me make plays.”
The defensive representative was linebacker Enrique Williams. He talked about what the team’s win did in helping the team’s confidence. “Going into the week, the coaches were saying that we needed to make a statement,” Williams explained. “Not just win, but show other teams we can win by more than a touchdown or a field goal. A lot of our games have been going down to the last second, so we needed to come out and make that statement to the rest of our opponents.”
Williams explained how they will have to adjust to the Texas State’s option offense. “We’ve played against some option teams the past few years,” Williams said. “It’s always difficult (to face a team) when you have a running threat at quarterback, so we’re just going to have to be disciplined and stay in our gaps with everyone just doing their job.”
South Alabama will travel to San Marcos, Texas for a Sun Belt Conference game against Texas State on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 6pm.
Jaguar Volleyball Falls In Five Sets To Texas State
The Jaguar Women’s Volleyball team fell to Texas State in five sets on Sunday even though Freshmen Jessica Lewis and Mechell Daniel both recorded double-double’s.
The Jags (7-12, 2-7 SBC) will return home to face Texas State (15-9, 5-4 SBC) again in Mobile on Friday night at 7pm in Jag Gym.
“Our team started off well and was prepared for today’s match,” USA Volleyball head coach Amy Hendrichovsky said. “The issue today was that we weren’t able to sustain that type of play for three complete sets. We were able to play two very good sets and had a hard time finding that third set. Texas State’s backs were against the wall and they were able to respond when they needed to.”
Lewis and Daniel both recorded 19 kills with Daniel tying a career best with 17 digs and Lewis setting a new career best with 15. This was the fifth double-double for Daniel this season while this was the first for Lewis. Kelley Little also set a new career-high with 17 digs while Abby Baker recorded a match-high 18 digs for the Jags.
The Jags also fell in three straight matches against Texas-Arlington on Friday night.
As mentioned above, the Jags will host Texas State on Friday at 7pm then they will host Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday at 1pm in Jag Gym.
Lady Jags Soccer Fall To Troy 1-0
The South Alabama Women’s Soccer team fell at Troy on Sunday afternoon. The Jags were once the nation’s leader in scoring but have been held scoreless for the second time in a week after falling to Troy 1-0.
Necee Jennings netted a goal in the 66th minute to even their conference record and pull within one match of the Jaguars. The Jags (10-5-2 overall, 3-2-1 SBC) fell to third place after last week’s loss to Western Kentucky. Troy improved to 7-9 overall and 3-3-0 in Sun Belt play.
The Jags will host the final two matches of the regular season with Conference runner-up Louisiana-Lafayette set to visit The Cage on Thursday at 7pm then eighth place Louisiana-Monroe to visit on Sunday at 1pm.
Jags Rank 78th In First BCS Rankings
The first Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings were released on Sunday and the Jags debut at #78.
Here are the rankings for all of the Sun Belt Conference teams and Jaguar opponents:
- 39 Tennessee
- 39 Louisiana-Lafayette
- 51 Tulane
- 72 Western Kentucky
- 73 Louisiana-Monroe
- 78 South Alabama
- 80 Arkansas State
- 84 Troy
- 91 Texas State
- 103 Kent State
- 999 Georgia State (not eligible along with Penn State and Texas-San Antonio)
Jags Defeat Kent State 38-21 On Homecoming
Running back Jay Jones diving in for a Jaguar touchdown against Kent State.
The South Alabama Jaguar football team were challenged to put together a complete game and they came out and did just that in their 38-21 win over Kent State. The win ended a two game losing streak for the Jags and evens their overall record at 3-3 for the season.
The Jags gained 481 total yards in the game, 257 yards rushing and 224 yards passing. They had 29 first downs in the game while converting 6-of-11 third down attempts. Also in six trips into the red zone, the Jags scored on five of them and all were touchdowns.
Ross Metheny led the offense for most of the game and added a fifth consecutive game where he has rushed for a touchdown. Aleem Sunanon connected on a 45 yard field goal after two weeks of open competition for the plackicking position. Additionally Kendall Houston scored two touchdowns on runs of three and 14 yards.
Jay Jones ran for a season-high 99 yards on 13 rushes to lead the backfield. Cris Dinham also had a career best 67 yards on 12 rushes. Kendall Houston rushed for 43 yards on seven carries while Terrance Timmons rushed for 21 yards and Julien Valentin added 20 late in the game.
The offense ran 77 offensive plays and averaged 6.2 yards per play without a single turnover.
Defensively, Maleki Harris had a career-high tackle total with 10 to lead the defense. He also recorded 1.5 tackles-for-loss. Montell Garner added seven tackles, Enrique Williams had six and Romelle Jones added five. Alex Page had four tackles, two of which were sacks.
The Jags were up 10-0 before Dri Archer scored on a 74 yard run with under 10 minutes to play in the first half. However the Jags responded with a 79 yard drive in nine plays to take a 17-7 lead into halftime. Actually, the Jags would post three consecutive scores after Archer’s touchdown to take a commanding 31-7 lead in the second half.
Dri Archer struck again with 14:01 left in the game when he took the first down pass from David Fisher 73 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 31-14.
South Alabama responded when T.J. Glover returned the kickoff 67 yards to the Kent State 30 yard line. It would become the Kendall Houston drive as he rushed four consecutive times before hitting pay dirt on the fourth which covered 14 yards. The Jags would then lead 38-14 with 11:28 left in the game.
Kent State would put together a drive in the final 1:38 to make the score slightly more respectable after they scored with six seconds left in the game for the final score 38-21.
Eight different Jags would catch passes in the game with Shavarez Smith leading the way with 63 yards on three receptions and Wes Saxton catching the most passes for the Jaguars with four. Jereme Jones extended his consecutive games with a completion streak with two receptions for 23 yards. Danny Woodson would catch three passes for 38 yards and the only receiving touchdown for the Jags.
Ross Metheny was 16-for-23 for 224 yards and a touchdown through the air and a touchdown on the ground as well. Brandon Bridge was 0-for-1 in his limited time in the game, which was almost disastrous. One play he tried to make something happen after being persued. After being tripped up he tried to throw the ball as he was going down deep in USA territory, but it was ruled a fumble. However, after review, it was overturned and ruled an incomplete pass but a flag was thrown for intentional grounding. The Jags were able to punt on the next play.
The second quarter has been a problem for the Jags this season. The 10 points they scored in the second quarter were the first since the second quarter against Western Kentucky and the first time they scored a touchdown in the second quarter since the game against Tulane.
On Kent State’s first drive, the Jags Montavious Williams blocked a 41 yard field goal attempt, which was big for the Jaguars defense early in the game.
The only two negative things from the game without reviewing the game film were the two long touchdown runs by Dri Archer after catching a passes out of the backfield and allowing the late touchdown at the end of the game.
Dri Archer is a talented player and the Jags did well keeping him bottled up for most of the game, save for those two big plays. Archer would finish with 227 all-purpose yards, 114 rushing yards on 10 carries. The late touchdown was not allowed by the first string defense. The defense played very soft in that last drive trying to let the time run out.
After the game head coach Joey Jones spoke about the game. “We’re gaining confidence right now and maturing as a team,” he said. “We have played a lot of tough teams on our schedule, and we’re going to play even more. All we can control is what we do, and I think our kids are buying in to that. If we learn from that today, then we can continue to use it and be successful with it.”
“As a whole today, guys were motivated, and we played with a great swagger,” Jones commented. “Guys were celebrating after every play that was made.”
“My hat’s off to Kent State,” Jones commented about Kent State playing without starting quarterback Colin Reardon and star defensive tackle Roosevelt Nix. “They came down here banged up with a lot of injuries and two of their best players hurt. They have played five of six games on the road and that’s a tough thing to do. I’ve been in their shoes, and understand what that’s like.”
“My hat’s off to my team, players, coaches and everyone involved with the organization. That was a solid win for us,” Jones said. “I thought we played well in all phases and played for four quarters. We challenged our players all week to take it a quarter at a time and win each quarter, and I thought they did that. We played a little looser out there, and that was good to see. I am real proud of the way we played.”
However Jones also said, “I’m sure we’ll see some things on film that we need to correct, but overall I’m real pleased.”
South Alabama will travel to San Marcos, Texas to face Texas State in a Sun Belt Conference game on Saturday, October 26 with kickoff scheduled for 6pm.
USA Gameday: Jags Vs Kent State
It’s homecoming for the Jaguars. They have only played one home game in the month of September and this is their first and only home game in the month of October. These guys are ready to play in front of a home crowd.
They will be wearing their RED jerseys and white pants. In a “Jaguar Red Out”, the first 10,000 fans to the stadium will receive a red Jaguar Rally Towel. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3 online, WSNP 105.5FM will have play-by-play coverage in the Mobile area and can also be streamed world wide on www.wnsp.com.
As always, parking is limited at Ladd-Peebles Stadium and only season ticket holders have access to purchase parking passes. Parking near Ladd-Peebles is available but it is not controlled nor managed by South Alabama or Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Shuttle service is available by The Wave. It will run continuously from 10am until 90 minutes after the end of the game. They run from Bel Air Mall with pickup and dropoff in the parking lot south of Target and JC Penny. The lot is well lit and has security provided by USA.
The “Jaguar Prowl” is scheduled for 11:40 AM. The players will walk along the south side of the stadium from the east to west side with Jaguar coaches, cheerleaders, Southpaw and the Jaguar Marching Band.
Their opponents are the Kent State Golden Flashes from the Mid-American Conference. Kent State have played a tough schedule so far. They have non-conference losses against LSU and Penn State as well as conference losses against the top three teams in the conference so far: Northern Illinois, Ball State and Bowling Green.
Injuries have been a problem for the Golden Flashes, their starting quarterback, redshirt freshman Colin Reardon, is expected to miss the game with an ankle injury. Along with Reardon, sophomore punter and placekicker Anthony Melchiori, one of the top punters in the nation, is also expected to miss the game. Star defensive tackle Roosevelt Nix is questionable for the game due to a nagging back injury and will be a game-time decision along with several other starters for the Golden Flashes.
South Alabama had some injuries early that impacted the team. Offensive lineman Melvin Meggs tore his ACL in summer workouts. Defensive end Will Thompson injured his ankle that required surgery in preseason camp. Randon Carnathan injured his Achilles’ heel against Tulane and will miss the remainder of the season. But since then, the Jags have been quite healthy.
If possible, Roosevelt Nix will play as he is probable the best player at his position the Jags will face this season. He is an impact player and the Jags will have to figure out a way to limit his impact on the game.
After the Jags loss to Troy, South Alabama opened up competition for the placekicking duties. With two weeks of competition, Aleem Sunanon kept his job but he and Scott Garber will have their hands full as they will try to kick away from Dri Archer, a dangerous kick returner for the Golden Flashes.
So far this season, the quarterback position has been shared between Ross Metheny and Brandon Bridge. Metheny has been the starter with Bridge coming is as the change-up/change-of-pace quarterback for the Jags. How often and when will Bridge see playing time will be of interest to fans.
The Kent State offensive line will attempt to open holes for Dri Archer to run through against the Jaguar defense. Along with Archer, they have more talent in the backfield with Trayion Durham and Anthony Meray. Head coach Joey Jones expect the Golden Flashes to rely heavily on their rushing game against the Jags. The Jaguar rushing defense ranks 48th in the nation with an average of 146.2 yards per game allowed.
Go Jags! Beat Kent State!
Coaches Settle On Placekicker, Kickoff Duties
After opening up competition for the placekicker position after the Jags loss to Troy two weeks ago, the coaches have made their decision. Redshirt freshman Aleem Sunanon will continue handling both placekicking and kickoffs for the Jaguars.
Sunanon earned the position after competitions in spring practice and fall camp. However he did have an uncertain beginning against Southern Utah when he missed two attempts. He has also missed three of his last four official attempts (four of five if including a kick that was negated by a defensive penalty) and is 6-of-11 at field goal attempts for the season. He also had a PAT blocked in the loss to the Trojans.
Sunanon had pressure from redshirt freshman Logan Gunn and freshman walk-on Conner Kammerlocher but kept his position.
Homecoming Activities
Homecoming activities today on the South Alabama campus:
- College Reunions 4-5:30pm on the lawn of Alumni Hall.
- Wall of Honor Unveiling Ceremony 5:30pm at Moulton Tower and Alumni Plaza
- Homecoming Parade 6:30pm South Drive
- Homecoming Pep Rally/Basketball Fan Night 7:00pm at the Mitchell Center
- “Battle of the Greeks” NPHC Step Show 9:00pm at the Mitchell Center
Saturday:
- South Alabama and Kent State kickoff time is 2pm at Ladd-Peebles Stadium
- Stadium gates open at 8:00am
- Pregame Tailgating including Sprit Stick Competition
- Jaguar Prowl from the Southeast to the Southwest corners of the stadium at 11:40am
- Homecoming Court presentation at Halftime
Jags Vs Kent State: By The Numbers
The Jags will host the Kent State Golden Flashes on Saturday in the Jags homecoming game. Kickoff for the game is set for 2pm at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Let’s take a look at Kent State’s stats from this season.
The Golden Flashes play in the Mid-American Conference. Their head coach, Paul Haynes, is in his first season with an overall record of 2-5 and 1-3 in conference play.
Offensively the Golden Flashes average 336 yards of total offense per game which breaks down to 152.1 yards per game rushing with five touchdowns on the season and 183.9 yards per game passing with 10 touchdowns on the season. They score, on average, 18.9 points per game with 17.8 first downs per game.
Meanwhile the South Alabama offense averages 30 points per game. They average 447.2 yards of total offense per game which breaks down to 158.6 yards rushing per game and 288.6 yards per game passing. The Jags have scored 12 rushing touchdowns and six through the air. They also average 22.2 first downs per game.
Kent State has fumbled 12 times on the season and lost five of them. They have also been penalized 42 times for 347 yards. They convert 40.6% of their 3rd down attempts and 50% of their 4th down conversion attempts. In the red zone, they have come away with points 13 of their 17 trips with 9 of them being touchdowns.
USA converts 40% of their 3rd down conversion attempts and 33% of their 4th down conversion attempts. The Jags have scored on 15 of their 21 red zone trips with 12 of them being touchdowns and have been penalized 37 times for 294 yards on the season.
KSU averages 44 yards per punt and have made 6-of-11 field goal attempts. But Kent State quarterbacks have been sacked nine times for a total loss of 53 yards.
Defensively, the Golden Flashes allow an average of 29.9 points per game and 23.1 first downs per game. Opponents gain an average of 466.1 yards per game which breaks down to 224.1 yards per game rushing with 13 touchdowns and 242.0 yards per game passing with 14 touchdowns.
The Jaguar defense allows an average of 30 points per game. Opponents average 406.4 yards per game of total offense which breaks down to 146.2 yards per game rushing and 260.2 yards per game through the air. Opponents have scored five rushing touchdowns and has scored 13 passing touchdowns.
Kent State opponents convert 45.5% of their 3rd down attempts and 42.9% of 4th down attempts. Opponents have scored on 28-of-34 red zone trips with 22 of them being touchdowns.
Jaguar opponents are converting just 42% of their 3rd down conversion attempts and 50% of their 4th down conversion attempts. Opponents have scored on 20 of 23 trips into the red zone with 14 of them being touchdowns.
Trayion Durham is the leading rusher for the Golden Flashes with 493 yards and three touchdowns. Colin Reardon is next in line with 222 yards rushing with a touchdown. Reardon is the leading quarterback with a 59.4% completion rate. He is 120-of-202 for 1199 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has also thrown four interceptions.
Reardon’s top receiver is Chris Humphrey with 36 catches for 433 yards and three touchdowns. Next in line is Tyshon Goode with 23 catches for 231 yards and a touchdown.
Kent State average time of possession per game is 31:17. South Alabama’s average time of possession is 29:13.
Kickoff Time Announced For Nov. 2 Game Against Arkansas State
The University of South Alabama announced a kickoff time of 6:30pm for their game against Arkansas State at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on November 2.
This will be the schools annual Hall Of Fame Game.
This will be one of three athletic events happening on campus that weekend. On Friday, the Volleyball team will face off against Arkansas State Red Wolves at 7pm in Jag Gym. The Athletics Department will hold their Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center on Saturday at 10am. Then at 1:05pm the Lady Jaguar basketball team will tip off an exhibition game against the University of Mobile.