Photo | Mike Kittrell
It certainly wasn’t the way the South Alabama coaching staff drew it up nor how they wanted the game to play out, but in the end, the 28-21 victory over Alcorn State was notable for its result, if nothing more.
It was a strange night. There was a 90-minute delay in play following the opening kickoff because of an electrical issue with the lights at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the visitor’s side of the field and rain fell for the second time in the second half. The Jags turned the ball over four times, all on fumbles, but used an interception of its own by Tré Young in the end zone in the waning moments to secure the victory and get past the Braves, who led 14-7 at halftime.
It marks the first time a Jags team has started the season 3-0 since playing a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schedule. All three wins have been against non-conference opponents. That changes next week when the Jags, who have an open date this week, take on Louisiana at home.
He’ll take the win, South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack said, but he wasn’t at all pleased with the performance of his team against Alcorn State.
“That was yesterday’s game, which is the way this program needs to operate,” he said. “That wasn’t nearly to our standard. We had some things exposed during the first two weeks that we allowed to show up again. Every person in our building has to be relentless to get those things fixed. When you make a mistake in Week 1, it’s got to get corrected in Week 2 and Week 3. The best teams in the country continue to get better, and that’s what we have to do in this bye week.”
Down by 7 points at intermission, South Alabama used a pair of touchdown runs by Kareem Walker in the third quarter, another rushing touchdown by Bryan Hill, also in the third period, and a key defensive stop on Alcorn State’s first possession of the half to grab the lead in the game. Then the Jags held on as the Braves made a comeback bid.
Walker scored on a hard-charging 13-yard run on South Alabama’s opening possession of the third quarter. The Jags’ defense stopped Alcorn on its ensuing possession and a short punt put the Jags at the Braves 35 yard line, where Walker slammed up the middle of the defense and scored again. Another Alcorn punt led to another rushing TD, this one from Hill from 11 yards out on a play in which he refused to be tackled until reaching the end zone. Suddenly, it was 28-14.
Asked about the difference in the teams to start the second half, Wommack said, “When you just do your job and you have an urgency about doing your job, good things happen. We were running the same runs that we ran in the first half, but we executed and operated better. Somehow, we have to come out better. We need to just come out and do our job and execute at a high level early.
“On top of that, when you put the ball on the ground four times, which really should have been five times, you’re going to give yourself a very difficult hole to crawl out of and we were fortunate to do that tonight.”
But Alcorn didn’t step out of the way. Instead, the Braves scored another touchdown in the fourth quarter, trimming South Alabama’s lead to 28-21. And the Braves were driving again late in the game, reaching the Jags’ 15 when Young stepped in front of the Braves’ pass for the interception with 1:55 to play.
Walker picked up a first down on another tough run and the Jags were able to run the remainder of the time off the stadium scoreboard clock.
Walker finished the night with 150 yards on 23 carries with Hill collecting 51 yards and his first college career TD. In all, the Jags rushed for 236 yards. Quarterback Jake Bentley was 14 of 25 for 158 yards passing, with no touchdowns, no interceptions and no sacks. Jalen Wayne caught four passes for 51 yards, with Jalen Tolbert catching two passes for 54 yards.
On defense, A.J. DeShazor Jr. had six tackles, with Yam Banks, Devin Rockette, Davyn Flenord and Wy’Kevious Thomas all making four stops each. The defense accounted for seven tackles for a loss, including four sacks. Young had an interception and Chris Henderson blocked an Alcorn State field goal try.
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