MOBILE, Ala. — Logan Kilgore threw for 233 yards and two scores, and Jordan Parker added a career-best 154 yards on 24 carries to help Middle Tennessee spoil the University of South Alabama football team’s Senior Day with a 20-12 Sun Belt Conference victory Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Jajuan Harley had a hand in three Jaguar turnovers with two interceptions and a fumble he forced and recovered, as the Blue Raiders moved back into a tie atop the SBC standings at 5-1 in league action while improving to 7-3 overall. MT had four takeaways in the contest without a turnover.
“We can’t do that and win,” Jag head coach Joey Jones said of the turnover differential. “We talk about it and work on it. It’s just part of the game that happens sometimes. But the bottom line is if we don’t take care of the ball, we’re not going to win. That’s very simple. We have to do that to have a chance to beat these teams.
“I’m awful proud of the way our kids fight. They continue to do that. We’re just not quite finishing games and making plays at the end. But I’m real proud of our young men. That is a team that’s probably going to play for the conference championship. The positive is that we’re close to playing with those teams. The negative is we’re not making enough plays in games to win, and we have to do that.
“I’m proud of the way they’re fighting. They certainly aren’t giving up, and are representing the University of South Alabama in a positive way.”
Jake Johnson and B.J. Scott recorded 15 and 11 tackles, respectively, in their final home game for the Jags, who will finish their first-ever season of Sun Belt competition with two straight road games. The first is their final league contest at Louisiana-Lafayette, with kickoff on Saturday against the Ragin’ Cajuns at 4 p.m.
Johnson was equalled his highest total of the season and extended his streak to 11 contests in a row with at least one stop behind the line of scrimmage, while it was a career-high-tying total for Scott. Terrell Brigham and Alex Page chipped in with 10 tackles each, giving USA (2-9, 1-6 Sun Belt) four players in double digits for the second time this season.
Enrique Williams added five stops, and both Andy Dalgleish and Pat Moore made five tackles, while Tyrell Pearson supplied three passes broken up to go along with four stops.
“It’s tough to go against a team that has that flexibility. They had a bunch of yards but only two touchdowns,” Johnson stated. “They’re a good team and they were aggressive. They did a lot of things well, but it’s tough when you play that hard, and yeah we gave up some big runs and big plays, but we need to cut out the mental errors.”
Parker posted 105 yards after the break, while Kilgore completed 16-of-29 attempts. Jeremiah Bryson led all players with six catches for 90 yards, Anthony Amos added 69 yards on five receptions and Kyle Griswould had three catches for another 28 yards.
“They are a very good running team. We stopped the run most of the day, but we gave up a couple of long runs,” commented Jones. “They are just good offensively. They are coached well and are balanced; they make you choose whether you want to stop the run or the pass then they burn you with the other.”
For the fourth straight contest, the Jaguars got on the board first. Michel Chapuseax kicked a 19-yard field goal after USA moved 74 yards in 14 plays, putting the Jags up 3-0 with nine-and-a-half minutes left in the opening quarter. Ross Metheny pickup up the initial first down of the day with an eight-yard completion to Jeremé Jones on third-and-two, hitting Jones again for seven more yards and Wes Saxton for an 11-yard gain to convert two other third downs — the latter set up first-and-goal at the MT-5.
One week after USA allowed just two plays of 20-plus yards, the Blue Raiders used three in a four-snap span to take their first lead with just over five minutes remaining in the opening period. Parker began the possession with a 23-yard carry, and on the next play Reggie Whatley rushed for 25 more. Moore and Williams held Parker to no gain on the following snap, but MT responded with a 49-yard touchdown pass from Kilgore to Bryson.
The score remained that way into the second quarter as Harley and T.T. Barber intercepted passes inside the MT 10-yard line to end Jag drives. Khari Burke would go on to pace the MT defense with nine tackles, Craig Allen recorded eight, and Justin Jones and Kevin Byard collected five stops each.
The Blue Raiders made it a seven-point game with little over two minutes left before halftime with an 11-play, 81-yard march that resulted in a 26-yard field goal from Carlos Lopez. Chapuseaux drew USA within four at the half with his second field goal of the game, this time from 45 yards out. It appeared as if the Blue Raiders forced a three-and-out with under a minute to go before the break, but a running into the punter call extended the USA possession. On the first play after the penalty, Metheny found Bryant Lavender for a gain of 22 yards down the left sideline, and he picked up another first down with completions to Jones for eight yards and Lavender for five, respectively.
Jones led the Jaguars with six receptions for 53 yards, and Lavender posted three for 41. Corey Besteda and Terrence Timmons also finished with two catches as Metheny completed 17-of-30 attempts for 189 yards. Timmons posted a career-high 76 yards on 18 carries, with Metheny supplying 32 yards on the ground, Kendall Houston 22 and T.J. Glover 19.
“This week at practice we prepared for two running backs,” said Timmons. “This whole week there was basically pressure on me, Kendall and T.J., and we got here today and stepped on the field and started out pretty good. But then Kendall went down so everything was falling on mine and T.J.’s shoulders. I felt like I needed to step up and make plays to produce yards and whatever else I could do to help the offense.”
After controlling the ball for 18-and-a-half minutes in the opening half — the Jaguars held a 29-yard advantage in total offense over the firs t30 minutes — USA had eight minutes of possession time in the second half. MT and the Jags both ran 70 plays in the game, but the Blue Raiders finished with a 445-338 edge in total yards.
MT scored on its opening possession of the second half, with Kilgore finding Amos on a slant pattern on second-and-goal from the USA-6 to complete a 10-play, 75-yard drive that took more than five minutes off the clock to up the Blue Raider lead to 17-6. They had a chance to add to that advantage after Harley forced and recovered a fumble at the USA-41 on the Jags’ ensuing possession, but the Jaguar defense held and MT settled for a 35-yard field-goal attempt that sailed wide left.
USA answered by picking up a first down on a 12-yard throw from Metheny to Jones, while on the next snap he hit Gabe Loper for a 45-yard completion to move the Jaguars to the MT-20. With just under four minutes to go in the third quarter, Metheny hit Besteda on an 18-yard scoring pass; after the two-point conversion failed the Blue Raiders led 17-12.
Lopez added a 19-yard field goal with six-and-a-half minutes left in the contest to extend the MT lead to 20-12, but missed an opportunity to make it a two-possession game just over three minutes later when his attempt from 47 yards out fell short. The Jags’ final possession ended with an interception by Harley at midfield with little more than three minutes left on the clock.
“I told our players before the game and told them at half time that nobody should be surprised by the score of the game. We knew it was going to be a 60-minute game,” Blue Raider head coach Rick Stockstill observed. “We knew that South Alabama was good on defense and that nobody had really run past them or blown them out. All of their games had been close, so we knew it was going to be this type of game. We practiced for this type of game and we got exactly what we thought we would get.”
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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USA-Middle Tennessee game stats
USA-Middle Tennessee postgame quotes
