MOBILE, Ala. — As the University of South Alabama football team heads into the final stretch of its first season competing in the Sun Belt Conference, head coach Joey Jones and the rest of the Jaguars are still seeking to play what they consider a complete game.
The Jags (2-7, 1-4 Sun Belt) already own a league victory over Florida Atlantic, and have dropped one-possession decisions at Arkansas State and to Florida International last weekend; although progress is being made, those within the program are hungry to add to the total in the win column.
“We’ve played some good games, but I don’t know that we have played a four-quarter game yet, I really don’t,” Jones said. “I think we have played three quarters, we have played two, we have played three-and-a-half against Louisiana-Monroe and Arkansas State; we are doing some good things. For where we are in our program, we have to play four quarters to have a chance to win.
“I think we have gained some respect from the other coaches and the teams we have played against,” he continued. “That’s gratifying in some ways because when you walk across the field and shake a guy’s hand, you can tell that they respect what you are doing. But it still wasn’t a win on the scoreboard, and until we start getting some of those it’s going to sting.
“We’re a much better football team now than we were the first year. It’s probably the biggest improvement that any team we have had these first four years has made within the season. Is it showing up in the conference standings? No, because we still see some Ls over there on our side. Did we play really well? Yes, but this game is all about winning.”
USA will look to achieve that goal Saturday, when it takes on North Texas (3-6, 2-3 SBC) at 4 p.m. in Denton. Like the Jaguars, the Mean Green have dropped two straight contests since defeating Louisiana-Lafayette 30-23 on Oct. 16. This will be North Texas’ final home game of the 2012 campaign.
The Jags put up attention-catching numbers on both sides of the ball last weekend against the Golden Panthers, the preseason favorite to win the league title. USA posted a season-best 458 yards of total offense while averaging six yards per play, while on the other side of the ball the Jaguar defense limited FIU to just 31 yards and two first downs while keeping the Golden Panthers off the scoreboard in the second half.
USA scored 13 unanswered points after the intermission on a school-record 75-yard touchdown pass from Ross Metheny to Corey Besteda and two Michel Chapuseaux field goals, but could not add to that on three drives that crossed midfield in the fourth quarter.
Jake Johnson led the defensive effort with a USA season-high 15 tackles, which included his second sack of the year. The senior inside linebacker enters the weekend leading the league with 10.2 stops per contest — his 92 tackles have already set a school season record — and is tied for second in the SBC with 11½ tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
Enrique Williams, Alex Page and B.J. Scott each added six stops for the Jags last time out, while defensive linemen Montavious Williams and Will Thompson contributed five and three tackles, respectively, with both recording a sack. Enrique Williams is second on the squad and fourth in the conference with 81 tackles, and Page stands second with five sacks and eighth with 7½ stops for loss.
After giving up a total of 334 yards to the Golden Panthers, the Jaguars rank second in the SBC surrendering 364.7 per outing.
“We were open to a challenge,” said junior safety Charles Watson, who collected three stops in the FIU game. “[Defensive coordinator] Coach [Bill] Clark told us that we could either get embarrassed or we could come back, play our ball and do what we normally do.”
Metheny posted a school game-record 326 yards of total offense against the Golden Panthers, throwing for 270 yards on 19-of-37 passing while rushing eight times for 56 more yards. In the last four outings, the junior quarterback is averaging better than 225 yards passing per contest.
Besteda finished with a career-best 96 yards on three catches, while Wes Saxton — who had no receptions in the previous five games — caught a team-leading six balls for another 92 yards. Jeremé Jones and Bryant Lavender, the Jags’ top two receivers with 28 and 27 receptions, respectively, in 2012, combined for seven catches and 60 yards as well.
Demetre Baker led the team on the ground for the third straight week after carrying 15 times for 74 yards; he is among the top five in the Sun Belt with nearly 70 yards per outing, and is second in conference contests gaining 81 yards per game.
“We’ve improved a lot from the beginning of the season,” stated Chris May, a redshirt freshman offensive lineman. “We’re so much better now than we were in the UTSA [Texas-San Antonio] game. We’re a little banged up right now, and have had people step up to fill in.”
The Mean Green enters play averaging 405.8 yards per contest. That includes an average of over 175 yards per outing on the ground, as NT ranks fourth in the league in the category with both Brandin Byrd (152-572, 2 TDs) and Antionne Jimmerson (105-522, 5 TDs) among the top 10 in the SBC individually.
Quarterback Derek Thompson has thrown for 200-plus yards in seven straight contests after a 316-yard performance against Arkansas State last weekend, giving him an average of 229.3 yards per game through the air on the season; that totals stands fifth in the Sun Belt. While the Mean Green are without the services of Brelan Chancellor — who had 966 all-purpose yards, including catching 25 passes for 450 yards and five scores — due to a season-ending injury, NT is led by Ivan Delgado with 33 receptions for 464 yards. And, in Chancellor’s absence, Darnell Smith has collected nine catches for 183 yards the last two outings.
“The thing that is dangerous about them is that they will run, run, run, run and all of a sudden run play action and throw it deep over the top,” explained Jones. “We have to be smart and not give up the big throw; our cornerbacks and safeties are really going to have to do a good job this week. We have to be disciplined in the secondary, especially this week.”
Linebacker Zach Orr is third in the conference with 81 tackles, and lineman K.C. Obi has recorded nine stops for loss including 4½ sacks to rank among the league leaders in both categories. NT is giving up over 250 yards per contest passing and more than 410 per outing overall, and in the last four games Mean Green opponents are averaging better than 315 yards through the air.
“North Texas is a very physical team, they play power football offensively; defensively they don’t run a lot of things, but they do them extremely well,” said Jones. “They have big guys up front who are 330 and 300 pounds inside. They play very good fundamental football and are very well coached.
“They beat Louisiana-Lafayette on TV three weeks ago, they got after them. They play with a physical nature that they bring to every game.”
This will mark the third straight year that the Jaguars have travelled to Texas, with USA coming out on top each of the first two trips. The Jags defeated Lamar 26-0 on Oct. 16, 2010, in the program’s first-ever road game, then returned last fall to pick up a 30-27 double-overtime victory over Texas-San Antonio.
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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