MOBILE, Ala. – From the brigade of Midshipmen marching to the stadium to a fly-by from planes following the national anthem, there will be plenty of opportunities for the University of South Alabama football team to get caught up in the atmosphere surrounding a home game for the U.S. Naval Academy.

The key, according to Jaguar head coach Joey Jones, will be to tune out those distractions and focus on the task at hand.

"One thing we have to keep in mind is we are going to play a football game and not get caught up in whatever is around the stadium and what is going on during the game," he said.  "From what I hear it's going to be an exciting atmosphere in Annapolis, they are very proud of their football team.  But we are very proud of our team too and are excited about going up there and playing them."

USA (3-5) will look to snap a two-game losing streak on Saturday when the Jaguars pay a visit to Navy (5-4).  The game will kick off at 2:30 p.m. (CST) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium — where the Midshipmen are 4-0 this fall— and can be seen live nationally on the CBS Sports Network.

After an open weekend, the Jags' third — and final — of the season, USA returns to action coming off one of its best defensive performances of the year.  The Jaguars allowed season lows of 17 points and 160 yards passing, while the 349 yards managed by Arkansas State — nearly 90 fewer than the Red Wolves' average entering play — were the second-fewest given up by the unit.

Enrique Williams tied a school game record with 17 total stops, as the senior now stands third in the Sun Belt Conference with an average of 9.1 per outing.  Terrell Brigham added 11 tackles and Montell Garner 10, while the Jags posted a season-best 10 stops behind the line of scrimmage.  Alex Page accounted for three of those and Romelle Jones added two; the former leads the league and is in the top 50 nationally in both stops for loss and sacks per game having racked up 11 and 5½ total, respectively.

USA is allowing 175.1 yards per game on the ground and 407.6 overall.

The Jaguars' rush defense will be tested this weekend, however.  Coming into play, Navy ranks sixth in the country with an average of 306.6 yards per contest with 32 scores coming via the ground attack.  It's led by quarterback Keenan Reynolds, who has carried 197 times for 825 yards and 18 scores after a 226-yard, four-touchdown performance in the Midshipmen's 42-28 victory over Hawai'i last time out.  The sophomore — who has also completed 49-of-91 pass attempts for an additional 814 yards and six touchdowns — is first in the nation in scoring (12.0 ppg), second in rushing touchdowns, 17th in points responsible for (16.0 ppg) and 38th in rushing (91.7 ypg).

Six other Middies have gained over 200 yards rushing this fall as well, led by Chris Swain's 373 and four scores on 96 attempts.  Geoffrey Whiteside (30-238, 3 TDs), Quinton Singleton (44-231, 2 TDs) and DeBrandon Sanders (28-229) all average better than five yards per carry.

Although Navy has attempted just 109 passes as a team, it is fourth nationally averaging nearly 16 yards per completion.  Sanders (10-194, 1 TD) and Casey Bolena (10-114) are the only individuals with a double-figure catch total.

The Midshipmen, who average 403.7 yards and 30.9 points per outing, are also 11th in the country converting 52 percent on third downs.

"They are real good, obviously, controlling the ball, they can keep the football for a long time and score," Jones commented.  "You don't want to get behind them a touchdown or two, because now you're playing catch up and it's to their advantage.  We have to do a good job trying to keep them out of the end zone the best we can — if they kick a field goal that's fine — because if they can do that and stay ahead of you it makes it real difficult.

"Everybody has tried a little something different, but we have to do what we understand," he continued.  "That's one thing as a coaching staff we made a decision on, we can't get too far away from what we do.  We have to make some adjustments obviously, but we want to keep those within the scheme of what we do so our kids know how to line up and what technique to play."

The Jags are also averaging better than 400 yards per contest with 437.1 per game, ranking second in the Sun Belt with a 274.4 average passing.  Wes Saxton and Shavarez Smith stand among the top 10 in the league in both catches and receiving yards per outing, with the former posting 39 receptions for 496 yards and the latter 29 for 551.  Jeremé Jones has added 28 catches for 335 yards as well, as he and Smith have reached the end zone twice this fall.

Jay Jones leads the USA rushing attack with 437 yards on 83 attempts, ranking sixth in the conference in yards per game.  Ross Metheny has paced the Jaguars on the ground on four occasions this fall after carrying 17 times for 77 yards — both career-high totals — in the ASU contest; for the year, the senior quarterback is second on the team with 359 rushing yards while his eight scores are best on the squad.  He has also completed 61.8 percent (136-of-220) of his passes for 1,817 yards, entering play second in the SBC with 272 yards of total offense and third with an average of 227.1 yards through the air per contest.

Navy is led defensively by Cody Peterson, who with 98 stops is seventh in the national rankings with 10.9 per game.  Fellow linebacker DJ Sargenti has added 73 stops, Chris Johnson has been credited with 58 while intercepting a team-high three passes and Parrish Gaines has made 49 tackles.  The unit is surrendering almost 413 yards per outing, including 199.7 rushing and 213.2 passing.

The Midshipmen have recorded 15 takeaways while posting a plus-0.78 turnover margin that stands 19th in the country.  They also are tops nationally in fewest penalties and penalty yards per game having been flagged a total of 26 times for 220 yards.

After making all three field-goal attempts last time out, redshirt freshman Aleem Sunanon leads the conference with 1.38 per contest, and Scott Garber is averaging 41.3 yards per punt; he had a career-high four kicks downed inside the ASU 20-yard line two weeks ago, helping the Jags net 40.7 yards per effort in the game.

Nick Sloan has only made 5-of-8 field-goal tries on the year, but is second on Navy in scoring with a total of 50 points, while Pablo Beltran is averaging 42.3 yards per punt.

Rather than pay attention to the pageantry of a home game for Navy, Jones instead hopes the Jaguars focus on the opportunity presented the program as part of a home-and-home agreement between the two schools.

"We've got another chance this week to play against a team that has proven they are very good nationally year in and year out," he explained.  "They are very well coached and know how to play the game, so it's a chance for us to prove ourselves against a great program."

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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