MOBILE, Ala. – One win down, two to go for the University of South Alabama football team after a 36-14 defeat of Louisiana-Monroe last weekend kept the Jaguars' dreams alive of playing in a postseason bowl game.  While a looming trip to Georgia State — which is winless on the season heading into its finale — might appear to offer little resistance in achieving that goal, everyone within the Jag program knows to not overlook the Panthers.

"We can't take this team lightly," senior center Matt Calcagnini explained.  "It is going to be their Senior Night.  They don't want to go into the offseason without a win, so we feel like they're going to throw everything they possibly can at us to get the win."

"They have gotten a lot better," added Jag head coach Joey Jones.  "One thing you look at with a team is how they performed early in the year and late in the year to see what is going on with them, and they are 100 percent better now than they were then — they took Troy down to the wire, they took Arkansas State down to the wire.  All we have to do is watch the film and we know we are playing a heck of a ball team that has really improved; they've done a great job coaching and they have good athletes."

Two years ago, in the most recent match-up between the two schools, Georgia State pulled out a 27-20 victory in double overtime at the Georgia Dome to even the series at one apiece.  Saturday's game will kick off at 1 p.m. (CST) at the same venue and be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.

"It [the 2011 loss] kind of left us with a chip on our shoulder," observed Enrique Williams, a senior inside linebacker.  "We were expecting to win going in to that game, and we just couldn't get it done.  We have to come out fighting and play hard to bring home a victory this weekend."

USA is coming off a school game-record nine-sack performance against the Warhawks, with five defensive linemen contributing to the entire total.  Montavious Williams led the way with 2½, Jerome McClain and Pat Moore supplied two, Romelle Jones was credited with 1½ and Alex Page added the first of the contest for the Jags.  The Jaguars have 31 sacks on the season, seven more than any other Sun Belt Conference school, while ranking sixth in the nation in the category; they are also 21st in the country with over seven tackles per loss per outing as Page (13), Jones (11) and Moore (10½) are among the top five in the SBC with more than one per game.

Page ended the night with a season-best 10 tackles to lead the Jags — equaling a career high set twice last fall — while Enrique Williams added nine; the latter paces the team with 94 stops in his final season.  Qudarius Ford has been credited with 64 tackles this fall, Terrell Brigham has 55, and both Montell Garner and Maleki Harris have made 54 stops apiece.

The Jags enter this weekend's game allowing 27.70 points and 405.40 yards per contest after surrendering season-low totals of 14 and 274 to ULM, respectively.

USA will have an opportunity to add to its sack count when it faces a Panther offense that has thrown the ball nearly 400 times this fall.  GSU averages 356.22 yards per game — with nearly 250 of those coming through the air — but is last in the conference scoring 18.91 points per outing.

The latter figure was better than 27 points per contest last month, however, after the Panthers posted a season-best 33 in a two-point loss at Arkansas State last Saturday.

Albert Wilson leads GSU with 2,115 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns, as he tops the Sun Belt with 65 receptions for 1,076 yards and is fifth with an average of 23.5 yards per kick return while pacing the squad with nine touchdowns.

They probably have the best receiver in the league — if not the best, he's in the top three — in Albert Wilson," Jones said.  "We will certainly be aware of where No. 2 is, he's a player; if you remember, a couple of years ago he burned us a couple of times.  He's an extremely fast guy, very agile and has great hands, so we better know where he is."

Robert Davis has supplied 40 catches for 601 yards and four scores and Kelton Hill has caught four touchdown passes as well as Ronnie Bell has thrown for 2,252 yards and 15 scores guiding the attack.  Travis Evans is the team's leading rusher with 394 yards and three touchdowns on 113 carries.

Senior quarterback Ross Metheny continued his assault on the USA season record books against the Warhawks after becoming the first individual in program history to rush for (16 carries for 128 yds) and pass for (15-of-26 for 194 yds) more than 100 yards in the same contest.  He'll enter play this weekend the owner of four different marks — yards passing (2,171), touchdowns passing (14), yards of total offense (2,681) and touchdowns accounted for (23).

Jay Jones rushed 17 times for 62 yards, extending his season total to a team-leading 530 yards, and Kendall Houston supplied 30 on eight attempts as the Jags surpassed 200 yards on the ground for the second time this fall last time out.  Shavarez Smith led USA with 90 yards on three receptions — he stands fourth in the league with more than 70 per outing — while Bryant Lavender and Jeremé Jones caught a team-high four passes apiece in the ULM game.  Wes Saxton continues to lead the squad in catches, as he tied the school season mark with his 45th reception of the year against the Warhawks.

The Jaguars had 217 yards rushing and 207 through the air in the contest and are now averaging 422.10 yards and 28.50 points per outing.

The Panthers enter play allowing 461.45 yards and 36.45 points per game having surrendered more than 40 points on four occasions this fall.  Joseph Peterson paces the unit with 92 tackles — 5½ of those have been for loss — while Tarris Batiste has a team-high eight stops behind the line among his 64 total tackles.  Demarius Matthews and Brent McClendon have defended six passes each, with the latter the only individual on the squad with more than one interception.

Scott Garber averaged 44.8 yards per punt last weekend — his highest of the season — and has recorded seven kicks inside the opponents' 20-yard line the last three games, while Aleem Sunanon kicked a career-high-tying three field goals in the ULM win and tops the conference with 1.40 per contest.  Matt Hubbard is averaging 42.1 yards per punt for GSU, and Wil Lutz has converted 7-of-10 field-goal tries as well.

The Jags earned their first victory of the season in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome the second week of the season, defeating Tulane by a score of 41-39 that afternoon.  And should they be able to come away with another win in a National Football League venue in their final road contest of 2013, the Jaguars will head into the finale with an opportunity to realize their dreams.

But before that can happen, USA can't look past Georgia State.

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).

—USA—