MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama football team has two Sun Belt Conference football games remaining, and sitting at 5-3 overall and 4-2 in league play the Jaguars are still in position to claim the program's first-ever postseason bowl berth.  But in order to do that the Jags will have to defeat at least one of their upcoming opponents, both of whom currently own a 3-1 conference mark.

"The next two weeks are our last two [Sun Belt] conference games; we're sitting here at 4-2 and would like to finish strong," observed Jag head coach Joey Jones.  "To win these two would ice bowl game possibilities, that's big for our guys — they want to get that done and understand what is at stake."

First up will be Arkansas State, with USA and the Red Wolves slated to kick off Saturday at 2 p.m. (CST) at Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro.  The match-up is set to be broadcast live nationally on ESPN3 and will be available across the country via the iHeartRadio platform.

It's the third straight year the two programs will face off, with ASU claiming each of the first two contests — after winning by a touchdown in 2012 in Jonesboro, the Red Wolves scored all their points in the second half last fall in a 17-16 come-from-behind victory at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

USA's defensive unit paces the SBC in scoring giving up less than 21 points per outing after allowing Louisiana-Lafayette just 19 last weekend, also ranking third in total defense surrendering fewer than 375 yards per contest.  The Jaguars have held the oppositon under 400 total yards in three of six league games led by Terrell Brigham's 64 stops and seven passes broken up.  Roman Buchanan has been credited with 40 tackles and six passes defended and Montell Garner has intercepted two passes and broken up seven others to go along with a total of 33 stops; the latter leads the Sun Belt in total passes defended per outing.

Up front, Theo Rich has contributed 9½ tackles for loss and seven sacks — standing in the top five in the conference in both categories — with Jesse Kelley supplying three sacks and Jerome McClain 2½ after being credited with USA's lone one against the Ragin' Cajuns last time out.

"We play with a lot of passion over there, [defensive coordinator] Coach [Travis] Pearson and his staff have done a great job with them.  They play hard, and our defensive front has played very well," Jones commented.  "We knew we had some really good starters coming back, our concern coming into the season was depth; but we've fixed some of those depth issues — obviously our starters on the defensive front are probably a little bit better than our backups — we've got guys who can rotate in there and play.

"Other than [linebacker] Maleki [Harris] getting hurt we've been injury free on defense as well, which has helped."

Offensively, the Red Wolves are led by Fredi Knighten, who is averaging a Sun Belt-best 293.2 yards per contest of total offense.  In addition to completing 169-of-263 (64.3%) of his pass attempts for nearly 1,900 yards he has gained 467 on the ground while accounting for 17 scores (10 through the air, seven rushing).

Michael Gordon ranks second in the league with 113.3 yards per game, averaging nearly nine yards per attempt after carrying 17 times for 105 yards and five touchdowns last weekend in ASU's 44-28 victory at Idaho.  J.D. McKissic tops the squad with 43 receptions for 512 yards, Tres Houston has caught 30 balls for 358 more and Dijon Paschal has recorded 415 yards on 23 receptions — an average of 18 per catch — while leading the team with three receiving scores.

As a unit, the Red Wolves are third in the SBC gaining almost 470 yards per game and also are among the top five with better than 32 points per game.

"I think they are a lot different," Jones said when comparing the ULL and ASU offensive units.  "Offensively UL-Lafayette is a big power team and Arkansas State works more on the perimeter, they throw the ball out there a lot and try to get their running backs outside on the edges.  They have a real athletic quarterback who is as good as any runner at the position that we've faced other than the guy at Georgia Southern, but he can throw it as well.  They are more of a true spread team."

Shavarez Smith had his fourth career 100-yard receiving game for the Jaguars at ULL, finishing with 116 yards on eight receptions; the senior leads the team in both categories on the season with 34 catches for 512 yards, posting six scores total.  Jeremé Jones and Braedon Bowman both added three receptions last weekend, with the former accounting for USA's only touchdown with his first score since last November.  Jag quarterbacks combined to throw for 270 yards, with Brandon Bridge contributing 177 on 16-of-27 attempts and Matt Floyd adding 93 while connecting in half of his eight passes.

Kendall Houston and Xavier Johnson collected 49 and 43 yards rushing, respectively, against the Ragin' Cajuns, with Houston posting a team-high 436 yards on the ground and Johnson supplying 338 to help the Jaguars average almost 200 per game on the year.

ASU will counter with a defense that is allowing 391.4 yards per contest overall including under 170 per outing rushing.  The unit is led by the linebacking duo of Xavier Woodson and Qushaun Lee, who have been credited with 69 and 56 stops, respectively, this fall.  Woodson has collected seven stops behind the line, and Lee has chipped in with 5½ along with a team-high-tying two interceptions.  Sterling Young has also picked off two passes and recorded 48 stops, while fellow secondary member Andrew Tryon tops the squad with six passes broken up.

Ja'Von Rolland-Jones was named the league's defensive player of the week after making five tackles for loss including a school-record-tying four sacks against the Vandals, giving him team-leading totals of 9½ and six in the two categories.  Chris Stone has added six stops behind the line of scrimmage with 4½ sacks as well while matching Rolland-Jones with 25 total tackles.

"All year long we've talked about getting over the previous game whether we won it or lost it, we're going to move on to the next one, so I don't think it will be a problem getting our guys ready [for Arkansas State]; they understand what we need to do to get prepared for the next ballgame," Jones stated.  "This week is a new challenge for us, we've got another great team to play in Arkansas State.  They are very, very good and explosive on offense and they play great defense so it's going to be a challenge for our guys to go up there, but we are looking forward to it."

As well as to the hopes of keeping their postseason dreams alive.

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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