MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama football program has wasted little time climbing the Sun Belt Conference standings, becoming the fastest school ever to earn an invitation to a postseason bowl game. 

After recording the six victories necessary but remaining at home in 2013, the Jaguars will make their postseason debut Saturday at the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.  And the opponent is one that will be familiar to Jag fans in the near future.

USA will face Bowling Green — a team it has a home-and-home agreement with starting in 2021 — at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Ala., with kickoff set for 8:15 p.m. (CST) for the contest, which will be televised across the nation on ESPN as well as via the iHeartRadio platform.

While the Jaguars (6-6, 5-3 Sun Belt) will be playing their first-ever bowl game, the Falcons (7-6, 5-3 Mid-American Conference) are competing in one for the third straight year after advancing to the MAC Championship Game each of the last two seasons.

"We're excited to be going to a bowl game for the first time," observed USA head coach Joey Jones.  "The guys are done with school for the semester so there is not much else to do other than concentrate on football right now, and I think that's helped us have a great week.  Now everyone is looking forward to the challenge at hand.  We know that Bowling Green is a very good opponent, but the fact that we are playing in our first bowl shouldn't have a bearing on this game.

"We're just going up there to win a ballgame — I'm sure that's their goal too — so whether we have played in a bowl or not really doesn't matter at this point."

The Jag offense is coming off a performance against Navy in the regular-season finale in which it produced 238 yards rushing and 40 points against the Midshipmen, with half that scoring total coming over the final 15 minutes.  Terrance Timmons paced the attack with his first career 100-yard effort after recording 124 yards and a score on just 15 carries, and Kendall Houston ran 21 times for 73 yards.  Brandon Bridge threw for a school game record four touchdowns — completing 19-of-28 attempts for 172 yards in the process — with Shavarez Smith scoring twice while catching six balls for 80 yards.

Smith earned second-team all-league honors after posting 50 receptions, 714 yards and eight touchdowns to lead the Jaguars in each category, as he ranks among the top 10 in the conference in receiving yards per contest.  Jeremé Jones has added 32 catches for 293 yards and two scores, and Danny Woodson II supplied 260 yards and four touchdowns on 24 receptions; both scored to aid the fourth-quarter rally last time out.

Houston paces USA with 659 yards with Xavier Johnson adding 417, as both are averaging five yards per carry or better.  Timmons has gained 382 yards — with 276 of those coming in the last month — and Bridge has rushed for 256 more.  The latter is 140-of-270 passing for 1,648 yards and 14 scores, the second-highest season total in program history, as well.

The Jaguar offensive line features three all-SBC honorees, with Ucambre Williams a second-team choice and Melvin Meggs and Chris May earning honorable mention distinction.

Bryant Vincent returned to USA last week in the role of offensive coordinator and will be guiding a unit that is averaging 182.6 yards on the ground and 372.8 overall while scoring 22.1 point per game.

"It's been great, there is definitely a lot more energy out there," Jones explained.  "The kids have really taken to Coach Vincent, plus 90 percent of what we are doing is what we've done in the past; he's just added a few wrinkles.  You'll see a similar offensive scheme, but playing faster."

Terrell Brigham and Maleki Harris, who both finished with 10 stops in the Navy game, lead the Jag defense with 101 and 77 tackles, respectively.  In addition to each recording a career-high total in the category, the former has broken up seven passes and the latter six in addition to forcing four fumbles and recovering three; Harris leads the Sun Belt and is among the top 10 nationally in forced fumbles and fumble recoveries.

Theo Rich ranks among the top 10 in the conference in both sacks and tackles for loss with eight — a school season record — and 12, respectively, while Jesse Kelley has added 6½ stops behind the line of scrimmage including five sacks among his 54 total tackles and Jerome McClain 47.

In the secondary, Roman Buchanan has been credited with 65 stops and six passes broken up, and Montell Garner tops the squad with eight passes defensed to go along with 52 tackles.

Brigham, Harris, McClain and Rich were all named second-team all-SBC, and Garner and Kelley were honorable mention selections after helping the unit rank second in the league allowing 25.8 points per outing.  USA also stands fourth in total defense, surrendering 390.5 yards per game, while earning the distinction of being one of three defenses in the conference giving up less than 200 yards per contest rushing and passing.

BGSU comes into play averaging nearly 30 points and 430 yards per game, including throwing for more than 250 per outing, and are one of five offensive units in the country to run over 1,000 plays this fall.  James Knapke has connected on 255-of-444 passes for 2,805 yards and 13 touchdowns, with Roger Lewis earning first-team all-MAC accolades as a freshman after pacing the team with 69 catches, 956 yards and five scores.  Ryan Burbrink has contributed 60 receptions for 719 yards and Ronnie Moore has caught 51 balls for 629 yards and five touchdowns.

Travis Greene's 908 yards and 10 scores lead the Falcons' ground attack, and Fred Coppet has gained 694 yards and added six touchdowns with both averaging more than 5.5 yards per attempt.

"You have to be prepared in how you are going to communicate on defense," Jones said of facing the BGSU attack.  "Obviously there will be times that a coach is  not going to be able to get the call in quick enough, so our guys have to be smart enough to recognize by formation what front or coverage to check to.  We've got that in place in case we do get behind and the calls aren't coming in."

But the Falcon defense is allowing just under 500 yards and 34 points per game, surrendering more than 200 yards per contest both rushing and passing.

Gabe Martin paces the unit with 110 tackles including 16 behind the line, and after also breaking up four passes and intercepting two others he was voted second-team all-conference.  Brian Sutton has chipped in with 102 stops, with 7½ of those for loss, and Nick Johnson was a second-team all-league selection in the secondary after picking off five passes — the most by a true freshman at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level — and breaking up seven others to go along with 69 tackles.  Bryan Thomas earned third-team all-MAC accolades after racking up 13 stops behind the line of scrimmage including six sacks as well as forcing five fumbles.

As a unit, the Falcon defense has recorded 29 takeaways on 15 fumble recoveries and 14 interceptions, helping the team rank among the top 30 nationally in turnover margin.

Aleem Sunanon enters the postseason having made eight straight field-goal attempts, as he leads the team for the second year in a row with 65 points and is tied for second in the SBC making 1.25 field goals per contest.  Brandon McKee set a school game record — with a minimum of four punts — after averaging 52 yards per kick against the Midshipmen, as he has an average of 50.4 yards per punt the last two outings and 41.7 per effort on the year with 24 ending inside the opposition's 20-yard line.

Two Falcon specialists earned all-league accolades, with Burbrink voted first-team after averaging 11.9 yards per punt return and Tyler Tate named to the third-team after leading the team in scoring with 105 points; that included making 21-of-26 field goals.  Joe Davidson is also averaging 42.2 yards per punt, with 23 inside the opponents' 20-yard line.

Both teams defeated Kent State by a 10-point margin, with the Jaguars scoring a 23-13 victory in Ohio to begin the campaign and the Falcons defeating the Golden Flashes 30-20 on Nov. 12.  That was the last win for BGSU, which has dropped three straight decisions after suffering a 51-17 defeat in the conference title game on Dec. 5, while USA fell in each of its last two contests — both outside of league action — to close out the regular season.

Earning the school's first-ever postseason bowl berth was one of the goals of the South Alabama football program coming into this fall.  Now that the accomplishment has been checked off the list, the mission is a victory in Montgomery.

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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