MOBILE, Ala. – One team won two contests in five days to open the month. The other is coming off a 22-point victory after dropping a two-point decision at home the previous weekend.
But it is not momentum that University of South Alabama head football coach Joey Jones believes will decide the outcome when the Jaguars visit Georgia State in a Sun Belt Conference game on Saturday. In his opinion, it's going to come down to individual match-ups and who wins those throughout the course of the day.
"The best team is going to win most of the time," he stated. "We can talk about different things all the time, but you have to work to be great at what you do; if I'm a right guard, I have to defeat that 'three' technique and if I'm a tight end I have to beat that linebacker. It comes down to who the best team is, that's why we have to put all of our attention on practice and getting better."
The Jags (5-4, 3-2 Sun Belt) and Panthers (3-6, 2-3 SBC) will meet at 1 p.m. (CST) at the Georgia Dome, with the game set to be broadcast live on ESPN3 and available for free worldwide via the iHeartRadio app. After opening November with a 52-45 defeat of Idaho, USA earned a 32-25 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Thursday, with the Jaguars rallying from a deficit in both contests.
"I think we have some really good leadership that has permeated the sideline," explained Jones. "When something bad happens — which is going to happen every game to every team — our guys are picking everybody up and say 'We've got this.' I think that's what has been good about this team, being able to overcome adversity. We've won four games that we very easily could've lost, that's a tribute to our leadership."
The Ragin' Cajuns used a pair of second-half field goals on Nov. 7 to earn a 23-21, come-from-behind victory over GSU at the Georgia Dome, but the Panthers rebounded by defeating Texas State on the road, 41-19, on Saturday.
Both teams feature a quarterback originally hailing from California coming off a career performance. The Jags' Cody Clements was 17-of-28 for a career-high 281 yards and a score against ULL, while Nick Arbuckle threw for a school-record 471 yards and four touchdowns in the win over the Bobcats, completing 23-of-34 attempts to help GSU set a new mark for total offense with 643 yards in all. The latter is first in the league in passing yards (348.3 pg) and total offense (341.3 ypg) while the former ranks third (220.9 ypg) and sixth (225.3 ypg) in the two categories, respectively.
Penny Hart (52-851, 5 TDs) and Robert Davis (45-777, 4 TDs) stand first and second in the Sun Belt in receiving yards per outing — Hart also paces the league in catches per game — while Gerald Everett leads USA with 35 receptions for 498 yards and eight scores. Josh Magee has added 488 yards receiving while averaging over 27 yards per catch, with Danny Woodson II and Marvin Shinn recording four and three receptions, respectively, in the win over the Cajuns.
"You're not going to stop a team like this, they are just too good at what they do throwing the ball," Jones observed. "We have to be smart about it and not give up a big play — they got behind us a couple of times last year. You have to be relentless every play, take each play one at a time and try to win that play. And you can't let them in the end zone. They're going to move the ball, but when they get in the red zone that's the time where we have to stop them; we haven't played great in the red zone this year, so we have to be better there.
"That's going to be the key in my opinion. They'll move the ball, but the key is making them kick field goals rather than score touchdowns."
The Jaguars' ground attack, led by Xavier Johnson (107-769, 7 TDs), is averaging nearly 165 yards per game while GSU ranks last in the conference in the category with less than 100 yards per contest; Demarcus Kirk (70-311, 1 TD) and Kyler Neal (65-246, 3 TDs) pace the Panther run game.
Both squads are averaging just over 27 points per outing, although Georgia State is second in total offense while USA ranks eighth. The Jags, though, have gained 400 or more yards in each of the last three games.
The Panthers' Joseph Peterson (48-34—82 TT, 5 TFL) and Blake Dees (50-38—88 TT, 3 TFL) of USA — both linebackers — stand second and third in the Sun Belt in tackles per game, respectively, while defensive backs Tarris Batiste (51-29—80 TT, 4½ TFL) of GSU and the Jaguars' Jeremy Reaves (48-24—72 TT, 6½ TFL) are among the top 10 as well. Alonzo McGee, a member of the Panthers' linebacking corps, is one of five individuals in the league with 10 or more stops behind the line of scrimmage, while Bruce Dukes and Jerome Smith have broken up seven passes apiece. Reaves is tied for the team lead with Jalen Thompson in passes defensed — both have five — while Roman Buchanan has been credited with a total of 56 stops and Kalen Jackson 53, including 6½ for loss, for the Jags.
USA is surrendering 400.2 yards per game, nearly 60 less on average than the Panthers, with the two units ranking sixth and seventh, respectively — GSU is allowing 33.7 points per outing, the Jaguars 37.1 — in scoring defense.
"One of the things we talked about earlier in the year is that as the season goes you have to fix your weaknesses. Every team has weaknesses, things they have to work on, and I think we have addressed some of those," Jones observed. "From this point forward the future is in our hands, we can get into a lot of bowls, so we want to play as good as we can and win every game we play. I know we have a tough schedule and we have tough teams to play, but that's our goal."
Should the Jaguars prove to be the better team on the field Saturday and come away with their third straight victory, they will have picked up the requisite number of wins to meet that goal.
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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