Game StatsPostgame QuotesPhoto GalleryMOBILE, Ala. – Trailing 24-0 midway through the second quarter of its annual Homecoming contest on Saturday, the University of South Alabama football team needed a spark. Xavier Johnson provided that with a 41-yard return on the ensuing kickoff, then lit a fire beneath the Jaguars after the intermission.
Johnson returned the second-half kickoff 100 yards for a score, adding a 61-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter as well, en route to a school-record 289 all-purpose yards, lifting the Jags to a 52-45 Sun Belt Conference win over Idaho at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The sophomore finished with a career-high 148 yards on just nine carries as USA snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 4-4 overall and 2-2 in league action.
Matt Linehan threw for 317 yards while completing 26-of-39 passes, and Elijhaa Penny added 135 yards and two scores on the ground, but the Vandals (3-6, 2-4 SBC) fell for the second time in as many meetings with the Jaguars despite 494 yards of total offense.
Following Johnson's first kick return, the Jaguar offense proceeded to move inside the Vandal 10-yard line to set up first-and-goal. But Broc Westlake was in on a pair of stops of D.J. Vinson — with the second from the one-yard line — to keep USA off the scoreboard as the first half neared an end. After forcing a three-and-out, though, the Jags took over on their own 42-yard line and needed just five plays and 38 seconds to break through. Cody Clements was 4-of-4 on the drive, hitting Chris Lewis for nine yards and Marvin Shinn for 20 more. After a 19-yard pass to Danny Woodson II, Clements and Shinn hooked up again for a 6-yard touchdown with a minute and 20 seconds left in the second quarter.
"That was big," USA head coach Joey Jones stated. "We were down on the one-foot line and didn't score, and called three timeouts and got the ball back. We drove down and scored, and that was big; some good things happened there. You just have to keep plugging, you have to go to the next play. What are you going to do about the last play? Nothing — you have to move forward, and our guys learned a big lesson tonight. I think they knew that, but they really understand it now."
"That score really sparked us and turned our whole momentum around," Clements added. "As a team though, we fought so hard the whole game tonight and we never let up. We knew it was a four-quarter game and that you have to play all 60 minutes. The score at the end of the game is what matters."
When Johnson opened the second half by running back the kickoff for a touchdown, it cut the USA deficit to 24-14. The score would remain that way until just over four minutes were left in the quarter, when the Jaguars got another return — this time from the defense — to make it a three-point game; Blake Dees forced a fumble that Devon Earl picked up and ran back 57 yards for a score. The Jags forced another three-and-out, and Jalen Thompson blocked the punt to give USA possession at the Idaho-6; when Clements ran it in on the next play the Jaguars had their first advantage of the day, 28-24, with just over three minutes remaining in the period.
The Vandals regained the lead 44 seconds before the end of the quarter on a 19-yard Penny touchdown run, capping a seven-play, 67-yard march that kept alive by a 32-yard pass from Linehan to Callen Hightower on third-and-five, only to see the Jags go back in front two-and-a-half minutes later when Clements hit Gerald Everett for a 16-yard scoring pass. That advantage would grow to seven with less than 12 minutes remaining in regulations when, after DeMarrion Buford-Hughes recovered a fumble on the ensiung kickoff, Aleem Sunanon converted a 41-yard field goal.
Clements — who was 11-of-19 passing for 114 yards to go along with 29 yards rushing — scored from eight yards out midway through the fourth quarter to double the USA lead, while Johnson provided the clinching score when he reached the end zone with just over five minutes remaining in the contest. Tyreis Thomas chipped in with a career-best 88 yards on the ground and Terrance Timmons had 33 on just seven attempts to help the Jags finish with 286 rushing yards and 400 overall on 64 plays despite holding the ball for less than 24 minutes.
Up until Johnson's first kick return, though, USA had managed only 49 yards of total offense.
"We're down 24-0, but we just started playing and finally the tide started to turn our way," explained Jones. "We created a few turnovers, blocked a kick and had the kickoff return. Our special teams really stepped up tonight, and I want to commend those guys. Early in the year we weren't playing very good on special teams. I thought we covered kicks really well tonight. All those things [on special teams] added up to a win tonight."
In addition to the forced fumble that resulted in a score, Dees set a school game record with 20 total stops to pace the Jags defensively. Earl added a career-best nine tackles as did Jeremy Reaves, while Kalen Jackson supplied eight stops and both Roman Buchanan and Antonio Carter were credited with six tackles apiece.
"We just kept telling ourselves that we had to keep the motor going. That's what we've been preaching all week," Dees commented. "You can't ever give up. Giving up isn't something we do here at South Alabama. Getting down like we did early kind of sucked, but we persevered and kept going and never gave up."
"We needed to make a few changes, and just do our job," Earl added. "In the first half, I don't think guys were doing their jobs. We came in at halftime and talked it over, and it all came together in the second half."
The Vandals moved down the field quickly after receiving the opening kickoff, needing four plays to reach the red zone and five to move inside the USA-10. But three straight carries resulted in just one yard, with Idaho taking a 3-0 lead on a 24-yard Austin Rehkow field goal. The lead grew to 10-0 on Idaho's next possession after a 10-play, 91-yard march resulted in a 10-yard scoring pass from Linehan to Deon Watson with just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter.
The Vandals drove 80 yards in nine plays on their next possession, extending the advantage to 17-0 when Penny scored from two yards out with nearly 11-and-a-half minutes remaining before the break. The big play of the drive was a 41-yard Linehan completion to Watson, moving the ball from the Idaho-21 to the USA-38. When the Jags forced Idaho to punt for the first time, Kendrick Trotter recovered a fumble at the USA-22, and two plays later the Vandals made the score 24-0 when Linehan found Watson for a 17-yard touchdown with just under seven minutes left in the opening half.
With Idaho down two scores in the fourth quarter Linehan reached the end zone from 11 yards out, and he again drew the Vandals to within seven on a one-yard touchdown run with a minute and 23 seconds to go, but Braedon Bowman was able to recover the onside kick for USA, which ran out the clock.
Hightower led all players with nine receptions, finishing with 85 yards, while Watson caught seven balls for a game-best 109 yards including the two first-half scores. Trent Cowan recorded 70 yards on six catches as well as Idaho converted 9-of-16 third-down attempts while controlling the ball for nearly 36-and-a-half minutes.
Quinton Bradley and Kaden Elliss led Idaho with nine tackles each, while Ed Hall and Westlake chipped in with eight stops apiece.
"Overall, I just can't believe it," said Vandal head coach Paul Petrino. "I really thought we had a great game plan, and we came out and executed it really well, both offensively and defensively. You can't give up a kickoff return for a touchdown, a blocked punt and a fumble. Even after all that, we still came back and scored twice. We just had to get one stop, and we had the chance.
"I think everybody sees how much better we are; the program is on the right track to be a really good football team, but to have two games in a row end like that is really sad."
"I want to commend our football players for the guts and mental toughness to be able to come back in a game like that," Jones stated. "Everything was going wrong there for a quarter-and-a-half, and we just got it turned. The big kickoff return gave us a spark, and the kids came back and kept fighting. Sometimes you can't play four quarters of football the way you want to, and you just have to deal with it. Nobody panicked, and that was the biggest thing. Had we panicked, I think we might have lost that ballgame.
"We just beat a good team; they have a really good offense obviously. They have a great quarterback and running back, they moved the ball up and down the field. What a win for our program to be able to come back and take another step toward a bowl [game]."
It was the first time that the Jaguars have scored a touchdown on offense, defense and special teams since defeating Pikeville (Ky.) on Sept. 4, 2010. USA — which moved to 7-0 in Homecoming contests as well, having scored 30 or more points in each victory — also set a new school mark for largest deficit overcome in a victory, surpassing the 14 points the Jags trailed Florida Atlantic by on Oct. 20, 2013, before coming back for a 37-34 double-overtime win. The 97 points scored by the two teams were also the most combined in a Jaguar game, surpassing the previous standard by 15.
USA will next be in action on Thursday, with the Jaguars playing host to Louisiana-Lafayette at 6:30 p.m. in a match-up that will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.
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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