MOBILE, Ala. – Evan Orth led the University of South Alabama football team on a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives, but it was not enough to overcome a double-digit halftime deficit as the Jaguars fell, 30-26, to Louisiana Tech Saturday in the season opener for both teams at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

The senior quarterback guided the Jags on a 10-play, 66-march to make the score 23-20 with just over eight minutes remaining in regulation, and after a Bulldog touchdown his 59-yard run sparked a five-play drive in response that Kawaan Baker ended with a four-yard scoring run.  It was the third touchdown of the game for Baker, who scored on a 28-yard run midway through the second quarter and also caught a three-yard scoring pass in the third.

Nigel Lawrence matched a career high with 12 stops to lead South's defense, which recorded three interceptions and three sacks in the contest.

Louisiana Tech 30, South Alabama 26 (final stats)
South Alabama/Lousiana Tech photo gallery

GAME FACTS
-LA Tech scored on two of its first four possessions and never trailed in the game.
-The Bulldogs held the Jags under 100 yards of total offense in the opening half, with South's lone scoring drive prior to the break coming after a 22-yard punt.
-Jaqwis Dancy, who was recruited by first-year USA head coach Steve Campbell at Central Arkansas, ran for 144 yards and two scores for the 'Dogs.
-None of the Jags' top three rushers in the contest — Orth, Baker and Sam Harris — were a running back.
-The Jaguar offense had nearly twice as many rushing attempts than passes as a trio of quarterbacks combined to throw 23 times.
-LA Tech had a nearly two-to-one advantage in time of possession after holding the ball for 37:21.

NOTES
-This was the Jaguars' first game under new head coach Steve Campbell.
-It's the first time South has dropped the season opener in consecutive years since 2012 and '13.
-With the win, LA Tech swept the two-game, home-and-home series having claimed last year's matchup in Ruston by a 34-16 margin.
-USA posted 217 yards rushing in the contest after gaining a total of 176 yards combined on the ground in the last five outings of the 2017 season.
-The Jaguars held the ball for 22 minutes and 39 seconds, tying the fifth-lowest time of possession recorded in program history.
-Baker tied a school record with three touchdowns, last accomplished by Xavier Johnson against New Mexico State on Dec. 3, 2016.
-In accounting for the first two takeaways recorded by the Jag defense, both Chris Henderson and Jay Woods recorded the first interceptions of their careers.
-Jalen Thompson also picked off a pass in the final quarter, his first since the 2016 regular-season finale after sitting out last fall.
-Taji Stewart recorded both the first sack and forced fumble of his career on the same play in the first quarter, going on to finish with a career-high four total stops. 
-The 59-yard run from Orth on the Jags' finale scoring drive was the longest by a South quarterback since Brandon Bridge recorded a 65-yard gain on Oct. 18, 2014, against Georgia State.
-Tra Minter accounted for a career-best 147 all-purpose yards, with 96 of those coming on three kickoff returns.
-More than 30 members of the inaugural South Alabama football team were recognized on the field at halftime as part of a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the start of the program.

THEY SAID IT
South Alabama head coach Steve Campbell
Opening statement: "Any time you come up short, you're not pleased with the outcome.  I thought the guys played extremely hard and it came down to what we thought that it would; basically we put the ball on the ground and turned it over and that hurt.  You're going to have a hard time beating a good football team when you turn the ball over.  I know we turned it over one time at the beginning of a possession which cost us a possession.  We also turned it over in the red zone.  All the things we didn't do well [tonight] are correctable.  Defensively, I thought they kept us in the game in the first half and if we don't have a couple of penalties it's a different game.  Those are the things we have to correct.  We had the chance to get off the field on a fourth down and had a penalty and [Louisiana Tech] wound up getting seven points out of that.  We also had an interference penalty on a third down.  We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times, but the effort was there.  We have some older guys that played well tonight and some younger players that stepped up and got their first playing time today.  I felt that we got better as the game went on.  This needs to be a football team that gets better with each game we play and each snap.  I feel that this team will continue to get better each week and play to play."

On effect of turnovers and hidden yardage within a game: "First games with two pretty much evenly matched teams typically come down to protecting the football, explosive plays and penalties; all those little things.  It wasn't because we couldn't block somebody or anything like that, and that's good because we can correct those other things."

On the quarterback play tonight: "I need to watch the film to see exactly where we're at, but Evan [Orth] came in and gave us a spark.  We were able to get two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and I've been saying all along that Evan's a good football player and deserved an opportunity.  The couple of times he got in there, he took us down for touchdowns and that's what he's done since the spring.  I thought Cole [Garvin] did some good things and I thought Cephus [Johnson] did some good things.  We went with Cole early and then we went to Cephus and things weren't going well for us, and we put the older guy [Garvin] back in there.  We never really could get into a rhythm in the first half; we started to a little bit after the surprise onside kick but we weren't able to finish that drive.  In the second half, we were able to get into a little bit of a flow with Evan."

On the decision to put Evan Orth in late: "We weren't really scoring any points and we felt that we needed to do something to change that.  This one's [Garvin] had a chance, this one's [Johnson] had a little bit of an opportunity; let's give the other guy [Orth] an opportunity because we weren't doing what we needed to on the scoreboard to get back into the game.  Cole did some really good things, but we had wanted to play Evan coming into the game because he had had a good spring and a good camp; he went in there and did a good job."

On the option game opening things up: "We had seen on film that UAB was able to pop an option play on [Louisiana Tech] last year and maybe Southern Miss had been able to as well.  Kawaan Baker and Sam Harris are very talented in the slot, along with some other talented receivers that we've got who are able to do some things when they get the ball in their hands.  The option game in my opinion makes the defense have to prepare a certain way and if you can catch them not prepared for it, you can find a way to generate some points and do some things off that.  It gave us something to kind of build around.  We really weren't able to get it going much in the first half, but in the second half we were able to and it helped us with our offensive production."

On his team: "This is a group that has done everything that we've asked them to do and they've done it with a great attitude.  Whenever it was 23-7 at one point, they stepped right up, doubled-down, fought back and made plays; they responded.  I like the way that they didn't pay attention to whatever else was going on, they played one play at a time and kept fighting.  We can learn from that and build on that."

On onside kick: "I think those things are hard to defend.  You can know it's coming and be prepared for it but it's hard.  Louisiana Tech's special teams unit does a great job.  They are coached well.  There is some analytical evidence that says that if you believe you can recover the ball 30 percent of the time, then you are better off doing it.  Going into the game, I know we were going to do it after our first score because your probability of getting it's pretty good.  Corliss [Waitman] executed it really well and the guys went in there after it and recovered the ball; it gave us a spark."

On the defense's performance: "Our defense is a 'havoc' type of scheme and typically the defense we run generates a high rate of tackles for loss, pass break ups, turnovers.  I thought our defensive line did a really good job of getting some knock backs at the line.  We still have room for improvement because Louisiana Tech ran the ball on us more than what we want opponents to be able to against us, but we were able to get some pressure on the quarterback and gave ourselves a chance to get off the field on some third-downs."

Linebacker Bull Barge
On the Louisiana Tech offense: "They threw a few wrinkles into the running game, some stuff we didn't practice for. We had to adjust quickly to it. We gave them most of the runs they broke off with missed assignments. There wasn't too much we weren't prepared for, but it wasn't too much they got on their own."

On the flow of the game: "It's a new scheme, a new everything coming into the game. We knew it would probably take a little time to settle in. The first half and this loss was a lesson for us. We're not really down about it because we learned what we need to improve on for next week. Our team joined together and fought to get back into the game and try to win it. At the end of the day, we feel like that will help us progress. We can do things we've never done here, just off of guys wanting to do it. From the first half to the second half, it was all mindset. We tried to join together and play for our brothers."

Wide receiver Kawaan Baker
On his performance: "The team just blocked for me. I trust the guys in front of me with everything, and I trust the scheme. Evan [Orth] made a good read on that last one [touchdown]. We had been running it the whole game, and it was just a good option play; he made a good decision to give it to me and I just had to give it everything I had to get it in the end zone."

On the flow of the game: "It's a new scheme and staff, but once we broke in we kind of got into the groove of everything and things started opening up; that's when we started scoring more."

Quarterback Evan Orth
On his performance: "It's awesome to get an opportunity because I've been waiting on it, but at the end of the day we lost and that's what really matters. I love the support from Cole [Garvin] and Cephus [Johnson]; they were with me the whole time pumping me up and getting me ready. Coming in in the fourth quarter is not the easiest thing to do because you're waiting all game. Our offense didn't click until late, and we had too many turnovers."

On the offense: "We just had missed assignments all over the field. The fumbles and turnovers — you can't do that against a good Louisiana Tech team. You can't turn the ball over four times and expect to win. We made it close, but in the end you're hoping for the defense to make a stop. But you can't put them in a bind like that. We're just going to get better."

Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz
Opening statement: "We won. That's what comes first and foremost. I told the team in the locker room it's a win. Fifty percent of teams are going to lose on the opening weekend and we found a way to go on the road and win. We talked about one of the things we have to do is be road warriors. It's hard to win on the road, especially when you're on the road for the first game of the season, so to go on the road and win, I was excited. Do I think it was a clean game or do I think we played really well? Not particularly. I think there were some great individual plays, but I thought we struggled protecting the quarterback early.  I was proud of the way we were able to run the ball tonight. I think we struggled protecting the quarterback. We had three interceptions. One of the things J'Mar [Smith] did great last year was protect the ball. I know no one was madder than him at a couple of them. Defensively, we gave up 300 yards on the night. We gave up a 70-yard run on the last drive. I thought overall they competed, they played on the road and it certainly wasn't pretty. We're not very consistent with where we need to be as an offensive team, but as a defense the way they played the first half kept us in it. Then at the end, the offense made some plays in the passing game and they were able to do so.  I thought the kicking game was very poor. We gave up an onside kick. We started at our on 10-yard line on a kickoff return. We punted the ball very poorly tonight. We gave up a big kickoff return to start the game. There was a plethora of things to look at that have to be cleaned up and some things we have to fix. It wasn't our prettiest performance, but it was a win on the road." 

On priorities to look at practice this week: "I think you have to look at all of it. You play the opening game and I made the comment I don't know where we are. We want to pat them on the rear-end and tell them to go play to get a good idea of where we are. We have to clean some things up on offense for sure. We have to clear up some protection things. We had four sacks in the first 17 to 18 minutes. Three minutes into the second quarter we had four sacks. I told the offense we are on track to give up 12 sacks tonight if things don't change. It made me a little gun shy about throwing the ball because we kept going backwards. We started to get into a running game. There were some assignment mistakes, some things we have to do better. We have to eliminate the turnovers.  On the kicking game, we have a plethora of things. It was almost like everybody messed up one. The punt had a shank, the kickoff return had two of them and the kickoff team had one of them to give up a big play. I give South Alabama a lot of credit. I think Coach Campbell's done a great job in the short time he's been here. They've been playing hard and they believe. He did what he had to do to keep them in the game. The onside kick was a brilliant call to turn and steal a possession. I'm just upset it was executed. You have a great opportunity to take advantage of that, but all of a sudden you give up great field position. Not very pleased with how clean we played tonight, but I'm certainly pleased with the way they competed, hung in there and the plays they made down the stretch to win the game."

Up next: South Alabama plays its first road game of the 2018 season Saturday at 7 p.m. when it faces Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

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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