LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska's three second-half touchdowns on Saturday came via the defense and special teams, helping the Cornhuskers to a 35-21 non-conference football victory over the University of South Alabama at Memorial Stadium/Tom Osborne Field.

Up seven at the break, No. 24 Nebraska (1-0) extended its advantage to 28-7 following a 38-yard interception return for a score by Eric Lee Jr. that was followed by JD Spielman's 76-yard punt return for a touchdown.  The Cornhuskers' final points came when Alex Davis recovered a fumble in the end zone on the first snap of the final quarter.

Cephus Johnson threw for a pair of scores in the third quarter to draw the Jaguars (0-1) back within a score, ending the day 19-of-34 passing for 231 yards.

No. 24 Nebraska 35, South Alabama 21 (final stats)
South Alabama/Nebraska photo gallery

GAME FACTS
-The Cornhuskers marched 81 yards in nine plays after receiving the opening kickoff to take an early 7-0 lead, but the Jaguars evened the score midway through the period on a three-yard Johnson touchdown run.
-Dedrick Mills' second one-yard touchdown run of the half — which came with just under 10 minutes left in the second quarter — gave NU a 14-7 advantage at the break.
-Nebraska broke open the game with the two return touchdowns in the opening four minutes of the third quarter.
-The Jaguars responded after Keith Gallmon recovered a muffed, leading to back-to-back scoring drives in which Johnson hit Davyn Flenord and Khameron Taylor for touchdown passes.
-The two defenses combined to record eight takeaways, including five by the Cornhuskers.
-South outgained Nebraska by a 314-276 margin after limiting the Cornhuskers to 66 yards over the final 30 minutes.

NOTES
-This was the second meeting between the two schools since the 2015 season, with the Cornhuskers claiming both match-ups.
-The Jags are now 1-3 against nationally-ranked opponents.
-USA now has a 6-5 record in the opening game of the season as well as a 4-6 mark in the first road contest of the year.
-The Jaguars have now outgained the opposition in three straight contests dating back to the end of last season.
-After controlling the ball for over 21 minutes in the second half, the Jaguars won the time of possession battle in the contest for the eighth time in the last nine outings.
-LB Nick Mobley posted a career-high 10 stops to pace the Jaguar defense, the first time he has reached double digits in the category in his career.
-After gaining 158 all-purpose yards — a total that paced all players — Tra Minter became just fifth individual in program history to surpass 2,500-plus all-purpose yards.
-It was the first time that Riley Cole has finished with multiple tackles for loss in his career, as he also was credited with his first-ever sack.
-Senior S DJ Daniels posted career-high totals with seven total tackles as well as 1½ stops behind the line of scrimmage.
-Both Minter (five catches for 47 yards) and Cade Sutherland (four for 53) set career highs for receptions, while Kawaan Baker matched his previous mark after hauling in four passes for a team-leading 59 yards.

THEY SAID IT
South Alabama head coach Steve Campbell
Opening statement: "I thought the guys played hard. It's still a disappointing loss for us. When you have more total yards, more first downs and your third-down efficiency is a little better [than your opponent], to come up short tells you how big of a stat turnovers are. You can look at explosive [plays] and all the other things, but it's a game of turnovers and give them credit for doing a great job of creating them and capitalizing on them. That's the mark of a good football team. I was proud of the way we played. I thought we sustained a high level of intensity through the first half. I thought that our defense really did a great job keeping [Nebraska] off of the scoreboard twice before the half. We talked about the 'middle eight' being important and I felt we won the part right before halftime, but obviously the game turned in the second half of the 'middle eight'. They created some turnovers and got some points [off of them], and we couldn't sustain out there. The guys fought hard and finished, but the game was lost in that segment and we need to work hard to correct that." 
On the attitude of the team and continuing to fight after getting down 28-7: "The biggest thing we've been preaching [since the end of last season] is sustaining and maintaining. It's either who you are or it's not who you are. Generally at some point in time, who you are comes out. Today, we were on the brink and then that's when I threw my [headset] to make sure we knew we weren't going to go there. I loved the way the guys finished. They picked everybody up. We were able get the turnover on the punt and then get seven on the board. The defense then went out and got another stop. We were able to cut it to seven. The big thing [going in] for us was regardless the score, we wanted to sustain all the way through. We had that little lull, but it wasn't due to attitude. It was because of the mistakes we made. I feel our character showed up and we just ran out of time."
On what South did defensively to hold Nebraska's running game in check: "We have some really good players along the defensive line and at linebacker, and those guys played really well. We were able to keep those guys fresh. [Defensive coordinator] Coach [Greg] Stewart did a really good job of mixing up his fronts and not showing them the same thing down-in and down-out. I think that helped us out. We were still able to play well on the defensive line after having our all-conference lineman [Tyree Turner] going down on the second series of the game. I thought all the other guys stepped up and played really well in his absence."

Sophomore QB Cephus Johnson
On the play of the offense: "I thought we did a lot of good things offensively today. I made a couple of mistakes that cost us and I can't make those. Overall though, I think we played pretty well."
On positives to take from the game: "We were able to execute well on a lot of plays so we need to make sure we do the same thing next week [against Jackson State]. Heading into practice this week, we need to make sure we do the same things we've been doing and clean up the things we did mess up and continue to get better."
On whether Nebraska's defense showed him different looks than he was expecting: "They had some corner blitzes that I wasn't paying attention to, but other than that I was pretty familiar with what they were doing."

Junior LB Roy Yancey
On the defensive effort: "I feel like our defense clicked on all levels today. We came in with a game plan and I felt that we executed it well. We made some mistakes every now and then, but for the most part I feel we did a great job defensively today."
On defensive adjustments at halftime: "We really didn't make any adjustments at halftime. We just stayed with our game plan and came out and executed."
On defense's plan to stop Nebraska's run game: "We wanted to stop the run and try and make them throw the bubble and let our athletes go make tackles. We wanted to make them throw the ball as much as we could. We wanted to stop their running back and their quarterback [from getting involved in the run game]."

Up next: USA opens at home Saturday at 6 p.m. (CDT) when it plays host to Jackson State.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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