MOBILE, Ala. – Tra Minter rushed for 189 yards and two scores to lead a record-setting effort by the University of South Alabama offense Saturday in a 37-14 non-conference football victory over Jackson State at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

Jared Wilson added 95 yards on 12 carries to help the Jaguars (1-1) gain a school-record 413 yards on the ground in its opening home game of the season.  Cephus Johnson rushed for one score and threw for another as South ended up with 538 yards of total offense, while Roy Yancey paced the Jag defense with eight stops as the unit allowed just 265 yards.

Keshawn Harper ran for 75 yards on 10 attempts for the Tigers, who dropped to 0-2 on the season, with Keonte Hampton posting a game-high 15 tackles for the JSU defense.

South Alabama 37, Jackson State 14 (final stats)
South Alabama/Jackson State photo gallery

GAME FACTS
-The Jaguars scored on their opening possession, capping an eight-play, 80-yard march with a one-yard Johnson touchdown run.
-South led 13-7 at the end of the first quarter despite being outgained 152-145 in the period.
-Nether team would score in the second quarter until Johnson hit Kawaan Baker eight seconds before the break for a three-yard touchdown pass.
-Minter's second score of the night plus a safety extended the Jag lead to 27-7 at the end of three quarters as USA gave up just 12 yards on nine plays in the period.
-South posted 29 first downs in the contest, helping the Jaguar offense hold the ball for over 34 minutes for the second week in a row.
-The Jags were 10-of-15 on third-down conversions while limiting the Tigers to only 1-of-9 on third downs.

NOTES
-It was the first match-up between the two schools, although the Jaguars moved to 4-0 against Southwestern Athletic Conference competition.
-South has won those four contests by a combined 162-24 margin.
-It marked the first time the Jaguars have finished with over 400 yards on the ground, breaking the previous standard of 391 set in a victory over Edward Waters (Fla.) on Sept. 25, 2010.
-Jalen Thompson's second-quarter interception was the ninth of his career, giving him sole possession of the all-time mark in South's record book.
-Minter posted his first 100-yard game of the season and the second of his career after leading all players in the contest.
-The senior also tied a career high with two touchdown runs, and he set a school game record with an average of 11.81 yards per carry (minimum 10 attempts) as well.
-Frankie Onate's field goal in the fourth quarter was the first of his career.
-LB Roy Yancey led the Jag defense with eight stops, the first time he has paced the squad in the category.
-Jordon Beaton was credited with a career-best 2½ stops for loss, including the tackle that recorded the Jags' safety near the end of the third quarter.
-It's the first time in his career that fellow senior DL Jeffery Whatley made multiple tackles behind the line of scrimmage as well.

THEY SAID IT
South Alabama head coach Steve Campbell
Opening statement: "I'm very proud for us getting the 'W' tonight. I thought out guys played really hard tonight. I don't feel that we played as well as we did [Week 1]. We ran the ball better. Typically you'd like to make your biggest improvement between Week 1 and Week 2, but honestly I can't say that we did that. However, that leaves a lot of meat on the bone to go back and get better for a good Memphis team. Like I said last week, we have to be able to take the snap and hand the ball off, and win some football games. We were able to do that tonight. Defensively, we made some adjustments. Jackson State moved the ball well early, but on their [first] touchdown drive, we had two targeting penalties which gave then 30 yards. We're still making some youthful and immature mistakes that we need to correct." 
On the running game being the focus tonight: "Last week, we hurt ourselves with the turnovers. We would have won the game if we hadn't turned the ball over, so this week after turning it over twice in the air [last week] we didn't want to do it again this week. I love the way that Tra [Minter] ran the ball; he rand tremendously hard. I thought the offensive line blocked well. The tight ends and receivers did a great job blocking on the outside. It was a good blocking effort and a great running effort. I thought Jared [Wilson] had some good runs as well. All of the running backs had a good day. Cephus [Johnson] also did a great job reading the option and knowing when to give it and when to pull it. He also hit some passes early, but we cannot turn the ball over. I know one way we can prevent turning the ball over is to take the snap and hand the ball to Tra Minter who hasn't turned the ball over. Our defense was doing a good job of keeping them off the board. When you don't turn the ball over, you're able to run the ball and play good defense, that's winning football."

Senior OL Roy Albritton
On the offense's game plan: "Our goal was simply to dominate the front. They (JSU) had a 3-3 stack (defense) and we were very assignment sound. We knew who to work to, knew our blocking assignments and what we needed to do in order to get the ball and go down the field."
On the game: "We watched a lot film on them, so we knew what to expect. We knew what they were going to show to us, and how we were going to react to that."
On the offensive line's play: "Once we created those holes, it made our play calling much easier four our offensive coordinator. That took a lot of weight off his shoulders, and we just took all the pressures and put on our backs. We knew what we needed to do, and we achieved it."

Senior RB Tra Minter
On his performance: "I saw a lot of holes. Up front, we played very well and matched those guys (JSU); we dominated up front and pushed them back. During the week, the running backs prepped on running hard – slow to the hole and fast through it. I just saw a lot of holes and burst through them. I am proud of our performance tonight offensively."
On breaking a program team-rushing record: "It means a lot, just coming into the game and having that 'dog mentality' at running back. We couldn't run the ball too well in the previous years that I have been here, and it's an amazing feeling. I like to pound the ball. It was exciting, just being on the sideline and seeing Jared Wilson, Carlos Davis and Terrion Avery — just seeing those guys run the ball hard and lower pad level. We broke a lot of tackles tonight, and that's exciting to watch."

Sophomore LB Nick Mobley
On the defense's effort after JSU touchdown drive: "We just focused on our fundamentals, that was it. Once we focused in, we were the defense that we are — a great one."

Senior CB Jalen Thompson
On his interception to break the school career record: "It was one of the goals that I set coming out of high school. It's been a journey, a rollercoaster so that interception was for my mom and my family because they sacrificed a lot. Over the last four years, it's been a journey and getting that interception meant the world to me."

Jackson State head coach John Hendrick
On if South Alabama did anything in the run game they didn't expect: "No they didn't, we just didn't play well enough. When you play a defense like ours, we do a lot of movement. We've got to close stuff out. We didn't do a good enough job closing stuff out and making sure we make the ball go to our backside arm; we let too many things hit us in our front side arm. When you do that in your run defense, you're going to have problems. We have some things that we need to fix with that and we'll go back and get them fixed."
On the positives that can be taken away from the game: "We can move the ball. We've got a good offense and we've got a defense that can stop people, and we always have. We played without a few key people on our team – a couple of starters – because I wasn't going to play them in this game due to injuries. We've got a chance to be a pretty good football team, we just have to keep working at what we do, and make sure we finish drives, we don't turn the ball over and don't snap the ball on the ground and donate to other people like we did tonight."

Up next: The Jags remain home and will take on Memphis at Ladd-Peebles Stadium at 2:30 p.m. (CDT) Saturday 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/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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