MONROE, La. – Chandler Rogers accounted for over 400 yards of total offense and threw for four touchdowns Saturday to help rally ULM to a 41-31 Sun Belt Conference football win over the University of South Alabama at Malone Stadium.

Rogers was 25-of-35 passing for 369 yards, adding 39 yards on the ground to lead the Warhawks (4-3, 2-2 Sun Belt) to 555 yards in all, with Will Derrick posting 135 yards receiving and Andrew Henry supplying 88 yards on 18 carries as well.

Jake Bentley threw for 320 yards and four touchdowns for the Jaguars (4-3, 1-3 SBC), hitting Jalen Tolbert 10 times for 155 yards and a pair of scores while Terrion Avery rushed for 87 yards.

The Warhawks' Zack Woodard paced all players with 13 total stops, with A.J. DeShazor Jr. and Keith Gallmon Jr. pacing South after making nine and seven tackles, respectively.

ULM 41, South Alabama 31 (final stats)
South Alabama/ULM photo gallery

GAME FACTS
-The two teams combined for 230 yards of offense in the opening period, which ended tied 7-7 after Bentley hit Jalen Wayne from 10 yards out on fourth down with just over four minutes left in the quarter.
-The Warhawks scored on all three second-quarter possessions, going ahead 24-17 at the half on a nine-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to Boogie Knight four seconds before the break.
-Both Bentley and Rogers threw for a pair of scores in the third period, leaving ULM up 38-31 going to the final 15 minutes.
-Calum Sutherland extended the Warhawk advantage to double digits with a 40-yard field goal with six-and-a-half minutes left in the contest.
-ULM averaged nearly eight yards per play and converted 7-of-13 times when facing third down.
-In addition to winning the turnover battle 2-1, the Warhawks recorded seven stops behind the line of scrimmage — including four sacks — that resulted in a loss of 33 yards for the Jaguar offense.

NOTES
-ULM now leads the all-time series between the two programs 5-3 and has won each match-up in Monroe.
-It was the most yards given up by South this fall, and the fourth-highest yardage total allowed by the Jags in a Sun Belt game in program history.
-Tolbert posted his fourth game with 100 or more receiving yards of the year, and the school-record seventh of his career.
-It's the first time the Jaguars have had an individual finish with 100-plus yards receiving in consecutive outings since Tolbert accomplished the feat in South's 2019 finale and a victory at Southern Miss to open last season.
-Bentley tied the school record game record for touchdown passes first set by Brandon Bridge against Navy on Nov. 28, 2014, and last achieved by Desmond Trotter in a Nov. 29, 2019, win at Arkansas State.
-Avery's rushing total — which was a career high — was three more yards than he had run for the last three games combined entering play.
-He also finished with career-best totals in catches (seven), receiving yards (48) and all-purpose yards (135).
-DeShazor Jr. equaled both Keith Gallmon Jr. and Shawn Jennings — who both accomplished the feat at Texas State on Oct. 9 — for the most tackles by a Jaguar defender this fall.
-It was the first time the junior inside linebacker has led the team in the category since defeating Alcorn State last month.
-A pair of safeties, Yam Banks and Tré Young, were each credited with a career-high-tying six stops.
-Gi'Narious Johnson and Terry Perry paced USA's defensive line with five and four tackles, respectively, with the former equaling his previous high and the latter setting a new one.
-Jack Brooks averaged a career-best 51.7 yards per punt, making him the first Jaguar player to average better than 50 yards in a game since Corliss Waitman did so against Louisiana on Nov. 4, 2017.

THEY SAID IT
South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack
On his thoughts on what led to the struggles tonight: "I thought it was an all-around thing. There wasn't enough effort or execution. Here's the deal — it's so hard to build consistency in a program, especially one that has not been consistent in the past. I was a part of that. Part of our history, part of our past and present, and the leader of our future. To build consistency in a program is the only way that we are going to be able to get to where we want to go. That means consistent effort, consistent execution, consistent adjustment and we are not there as a program right now and we have to be. We have to get to that point. It's not all going to change in year one, but we're capable of it, and so we have to be able to go do it. Enough of those guys have to be able to say 'Enough is enough' that I can't help but do what I can to be relentless in finding a way to win a football game. We're not there as a program right now, but that's where we have to get."
On how you get there as a program: "We have to have relentless, obsessive consistency. That's exactly how you do it. That has to show up on game day. The way you practice and the way you operate. Momentum is part of it, and when that comes around, it's a lot easier to get the next play and the next win. We have not had that in our program's history; consistent operation doing the same thing over and over again., but that is required. It's really hard to do, but these guys are capable of doing it. If we're capable of it, we have to work relentlessly in order to accomplish that task."
On what ULM was able to do offensively on third down and have success: "I thought ULM did a nice job of attacking our seams. They did a good job attacking some of the zone windows. Their quarterback is very decisive. Credit [ULM offensive coordinator] Rich Rod [Rodriguez] on what he was able to do. He does a tremendous job and has seen it all. I thought he did a nice job of continually adjusting and keeping us off balance and off kilter. At the same time, we call things and we have to know that our guys are in this position. They don't have to take away everything, but they have to take away what we've asked them to on that specific call. We did not do that. We played improper leverage or we would start in the right leverage and then give it up. That can't happen in our third-down defense, which is why we've been one of the best in the country [in that category] over the first six games. We played so poorly tonight because we didn't execute consistently and it's got to get fixed."

Senior QB Jake Bentley
On his thoughts on the game: "We did some things well and I think we can build on that, but at the end of the day we didn't do enough. Offensively, our mindset no matter the score has to be to go score more. We didn't do that tonight. We had our opportunities, but just didn't get it done."
On what ULM did defensively late in the third and fourth quarter to stop the offense: "They heated us a little bit and started pressuring us. I have to do a better job of communicating to the line about what we need to do protection wise and make sure we are good to go. We didn't hit the plays that we hit early on and that's what it comes down to. When our defense was able to get big stops for us, we have to turn around and score off of those opportunities."

Junior ILB A.J. DeShazor Jr.
On the disappointing night for the defense: "There were some places where we just didn't execute as well as we should have. That's on us as a defense with our communication. We have to make sure everybody knows their job. In pre-snap, that's what it's about. I feel like we had times on third down where we could have executed and given ourselves momentum on plays in the second half. ULM was able to execute and we weren't able to on defense, simple as that. We gave up a touchdown before the half, and that was a play we had gone over in practice throughout the week. It's about executing and knowing what your assignment is. We just didn't do that."
On ULM's success on third down: "On third down, we knew that they were going to try to attack us down the seam. Their quarterback is mobile, but we just needed to be in the right place and we just weren't able to execute some of the time. Congrats to ULM. We have to come back and make those corrections heading into next week."

Up next: The Jaguars will play host to Arkansas State on Homecoming weekend, with kick off at Hancock Whitney Stadium slated for 4 p.m. (CDT) on Saturday.

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).

Join the South Circle, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics.  Contributions to South Circle directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/give

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